OBJECTIVE:
To study the factors that conclusively indicate a healthy and thriving wetland by observing and counting the number of different species of plants in a given area and by taking water samples in order to determine the concentrations of various chemicals.

QUESTION:
Can the biodiversity of plant life within a wetland be the most salient indicator that it is thriving and healthy if chemical concentrates are in the 'normal' ranges?

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
In the last ten to fifteen years, the environmental trend has been leaning toward maintaining and restoring wetlands.
There are three major components to wetlands:
1) hydrolic soil - soil that is saturated long enough so it becomes anaerobic (low oxygen state);
2) hydrophytic plants - plants that love water; and,
3) hydrologic regime - dominant presence of water on the water table at its' equilibrium level, just below, or just above ground surface. Soil is constantly wet and/or damp. The definition as given by the United States Environmental Protection Agency is:  "Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.  Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. (EPA, 40. CFR 230.3 and CE, 33 CFR 328.3)
Factors that influence the distribution of wetlands are seasonal rainfall and snow melt; low lying topography below the groundwater level that collects surface water; drainage properties of soil; and the average temperature during the growing season. The growing season is the season in which the temperature is warm enough to cause thawing of the soil.

Wetlands are important because they create buffer zones between our surface water supplies and industrial, farming, residential areas; absorb excess water during heavy rainfall which facilitates in the containment of flooding in urban areas; and filters out harmful chemicals before they reach rivers, streams, or lakes.

Research shows that as wetland plants make food through metabolism they filtrate water and use the overdoses of chemicals that can be harmful in the ground water supplies. The concentration of chemicals are usually highest in agricultural and farming quadrants, around golf courses, in sub/urban areas where landscaping is occurring and weed killer is used, and in high construction areas due to the building of homes and the development of roads/sidewalks.

Why is this important?
Excessive chemicals can be harmful to the body if ingested.  Many chemicals we use as everyday household cleaners, fertilizers, pesticides, as well as those chemicals from industrial centers find their way into ground water supplies.  Ground water is the water stored below the surface of the earth, well water would be an example.  Natural buffers of those water supplies are wetlands.  Plants in a wetland in conjunction with the soil where roots and stems conglomerate, help to sift out these pollutants and act as natural sieves.  As a result of this, the water that seeps out of the area, leaves it in a much cleaner state leaving most of the pollutants behind to be used (if possible) by the plant life in the wetland.  Solid pollutants get buried within the soil and become part of it thereby creating another area where plants can be sustained and another part of the sieve formed.
Question:  Does it appear that wastelands either contribute ot and/or support wetlands?

Plants lock up these chemicals through metabolism which is the everyday process by which they use energy and produce food.  In this process, they absorb toxic chemicals and store them.  Upon their death, the plant re-releases them back into the wetland where another plant may absorb it and start the cycle again.  This cycle alone makes them good natural purifiers but excessive chemicals can eutrophy plants thereby killing a wetland and rendering it ineffective.  Once this occurs, harmful chemicals can seep into the water system and cause innumerous problems for humans.

INTRODUCTION:
The continual infiltration of chemicals such as phosphates and nitrates in our urban areas circumvent the capabilities of establishing healthy wetlands. Data clearly indicates that the diminishing wetlands around large urban areas promotes flooding during heavy rains. The recreation of wetlands can be a possible alternative to the water control problems.
 

HYPOTHESIS:
The finding of  "normal" physical and chemical parameters in the [Princeton] wetland will allow for the establishment of plant life typical to a healthy and thriving wetland.

