Part 3: A Summer Along Four Mile Creek: a young adult book

This topic submitted by Melissa Hamann, Sarah Hayes, Luke King, Majida Al-Hussam ( hayessl@muohio.edu ) on 4/29/03. [ Rivers Team: Melissa Hamann, Sarah Hayes, Luke King, Majida Al-Hussam-Section: Blaisdell/Wolfe]

Here's the last part:

Hierarchical models: a way of looking at rivers that allow physical habitat to be investigated at various apatial scales; facilitate predictions about the future status of local habitat conditions.

Hydraulic units: Uniform patches of flow and substrate material within a geoporphic unit; determines the availability of habitat, various biophysical parameters are measured to ascertain the structure of each hydraulic unit.

Landscape Units: topographic unit determined on the basis of local relief, valley slope and morphology. Defines the valley setting.

Macrophytes: plants that are invisible to the naked eye.

The Miami tribe: originally occupied the areas known today as Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. They called themselves the Twightwee; their name for the cry of the crane. Most were forcibly moved to Kansas and then Oklahoma after the Civil War. More information is available online at http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/nativeamericans/miami.htm

Microenvironments: small environments that vary greatly from one to another in factors such as temperature, light, humidity.

Physical integrity: active processes and land forms that, when combined, keep an environment regular and healthy.

Riparian Zone: the corridor of vegetation around the edge of the stream that helps filter out all the bad stuff from the stream and prevents fertilizer runoff and chemicals from leaching in the stream to some degree.

River Channel: highly mobile, typically creating a network of active and abandoned channels within the floodplain (pg. 126 reader); per Kelly: the indention in the land where the river runs.

Role of System Change: Streams are always in constant change. In a natural "stream state" humans bring into system significant change, but there are also so many other factors responsible for system change such as floods and unusual weather-related developments. Migration pattern of world animals can also bring a burst in system change.

The Sierra Club: founded in1892. It Òpromotes the responsible use of the earthÕs ecosystems and resources.Ó With over 700,000 members, it is powerful in both the political and public arenas. For more info go to http://www.sierraclub.org/

ÒTrout UnlimitedÕs mission is to conserve, protect and restore North AmericaÕs trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds.Ó Since 1962 they have been operating on state, local and national legislative levels to restore the nationÕs streams for recreational use. For more information go to http://www.tu.org/about_tu/tu_mission.html

Twightwee: see Miami

Watershed: an ecosystem with physically specified boundaries (pg. 17 reader); The total drainage area of a river and its tributaries.

APPENDIX AÑOur Data

Printed
Date Site Temp.(˚C) pH DO (mg/L)
25-Feb-03 H.W. 1.5 7.1 13.25
25-Feb-03 B.W.T. N/A N/A N/A
25-Feb-03 A.W.T. N/A N/A N/A
4-Mar-03 H.W. 4.1 7 10.8
4-Mar-03 B.F.T. 6.2 6.9 10.1
4-Mar-03 A.F.T. 5.4 6.8 9.9
18-Mar-03 H.W. 4.7 6.8 10.3
18-Mar-03 B.F.T. 7.7 6.6 9.3
18-Mar-03 A.F.T. 7.3 6.5 9.5
25-Mar-03 H.W. 12 6.7 8.3
25-Mar-03 B.W.T. 10 6.8 9.7
25-Mar-03 A.W.T. 11 6.8 9.2
1-Apr-03 H.W. 12.7 6.3 8.2
1-Apr-03 B.W.T. 11.9 6.4 9.5
1-Apr-03 A.W.T. 11.8 6.4 9.6
Interpretation of Data:
1) pH- the natural log of the concentration of the hydronium ion. pH is utilized as an indicator of the amount of acidity in a solution. pH= -(log [H+]).

In our data, we found that the pH values were close to that of pure water. Pure water has a pH of 7, which is neutral. The water that is found in nature is generally more acidic due to chemical reactions between carbon dioxide found in the atmosphere and water. According to the standards set out by the Environmental Protection Agency , for water to be safe for human consumption, it has to have a minimum pH of 6.7. For optimal biodiversity standards, the pH should be between 6.5 through 8.0. These are the long term maximum and minimum ranges for biological species to flourish in natural environments.

