What the smell is going on?!
Preparing to run water samples for pH and electrical conductivity.
If you have been in the AgroEcoLab over the past month when I’ve been working with Dani Weissman’s water samples from various agricultural plots along the Eastern Shore, you most likely walked into the awful smell of rotten eggs. This smell comes from bacteria that thrive in low oxygen environments and feed on small amounts of sulfur that is present within the water in places such as agricultural ditches. Although these samples are not necessarily pleasant to work with, they are important when considering the long-term project that Dani has been working on since 2016. We are analyzing these samples to examine the levels of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loading in the Chesapeake Bay estuary in response to saltwater intrusion. These studies of coastal agricultural communities are extremely important as they are the leading edge of climate change. The intrusion of saltwater from rising sea levels and coastal flooding can cause an unpredictable source of nutrients (N & P) to waterways along the Eastern Shore. Past applications of N and P on farms are remobilized by the intruding waters, which is the main source of the nutrients. The lab work that I am helping Dani with this semester, coupled with the past two years of data, will be used to help illustrate the effect of saltwater intrusion on our coastlines.
My experience in the lab so far this semester has been very informative and interesting. I have learned many things up to this point and anticipate learning many more. At the beginning of the semester, I measured out samples for dissolved organic phosphate, which Dani then ran on the flow-injection colorimeter. I’ve also learned how to run a standard curve and have had a chance to help run the atomic absorption spectrometer. As of late, I have been analyzing water samples for electrical conductivity and pH and preparing more samples for P measurements. This has all been valuable information that I will use in the future. As it is still rather early in the semester, there is plenty of time and opportunity to learn new things and to continue helping Dani with her project!
References
Ardón, M., A. M. Helton, M. D. Scheuerell, and E. S. Bernhardt. 2017. Fertilizer legacies meet saltwater incursion: challenges and constraints for coastal plain wetland restoration. Elementa Science of the Anthropocene 5: 41.
Hartzell, J. L., and T. E. Jordan. 2010. Shifts in the relative availability of phosphorus and nitrogen along estuarine salinity gradients. Biogeochemistry 107:489–500.