Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Evaluating a Body of Water


How do you think we evaluate a body of water? Well the first step would be to observe the site. Then you would capture and identify algae and insects. Next, tests would be taken; such as pH, ammonia, nitrate, temperature, and dissolved oxygen levels. The very last step would be to run a panel of chemical tests, but this one is expensive so you would definitely do this last if you had too. These steps are in this order for a specific reason. If you can determine the water quality before running all types of tests, then those steps should be first. The algae and organisms help tell how the water is doing. Bad algae and organisms would be found if the pollution index is high. So based on what you find, helps determine this. The organisms can affect the water because of what they give off. They can either produce a lot of carbon dioxide or ammonia, which is bad for the water. However, the plants help get rid of this problem, so that is good. As you can see, it is very important that you observe the site first before taking the extreme measures.


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