Different Levels of Pollutants and Bacteria and How they Effect Dissolved Oxygen Levels in Bodies of Water

Abstract

Pollutants and bacteria affect the levels of dissolved oxygen that are present in a sample of water.  We set out to quantify how dissolved oxygen levels change over time in samples of water with and without bacteria and with different levels of pollutants.  Our reference material is primarily based around the principles of eutrophication and dissolved oxygen, which come together in saying that dissolved oxygen levels decrease in the presence of higher amounts of pollutants and bacteria.  The hypothesis that we wrote predicts these same results, that prediction being that the dissolved oxygen levels decrease more with higher amounts of these substances over a period of two weeks.