Proctor Pond Project

The purpose of this assignment was to determine whether the Proctor pond is healthy or not. With a partner, we studied a site for abiotic and biotic factors and looking at past data and the current data tried to answer tried to answer that question. While there are positive spikes in the health of the pond since 2007 there had been a downward trend in its health. If the pond is healthy then we should see biodiversity and the water has stable abiotic factors.

Materials Used:

• 1 Pole Net
• 1 Spoon (one without holes)
• 2 iPhone(s)
• 2 Tub (Holding sample)
• 1 Small container (Holding organisms)
• 1 Eyedropper
• 1 Species identifying booklet

(Photo taken by Chloe Methven)

Day 1 Air temp = 52.8º Fahrenheit

Day 2 Air temp = 41.6º Fahrenheit

Day 3 Air temp = 56.1º Fahrenheit

Weather:

2017:

10/13: sunny, partially cloudy

10/16: overcast, high winds, cold

10/17: sunny, high winds, cold

2016:

10/24: windy, partly cloudy, 52 degree air temp

10/25: cloudy, snowing, windy, 41 degree air temp

10/27: cloudy, windy, 35 degree air temp

2015:

10/20: sunny, rain in morning, 54 degree air temp

10/22: cloudy, rain in morning, 51 degree air temp

10/23: sunny, cold wind, 47.5 degree air temp

10/26: sunny, chilly, 51 degree air temp

2014:

10/18: downpour, cloudy, 57 degree air temp

10/20: clear sky, cold, windy, air temp unrecorded

10/21: clear sky, cold, windy, air temp unrecorded

10/27: overcast, cold, air temp unrecorded

2013:

Date unknown: weather conditions unknown, 58 degree air temp

2012:

10/9, 10/11, 10/12: weather unknown, air temp 47

10/18: rain, air temp 47

2010:

Date unknown: weather and air temp unknown - declared “consistent”

2008:

Date unknown: weather and air temp unknown - “cold snap” mentioned for final testing day

2007:

Date unknown: weather and air temp unknown - declared “consistent”

Dissolved Oxygen averages

2007= (1+2+2+3+4+3)/6= tot.15 average 2.5mg/l

2008= (2+1+1+2+2+2)/6= tot.10 average 1.6mg/l

2010= (2+1+1+2+2)= tot.8 average 1.6mgl/l

2012=(2+1+1+2)/3= tot.6 average 2mg/l

2013=0

2014= (6.2+7.9)/2= tot.14.1 average 7.05mg/l

2015= (7.1+7.1+5+ 4.1+8.2+6.3+7.4+7.9+7.4+ 5.7+5.5+8.0+5.6)/13= tot.85.3mg/l average 6.56

2016= (9+8.9+6.9)/3= tot.24.8 average 8.26

Method for Collecting Data:

Leave Shirley Hall through the doors facing the library with your phone and walk around the building towards the parking lot where there is a white door near the biology room. This door leads to a supply closet, where all of the equipment that is necessary to move forward with this project is located. Grab a large net and the bucket that is labeled with the number of your location. Inside the bucket, there should be a three-section container which has two spoons, two small magnifying glasses, and a species chart.
- Now walk down the steps facing the pond and walk to your designated location. There were six locations in total.

- Location 1: Where water flows into the pond. On the far left corner of the pond as if you were walking towards the library, near the small stone bench.

- Location 2: Turf runoff, near Alice’s Garden, far right corner of pond, there is a group of rocks

- Location 3: The “beach” area, corner closest to the fire pit and Farm House

- Location 4: Side of pond directly outside of the math department

- Location 5: Where the pond drains right next to the stone wall, adjacent to the corner of Shirley Hall

