Science On Seneca

Seneca Lake Lab Report

Research Question: How do the levels of Dissolved Oxygen in the water affect the phytoplankton’s lives?

Hypothesis: As the levels of DO decrease, the population of phytoplankton’s  will also decrease.

Variable Identification:  

Controlled variable- Study takes place in Seneca Lake

Dependent variable- Depth of the water

Other contributing variables- Water temp., amount of DO, and amount of other living organisms

Experimental Setup :  When the boat was brought out to the middle of the lake, it was cold and very windy. Materials such as sifters, secky disks and DO tablets were used.

Procedure: 

•         When we got on the boat Mr.Williams explained that we would be going out into the middle of the lake for the first location and then make our way back. He separated us into 3 groups, one at each station.

•         When my group went to station three, we took a sample of water from the lake and took the temperature, and found how deep we went when we got the sample.

•         I quickly went to the inside of the boat, and found the latitude and longitude of where we took the sample.

•          We took a drop from the sample of water and put it on a slide. We put the slide on the microscope and observed whatever little critters we saw swimming around.

•         In our packet we attempted to draw what we saw, identified what the organisms we saw, and wrote how many of them we saw.

•         We repeated this step with a new sample.

•         Data:

SAMPLE	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TOTAL
1A	2	2	2	3					9
2A	2	2	1	7	2	1			15
3A	1	1	1	3	1	1	1		9
1P	1	1	1	16+	2				21+
2P	1	1	1	2	5	2	4	1	17
3P	6	1	7	3	1	1			19

References –

 "Finger Lakes Visitors Connection." <i>Seneca Lake —</i>. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.