Phosphate for raining

Texture and colour of rainy day soil

The colour of the raining day soil is alot darker and has a rough, crumbly texture which seperates each grain.

texture and colour of soil for sunny day

The colour of the soil is a lightish brown with a rough grainy, sandy feel

Possible parent rock for both rainy and sunny day

The possible parent rock for both raining soil and sunny soil is Sandstone as most of Sydney's base is sandstone, the moisture level for both was relatively low also suggesting that the soil was sandy and easily drained common for a base of sandstone.

Geological and topographical information

Centennial park the area i have chosens parent rock is Sandstone, as most of Sydney is. The topographical aspects to my chosen area are mostly flat surfaced with approx two hills around the East and North area which arent lead directly

Organic content of soil for rainy day

moisture content for rainy day

Turbidity of water of rainy day

pH of water for rainy day

Turbidity of water for rainy day

pH of soil for rainy day

presence of salt in water for rainy day

presence of salt in soil for rainy day

Today Friday the 15th i completed all my testing for both sunny and rainy days in the allocated areas around my chosen pond. I found out also that my organic heating and moisture heating for my soil samples should have been the same, so to improve this for next time i will keep the heating and period of heating the same amount. Tomorrow i will add graphs for my results of each test to my blog.

Wednesday the 13th i completed testing for the pH of soil and weighed my soil in order to cook tonight to find moisture content. Today i discovered the tare button and realised i didnt need to take away the basins weight as tare equals zero and anyweight ontop of that eg: soil is weighed, this is much simplier and an easier way to record results.

Today Tuesday the 12th i did my pH testing for both water and soil. The soil results were alot lower (approx 2 pH lower) suggesting the rain made the soil more acidic and the water was also (approx 1 pH) lower than sunny day of testing as fertilisers (or other human activity chemicals that are basic such as soaps) had more time to penetrate into the ground and running off into the pond making the soil and water more basic.

Yesterday Monday the 8th i completed the testing of salts which took a very short amount of time as i was aware of what had to be done and i also had more than one test running at a time. The results suggested that rain did not necessarily effect the salt content in both water and soil as the results were similar with high contents of salt.

Yesterday Monday the 8th i completed the testing of salts which took a very short amount of time as i was aware of what had to be done and i also had more than one test running at a time. The results suggested that rain did not necessarily effect the salt content in both water and soil as the results were similar with high contents of salt.

Sunday the 10th i collected all my samples for a raining day and visually noticed that the pond appeared much cleaner without sludge on top of the water.

Organic content for sunny day

Turbidity results for sunny day

Today Thursday the 7th i re weighed organic content and recorded results, this lesson i also tested turbidity which meant all of my results for the first group of testing were completed. I’m planning on getting my samples for a raining day on Sunday as it is forecast to rain and on Monday begin my testing of pH, i believe this week will take a smaller amount of time as i have more experience for each test and i have learnt from my faults that more than one apparatus can be set up during testing.

presence of salt in water for sunny day

presence of salt in soil for sunny day

Moisture content results on a sunny day

Phosphate results for sunny day

Completed test for presence of salt in soil and water for a sunny day

Today Wednesday the 4th i completed testing for both soil and water samples of the presence of salts and repeated each are sample 3 times. The tests were very slow and i alomst ran out of time therefor next time i do testing after a raining day i will set up three flasks in order to complete the tests with enough spare time to clean the lab.The results of todays testing reflects that salts in both water and soil were relatively high in the overall averages.Also today i weighed each of my soil samples in order to take them home tonight to find the moisture and organic content, tomorrow during lunch i will re weigh them to find the moisture content and on thursday night take them home leave in oven for longer and re weigh them in order to record organic content.

Results pH in soil for sunny day

pH results for water on sunny day

Completed testing for pH of water and soil for sunny day

Today Tuesday the 5th i tested the pH for soil and water samples on a sunny day. I repeated each test 3 times in order to gather an average for each area within Centennial park, while doing these tests which each took alot of time especially to repeat i also completed presence of Phosphates in water. This was a good strategy as i was able to complete 3 tests in a short period of time.
My results for pH for both soil and water were similar results, with no outstanding numbers below or above.
Phosphate results were also similar in results for each section of Busbys pond.
Tomorrow i will be testing for presence of salt in both soil and water samples.

Materials needed for testing

Materials needed for testing:
pH
-Data loger
-pH probe
-dropper bottle demineralised water
presence of salts
-dropper bottle demineralised water
-silver nitrate
-filter paper (medium)
-waste bucket
-gloves
-funnel
-retort stand
-beakers (as many as needed)
moisture content
-incubator
-electronic scales (scenior)
-evaporating basin (about 3)
Presence of phosphate
-phosphate strips
Turbidity
- turbidiy tube

Mindmap

Centennial Parklands

Birds:
Australian Kestrel, Australian Wood Duck, Black-fronded Dotterel, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Crested Pigeon, Great Egret , Hardhead Duck ,Japanese Snipe ,Musk Duck ,New Holland Honeyeater , Noisy Miner ,Peregrine Falcon, Purple Swamphen, Rainbow Lorikeet, Rufous Night-Heron, Silver Gull, Silvereye, Spangled Drongo, Sulpher-crested Cockatoo, Superb Fairy Wren, Tawny Frogmouth, White-faced Heron, Willie Wagtail, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Animals:
Bats, Blue-tongued Lizards, Common Brushtail Possum, Frogs, Invertebrates, Long-finned Eel, Turtles
Trees and shrubs:
African Tulip Tree, Algerian Oak, Banksia robur, Broad-leafed Paperbark, Coastal Wattle, Dragons Blood Tree, Liquidambar, Ombu Tree, Queensland Firewheel Tree, Sweet Wattle, The Angel's Trumpet, Weeping
Plants:
Australian Bluebell, Begonia Cultivars, Camellias, Daylily, Kaffir Lily, Kangaroo Paw, Oriental Lily, Rose, Tibouchina

Busbys pond sampling area

materials needed for collecting samples

-small ziplock plastic bags X 14
- 2 litre plastic bottles X 7 (reuse these bottles for second round of testing)
-shovel
-gloves
-map of area to trace where sampling
-paper/ pen

Today Monday the 14th i planned out the days i need to carry out each investigation and booked the materials needed for each day. Tomorrow during period 5 and lunch i will attempt to finish finding PH for my water and soil samples for a sunny day

Yesterday Saturday the 2nd i took samples for a sunny day at Centennial Park in particular places around Busbys pond. I chose this pond as it is one of the largest in Centennial Park and displays variations of human activity and also natural vegetation within the surroundings. Through research i found out that water drains into Busby’s Pond from Lily Pond and Randwick Pond in the south; and via a large culvert from Fox Studios and the Equestrian Centre in the Moore Park area. Historic sandstone drains transport water from Lang Road through to Busby’s Pond.

I collected 7 water and soil samples from various locations around my allocated pond in order to gather a wide range of results, i noticed some form of sludge in area 5 and drainage systems in areas 2 and 4.