MATERIALS:
   CHEMET Nitrate test kit
    LaMOTTE Phosophate test kit
    CHEMET Dissolved oxygen kit
     CHEMET THERMOMETER
     HACH pH test kit
bug repellent
identifying chart of plants (esp. potentially dangerous ones)

BIOGEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of PROJECT AREA

      Institute Woods is an area adjacent to the Stony Brook River which flows into the upper part of  Lake Carnegie.  Due to the proximity of this river to its land mass when it rains a lot the water systems back up and readily flood the land indicating the possibility of wetlands.
Professor Henry Horn, PhD describes this southeast sector of the woods as a "swampy floodplain".  He gently guides you through this area in his TOUR GUIDE TO THE INSTITUTE WOODS booklet.  He instructs you to follow "the path along the bank of the brook.  Stop at the concrete culvert and look at the woods around you.  In contrast to the upland forest, the canopy is very patchy, as is the understory.  The understory has few saplings, but lots of distinctly clumped shrubs, mostly Spicebush.  This land floods regularly, at least twice in most years, and for a day or two at a time.  Estimate the height of the most recent floods by looking for debris tangled in low branches or for a light coating of pinkish brown silt/clay on the vegetation...The water itself and the fine silt that it deposits prevent aeration of the soil..."

     The slightest detour from the path at any juncture in this area will cause you to immediately and first-handedly expose yourself to the soft marshy soil.  Flora/fauna is evident in a variety of patchlike patterns.  This ephemeral wetland appears to cover most of this sector.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE:
Using a diagram of the Institute Woods and the wetland area delineate (transect) the area in which you will be testing. Two different test areas were chosen.
Once the areas were chosen, you must ground truth it by walking the path identified on the map.
Take a transact of the general areas and draw a pictures of them.  Once the pictures are drawn, take photos of the foliage.  Using a field guide to plants in a wetland, identify those plants.
Using kits listed in 'materials', take water samples and test for possible contaminants.  Document time the tests were performed and the test results.

PLANT OBSERVATIONS:
An indicator of  a healthy  wetland, as determined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, is the diversity of plant life that is common to most wetlands across the U.S..  Plants that we identified in our wetland area were:

phragmites            skunk cabbage     American lotus     purple lustrife
iris                        hibiscus               banana lily             arrow arum
cattail                    wild rice             blue flag                 arrow head
tear thumb              jewel weed         hydrilla                 spice bush
soft rush                bulrush                 coon tail
water lily              alligator weed      East Indian hygraphila
These plants were identified by using information from the Center for Aquatic Plants and Plant Photographs, through the University of Florida.

The closer we became to the wetland tree populations appeared to be lessening and more sparse.  We speculate that the high water content in the soil was the cause of this.

DATA:
                 Site 1                                                       Site 2
temperature    18 degrees C @ 11:15 A. M.                                   24 degrees C @ 12:30 P. M.
pH:                5.2     @ 11:35 A. M.                                              5.8    @ 12:30 P. M.
Turbidity        25JTU  @ 11:35 A. M.                                            150JTU @ 12:35 P. M.
phosophate    0.2 ppm @ 11:50 A. M.                                          1.5 ppm @  12:55 P. M.
nitrate            0.05 ppm @ 11:55 A. M.                                         0.0 ppm @ 12:55 P. M.
DO                10 ppm @ 11:40 A. M.                                            10 ppm @ 12:20 P. M.
JTU =  Jefferson Turbidity Unit                  DO = dissolved oxygen               ppm = parts per million
                                                                 C    = Centigrade
'Normal' parameters for the various tests are:
            temperature
            pH                         - (6.5-7.5) excellent    (6.0-6.4) good    (5.5-5.9) fair        (<5.5) poor
            phosphate              - (0-1) excellent          (1.1-4) good       (4.1-9.9) fair        (>10) poor
            turbidity                 - (0-10) excellent         (10.1-40) good   (40.1-150) fair    (>150) poor
            nitrate                    - (0-1) excellent           (1.1-3) good       (3.1-5) fair          (>5) poor
            dissolved oxygen    -

RESULTS: The pH of the water at the two different sites was slightly acidic but the plant life surrounding the pool did not appear to be affected.  The turgidity of the first site was somewhat cloudy but we could see to the bottom of the pool.  At the second site it was a muddy color.  As water samples were taken at site two, the sediment settled to the bottom of the container used.  We speculated that the pH and the turgidity of both pools would have an effect on the phosophate and nitrate levels because the color indicated high levels of surface runoff.  To our surprise, the nitrate and phosophate levels were very low in both pools once tested.  As you can see from the results, the nitrate test at the second site (muddy colored pool) had no indicator color change whatsoever.
 
