Seneca River

Introduction: Seneca Lake is about 34.5 miles long. About 3.7 miles wide and has a depth of 630ft. So there could be a lot of different MacroInvertebrates in those 34.5 miles of water. The ecosystem has to be very diverse. There’s many different MacroInvertebrates in Seneca Lake. There’s crayfish, amphipod, stonefly larvae and mayfly larva.

 The temperature of the lake varies. The lake can get as warm as 72 degrees fahrenheit  and it can as cold as 38 degrees fahrenheit. So with that information, can we figure out if the depth at temperature of the water can impact what organisms we’ll find in the water? And does pH and Dissolved Oxygen levels play a role too? I’m very interested to see that part because in the experiments I have done coming up to this one, I’ve really never seen a correlation between pH/dissolved oxygen and what kind of organisms are in that area.  

Research Question:  How is the depth and temperature of the water affect what organisms we’re going to find in the water?

Hypothesis:  I think the deeper/warmer part of the lake will be the most diverse. Since the lake is so deep, I feel like there’s much more room for different MacroInvertebrates. Also, in similar experiments they have found that the population of the lake is much more diverse in the deeper water than the shallow water.

Variable Identification:  

Controlled Variable	Method to control the variable
Where we test. How deep the water is.	Keep track of the exact latitude and longitude. Measure the depth.

Experimental Setup This lab was done on Seneca River in Geneva, New York.

Procedure:1.Find three different shallow water locations.

             2. Take the temperature of the 3 different locations.

             3.Find the pH values of all three locations

             4. Take a net and see what kind of MacroInvertebrates you get.

             5. Record your data.

             6. Find three different deep water locations.

             7.Repeat steps 1-5 for the deep water locations.

Data:

	Sample 1 a	Sample 1 b	Sample 2 a	Sample 2 b	Sample 3 a	Sample 3 b
Latitude	N 42D 49.940’	N 42D 50.840’	N 42D 51’	N 42D 49.97’	N 42D 51.491’’	N 42D 51.554’’
Longitude	W 76D 57.970’	W 76D 57.522’	W 76D 58’	W 76D 57.94’’	W 76D 57.762’	W 76D 57.562’
Sample temp.	13D Celsius	7D Celsius	13D Celsius	7D Celsius	13D Celsius	13D Celsius
Sample depth	38.9m	10m	10m	54m	Surface	0m
P.H.	7.3	7.4	7.4	7.4	7.5	7.3
Chloride	200 ppm	143 ppm	300 ppm	180 ppm	200 ppm	140 ppm
Dissolved Oxygen	30 ppm	10.4 ppm	6 ppm	10.4 ppm	10 ppm	10 ppm

Sample

Copepod 6

Mussl Larve 1

Bosmia 5

2B

Results :

Evaluation:  I think this was a somewhat solid experiment. But like in any experiment, there’s a certain amount of human error. I think to get a 100% accurate reading you would have to collect more Macroinvertebrate continuously all day. Just to be totally sure.

Conclusion: I think I found a very diverse amount of Macroinvertebrate in Seneca Lake. The largest amount of Macroinvertebrate I found was the Copepod. Then the Bosmia. After the Bosima it’s the Daphia and then it’s a three way tie for last place between the Mussel Larve, Rotifer and Mysis.

References –  "Lake County Water Atlas." Seneca, Lake: Ecology. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

"Does Water Level Affect Benthic Macro-invertebrates of a Marginal Lake in a Tropical River-reservoir Transition Zone?" Does Water Level Affect Benthic Macro-invertebrates of a Marginal Lake in a Tropical River-reservoir Transition Zone? N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.

"Seneca Lake." - A Guide to Hotels, Bed and Breakfasts in the Finger Lakes. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.