Seneca Lake Lab Report

Seneca Lake Lab Report

Introduction: As mentioned in the Science on Seneca Manual, Seneca Lake is a primary source of drinking water and is useful to nearby towns and municipalities. However all of the Finger Lakes are subjected to environmental harms such as; "agricultural pollutants, shoreline development, increasing recreational use and the introduction of exotic species like the spiny water flea, zebra and quagga
mussel and Eurasian watermilfoil" (Science on Seneca Manual, p.6). Theses environmental threats are factors that impact the water quality of Seneca Lake. As done in the Furnace Brook lab, water quality was tested by sampling macro-invertebrates present in the water, along with testing pH, Dissolved Oxygen, and Turbidity. By testing for the things mentioned above in the three soil samples taken from the lake, along with taking into account the environmental threats that impact Seneca Lake, the water quality can be determined. By seeing organisms that live or do not live in Seneca Lake, you can determine the water quality based on the organisms' pollution tolerance. As in the Furnace Brook lab, the Caddisfly Larvae (which is very intolerant of pollution) was present in Furnace Brook, which shows that Furnace Brook's water quality is not polluted enough for that organism to be absent, indicating the water quality is fair. 

References:  "Science on Seneca Manual.pdf." Google Docs. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
                      "Macroinvertebrates as Indicators of Water Quality (Water Quality)." Water Quality                                        (Penn State Extension). N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.
                      "Benthic Macroinvertebrates and Biological Monitoring." Enviroscience. N.p.,                                                n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

Research Question:  How is the water quality of Seneca Lake impacted by environmental threats?

Hypothesis:   Seneca Lake will have good water quality and be impacted very little by environmental threats. The organisms in the three soil samples will differ slightly. Organisms will higher pollution tolerances will be present more near the shoreline, based on the shoreline development surrounding Seneca Lake mentioned in Science of Seneca Lake Manual. The Lake will have a high population of Quagga mussels. However, I believe the water quality has been impacted negatively over time due to the very little environmental threats that Seneca Lake is subjected to. 

Variable Identification:  

Controlled Variable	Method to control the variable
Distance between locations	Creating an Arc or Radius
Speed of sound	Water Temperature
Time	Constant velocity

Experimental Setup :  This experiment took place on Seneca Lake on the William Scandling  a steel-hulled vessel that is 65 feet in length. To perform the water chemistry part of the lab, Cholride, pH, and Dissolved Oxygen kits were used to obtain data. A Plankton net was used to collect the Plankton, to then look at the organisms under the microscope. Sieves with six sizes were placed on top of each other, to analysis the volume of the sediment sizes.

These are the six sieves used for the particle size analysis. Each sieve has a different mesh size. 

This is the microscope, showing the organisms present that were collected in the Plankton net. 

This is the area where water chemistry took place. The blue box seen in this picture is one of the kits; Chloride, Dissolved Oxygen, or pH. 

Procedure: 

       
      Water Chemistry:

