Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to compare the data collected at Foster Lake in Alfred Station, NY during the spring and winter of 2018 to that of the NYSDEC Division of Water’s Lake Classification and Inventory from the summers of 2009 and 2010. In 2009, NYSDEC conducted a survey of Foster Lake to determine the health of the lake system. They found high levels of phosphorous and an increase in expected algae bloom due to bacteria. Because of these findings, the lake was sampled more thoroughly and frequently from June-September of 2010. They conducted single location sampling that included concentrations of dissolved oxygen and other compounds and pH. From February-April 2018, I collected water samples from different locations around the lake and determined the pH, bacteria levels and concentrations of dissolved oxygen and several other anions such as fluoride, chloride, phosphate and nitrate. My goal was to compare my winter-spring data to the summer data collected at Foster Lake in 2010. I predicted that my data was going to be different from the NYSDEC because I expected to see the concentration of phosphate increase from low to higher levels due to the migration of geese back into the area. Fecal matter from geese is rich in phosphorous and nitrogen and geese can defecate every twenty minutes. I expected that as the geese population increase so would the levels of phosphate in my samples. I determined that my data was similar to the data collected by the NYSDEC in 2009. Overall, I observed a decrease in concentration of fluoride, chloride, nitrate, and sulfate along with an increase in dissolved oxygen concentration as the lake thawed. By April, the only anions that could be detected at reliable concentrations were chloride and sulfate. The pH of all my locations remained at consistent levels throughout the entire experiment. With these data, I have created an environmental profile of Foster Lake through winter and into the spring.
