NORWICH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE A Palustrine Box Model Study of Water Quality and Chemistry at Railroad Branch Senior Research Seminar Project Chen, A. Z. X. and Dunn, R.H. 4/29/2014 Unpublished Presented at the 2013 Senior Seminar Presentation, 2014 Sigma Xi Induction Dinner and 2014 Student Scholarship Celebration at Norwich University Biophysical activity and a changing line of impoundments by beavers have presented a unique opportunity to study a changing wetland and its effects on stream chemistry. Research on Railroad Branch, a mountain stream in central Vermont, was conducted using a box model approach to analyze the fluctuations in cation concentration, temperature, pH, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, and PO 4 3- /NO 3 .These observations included water sampled from the stream and associated pond and wetland system. The YSI probe was used in the field to collect temperature, pH, and conductivity. Samples of water from the pond substrate were taken using a peat corer. In the laboratory, the Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma Spectrophotometer and HACH kit were used to measure major and trace constituents and PO 4 3- /NO 3 , turbidity, and alkalinity, respectively. Samples were obtained under various hydrologic conditions such as baseflow and high flow. No previous study was done on Railroad Branch so this project and the collected data provides insight into the biochemistry of the area and opens this system to further study. Results show that wetlands have the ability to regulate cationic flow, showing patterns between the inlet and outlet that cannot be seen in the pond. This data also suggests that organic constituents in the pond/wetland play a role in the acidity.
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NORWICH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE
A Palustrine Box Model Study of Water Quality and
Chemistry at Railroad Branch Senior Research Seminar Project
Chen, A. Z. X. and Dunn, R.H.
4/29/2014 Unpublished
Presented at the 2013 Senior Seminar Presentation, 2014 Sigma Xi Induction Dinner
and 2014 Student Scholarship Celebration at Norwich University
Biophysical activity and a changing line of impoundments by beavers have presented a unique
opportunity to study a changing wetland and its effects on stream chemistry. Research on
Railroad Branch, a mountain stream in central Vermont, was conducted using a box model
approach to analyze the fluctuations in cation concentration, temperature, pH, alkalinity,
dissolved oxygen, and PO43-
/NO3.These observations included water sampled from the stream
and associated pond and wetland system. The YSI probe was used in the field to collect
temperature, pH, and conductivity. Samples of water from the pond substrate were taken using a
peat corer. In the laboratory, the Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma Spectrophotometer and
HACH kit were used to measure major and trace constituents and PO43-
/NO3, turbidity, and
alkalinity, respectively. Samples were obtained under various hydrologic conditions such as
baseflow and high flow. No previous study was done on Railroad Branch so this project and the
collected data provides insight into the biochemistry of the area and opens this system to further
study. Results show that wetlands have the ability to regulate cationic flow, showing patterns
between the inlet and outlet that cannot be seen in the pond. This data also suggests that organic
constituents in the pond/wetland play a role in the acidity.
Chen 1
Table of Contents
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. 1
List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... 2
List of Graphs ........................................................................................................................ 3
The relationship between temperature will be explored first as it can play a large role in its
influence of other chemistry and quality factors. The data in figure 1 were collected with the YSI
Sample Day # 1 2 3 4
Date 9/16/13 9/20/13 9/28/13 11/8/13
probe on five separate days. During the course of the study, water temperature in both outlet and
inlet decreased (Fig-3). The inlet is a lower temperature initially, but by the final sampling day,
the inlet and outlet are equal in temperature. On day 2, there was a difference of 3.6 °C while
there was a difference of 2.35 °C on day 3. There was a gain of 0.17 °C on day 4.