Use the pH meter to determine the pH of the lake water. 
2) Determine the Dissolved Oxygen by using the dissolved oxygen kit 
3) add 8 drops of the manganese(II) sulfate solution (bottle 4167) followed by 8 drops of the alkaline potassium iodide azide solution (bottle 7166). Some water may drip off the sides, this is expected! Carefully cap the bottle, mix by gently inverting (do not generate bubbles inside the glass sample bottle), then allow the orange-brown precipitate that has formed to settle below the shoulder of the bottle (about 3-4 minutes).
4) Using the 1 gram spoon provided in the kit (0697), add one level spoonful of
sulfamic acid (bottle 6286) to the solution in your LaMotte sample bottle. Cap the bottle and mix until both the reagent (white crystals) and precipitate (brown crystals) have completely dissolved and you obtain a clear brown-yellow solution.CAUTION: Sulfamic acid will burn if you get it on your skin. Be careful!!
5) Pour this clear brown-yellow solution from the LaMotte bottle into the titration tube and fill it up to the 20 ml line. Then, using the plastic eye-dropper provided in the kit, add 8 drops of the starch solution to the titration tube. At this point, the solution should change color to a bluish-green.
6) Fill the Direct Reading Titrator (0337) up to the 0 mark [looks like a syringe, marked 0-10 ppm] with the sodium thiosulfate solution (bottle 4169).
7) Insert the titrator you just filled through the small hole in the cap of the titration tube and titrate the solution slowly. Swirl the titration tube until the blue color of the solution disappears permanently with one drop of titrant (i.e., you are looking for a color progression from green-blue to blue to light blue to colorless). You may have to fill the titrator more than once. Be sure to record how much titrant you used before refilling. The direct reading titrator is calibrated in units of parts per million (ppm) dissolved oxygen, therefore, be sure to record all of these units (Science on Seneca, p. 21-22). 
8) Handle the waste and clean up. 
9) Do not dump remaining contents in the LaMotte sample bottle, in the sink! Dump the remains in the container marked DO WASTE. 
10) Test the chemistry of the dissolved oxygen determination
11) In Step 1, a solution of manganese(II) sulfate is initially added to the lake water
12) Next, you add a solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH), sodium azide (NaN3) and potassium iodide (KI) to the LaMotte bottle.sample.
13) In step 2, you add sulfamic acid (H2SO3NH2) to the solution with a yellow-brown precipitate.
14) At this point, the oxygen is bound. The amount of dissolved oxygen is determined by titrating the iodine in solution with a starch indicator (the I2 is blue in starch.) 
15) When all of the I2 has been reduced (to I-(Na2S4O6) are formed. The blue color disappears and the solution becomes colorless. This is the end point of the titration. The concentration of I2 formed equals the concentration of dissolved oxygen.), sodium iodide (NaI) and sodium tetrathionate. (Science on Seneca Manual) 
16) Test the Chloride ion 
17) Fill the titration tube to the 15 ml mark with the lake water sample from the large plastic LAKE SAMPLE water bottle.
18) Add three drops of CHLORIDE REAGENT #1 (bottle 4504, contains potassium chromate) to the sample in the titration tube. Cap the tube and shake to mix. A yellow color will result.
19) Fill the Direct Reading Titrator (0382) up to the 0 mark [looks like a syringe: marked 0-200 ppm] with CHLORIDE REAGENT #2 (bottle 4505, contains silver nitrate). Note:Silver Nitrate (AgNO3) can stain heavily if it gets on your hands or clothing and is exposed to daylight or direct sunlight. Be careful!!
20) Insert the titrator containing CHLORIDE REAGENT #2 into the small hole in the titration tube cap and titrate the test sample drop by drop swirling after each drop. Swirl the titration tube after each drop added until the yellow color changes faintly, yet permanently to pink. You will go from yellow to cloudy yellow and suddenly to pink. Record the titrator reading in units of ppm. If the plunger reaches the 200 ppm mark before the pink color appears, then refill the titrator and continue the titration. Be sure to add the value of the 200 ppm originally used in your final answer.
(Science on Seneca Manual)
21) Handle waste and clean  up- Put the contents of the titration tube into the waste container marked: Cl- Waste.
22) Test the hardness
23) Fill the titration tube to the 12.9 ml mark with the lake water sample to be tested from the large plastic LAKE SAMPLE water bottle.
24) Add five drops of HARDNESS REAGENT #5 (bottle 4483, contains sodium sulfide,sodium hydroxide, and sodium borate) to the sample in the titration tube. Cap the tube and swirl to mix.
25) Add one tablet of HARDNESS REAGENT #6 (bottle 4484, contains potassium chloride, and calmagite) to the titration tube, cap it, and swirl to mix until the tablet is completely dissolved. A magenta/red color will occur.
26) Fill the Direct Reading Titrator (0382) up to the 0 mark [looks like a syringe: marked 0-200 ppm] with HARDNESS REAGENT #7 (bottle 4487DR, contains magnesium chloride and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)).
27) Insert the titrator containing HARDNESS REAGENT #7 into the small hole in the titration tube cap and titrate the test sample dropwise. Swirl the titrator tube after each drop is added until the color changes to royal blue. You will go from magenta to deep pink to purple to royal blue. Record the titrator reading in units of ppm (CaCO3). If the plunger reaches the 200 ppm mark before the pink color appears, then refill the titrator and continue the titration. Be sure to include the value of the 200 ppm originally used in your final record.

Plankton Collection:

1)      Take the plankton net and put it in the water

2)      Walk the length of the boat and back

3)      Pull the plankton net out

4)      Rinse net with water and fill the cup with what was collected

5)      Look at the organisms under a microscope 

Particle Analysis:

1)      Make observations on the dredge sample (color, smell, plant material, mussels, creatures)

2)      Put a few drops of acid and observe the reaction

3)       Fill a cup to the top with the dredge sample and put it on the stack of six sieves

4)      Take apart each sieve and measure the volume of sediment in each sieve

Data:  The air temperature on the lake was in the 40’s-50’s. The cloud coverage was approximately 90%. The water was choppy. The dredge sample was soft and both light and dark grey. The temperature of the dredge sample was 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The acid reaction was weak, slight bubbling. There was no odor from the dredge sample. Quagga mussels were found in the sample and were scattered throughout. There were little bits of seaweed in the dredge sample, along with rocks and sediments. The total volume retained in the sieves was 380mL. The gravel volume was 10 percent. The total volume retained (TVR) (gravel and sand) was 12.5mL. The volume lost (silt) was 20mL.       

