FREE ESSAY ON POND LAB REPORT

POND LAB REPORT

Introduction
In the pond water lab experiment, our group has chosen to test the effects of nitrates on
a pond community. After a lot of research, we have found that nitrates in a pond
community can increase growth rates of plants and some animals. The effects of nitrates
include algal blooms, which is when too much food or nutrients are consumed by producers,
(i.e. algae) causing them to grow and spread, so they consume all of the dissolved oxygen
in the water. Most animals in water like many kinds of fish and some insects need certain
levels of dissolved oxygen to live. When it is used up due to algal blooms, they die due
to lack of oxygen. It also causes plants who need certain levels of dissolved oxygen to
die, so it starves creatures that eat the plants. The safest range of nitrates in an
environment is 3-10 PPM. Although too many nitrates can kill them, they still need some
small amounts of nitrate. So if there is too little nitrates, then plant life is limited
to the amount of food available, giving room for a small, healthy community.
The substance enters streams and ponds from fertilizers from farms, animal urine, septic
tanks, landfills or agricultural activity. Nitrates are very common.
My prediction for this experiment is that the nitrates will cause increased algae growth.
Thus providing more food for the creatures in our sample. But since this is a short
period of time, I expect the creatures to peak rather than die, because not enough time
will pass for the algal bloom process to take place.
Purpose
Our group is trying to find the effects of increased amounts of nitrates in the pond
community. Whether or not it is healthy for creature's living in the environment. In
addition, what the results are or the effects of the pollutant on plant life and animal
life.
Hypothesis
I expect for this experiment, that the plant life will thrive more and more with the
different levels of nitrates entered into the pond samples. I expect for the animal life
in the samples to thrive with the smaller amounts of nitrates added, and in the larger
amounts animal life will die due to lack of water purity.
Materials
? 4 20oz pop Bottles
? Scissors
? 4 pond water samples (same amounts)
? 4 eye droppers
? Masking tape
? Sodium Nitrates
? Scale
? Microscope (10x, 40x)
? Buckets
? Wet mount Supplies
? Water sifter
? Dissolved Oxygen Test Kit
? Nitrates Test Kit
? Fish net
Procedure
1. First go to a pond and use the buckets to collect enough pond water for your
experiment. Figure about enough to fill 4 20oz pop bottles. Use the water sifter and any
other supplies to catch creatures from the water.
2. Next prepare your containers by taking the 4 20oz pop bottles, and cut the tops off of
them, all in the same spot. Then tape all 4 containers together, taping the eye dropper
holders on the outside corner of each bottle. Then write your names on the tape. 
3. Then, carefully pour 400 ml of pond water into your containers. Make sure you equally
measure out the same amount for each container. Then with the fish net, get a handful of
creatures from the water and put them equally into you containers. Mark the water level
on the container for each sample.
4. Then get your Dissolved oxygen test kit and you nitrates test kit and follow their
instructions to test the levels in the water. Record your results, and use safety
equipment if noted.
5. Now get a scale to measure your nitrates. The equation is divide 400 ml by
x/1,000,000. X= amount of nitrates.
0-10 PPM (Excellent) 30 PPM (good) 60 PPM (fair)
We added nothing to our #1 container, we added 2.1 grams of nitrates to #2, 3.2 to #3,
and 4.8 to #4.
6. Add the nitrates to your water. Leave the bottles at room temperature. After every 3-4
days, collect data by creating a table.
(# of container)
1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O.
1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O.
1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O. 1.2.3.O.
7. Create a chart like this, and pick 3 creatures that a very common in your water
sample. I picked...
1. Anacystis
2. Water Flea
3. Swimmer
Then add whatever else you see in the O area that stands for Other. Each table is one
days worth of data from each container. Make a total of 32 tables, making 8 times
collecting data. To observe the creatures, 10x on a microscope should work to see the
larger creatures like the water flea, anacystis and some of the swimmers. For some
swimmers, go to 40x on chunks of anacystis and look close to see many little swimmers.
8. Make sure to keep the water level the same by looking at the water marking you made on
the containers, adding water whenever it gets low.
Data
On the preliminary tests with the dissolved oxygen and nitrates we found nitrates was
within 0-10 ppm, and dissolved oxygen was at a healthy amount.
Creatures Present
Swimmers
Water Fleas
Mayfly Nymph
Anacystis
Seaweed
Algae
Water beetle
Container 1 
Days 
1 2 3 4 2 6 7 8
1 9 8 6 7 3 1 1 0
2 7 10 11 6 5 3 2 1
3 9 11 8 8 5 1 2 2
4 13 9 12 9 5 5 4 0
Spot Number 5 11 15 7 10 1 4 3 3
6 15 7 8 4 1 3 3 0
7 16 11 5 8 3 6 4 1
8 12 9 9 3 6 1 1 1
9 7 10 12 5 2 4 3 0
10 3 8 9 7 8 5 1 2
11 6 11 5 4 7 1 6 3
12 9 10 4 5 4 3 4 0
Totals 118 121 99 80 52 43 41 21
Container 2 
Days 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 12 10 9 7 4 9 6 5
2 15 12 4 5 4 7 4 3
3 11 8 9 4 9 1 3 4
4 12 9 7 7 7 5 2 6
Spot Number 5 9 13 8 9 6 7 5 1
6 11 14 5 8 3 8 1 4
7 7 11 5 13 8 6 4 7
8 15 8 2 11 5 1 6 0
9 14 10 8 5 4 5 3 0
10 11 8 2 6 7 2 4 1
11 12 10 8 9 2 4 1 1
12 14 9 6 6 1 8 9 1
144 124 76 94 65 69 55 41
Container 3 
Days 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 16 15 11 14 10 9 6 5
2 11 18 16 12 11 8 7 4
3 13 16 10 13 12 6 3 3
4 11 14 12 14 9 11 5 2
Spot Number 5 15 17 14 10 14 7 4 6
6 14 12 13 9 13 10 8 4
7 15 10 16 7 6 11 9 4
8 19 9 12 12 8 9 6 9
9 17 20 10 13 7 4 11 1
10 12 16 14 8 10 7 8 5
11 15 11 15 11 12 8 7 1
12 10 10 9 12 11 6 6 0
169 170 155 139 128 102 87 52
Container 4 
Days 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 16 15 14 8 14 4 9 0
2 15 17 16 9 12 7 8 6
3 13 19 15 13 13 6 7 2
4 10 10 18 14 10 4 4 1
Spot Number 5 14 16 13 15 11 1 2 5
6 19 17 12 12 9 3 2 1
7 17 11 11 14 11 5 1 2
8 12 13 14 9 8 8 3 1
9 11 19 10 10 12 4 1 0
10 15 18 9 14 13 6 5 4
11 14 15 15 13 3 9 4 4
12 10 16 16 12 12 7 1 0
167 188 166 147 133 70 54 34
Discussion
In our experiment, our results seem rigid. I think some things did not go right, but if
you look closely, some of the results could be correct. In container 1, the control, life
seemed to drop evenly, leveling off at the bottom. In container 2, I think day 4 might
have been lower than the actual population drop that was happening. Besides that, with a
little bit of nitrates added, the population shrinkage was slow. In container 3, this
seemed to be the healthiest community. I think on day 8 the nitrates ran out, causing
populations to drop quicker. In container 4, we saw a lot of plant life, but a lot of the
animal life seemed to die, which the graph shows well.