Ryan Vialpando : Politician, Camilo Partida : Farmer, David Methe : Wild Life Photographer, Jayson Vagenas : Developer, Carl Julian : Enviormentalist, Weston Whitaker : Member of Chamber of Commerce.
Lake Report
Julian, Carl 4th period Science 6-12-97
INTRODUCTION
We have many problems in our lake. Our lake had change through the past years. The California Lakes water changed from nice water to green-brown water. The plants around the lake are dying and aquatic insects, trout have decreased drastically in the last 10 years. Even out of the water, life had changed in the past few years like ducks, otters, raccoon, and eagles are perishing. These are problems in our lake.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS & pH
Photosynthesis and pH plays an important roll at our lake. To be clear, photosynthesis means to feed the plant by light and pH means the Power of Hydrogen. With out photosynthesis occurring then we would not get food. Photosynthesis really starts food chain: having consumers, producers, and decomposes. To able to grow plants you have to have a specific pH. If the pH is too low then the water would be acidic and this would kill off the plants. The water can vary with pH and if it is acidic then everything will die and make lake the lake cloudy. We can check the photosynthesis of our lake by a secchi disk, checking the cloudiness of our lake. Photosynthesis and pH plays an important part of our lake.
SOILS & EROSION In the whole world, the Earth is eroding. Especially if the watershed is steep. With the California lake, the watershed is 6%. With this steepness, lots of things will get washed into the lake. The soils which erode, may change the water hardness and pH. The more minerals that wash into the lake, the harder the water will become. The slope is important because it shows how many things wash or fall into the lake. There are four cycles that effect our lake and they are: Water Cycle C02 Cycle Nitrogen Cycle Photosynthesis Cycle
Plants can help loosen the ground and make it erode. Many things can change the soils like decomposes, chemicals, and natural elements. These are the things that can effect the eroding of a lake.
PESTICIDES
Many chemicals are used to kill certain pest. These chemicals are called pesticides are needed among farmers to grow crops. Without pesticides, then bugs will eat up the crops and farmers & buyers will be having a bad day. Custormers will have no food to buy and the store will have little money. Precipitation flushing, lots of pesticides from the watershed, and the amount of it sprayed on the watershed will become soil bound and only rain can wash it away. Fertilizers contain Nitrogen and this is important among the watershed. If that fertilizer enters the lake then the nitrogen will cause algae growth sometimes even Phosphorous from sewage run offs. Nitrogen and phosphorous are very dangerous to animals but not in little quantities. The pesticides in our lake is very low. The concentration of our lake has never changed a lot, mostly by 1% or lower but usually it remained the same. Pesticides are poisonous chemicals.
DISCUSSION OF YOUR LAKE AND SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS
Our lake changed during the few years. Some changes are like pH, nitrogen, and phosphate level, Algae and fish numbers. This lake, California Lake, has been demolished by human and natural factors.The color has changed and many more. In the beginning, our pH level was 7.3, but now itŐs lower, about in the 6Ős. All of theses problems will effect the food chain because dying animals. Many solutions can solve these problems like having a different run off where it is not on our water-shed so nitrogen and phosphate donŐt produce algae. To control pH we could add lime stone to our lake to make it neutral because our lakes pH is low. All of these improvements can keep algae and fish in check. This is how we can help our lake.