Group 1 : Lab work and analyis of our samples

 On November 14th , our group headed to the lab to analyse the sample we took in Pieni-Valkeinen lake. From the sampling to this day, our bottles were conserved in friges at the lab. 

The group splitted to do all the analysis in one session :  

- Solid Analysis - 

The goal here is to weight the amount of organic and inorganic solid in a given volume of our sample. The method used was through filtering, pumping the water, dry the filter and weight the result. 

Figure 1 : Drying of filters in heating cabinets

Figure 2 : Weighting the filter once it is cooled of 

Our group only had one abnormal value - a filter weighting less than before - we tried to understand how it happened. The values measures are very small so any errors or imprecisions are fatal. 

- Turbidity and nitrate nitrogen measurements - 

Figure 3 : Turbidimeter HACH 2100N IS

Turbidimeter HACH 2100N IS is doing all the work for us in the measuring of turbidity. There was no problems in preparing the turbidity cell. We just had to be a little patient because it took a while to stabilize ( well it never stabilize but rather oscillates between 2 values) 

   

For the nitrogen, we followed the instructions on the package. Every workshop were well detailed in english also. 

-         -  Ammonium nitrogen and COD analyses

Ammonium nitrogen analysis :

During the lab work we realised the instruction on the LCK 304 analysis kit. Those consists on add some reagents on the sample. We used pipettes to add the good quantity of reagents and shacked the sample. We felt a heat after the reaction and we put the sample in a hoven for many minutes. After this we put the sample in the spectrophotometer to calculate the amount of ammonium nitrogen in water ( mg/l).

The amount of ammonium nitrogen is a water quality level. A too big amount of this can disturb the ecosystem. It can be a toxic for wild and can be nutriment for some algae. 

COD analysis : 

For COD we realized instructions on the box HCK1414. And same as the previous one, we had some reagents in the sample and after, used a spectrophotometer to analyse COD. 

An big amount of COD in water has some consequences on the ecosystem also. It's a depletion of oxygen, caused by polluant, and disturb the aquatic life. A big amount can give a bad smell to water. A big amount reduce the high quality of this. 

- Total phosphorus and color analysis 

Same as experiments, in the manipulation we followed the actions explained on the box, by using reagents, oven, and spectrophotometers. 

Total phosphorus : A big amount can disturb the ecosystem also but phosphorus is necessary for plants to growth. If there is to much of this, it can create an eutrophisation, an over nutriments of plants. An dafter that have many consequences of ecosystem. 

Color : Measuring colors is important to see if the water is not contaminate with organic or solids matters