Water Quality

Problem- How does water pollution affect an ecosystem?

Background: ecosystems are areas where things live together symbiotically while growing and interacting with one another. An ecosystem can exist in forests, rivers, lakes, swamps, or even mud puddles. Various things can affect the survival rate of organisms in an ecosystem. If an ecosystem was exposed to toxins and pollutants all organisms within the environment will ultimately be affected due to their symbiotic relationship. Pollutants from our wars, from mining, farming, and industrialization affect all of our ecosystems. Not just plants and animals are affected, because humans are affected by being at the top of the food chain. The consumption of plants and animals affected by toxic pollutants will inevitably change vulnerable human lives.
My biobottle will not be recieving a pollutant. instead, my biobotle will be serving as the constant variable; in our classroom experiement. Other students in the class will be polluting their bibotles with various pollutants, to compare the effecs of particular pollutants, in the environment.

Water Quality: Water Quality depends on the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of water. Different toxins can affect the overall water quality. Some pollutants are runoff from agricultural areas, storm water, and sewage. Levels of acidity, nitrates, and phosphates, can affect the overall water quality. Different levels of sewage can increase C02 and fecal coli form levels as well. Too many solids in water such as metals, organic compounds, and pharmaceuticals can significantly contaminate the water. The overall water quality is affected by many things, which can be tested for chemically or observed physically.

Hypothesis: If pollutants or toxins enter bodies of water, then ecosystems willl ultimately be affected.

Constant Variable: My biobottle, modeling the interaction of aquatic ecosystems, temperate ecosytems, and tropic ecosystems in their originality.

Other variables Monitered: Temperature, pH, dissolvd 02, BOD, nitrogenm phosphorous, fecal colifom, total solids and turbidity.

“I will be monitoring and maintaining the homeostasis and original condition of my biome, while comparing it to the other biomes that will be undergoing various alterations.”

“I will simply be watering my biome with 10 ml. of water daily, as I make comparative observations of my regulated biome, to the other polluted biomes.”

I am excited to be a participant in this project :)