Things in the water

Guest

During your testing and your time out on the water, what kinds of things have you found in the water (fish, animals etc.). Was there anything that was very different in the water there than in the United States? Thanks

Kelsey Smile

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 84

Dear Kelsey,
You wrote a great question because knowing what is in the water is a great way of learning more about the water. However, our sampling didn't involve looking for animals or fish in the water, but we did look at the water itself pretty carefully. Everyday when we sampled from the shore, in addition to the bottles that we filled that are going to sent to labs in the United States and Canada to be analyzed, we filled up a ziplock bag. One thing that the scientists in the PARTNERS Project look at is the amount of dissolved organic carbon. In order to find the number of that, the samples will have to be analyzed. However, scientists can get a get an initial idea of how much DOC (dissolved organic carbon) there is by looking at the color of the water. Water that has a lot of DOC will look like tea. Here is a picture of the baggies from the days we were sampling from before the ice broke to after the river came way up on its bank and then started to receede again. What do you think happened to the level of dissolved organic carbon? In the next couple of days, we will post an entry in the "Experiments and Activities" section that will be all about what the amount of DOC tells us about the water, so check it out and let us know what you figure out!

Thanks for your question. I realize I didn't really answer it completely, but I don't know what the level of DOC is in lakes and rivers around where you live.

Amy