Aquatic field studies blog

Introduction

The objective of our field studies was to identify what water quality contributors are safe for aquatic life, such as what water quality, contributors, parameters, etc That can make the environment unstable. What pH is safe for living things if it’s a pH of 7 then its neutral. The indication of how cloudy or hazy a fluid is by turbidity. In conclusion the objective was to find out the levels of the water quality. We looked into the Coquitlam River site, and the Oxbow Pond site. This connects to the four spheres because the geosphere, in turn, reflects the sun’s energy back into the atmosphere. The biosphere receives gases, heat, and sunlight (energy) from the atmosphere. It receives water from the hydrosphere and a living medium from the geosphere.

Coquitlam river site

We can see from the findings of the water quality index that the water quality rating is fairly good, if not almost exceptional.

We discovered a lot of interesting stuff in the river. My group discovered two stoneflies, one mayfly, and one cranefly among the invertebrates. In the river, we also discovered a frog and a crayfish. These findings indicate that the river’s health is good, and it is a favorable area for these organisms to exist, because these organisms are pollution sensitive.

Oxbow Pond Site:

Water quality test and overall water quality index value:

Because the river’s water quality rating is 90.24 and the pond’s value is 77.62, these figures indicate that they are both good water quality, but the river is closer to poor while the pond is closer to average.

Comparing the 2 sites:

The river has slightly better water quality and invertebrate life than the pond, as we can see by simply walking into both. When Ionalyn walked into the pond, it smelled like fecal matter right away, unlike when she walked into the river, which smelled absolutely nothing. This is most likely due to the fact that the pond has no new water flow, so everything is just lying there, unlike the river, which is constantly moving. The river’s bottom is primarily rocks, as opposed to the pond’s sludge, which sinks into you with every step, almost like quicksand.

Reflection:

This activity wasn’t really fun in my opinion because I dislike seeing insects which makes me feel like itching, but it was an experience to remember. I learned quite a lot, for example, water temperature tells you if its safe for certain aquatic living things or not, what lives in there and what kinds of aquatic life are usually in rivers and ponds.