2) Dissolved Oxygen- a measurement of gaseous oxygen (diatomic oxygen) dissolved in an aqueous solution. Oxygen can get into water by diffusion from the surrounding air, by aeration, and as a waste product of photosynthesis. Concentrations of oxygen vary with temperature. As temperature rises, less oxygen is dissolved in a solution.

In our data, we found that the Dissolved Oxygen values were between 8.2 and 13.25 mg/L while our temperature range was between 1.5¡C and 12.7¡C. For the temperatures of our samples, it would be expected that maximum DO levels
would be between 14 mg/L and 10.6 mg/L. Thus, our samples were within the expected range of Dissolved Oxygen levels.
Date Site Sediment Load (lbs/day) Riparian Zone Width (m) West East
25-Feb-03 H.W. N/A N/A N/A
25-Feb-03 B.W.T. N/A N/A N/A
25-Feb-03 A.W.T. N/A N/A N/A
4-Mar-03 H.W. N/A N/A N/A
4-Mar-03 B.F.T. N/A N/A N/A
4-Mar-03 A.F.T. N/A N/A N/A
18-Mar-03 H.W. N/A N/A N/A
18-Mar-03 B.F.T. N/A N/A N/A
18-Mar-03 A.F.T. N/A N/A N/A
25-Mar-03 H.W. N/A N/A N/A
25-Mar-03 B.W.T. N/A N/A N/A
25-Mar-03 A.W.T. N/A N/A N/A
1-Apr-03 H.W. 24,362.8 3,630 512
1-Apr-03 B.W.T. 8,004.2 429 35.8
1-Apr-03 A.W.T. 18,045.7 3.1 37.7

3) Sediment Load- is the combination of suspended, dissolved, and bed loads. We were able to estimate the stream load of soil sediment in pounds per day using our Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Stream Flow (Q) data.
Sediment Load= TSS x Conversion Factor (5.39) x Rate (cfs)

The values of sediment load that we estimated were within the range that we expected. Our values primarily depended on the stream velocity and cross-sectional area of the river since TSS levels were rather consistent throughout all the samples.

4) Riparian Zone- the values for riparian zone are as expected. The results showed that the closer our sites were to the City of Oxford, the less riparian zone was measured around the creek area. These results are thought to be due to the level of suburban sprawl that is currently occurring in the Butler County area.

APPENDIX BÑSupplemental Data

Effluent Limits for Stream Discharge from Conventional Treatment Technologies
Effluent Parameter 30 Day Average 7 Day Average
TSS 12 mg/l 18 mg/l
CBOD5 10 mg/l 15 mg/l
Ammonia-summer 1.0 mg/l 1.5 mg/l
Ammonia-winter 3.0 mg/l 4.5 mg/l
DO not less than 6.0 mg/l not less than 6.0 mg/l
Fecal coliforms 1,000 mpn/100ml 2,000mpn/100ml
Chlorine (if applicable) less than 0.038 mg/l less than 0.038 mg/l
pH 6.5 to 9.0 6.5 to 9.0
Oil and grease less than 10 mg/l less than 10 mg/l

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b876/b876_14.html

Site ID Summ. Period Year Ca Mg K Na NH4 NO3 Cl SO4 Field pH Precip
mg/L cm
OH09 Annual 2000 0.15 0.02 0.023 0.054 0.28 1.41 0.13 2.08 4.38 112.98
OH09 Annual 2001 0.15 0.022 0.033 0.042 0.34 1.48 0.12 2.42 4.33 118.62
NY20 Annual 2000 0.08 0.012 0.011 0.028 0.18 1.26 0.06 1.2 4.51 121.74
NY20 Annual 2001 0.06 0.009 0.008 0.036 0.19 1.29 0.07 1.31 4.47 95.98

http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/sites/siteinfo.asp?id=OH09&net=NTN

CO2 EMISSIONS UNITED STATES WORLD TOTAL
1996 (5) 523.7 million metric tons C 2,345.48 million m.t.C
or 22.3% of world total

http://www.altenergy.org/2/nonrenewables/fossil_fuel/facts/coal/coal.html

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