Oldham Pond Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Oldham Pond - Essay Example An example of a response by the ecosystem would be a spurt in the population of phytoplankton in the aquatic body, due to an upsurge in the nutrient level (John & Eugene 109). This phenomenon has such negative effects on the environment as hypoxia, which is oxygen depletion in the water. On top of promoting an increase in phytoplankton levels, it also promotes plant decay, while seeming to favor natural plankton and algae as compared to more developed plants. This plant decay causes a substantial reduction in the quality of the water, as well as depletion of aquatic oxygen during decomposition of algae, which causes death of fish. Eutrophication decreases the recreational value of water bodies, hurting tourism. The premise of this paper is to study Oldham pond and its tributaries and evaluate the effects of eutrophication. Conductivity of the pond was measured using a portable conductivity metre. Conductivity is the measurement of how much material found dissolved in the pond. Polluted ponds have more dissolved solute than clean ponds. Conductivity below 250 is preferable, with upward of 600 being the cause for alarm. Measurement of temperature was done using a thermometer, while the levels of dissolved oxygen were measured using a dissolve oxygen electrode (Ansari 90). The sampling was carried out on the 4th and 25th of February, 2012. For the organisms in the pond, Ad Libitum sampling was used, where much information about the organisms was measured (John & Eugene 106). According to the results, the temperature of the water was comparable to that of the surrounding air. The slight difference is the difference in conductivity of heat by air and water. Dissolved oxygen levels were also concurrent to those that are recommendable (11 mg/l). Conductivity, however, was found to be higher than recommended. Recommended conductivity is below 250 (Boqiang et al