Cloe+Lake

Chemical data part of #2 The chemical data we collected consisted of three tests for each of the categories. We tested dissolved oxygen, total hardness, Nitrate, pH, total Alkalinity, and iron. The dissolved oxygen for all three tests was 10 ppm. A dissolved oxygen level of ten indicates that the water can support abundant fish populations. The total hardness was 170, 170, and 160 ppm. This means the water is hard, meaning it has lots of dissolved minerals, specific calcium, and magnesium. The turbidity was 10 JTU in all three tests. 10 is a high level and indicates that it isn’t good drinking water. The Nitrate in all three was 1ppm. Low nitrate levels are very good for the health of the watershed. The pH of two tests was 7 and one was 7.5. Levels around 7 are very good because that means the water isn’t very acidic and isn’t very basic either. It’s at a good pH level for supporting life. The total Alkalinity was 41 and 10ppm. The large difference in those numbers could possibly mean that it was an inaccurate reading. The iron in all three tests was less than 0.5ppm. The low levels of iron indicate that the water is of good quality.

Healthy watersheds are extremely important for sustaining life. If the watershed isn’t healthy it can’t support all the creatures in the ecosystem that rely on it. Not only do the animals that live in the water rely on it, but other creatures do as well, including humans. We rely on watersheds to provide us with healthy food sources. The organisms that we use as food sources need the watershed that they rely on to be healthy so they themselves can stay healthy.
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These are the links i used:

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/indiana/journeywithnature/watersheds-101.xml

http://www.water-research.net/index.php/water-treatment/tools/hard-water-hardness

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/emergencies/fs2_33.pdf

After doing many calculations, we found the quality of the Jackson Run watershed was fair. In the watershed we found many different types of organisms. Some of the organisms we found didn’t mean much as they were very tolerant to bad water conditions. However, we found many organisms that were sensitive to water conditions, implying the stream was of fair quality. Some sensitive organisms we found were Stonefly Nymphs, Cranefly Larva, and Mayfly Nymphs. Some organisms we found that were somewhat sensitive were Damselfly Nymphs and Crayfish.
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Physical Data On our trip to Cloe Lake we found very interesting physical data. For example, the streams temperature was about 10 degrees Celsius, 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and the air temperature was about 10 degrees Celsius, 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Another example of the physical data is the stream’s depth at point A, it was about .05 meters, at point B it was about .06 meters, at point C the depth was about .09 meters, and at point D the stream depth was about .08 meters. Overall, the average depth was about .07 meters. Another example of interesting physical data was the stream velocity. The stream velocity was 0.25575. As you can see, during our trip we learned new interesting physical data that happens at Jackson Run.

Steam mapping (Part of 2)

While on our field trip to Cloe Lake, we learned a lot of intriguing facts about steam mapping. The width of the stream was 4 meters, and this is important during stream mapping because the width could have changed over since the last time they mapped it, getting wider or thinner. Rocks are important in the stream because they provide homes and/or shelter for organisms who call the stream home. For example, salamanders. They hide under the rocks for protection from predators, such as a hawk or large bird. Substrate is also important. Substrate is the surface or plant an animal lives on, they literally need it to live. Without it, they don't have a home, and cannot live. We did have two sandbars. One was fairly larger than the other, with riffles trailing along side rocks that were laying in the shallower part of the stream near the sandbar. There was one pool *that we were told to mark, only because it was deeper than the others*, about 3/4's of the way through our mapping process.

Finally, after adding up all the hard work and calculations at the Jackson Run watershed, we have concluded that the quality of the water shed was fair. We found had found varying types of organisms in the watershed, meaning it was able to sustain their life, and keep them healthy enough to get to that state in their life.
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