Effects of household products on the amount of dissolved oxygen in pond water

Abstract

The current water systems are experiencing the problem of eutrophication, which is the process of the water collecting too much nutrients that cause harmful algae blooms. Our hypothesis is that if fertilizer is placed into pond water, then there will be less dissolved oxygen, because if will pollute the water and decrease the water quality. With our experiment, we are testing the effects of fertilizer on pond water, and how this affects the dissolved oxygen (DO) levels. We simulated fertilizer, dishwashing soap, and ammonia by using nitrogen and phosphorous. These chemicals can also be found in many household products which can pollute water systems due to sewage run off. Using pond water collected from NY, we added nitrogen and/or phosphorus and yeast, and measured the amount of dissolved oxygen over 4 weeks. Although our results were not statistically significant, we were able to see that the combination treatment, which represents fertilizer, had the smallest increase in the level of dissolved oxygen (increased by an average of only 3.92mg/L).