Lab Work

Exercise 1: Data Interpretation

Dissolved oxygen is oxygen that is trapped in a fluid, such as water. Since many living organism requires oxygen to survive, it is a necessary component of water systems such as streams, lakes and rivers in order to support aquatic life. The dissolved oxygen is measured in units of ppm (parts per million). Examine the data in Table 2 showing the amount of dissolved oxygen present and the number of fish observed in the body of water the sample was taken from; finally, answer the questions below.

Table 4: Water Quality vs. Fish Population |

Dissolved Oxygen (ppm) | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 |

Number of Fish Observed | 0 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 10 | 12 | 13 |

|

DIRECTIONS: Answer each question below. You may type directly into each space.

1. What patterns do you observe based on the information in Table 4?

Well clearly the fish cannot survive when there is no oxygen in the water as the chart indicates. As the Oxygen level goes up, the fish begin to thrive and multiply up to 12 ppm. Beyond 12 ppm the fish population seems to drop with more Oxygen in the water.

2. Develop a hypothesis relating to the amount of dissolved oxygen measured in the water sample and the number of fish observed in the body of water.

The amount of Oxygen in the water is a balance, fish will thrive with multiply with the right balance of Oxygen.

3. Determine and outline the best experimental approach to test this hypothesis.

I believe you can accomplish this by designing 2 fish habitats that start out identical. Once you have established the Oxygen level for both (they need to be the same), I would recommend you put 2 male and 2 female fish in each habitat to see if and how much they multiply. You should add Oxygen to only one of the test habitats in 2 ppm increments. This is something that would be monitored over time. Some of the things you can monitor are, how many new fish were hatched over the same...