Nutrient and Heavy Metal Levels in Lake Munson

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Nutrient and Heavy Metal Levels in Lake Munson

• Lauren Hauser, Erin Jenson, Sunny Ojah, Mia Paul,
  Ruth Ralph, Nicole Robinson

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Lake Munson

• According to information released by the U.S.
  Environmental protection Agency, Lake Munson is
  255-acre cypress rimmed freshwater Lake located
  in the Sand hills region in Tallahassee Florida.
  Lake Munson Receives 75 of the run off of
  Tallahassee Florida.

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Problem

• The objectives of this experiment are to
  determine nitrate, phosphate and copper, levels
  not only in the water entering and leaving Lake
  Munson but also at points in between. According
  to the TAPP (Think About Personal Pollution)
  source that we used, Lake Munson receives 57 of
  urban runoff from Tallahassee alone which would
  indicate that the nitrate, phosphate and copper
  levels would be high coming to and leaving the
  lake. We want to know where the runoff is present
  and which areas are most affected by nutrients
  and/or heavy metals the most. Phosphate (PO4-)
  and nitrate (NO3-) are the nutrients involved.
  Nitrate and phosphate are nutrients that are
  present in fertilizer that are used in urban
  living areas and fertilizers. Excesses in nitrate
  and phosphate levels occur when too many
  nutrients such as fertilizers from farms, or
  urban living spaces accumulate and go into water
  bodies such as Lake Munson.

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Problem Continued

• The results could be devastating because when
  nitrate levels get too high it causes algae (or
  any other plant life subjected to it) to grow far
  too fast and excessively, to the point that it
  makes a huge green layer over the lake and cut
  off oxygen and sunlight to wildlife (fish and
  other creatures living in the water). This causes
  fish kills and is called utrofication. Copper as
  well can be toxic at certain levels as well
  causing contamination of wildlife habitats
  throughout the lake. We want to determine if the
  levels of the contaminants pose a risk to
  wildlife in Lake Munson, and what areas of the
  lake might need special attention. Our Question
  that we hope to answer is, is Lake Munson at Risk
  of the dangerous side effects of too many
  nutrients?

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Hypothesis

• The contaminate levels will be the highest in the
  water coming into the lake rather than leaving it
  because after the pollutants have come into the
  lake, they have had more time to dilute into the
  lake Munson lake water.

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Materials and Equipment

• ? Small plastic collection bottles
• ? Permanent marker
• ? Tape
• ? Styrofoam Cooler
• ? Ice
• ? Plastic Baggies
• ? ph testing equipment
• ? Plastic Filter
• ? Plastic Weigh Boats
• ? Graduated Cylinder
• ? Brush
• ? Scale
• ? Magnetic Stirrer
• ? 100 ml beaker

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Materials and Equipment

• ? 20 ml beaker
• ? Pipette
• ? 10 ml pipette tips
• ? 50 ml pipette tips
• ? Spatula
• ? Drying Oven
• ? Freezer
• ? 6 100 ml volumetric flasks
• ? 1 1 L volumetric flask
• ? 24 14 ml test tubes
• ? 250 ml graduated cylinder
• ? Ultra Violet Visible Spectrometer
• ? Paper Towels
• ? 24 10 ml plastic test bottles
• ? small plastic cubic pipettes

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Materials and Equipment

• ? LaMotte Nitrate Test
• o Mixed Acid Reagent
• o 4 10 ml test valves with caps
• o Nitrate reducing reagent
• o Small Plastic Spatula
• o LaMotte Axial reader
• o Stopper
• ? LaMotte Copper Test Kit
• o LaMotte Axial reader for Copper
• o Copper Reagent
• o 4 10 ml test valves with caps
• o Nitrate reducing reagent
• o Small Plastic Spatula
• o Stopper

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Procedure

• At Lake Munson
• 1.Arrive at the lake, and check off each of the
  necessary items needed for the experiment.
• 2.You need to collect three water samples in four
  different parts if the lake including the input,
  output, boat ramp, and a random area in the
  middle of the lake.
• 3.To collect the input samples of the lake take
  three of the different water sample bottles, a
  permanent marker, tape, and the necessary gear
  for getting on the boat to collect the samples.

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Procedure

• Ride the boat until you reach the input of the
  lake, and collect three samples of that area.
  Label each of the bottles with the name Lake
  Munson Entrance 1-.
• Repeat step number four for each area, and make
  sure you label the area in which you are
  collecting samples from correctly.
• Place each water sample bottle in a cooler full
  of ice, and take to the lab for testing.

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Phosphate Testing Procedure

• Filter out each of the water samples to clean out
  all of the dirt from the lake water. Place the
  new samples into clean bottles, and re-label
  each.
• Place 10ml of each of the four water samples into
  test tubes. Make sure you use three test tubes of
  sample water for each area, and number of sample.
  
• Next make four different solutions to test the
  phosphate level of the sample water.

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Phosphate Testing Continued

• For the first solution add 78ml concentrated of
  H2SO4 and dilute up to 500ml ddH2O.
• For the second solution, using a weigh boat
  measure out 1.35 g of C6H8O6 and using a
  magnetic stirrer dissolve in 25ml of ddH2O. Store
  in the refrigerator.
• For the third solution, use a weigh boat and
  measure out 0.34 g of the K(SbO)C4H4O6 and
  dissolve in 250ml ddH2O. Store in refrigerator.
• For solution number 4, weigh out 7.5 g of
  (NH4)6Mo7O24 and dissolve in 250ml ddH2O. Store
  in the dark. Discard if there is a precipitate.