Figure 3. Plot of temperature over three sample Figure 4. Plot of pH over three sample days at
days at Outlet (Site 1) vs Inlet (Site 2) (n=6). Outlet (Site 1) vs Inlet (Site 2) (n=6). The
Outlet waters are slightly warmer than inlet on waters stayed consistent in that the outlet is
days 2 and 3. Temperature at the outlet and slightly more acidic while the inlet was more
inlet on day 4 was equal. basic.
pH was only measured on sample day 2-4 (Fig. 4). At the inlet, the highest pH occurred on
sample day 3. pH remained above 7.1or slightly basic on all days. Note that inlet pH values are
consistently higher than outlet values. The pH keeps increasing at site 2. Day 3 has the least
Chen 10
variability between the inlet and outlet. Day 2 and 3 both have a similar range. As the inlet
temperature drops, the pH goes up. There is no relationship between the temperature and dO₂
found within the system as the data is all spread out with outliers from sites 5 and 7(Fig. 5).
However, the clusters indicate that a site that that had a measured low temperature has large
amounts of dO₂ while sites that had a measured high temperature had lower amounts of dO₂. In
contrast, there is a strong relationship in the temperature-dO₂ measured in the inlet and outlet
(Fig. 6). As the water temperature increased, the amount of dissolved oxygen decreased. This
trend was consistent with all days.
y = -3 . 9 1 9 1 x + 1 5 5 . 2 2R ² = 0 . 9 6 7 1
0
20
40
60
80
1 0 0
1 2 0
1 4 0
1 6 0
0 5 10 15 20
dO
₂
Figure 5. Plot of Temperature vs. dissolved Figure 6. Plot of Temperature vs. dissolved Oxygen of
the 5 samples found within the Oxygen of the 6 samples taken at the inlet and
pond system after four sampling periods (n=14) after three sampling periods (n=6)
-NO₃⁻ ,PO₄3-, Alkalinity, pH
A number of bivariate plots are presented to explore the relationships among variables. Samples
for nitrate and phosphate readings were taking on sample day 3 and 4. The nitrate and
orthophosphate were measured in the lab (Fig. 7 and 8). There is no relationship whatsoever on
Temperature (°C)
Chen 11
sample day 3 or 4 within the pond. Site 7 remains constantly high while site 6 remains constantly
low. However, there is a trend found when comparing the inlet and outlet (Fig. 7). On day 3,
there was no difference in nitrate between the amounts of nitrate found. There was a difference
of 0.056 mg/l was found comparing the orthophosphate from the samples of the two sites. By
day 4, there was pattern in the NO₃⁻and the PO43-. There was a difference of 0.15mg/l in the
nitrate found and a difference of 0.014 mg/l in the phosphate found in the sample.
Figure 7. Plot of NO₃-
vs. PO₄3- for inlet and Figure 8. Plot of NO₃- vs. PO₄3- for pond samples
outlet day 3 and 4 (n=4). There is a gradual day 3 and 4. (n=10)
decrease in both orthophosphate and nitrate.
In addition, the water gradually gets much more alkaline and slightly acidic (Fig. 9) as the water
move from the inlet to the outlet. As alkalinity increased, the pH becomes more acidic. The sites
within the pond however do not show any relationship. Site 6 and 7 consistently has a slightly
more acidic pH while sites 3, 4, and 5 had a relatively basic pH. The data from table 4 was used
to graph bivariate graphs (fig. 11-14).Figure 11 indicates a trend where most samples have a
consistently high amount of Ca but low in Fe with two outliers from site 3. Between the Al and
Si (Fig. 12), the trend seems to be low Al and high Si with one outlier from site 5. There is
Chen 12
however, a relationship between the Mg and Ca (Fig. 13) and between the Ca and Sr (Fig. 14). In
figure 11, samples from locations 4,5,6,7 all show minimum variation in
Figure 9. Plot of Alkalinity vs pH for sample sites 1&2 Figure 10.Plot of Alkalinity vs pH for all sample sites within the pond system for day3 &4. The water gets within the pond system for day 3 and 4.
more basic.
-Elemental Analysis
The data used in table 1 was used to calculate percent change (Table 2).
Outlet Inlet Spl Day 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Si 3.73 2.39 2.27 2.17 2.503 2.39 4.60 2.31
Al 0.015 0.0061 0.015 0.008 0.013 0.0054 0.012 0.008