- Location 6: Behind the barn near Fowler, at the river behind Drew’s House

This is where the testing will occur. Prior to testing, be sure to observe the area for a few minutes. This observation of weather is imperative to the changes in your findings on a day to day basis. Record this information in your notes. In addition to your notes, be sure to take pictures of your area.
- Next, begin filling up the large bucket with water until about halfway full then place it on a stable surface. Next, grab the net and put it into the water right above the ground. Now move the net back and forth in a sweeping motion to get the floor of the pond stirring. Do this for about twenty seconds then scoop the net out of the water and dump its contents into the net. Put the net aside and start clearing the bucket of debris (leaves, sticks, etc.) while being very careful to not miss a small organism. Fill the three-section container with water from the pond. Now search for life in the bucket and once found, gently collect the organism with the spoon or dropper and place into the three-section container. Make sure to identify the organism using the chart and record the number of times that organism is present in the test. Take plenty of pictures!
- Alan will come around to each group the temperature probe, dissolved oxygen, pH, phosphate, turbidity, and nitrate tests. He will help you follow the directions of each specific test and complete the test each day. Be sure to record the findings. After the completion of these tests, start cleaning up your materials, put them back where you found them, and head back to the classroom.

(Photos taken by Betsy Abrahamson)

Turbidity:

• Fill the tube to the fill line described on the outside (of the tube)
• Put the bottom of the tube over the unmarked black and white circle in the center of the instruction sheet.
• Observe which circle around the tube most closely resembles the circle you see when looking down through the tube.
• Record observations

Phosphate :

• Fill the tube to 5 ml and put a phosphate test tab (into the tube).
• Cap and shake the tube until the tablet is dissolved (~30 seconds) and wait for five minutes
• Compare the color of the tube to the provided phosphate guide to determine the phosphate level.
• Record measurement.

(Photo taken by Betsy Abrahamson)

• Alan put the probe in the water and slowly circled it
• We waited for the numbers to adjust from the air and recorded the data.
• Alan took the thermometer and held it still in the air.
• Wait for the temperature to settle and record the number on the screen

(Photo taken by Betsy Abrahamson)

PH:

• Fill the tube provided to you in the kit to the fill line

• Drop a pH indicator tab into the tube, cap and shake.
• After the tab has dissolved (about ten seconds) compare the color of the water in the tube to the provided cover guide to best determine the pH.
• Record measurement.

Remove one test strip from the container, dip the test strip into solution so that both pads are immersed. Hold strip in solution for 2-3 seconds, remove shake off excess solution and read after 30 seconds. Compare it to the chart on the bottle.

(Photo taken by Betsy Abrahamson)

( Photo taken by Chloe Methven)

Our site was site six, the pond’s output location. It is located east of the pond. It is beyond maintenance and the parking lot, past Imagination Inn in a small forested area. To get to the site you can go behind the small barn and bushwhack your way to the left until you reach the stream, or stay on North Street pass Imagination Inn and go down the hill behinds Drew Donaldson's house and head straight until you reach the stream.

( Photo taken by Chloe Methven)

The first day, Monday October 16 2017 at 8:10 am, was a brisk morning when we started collecting. We immediately noticed that the water was very low with a smattering of puddles and a light trickle of water between. “ Where's the water!” Nicole questioned as we approached our site. When we chose a puddle we saw small fish swimming around, they looked plenty full and we ended up catching ten with the net after a couple passes through the water. We also managed to catch a crawfish which we identified with our booklet.

( Photo Taken by Chloe Methven on October 17, 2017)

The second day was even colder than the first with an air temperature of 43 degrees Fahrenheit. It was Tuesday, October 17, 2017, and 9:10 am. The water was notably colder and we saw less fish swimming around, we only caught 7 fish that day and Nicole expressed her theory “ It’s too cold they’re all dead” which got us questioning whether fish hibernate like frogs or can they survive under the ice.

( Photo taken by Chloe Methven on October 18, 2017)

On Wednesday, October 18, 2017, at 10:40 am we reached our site and were shocked by what we saw, our puddles where gray and cloudy with what seemed to be a greasy sheen floating on top. The most notable difference besides the color change was that the PH balance went from 6 to 7.   We managed to figure out that the water had changed color because it was game day and maintenance had painted lines on the fields and then washed off the machinery. This runoff had gone into a drain and made its way to our site.