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MORE Phosphate Testing

• Lastly, Solution number 5. Add in order 62.5 ml
  of solution 1, 25ml of solution2, 12.5ml of
  solution 3, and 25ml of solution 4. Solution
  should be a light yellow and make 125ml.
• Allow the solution to come to room temperature.
• Add 2.0ml of Solution 5 to each of the 10ml
  water sample test tubes using a pipet. Make sure
  you replace each of the tips of the pipets every
  time. Wait 30 minutes for light blue-green color
  to develop.

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LAST STEP OF PHOSPHATE TESTING

• Place each of the test tubes in the spectrometer
  and place the samples in cubic privettes. You
  should allow 880 nanometers of light to be
  transmitted through the sample. Record.

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Nitrate Testing (using the Lamotte testing kits)

• Fill the water 10 ml water sampling bottle with
  sample water.
• Fill two test tubes to the 5ml line with sampling
  water.
• Dilute the sample to the 10 ml line with Mixed
  Acid Reagent. Cap and mix.
• Wait two minutes for it to settle.
• Use 0.1g spoon to add 1 level measure of Nitrate
  Reducing Reagent.

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Nitrate Testing Continued

• Cap tube. Invert top slowly and completely 30
  times in 1 minute to insure complete mixing.
• Wait 10 minutes.
• Insert tube into the Axial Reader. Fill test
  tubes to 10 ml line with sample water. Place in
  Axial Reader. Match sample color to a color
  standard. Record as ppm Nitrate-Nitrogen.

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Copper Testing

• Fill three test tubes to the 10 ml line with
  sample water. Insert two tubes as blanks to the
  Axial Reader.
• Add 5 drops of Copper 1 to the third test tube.
  Cap and invert several times to mix. Solution
  will turn yellow if copper is present. Remove
  cap.
• Insert into copper comparator with Axial Reader.
  Match sample color to a color standard. Record as
  ppm copper.
• If sample is darker than the 0.5 ppm color
  standard, the sample must be diluted, and
  retested following steps 1-3.

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Data and Observations

• At Lake Munson
• - At the Boat Ramp site, there were not many
  things growing and there was not a lot of
  vegetation, there was a lot of trash and garbage
  which was ruining the site water very murky
• - At the input site, there was a lot of
  vegetation, and there were many plants, trees,
  bushes and aquatic plants not a lot of
  pollution water somewhat murky
• - At the output site, there was also a lot of
  vegetation, especially of the aquatic variety
  only a little bit of pollution the water was
  clearer than that at the input site
• - At the middle of the lake, there was no
  pollution, and lush vegetation the water was
  very murky

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Data and Observations

• At the FAMU Laboratory
• When we were filtering out the samples, the
  process seemed pretty thorough.
• Hardly any dirt, after filtration (at least
  observable by the naked eye) was present.
• When were tested for phosphate, when we took the
  samples out of the machine, they were changed
  into a light navy blue color.

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Data Analysis

• During the testing of Nitrate and Copper
• The samples mostly did not change color.
• The pink color that should have accompanied the
  sample if nitrate was present did not appear.
• It was evident from these tests that the nitrate
  and copper levels are hardly a threat to Lake
  Munson.

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Data Analysis

• Formula used on Exel for Net Absorbance fx D31
  - G25
• Absorbance
  (M)(concentration b)
• Formula used on Exel for Concentration fx
  J21G31
• Conentraion Net
  Absorbance 0.02637
• 
  (0.307619)

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Data Analysis
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Data Analysis
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Lamotte Test Results
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Conclusion

• Conclusion
• Our hypothesis was partially correct as well as
  incorrect. With the Phosphate, the testing that
  we did indicated that there was in fact a good
  amount of phosphate present in the lake Munson
  water. The information gathered showed that the
  average concentration of the water was at its
  highest at the entrance and lower a t the exit.
  This proves a part of our hypothesis right in the
  sense that when the nutrient phosphate is
  present, its concentration lowers by the time it
  leaves the lake. This could be for multiple
  reasons. The most likely of them being that the
  plants and sediment of the lake are absorbing the
  nutrients.

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Conclusion Continued

• The nitrate and copper were in so low
  concentration that they were either not
  detectable by the testing equipment that we used
  or just enough to be counted as a number higher
  than 0. This indicates that Lake Munson is not at
  risk for serious environmental consequences at
  least from nitrate and copper. The phosphate may
  be something that scientist want to keep their
  eyes on. The reasons that the nitrate and copper
  levels were not so high could have been that they
  are not a real problem being controlled naturally
  by Lake Munson or the fact that people in
  Tallahassee have not

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Limitations and Improvements

• The samples were not all the same depth which
  could throw off accuracy.
• Machines were not used for testing Nitrate and
  copper, the samples were by hand.
• All the tests have limited sensitivity.

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Limitations and Improvements

• The measurements were perceived through human
  eyes which is subjective.
• The sample location was limited to types of
  samples and the number of samples.
• Improvements We could have had more samples from
  more locations.
• There could have been different analytical
  methods with greater sensitivity.
• Samples could have been at the same depth.

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