Sample	AM 1	AM 2	AM 3	PM 1	PM 2	PM 3
Latitude	42°49.940'N	42°51'N	42°51.497'N	42°49.97'N	42°50.840'N	42°51.554'N
Longitude	76°57.972'N	76°58'W	76°57.762'W	76°57.94'W	76°57.520'W	76°57.567'W
Temperature (°C)	13	13	13	7	14	13
Depth (m)	38.9	10	0	54	10	0
pH	7.3	7.4	7.5	7.4	7.4	7.3
Chloride (ppm)	200	300	200	180	143	140
Dissolved Oxygen (ppm)	30	6	10	10.4	10	10
DTB (m)	46.6	22.7	8	62.6	22.3	7.5

Sample	Total Species (pop.)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
AM 1	9	2	2	2	3
AM 2	15	2	2	1	7	2	1
*AM 3	9	1	1	3	1	1	1	1
PM 1	21+	1	1	1	16+	2
PM 2	17	1	1	1	2	5	2	4	1
PM 3	19	6	1	7	3	1	1

* Few zebra mussels were found

Sieve mesh size	Volume retained  (mL)	% of total volume retained
14	40	10
24	10	2.50
42	130	32.5
170	60	15
180	140	35

Results :

Figure 1: Dissolved Oxygen Profile of the Lake with Depth

Figure 2: Dissolved Oxygen Profile with Depth

Discussion:  Due to a strict agenda on the boat, I was not able to collect data for my original research question. By conducting several procedures, the data collected helped conclude the water quality of Seneca Lake. The chloride is a bit high, at around 200ppm. From looking at the graph, at 45m numbers started to change. The conductivity decreased and increased again. Up until 45m the conductivity is constant. The temperature suddenly decreases at 45m. The temperature at 0m is around 11 degrees Celsius and once it gets to 45m the temperature dramatically decreases to 5 degrees Celsius. At 45m the oxygen increases, decreases, and increases again. The light is at 64 but changes at a depth of 23m to about 70. The reason for the spike could possibly be because of the high salt content left from the Devonian period, when New York was covered in oceans. Underneath all the muck at the bottom of Seneca Lake, there are glacier remains and all the rock left behind, containing salt.In Figure 2, as depth increases, the dissolved oxygen rapidly increases until about 40m, then decreases gradually. Typically the dissolved oxygen would decrease, rather than increases, as the depth increases. However, since the data was collected in the fall, the data in Figure 2 suggests large variations in dissolved oxygen due to the experience in overturning. Overturning, which is the mixing of the stratifications in the lake, occurs in the spring and fall. This also suggests that the lake is dimictic. “Even naturally occurring organic matter, such as leaves and animal droppings, that may finds its way into surface water contributes to oxygen depletion" (p. 186, Gilbert M. Masters Wendell P. EPA). Since Seneca Lake does not have restrictions on septic distance away from the lake, amounts of nutrients are particularly high compared to other Finger Lakes. This also would explain why the dissolved oxygen is lower at some points as well.  

Evaluation: A major limitation was experience of the testers. This caused a lot of human error. The chloride levels are most likely incorrect because of some groups’ inexperience. To improve this, the chloride levels could have been re tested. Reading the directions carefully or not could’ve played a role in incorrect data that was collected. For my research question I would need information of pollution factors that surround Seneca Lake. A source of error besides human error was the water being out too long and warming, so the water temperature taken was higher than it was when taken out right away.  

Conclusion:  The data collected supports my hypothesis. By seeing the pH being around 7, supports my hypothesis that Seneca Lake has good water quality. However, I did not find out anything specific on population that impacts Seneca Lake. Unlike other lakes, Seneca Lake has high levels of nutrients that come in through the ground water due to the fact that there are no restrictions on septic’s being a certain distance away from the lake. These nutrients cause an increase in blue-algae.

References –  :  "Science on Seneca Manual.pdf." Google Docs. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
                      "Macroinvertebrates as Indicators of Water Quality (Water Quality)." Water Quality                                        (Penn State Extension). N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.
                      "Benthic Macroinvertebrates and Biological Monitoring." Enviroscience. N.p.,                                                n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

                       Masters, Gilbert M. Introduction to Environmental Engineering and Science.                                       Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991. Print.