(Chart by Mo Nguyen)

(Chart by Mo Nguyen)

(Chart by Mo Nguyen)

Nitrate Chart

2007	0.2 PPM
2008	0.0 PPM
2009	NA
2010	0.0 PPM
2011	NA
2012	0.0 PPM
2013	0.0 PPM
2014	0.5 PPM
2015	0.0 PPM
2016	0.0 PPM
2017	0.0 PPM

(Chart by Mo Nguyen)

Water Temperature Averages

2007	52.1°F
2008	52.08°F
2009	NA
2010	53.1°F
2011	NA
2012	54.3°F
2013	53.1°F
2014	54.5°F
2015	51.6°F
2016	47°F
2017	57°F

(Chart by Mo Nguyen)

Inputs are at site 1 and 2 and output at site 4. Water comes from drains around campus.

( Photo taken by Google Earth, adapted by Chloe Methven)

This was the final output location.

( Photo Taken by Google Earth, adapted by Chloe Methven)

Diversity Index is “a quantitative measure that reflects how many different types (such as species) there are in a dataset (a community), and simultaneously takes into account how evenly the basic entities (such as individuals) are distributed among those types.” Simply put it is a way to measure how diverse an area is so we can infer what the trends mean towards the health of the pond. When I looked at the biodiversity in 2007 and compared it to this year I was shocked. In 2007 the diversity score was 19.3 and over the past ten years it has continued to drop in 2010 it was 11.7 and now in 2017, it is only 7.

( These two images are screenshots from online reports from past years)

This means that the number of different species has gone down, this could be due to pollution. I looked at the numbers of pollution sensitive invertebrates like the Mayfly, their numbers have fallen since 2007. It seems that the pond was more diverse in 200,  a statement from that year “Pond diversity is good. Water quality is fair...” but they suspected fecal pollutants. Fecal pollutants and other pollutants from the construction and use of the turf fields may have also contributed to the decline in diversity.

( Photo taken by Chloe Methven)

Along with the biotic factors changing the abiotic factors have also changed over the past ten years.  The water temperature has stayed around the low 50s in past years and the 2017 average is 57º. The average PH balance jumped up from 4.06 in 2007 to 7.03 in 2008 and then going down to 6.88 in 2010, where it has stayed only fluctuating a few decimal places with an average of 6.7 in 2017. The dissolved oxygen has fluctuated from 2.5 mg/l in 2007 to 6.2-7.9 mg/l in 2010 to an average of 1.39 mg/l in 2017. Phosphate levels have not been stable either jumping from 2.33 ppm in 2007 to .43 ppm in 2012 to .96 ppm in 2017. What struck me the most was the turbidity, it went from an average turbidity of 0.17 JTU in 2007 to an average turbidity of 0 JTU in 2012 to an average turbidity of 20 JTU in 2016. This is intense, this means it got incredibly cloudier, and it is not any clearer in 2017.

(Photo taken by Chloe Methven)

Many errors could have occurred in past years and probably happened this year. Since there is a new set of students every year looking at the pond and collecting the data it is inconsistent. If it was the same team of students every year collecting data they could be consistent in their collection methods and in their analysis. The coordination of all the different classes was also an area for error, I had to trust that everyone would put their data incorrectly because I could not test it out myself to see if it was correct.

This study has been constant in that it has always been a study of the Proctor pond and where the sites are have been the same. But every year not every site has been studied there have been years where certain sites that have not been looked at. Like this year site, six was only studied by Nicole and I, this meant our site was not being looked at as much as the other sites throughout the day. The weather has been a changing variable as well, this year it was partly cloudy and chilly but in past years it could have been raining or cloudy which would have impacted the results.

The data shows that there have been positive trends that only last for a short time. So while may look relatively healthy at the time is not as healthy as it was in past years. Turbidity has increased making the water cloudier so that sunlight can’t penetrate it which makes the amount of dissolved oxygen go down which in turn makes it harder for organisms to live and thrive in the water. Thus resulting in the diversity index to decline in the past ten years. As well as the number of indicator species such as Stoneflies and Mayflies have declined in the past ten years which implies that there has been some pollutant that has caused them to die off. These results have shown that the pond may look healthy during individual years but when you look at the data from the ten past years you will see that its health is declining.

I enjoyed this lab and how we could interact with the pond and not just look at past data but create new data as well. I was having fun learning valuable skills about collecting data and interpreting it. Seeing our data in use was really interesting, we were not just doing mindless work but we were working understanding something that I walk past every day.