Honors Theses

Advisor

P. Kelly Williams, Ph.D.

Department

Biology

Publication Date

4-2017

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

The chemical makeup of a body of water can vary greatly depending on what kind of lake it is, the time of year and what kind of runoff enters the water. There are many abiotic factors that make up the water chemistry of a lake such as nutrient availability (Nitrogen and Phosphorous), pH, temperature, oxygen content and conductivity. Each of these factors plays important roles in the successes of many organisms that reside in the lake. The many species of zooplankton and phytoplankton thrive in different water chemistry conditions. Silver Lake is a unique lake in Ohio, because it was formed by a glacier and has no surface water inlets, it is spring-fed. Silver Lake has had no prior limnology studies conducted on it, so it is a novel system for this kind of study. Silver Lake plankton and chemistry data was compared to Lake Erie’s Western Basin and Grand Lake St. Marys, which have had harmful algal bloom problems in the past. These two lakes are considered eutrophic, and after close comparison with them, Silver Lake was determined to be a nutrient-poor oligotrophic lake.

Permission Statement

This item is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and may only be used for noncommercial, educational, and scholarly purposes

Keywords

Undergraduate research

Disciplines

Biology | Life Sciences

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