Water Quality Final Report

Throughout the year in APES every few months our class has gone outside to the back of the school where there is a small creek. We conducted 5 major tests to determine the water quality of the water in this creek. The tests were tempurate, dissolved oxygen, pH level, conductivity, and a bioassessment. The tempurature of course changes with the seasons, it is the measurement of how hot or cold the water is. Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen in the water, the higher amount of DO, the higher quality the water is. DO usually varies with the tempurature. Colder water usually has more DO than warm water. pH is also dependant on the tempurature of water, the higher the tempurature, the higher level of pH. pH can also be increased by conaminating the water with acidic substances. Conductivity is the measure of how well the water will conduct electricity. Pure water is not a good conductor. The ions that are present in normally polluted water are good conductors however. The last test was a bioassessment. A bioassessment is an observation of the wildlife present in the surrounding area. An indicator species is a species that can only live in certain conditions, if these conditions are not met, then the species will either die or migrate to a new area.

The only real change that we found in our portion of the stream was the tempurature and the dissolved oxygen. These were more than likely to be a result of the change of seasons throughout the year.

Macroinvertebrates
Indicators of good water quality include:

• Mayfly larvae
• Caddisfly larvae
• Stonefly larvae
• Gilled snails

Indicators of fair water quality include:

• Crayfish
• Beetles
• Dragonfly larvae
• Cranefly larvae
• Damselfly larvae
• Scuds

Indicators of poor water quality include:

• Midge fly larvae
• Blackfly larvae
• Leeches
• Aquatic worms
• Lung snails