CBIs Charlotte Beach Investigators

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CBIsCharlotte Beach Investigators

• Group photo and question

How do different water quality factors differ at
various sites at Charlotte Beach?
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Team Members and Their Expertise

• Dakota
• Technology

Aya Recording Data, Metadata and Sechi disk
Richie DO and temperature
Gill Bacteria and algae
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Uses of Technology

• We used technology PDAs, Probes, Digital camera,
  Laptop, Microscopes, and Flexcam hooked up to a
  TV
• PDAs - pictures, writing and voice recording
• Probes - took measurements of air and water
  temperature, pH, and DO
• Digital camera - take picture because the PDAs
  didnt always work
• Laptop - for making PowerPoint, Internet, Excel
  Graphs
• Microscopes - view bacteria, algae, and life
  forms
• Flexcam TV - view slides on the TV

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pH Plays a Role

• pH measures how acidic or basic the water is. 7
  is neutral, lower than 7 is acidic, and higher is
  basic
• There is a certain level that fish, plants and
  living things can live in
• The pH level at our three sites ranged from
  7.3-8.5, and safe for things to live in
• Best range for the growth of algae is 7.5 8.4

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Recording Data and Metadata

• Recording Data
• Used probes, collected water samples, assigned
  jobs, went into water, wrote down EVERY THING!
• Used waterproof pad, grease pencil, plastic sheet
  
• Made drawings and took digital pictures
• Metadata
• Extra observations - People, weather, location,
  and geography
• Important because there could be some things that
  
• are not covered in the other
• categories but are just as important.

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Use of Secchi Disk

• Tool used to test how clear the water is
• Marks on the string so you can measure how deep
  you can see the disk
• We made our own Secchi disk out of CDs,
• cord and Sharpies
• It was not very useful to us because
• 1. The water was VERY clear
• 2. It fell off the rope and is now near the first
  ladder off
• the pier and will soon become a tourist
  attraction

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Bacteria, I Cant See It?

• Bacteria is microscopic, likes warmer water,
  likes fertilizer, doesnt like to move, feeds off
  algae, and loves DO.
• We collected water samples in petri dishes.
• They went into incubators over night where the
  bacteria colonies grew.
• More than 1000 bacteria colonies in 1ml sample,
  the beach will be closed.
• Bacteria can come from feces of seagulls.

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Algae, Where?

• Algae is a big complaint at Charlotte Beach
• We didnt see much algae at the beach
• We did see two kinds in the lab
• Spirogyra Cladophora

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Dissolved Oxygen (DO)

• How much oxygen is in the water? Plants and waves
  add oxygen to the water.
• Living things must have a certain amount of DO.
• Our levels ranged from 9.8-12.6.
• The 12.6 level came from area 1 that had more
  wave action.
• Bacteria needs DO.
• Colder water holds onto more DO than warmer
  water.
• Fish or other living things must move if there is
  not enough oxygen.

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Temperature

• Temperature can affect what lives in the water
• It can affect bacteria, algae, and DO
• Human factors like added pesticides and
  fertilizer, weather and the sun can all increase
  the water temperature
• The temperature at our three sites was all the
  same, which makes the living things happy and
  healthy

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CBIs Conclusions

• There wasnt a lot of algae but the low amount of
  bacteria may have come from the large amount of
  runoff of chemicals from all the rain and amount
  of seagull feces.
• We took data from three locations, the first was
  on the beach at the first white post, the second
  location was on the beach by the 11th pole on the
  pier, the third was on the pier by the 1st
  ladder. We pick three different locations that
  werent near each other.

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What is going on and Whos Fault Is It?

• The pier causes the collection of algae, but
  there is more to it!
• The interconnectedness of water quality
  factors and humans make a tight web that makes it
  hard to solve the original problem of keeping the
  planet healthy.

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What do we do about a problem thats not always
there?