Data Interpretation and Percentage Error Labs

Data Interpretation and Percentage Error Labs

Donna Robertson

SCI 207: Dependence of Man on the Environment

Benjamin Kirgan

May 8, 2013

Society often neglects nature which leads to extinction of many mammals. The average person is not aware that dissolved oxygen is oxygen that is trapped in a fluid, such as water. It is vital that streams, lakes and rivers maintain appropriate levels of oxygen in order to support aquatic life. According to Scott, Berelson, Douglas & Gorsline (2000) “Concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the ocean seem to correlate well with climate instabilities over the past 100,000 years. For example, the concentration of dissolved oxygen in Pacific intermediate waters was considerably higher during Pleistocene glacial periods than it is today”. Exercise One of this paper explores data interpretation of water quality versus fish population. Exercise Two explores percentage errors.

Lab 1 - 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 parts per million (ppm). Examine the data in Table 4 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.

Questions

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

The pattern that I observed is that at 6 parts per million dissolved oxygen the number of fish was increased by four, and then at 10 parts per million dissolved oxygen the number of fish was decreased. Therefore, when more fish were living in the body of water more oxygen was required for the fish to survive.

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