The objective of the field study was to discover the invertebrates living in the Coquitlam river and oxbow pond. Also, it was to collect the water temperature and PH levels of these bodies of water. The goal of this was to use this information to find the overall water quality of the pond and river.
the field study we did connects to the four spheres as we were going into the hydrosphere, and this connects to the biosphere as we were looking at the invertebrates living in the water to determine water quality. For the Geosphere of the land, we were looking at the bottom of the river, which tells you what part of the water we are in. Such as headwater, mid-reach, and large river.
Coquitlam River site:
Other living things observed in Coquitlam River
Mosquitoes
crow
Dogs walking by.
Invertebrates found in Coquitlam River were Stone fly (category 1), May fly (category 1), Fishfly larva (category 2).
Overall, the water quality was good of the pollution sensitive organisms.
Oxbow pond site:
the health of the pond was 72.68, which indicates it was good water quality.
Other living things observed in Oxbow Pond
moths
flies
bees
Invertebrates found in Oxbow Pond were the Truebug adult (category 2), Dragonfly (category 2), Riffle beetle adult (category 1), May fly 2 (category 1). This gives off the health of the pond when the Invertebrates living there are balanced. There are specific types of Invertebrates with varieties that they live in. It’s good to fair of the water quality.
water quality test (the conclusion):
In the River, I discovered that the kind of invertebrates I found revealed a good water quality. While on the other hand, my water temperature results revealed that the water quality was good, while the PH level which was 6.0 revealed a fair water quality. With this, the water quality index showed a good water quality. Overall, from this information, I can say that the water quality of the Coquitlam river was fairly good.
In the oxbow pond, I discovered the invertebrates that would be fair to good water quality, since there are balance portion of the bugs. While on the other hand, the water temperature results were good, and the PH levels were 6.5. Which revealed a good water quality, since this is where it begins to 8.5 for humans to drink clean water. In the end of this, we can tell this was a good water quality for the Oxbow pond when the PH levels and everything else are resulted as good together.
Comparing the 2 sites:
the river was poorer than the pond. The invertebrate was a mix in the pond, which impacted the water in the pond would depend on the quality of how human/geosphere can also affect them. The similarity of both locations would be may fly, who are mostly in these waters and in Coquitlam. There is a thousand of them in different categories of invertebrates who lives there. If the water quality is good, then the chance of the population would increase the diversity. And they would be able to hatch eggs in the river/ponds too.
Reflection:
What did you think of these activities? What did you learn? What would make these activities more meaningful?
These activities has taught me a lot of the different types of invertebrates they live in for their health and survival. I learned the air temperature in June of the river when I was holding the thermometer. And the water testing of the PH stick when working with my group to found out the temperature in the water changed in different regions of the watershed. Even, if I found the water cold in anywhere when I inserted the thermometer in the pond. There’s always slightly a different temperature of the mid-reach, head water, and large river.
I don’t think there were any improvements to be made, but we could have prepared the equipments to catch the invertebrates. And had an organizer to not stay confuse of who they are. It’s hard to tell what invertebrates they are when some of them look similar.