Nitrogen Content in Lake Munson

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Nitrogen Content in Lake Munson

• An IB Group 4 Study

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Group Members

• Daniel Gold
• Ben Cunningham
• Amol Shah
• Nick Wilde
• Aravind Reddy
• Zach Tyree
• Bijal Patel
• Maddie Pepper
• Erika Rix

3
Our Experiment

• The purpose of our experiment is to examine the
  presence of various forms of nitrogen in Lake
  Munson, before and after a rainfall. Additionally
  we will analyze the effects that the presence of
  these nitrogen ions has on the surrounding plant
  life, animal life, and ecosystem.

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Background Information
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Lake Munson

• Lake Munson receives stormwater runoff from 57
  of Tallahassee's urban area
• In 1954, residents decided not to eat the fish
  from Lake Munson as the lake was then receiving
  effluent from the Tallahassee Sewage Treatment
  Plant .

• In 1982 FDEP classified Lake Munson as
  hypereutrophic and ranked it as the seventh most
  degraded lake in the state of Florida.
• A hypereutrophic lake is very nutrient-rich and
  is characterized by frequent and severe nuisance
  algal blooms and low transparency

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Nitrogen

• Fuels plant growth, elevates the trophic status
  of the lake, and is an indicator of anaerobic
  decay.
• On average, Lake Munson receives 274 lbs of
  Nitrogen per day.
• The presence of Nitrogen is characterized most
  markedly by nitrate(NO3), nitrite(NO2), and
  Ammonia(NH3)

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Nitrogen Cycle
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Nitrate

• Major ingredient of farm fertilizer
• When it rains, nitrate washes from farmland into
  nearby waterways.
• Nitrates also get into waterways from lawn
  fertilizer run-off, leaking septic tanks and
  cesspools, manure from farm livestock, animal
  wastes (including fish and birds), and discharges
  from car exhausts.

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Effects of Nitrate

• Nitrates stimulate the growth of plankton and
  water weeds that provide food for fish. This may
  increase the fish population. However, if algae
  grow too wildly, oxygen levels will be reduced
  and fish will die.
• The U.S. Public Health Service has established 10
  mg/L of nitrate-nitrogen as the maximum
  contamination level allowed in public drinking
  water.

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Nitrate Results

• The recommended amount of nitrate in drinking
  water is 10mg/L
• The average amount of nitrate found prior to
  rainfall was 0 ppm.
• After rain the amount was .29 ppm for test 1, .23
  ppm for test 2, and .25 ppm for test 3
• According to these results the amount of nitrate
  increases after rainfall.

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Ammonia

• In nature, ammonia is formed by the action of
  bacteria on proteins and urea.
• Also created by the decomposition of organic
  materials such as animals and plants by bacteria
  and fungi.
• Produced by all animals as part of normal
  metabolism. Such is the toxicity, that most
  animals immediately convert it to a less harmful
  substance, usually urea, and excrete it in urine.
  

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Effects of Ammonia

• Ammonia is toxic to fish and aquatic organisms,
  even in very low concentrations
• When levels reach 0.06 mg/L, fish can suffer gill
  damage.
• When levels reach 0.2 mg/L, sensitive fish like
  trout and salmon begin to die.
• As levels near 2.0 mg/L, even ammonia-tolerant
  fish like carp begin to die.

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Ammonia Results

• The testing method used yielded inconclusive
  results.
• The levels of ammonia ions were beyond the scope
  of the testing equipment.

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Nitrite

• Nitrites are relatively short-lived because
  theyre quickly converted to nitrates by
  bacteria.
• Created from ammonia by nitrifying bacteria found
  in soil and aquatic systems.
• High nitrite concentrations in ponds occur more
  frequently in the fall and spring when
  temperatures are fluctuating resulting in the
  breakdown of the nitrogen cycle due to decreased
  plankton and/or bacterial activity

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Effects of Nitrite

• Nitrites produce brown blood disease in fish,
  even though they dont exist for very long in the
  environment.
• Though the presence of nitrite is fleeting, the
  ion is very poisonous in all types of animal
  life.
• If nitrite enters an organisms blood stream, it
  will react with the hemoglobin found therein and
  will decrease the level of oxygen delivered by
  the bloodstream.

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Nitrite Results

• The amount of nitrite was negligible.
• According to our research the scarce amount of
  nitrite found is due to the rapid conversion to
  nitrate by nitrifying bacteria.
• The ion exists only for a short time and the
  procedure used was not sufficient to calculate
  the presence of the ion.

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Conclusion
The Group 4 Project was a great way to use the
scientific method on a local habitat to discover
more about it beyond the obvious. The trip to
Lake Munson was a valuable experience with
friends to utilize our chemistry knowledge. Even
though our results were not complete, they
indubitably helped lead the group to better
understand that Lake Munson was not
pollutant-free. Our overall knowledge regarding
the importance of the lake and the habitat, and
its current and past conditions, has greatly
increased due to our Group 4 experiment.