On a rainy Monday, October 10th our A Block APES class arrived at the Woodlands Center at 8:15 eager to start our study of the Proctor Pond. We briefly discussed the lab before venturing to Sue’s classroom in Shirley to learn about more about what the project entailed then split into 5 groups. Each group chose a specific site in the pond to conduct their study on. Ava Freeman, Caroline Swayze, and I selected site 5, an outflow site bordering the well.

After gathering our materials (see full materials list below) we embarked out to the pond with the rest of the class. Before splitting up Alan demonstrated each step to collecting data for our study. Once Ava, Caroline, and I arrived to site 5 we were all a bit hesitant to get close to the water due to the muddy path down to the pond, however, Caroline eagerly volunteered to collect our first water sample. This first step was to collect clean water from the pond, Caroline dipped the white bucket in only collecting clean water and a few leaves that we picked out before the second step. We all remembered Alan’s advice for this next step: “Do not scrape the bottom of the pond with the net”. Caroline went back down to the pond keeping this in mind. She swept around the bottom, making sure not to scrape. She then immediately took the net out of the water and brought it back up to the bin near Ava and me. She put the net over the white bin and I turned the net inside out making sure to get all of the contents into the bin. Looking in the bin we found something unexpected, “It's a crawdad!” exclaimed Caroline. We had found a very large crayfish, a biotic factor that I had not expected to be living in the Proctor Pond. Ava, Caroline, and I eagerly brought our materials back inside to Sue’s room to closer study them more.

Materials List:

• Cell Phone

• D-net (D-shaped)

• White plastic bin

• Small pipette

• Plastic Spoon

• Thermometer (for taking water temperature)

• pH sampling kit

• Phosphate sampling kit

• Nitrate sampling kit

• Turbidity sampling kit

• Dissolved Oxygen testing device

• Beaufort Scale

• Clipboard with a list of macro-invertabrates

When we got inside we used our plastic spoon to take the leaves out of the pond water so we could study the rest of the contents more closely. It was difficult for us to decipher what we found in the water due to most of it looking like dirt, woodchips, or pine needles. The only living organism that we identified was the crayfish, we named him Jeff. After fully studying our own pond sample, I went around and looked at a few of the other group's findings. A couple of other groups also found crayfish (ours was the by far the largest). However several of the other groups found more biotic factors such as various types of water insects, we had none of these.

Day 1 Narrative - Written by Katie (me):

Friday 10/21/22 - 1:00 PM

Our first day sampling of the Proctor pond was a sunny Friday afternoon and a 2 on the Beaufort scale. Alan explained some of the abiotic testing to us then we went off to site 5 to start sampling our water. First, we filled our bucket with “clean” water, then Caroline took the d-net to sweep the floor of the pond. After 5 sweeps back and forth she transferred what was in the net to our “clean” water in the bucket. Before going back to the classroom we took the water temperature, today it was 12.2 Degrees Celsius. We brought our bucket and net back to the classroom and then went back out to start the tests. We started with the PH test; while we were out sampling the water Alan showed us how to do the Dissolved Oxygen test which was 8.8mg/L for that day. This dissolved oxygen concentration means that our water is healthy in this field because there is a good amount of photosynthesis going on. Our PH test result was a 7, meaning that the pond water is healthy in this aspect as well. Our next three tests (Phosphate, Turbidity, and Nitrates) were not done correctly, so we could not use their information. The errors made on these tests involved misreading the directions, this taught us a lesson and we made sure to pay close attention to directions on the next two sampling days. After all the testing, we gathered in the classroom to record all of our data and to identify the biotic factors in our bin. This day we found 1 Damselfly Nymph, 1 Mayfly Nymph, 1 Scud, and 50+ Springtails. By the end of all this class was over, we returned our water and creatures to the Pond, cleaned up our table, and ended class for the day.

Day 3 Narrative - written by Caroline:

Wednesday 10/26/22 - 10:00 AM

On a dreary, off and on rainy Wednesday morning, we came into APES second block ready to find some critters and do some tests! We grabbed our bin, thermometer, and net and went down to site 5. Katie first got some water in our bin then Ava took the water and air temperature and then Caroline used the net to sweep the surface. Immediately we noticed we had collected a tadpole so rushed to get him into our bin. We scooped our net into our bin and went inside to start testing. When we saw our water bin in better lighting we saw a backswimmer swimming really fast around and put him in our separate container. We increasingly found more and more scud totaling up to 15-20. We took turns doing tests, managing to completely escape the rain and also managing to have no failed tests. We entered our animal and test data into the spreadsheet then returned our critters to their home, cleaned up our title, and reflected on our data.

Diversity Index Anaylsis:

Abiotic Data Analysis:

Abiotic tests have proven that the Proctor pond water is healthy!

pH: We take the pH levels of the pond to determine how acidic the water is. The pH level for this year is 6.5; a 7 pH level is considered neutral, so this means that our pond's pH levels are very close to neutral. This is healthy. In the past, the pond's pH levels have remained in the 6-7 range.

Phosphate: The Phosphate levels in the pond this year have risen to 2.04, in the past has mainly been in the 1 range. The ideal Phosphate level is 1ppm - the lower the better. This means that the pond is susceptible to lower dissolved oxygen levels and dangerous algae growth (both are unhealthy).

Turbidity: Turbidity levels determine how clean the water is - how many particles are in the water. The lower the turbidity rate, the better. This year the pond's turbidity is 15.3, which is lower than the past few years, but still higher than we want it to be.

Dissolved Oxygen: A high amount (above 6) of dissolved oxygen is crucial to a healthy pond. Animals living in the pond need a lot of dissolved oxygen to breathe and plants need dissolved oxygen to photosynthesize. We found that the pond's dissolved oxygen average is 8.6 yay!

Nitrates: Anything below 4ppm is a healthy amount of Nitrate. The Proctor Pond has a level of 0ppm, which is extremely good!

The information above gives us good insight into the overall health of the pond's water, however, there were errors made in the sampling process along the way. A major part of the learning process involved messing up the tests at some point. For my group personally, on the first day, we struggled with measurements and following all the directions. On days that we made an error, we indicated so on the spreadsheet - causing a bit of a gap in data; so did other groups that made similar mistakes. Since there is so much data, if a group were to have made an error in the sampling process but didn't notice, then this mistake wouldn't be significant enough to change the overall meaning of the data.

Conclusion:

The weeks of testing, analyzing, and gathering data have led me to the conclusion that the Proctor pond is healthy - my hypothesis is correct. The abiotic levels are all at the right place and we have a very high biodiversity. We have a high dissolved oxygen level (8.6) - our life can breathe! Our pond scores high on the Simpson Biodiversity Index, which is very good, however, our indicator species abundance has room to improve in the coming years. Our turbidity levels are lower than in previous years which is a good sign, but similar to indicator species abundance, there is room for improvement (these levels can get lower!) While there are still many areas that the Proctor Pond can improve on, the overall health of the pond is very good.

Personal Reflection: Overall, I enjoyed this study. I have always loved walking past and admiring the pond, it is one of my favorite parts of campus. So, I very much enjoyed getting to learn more about the pond's overall health, and some of its history. I did not know that it was dredged in 2018 until this class! While the study was extremely interesting to me, the work was very difficult and time-consuming, but in the end, it paid off. I have always cringed a bit when I see people jump in the Proctor pond, but now that I know how healthy the water is, I will no longer feel the same!