Early to Rise

Day 51 July 11 – Early to Rise

Today I once again woke up at 6:30am to go measure the oxygen levels of twenty ponds. After spending twenty minutes of fiddling with the stupid oxygen meter, I finally realized I was the dumb one because it was working fine the whole time. I thought it was broken because the oxygen levels were much higher than I expected.

Usually, the ponds I measure in the morning have a dissolved oxygen level of .5 to 3 mg/liter. When the ponds I measured had an oxygen level of almost 7mg/liter I assumed that the oxygen meter was, once again, broken. After almost twenty minutes of fiddling with and calibrating I tested on another pond. After this I realized that it was just the oxygen levels of Tim’s ponds were dramatically higher than the other ponds. When I returned to the room I meant to ask Tim the reason for this difference but decided going back to sleep was much more vital.

At 2pm I woke back up and asked Tim about the difference between his ponds and the other ponds. Tim told me that he asked the same questions to his boss. He told me that there were a few reasons for this difference. First, his ponds have concrete walls but a muddy bottom. These walls prevent the growth of reeds, grasses, and other plants; while these plants create oxygen in the day they remove it in the night. So with concrete walls the daily variation of the oxygen levels would be much less than dirt walled ponds.

Another factor in the difference between oxygen levels is the fact that Tim’s ponds are not seeded. For some reason Tim’s ponds have not had chicken waste added to spur the growth of plankton. The plankton leads to natural food but also to a large fluctuation of the oxygen levels.