SUMMARY: After collecting data and using the Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring by Mark K. Mitchell and William B. Stapp, we were able to classify the water in our wetland as within the 'normal' range.  Then observing the plant biodiversity and taking pictures as visual evidence, our hypothesis as stated above, is a sound hypothesis.

GLOSSARY:
anaerobic               - absence of free oxygen
biodiversity             -  numbers of different species of plant and animals
buffer zone               -  protective neutral area between distince environments
eutrophy                   - mineral rich, abundant with organic nutrients in which plant life proliferates eventually reducing the dissolved oxygen content and killing off other organisms
hydric soil                - soil that is saturated, flooded, or puddling enough during the growing  season to develop anaerobic conditions the or above ground levelthe
hydrologic regime    - dominant presence of water with the level of it being at, just below, or just above ground surface
hydrophytic plants    - water loving plants
regime                      - regular pattern of occurance (Webster's Dictionary)
salient                       - noteablly significant, prominent
sieve                         - device with meshes or perforations through finer particles of a mixture can be passed to separate them from the coarser ones (Webster's Dictionary)
transect                     - marked line in which scientific sampling is taken
wasteland                 - ugly often devastated or barely inhabitable place or area (Webester's Dictionary)
 

        "Practical Handbook for Wetland Identification and Delineation",  by John Grimson Lyon,  Lewis Publishers,  1993.

        "Wetlands Characteristics and Boundaries",  by the National Research Council,  National Academy Press,  1995.

        "Creating Freshwater Wetlands",  by Donald A. Hammer,  Lewis Publishers,  1992.

        "Global Wetlands Old World and New",  edited by William J. Mitsch,  Elsevier Publishers,  1994.

        "Wow! The Wonders of Wetlands An Educator's Guide",  a Partnership between Environmental Concern Inc. and The Watercourse,  1995.

        "Tour Guide to the Institute Woods",  by Prof. Henry Horn,  Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University,  1996.

        The GLOBE Program, (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment),
E-mail address: http://www.globe.gov

        The GREEN Program, (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network),
E-mail address: http://www.green@green.org

        STELLA, (High Performance Systems, Inc.),  by Barry Richmond,
E-mail address: http://www.hps-inc.com/products/STELLA/links.html

            Center for Aquatic Plants and Plant Photographs, University of Florida, Aquatic and Wetland Plant Information Retrieval System
 
CLASSROOM  ACTIVITIES  (contact M. Elaine Granger http://kpoole.midway.uchicago.edu)

        1.     Water Clean-up: this activity is recommended for K-5.  Teacher will set up a demonstration apparatus that will filter dirty water through soil, sand, and gravel.

        2.     Wetland Word Search: this activity is recommended for K-5.  Teacher will be able to use this activity to introduce wetland vocabulary.

        3.     Water! Water, everywhere and NOT a Drop to Drink: this activity is recommended for 5-12.  This is a series of three (3) different water quality tests for drinking water.  Students should complete all three activities as a short-term project.  GREAT! for science fair preparatons.

        4.     Stringing It On: this activity is recommended for 5-12.  Students will conduct chemical hydrological test and compare probabilities by factoring out their results.  Mathematics, a chart and classroom board will be needed.  Students must also be able to keep a journal for this one.

The AFOREMENTIONED activities  will address a variety of  National Science Standards and skills. i.e.-observation                 hypothesis testing                   record keeping
                        prediction                   monitoring                              factoring
                        scientific method        safety in lab use                      statistics
Just to name a few.  For the actual lesson please feel free to contact me.

home