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How is climate change affecting the water quality of the Croton Watershed?

Organization(s):Mahopac High School, Mahopac High School
Country:United States of America, United States of America
Student(s):Students of Bob Connick and Tricia Johnson
Grade Level:Secondary School (grades 9-12, ages 14-18)
GLOBE Educator(s):Robert Connick, Tricia Johnson
Contributors:
Report Type(s):
Protocols:Nitrates, Conductivity, Alkalinity, Salinity, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Water Temperature
Language(s):
Date Submitted:05/03/2013
Screen capture from presentation
Research was done by students in Mahopac, New York to determine if climate change was affecting the water quality in our area. Students obtained data from NYC DEP and compared to the data they collected. The two sites studied were the stream in front of Mahopac High School and the Muscoot River in which it feeds. The Muscoot River is a tributary to the NYC reservoir system. The parameters tested were dissolved oxygen, water temperature, pH, alkalinity, Nitrates, phosphates, conductivity, chlorides and salinity. Students were able to conclude that the two water bodies showed similar changes, and that they water quality is being affected.


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Comments

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Student of Michele Ann Hildebrandt
11 Years Ago
what is the connection between your hydrology trends and the elderberries' time and quantity of bud bursts
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Julie Malmberg
11 Years Ago - Edited
Mahopac Students - Nice work! Now that you know the quality of your water is decreasing, what do you plan to do next? Do you think you should install more islands? Or do you have other ideas for how to improve the water quality? (And, not just your school, but your region in general.)

Also, very cool about the turtle!
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Dixon Matlock Butler
11 Years Ago
How wonderful that past students at your school left such a good record of their measurements. You took many measurements but only one set seems to be in the GLOBE data base; will you report your many data for future students to use?

You gathered terrific data from professional monitoring sources. Good work. You presented these data nicely using Excel. How do you see these data relating to your stream monitoring?
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Gary Randolph
11 Years Ago
Hello Mahopac students, Thank you for providing an interesting research project. Hopefully you (and your teachers) will be able to encourage the students next school year to continue collecting data, creating this data legacy for your school. Including the data from New York DEP is a great addition - and a great way to compare your data to another somewhat local dataset. From the graphs, conductivity and Chlorides have been rising over the past 30 years; what might be a cause and will this trend continue? Might other local tributaries provide yet similar data? What effect will increasing conductivity and chlorides have on the environment?

The beginning of the video centered on elderberries; I'm wondering if there is a connection between the presence or absence of elderberries and the data collected during your research.