Air Quality Lab
Group: Not really sure what to put here, Carter Knight and another groups work
Introduction
So here we are Mrs. Masterson our last lab in AP environmental science in the fall semester, its
been a great ride and now let’s get it over with since this will not be fun (also please note that
this is Another groups data since Emma and I pretty much struggled in this . Surprisingly I
learned that Air quality test have been used forever to determine how much pollution in the
worlds atmosphere. The most common air quality test that people know of is the Air quality
index which runs from a range of 0 to 500, the national set value from the EPA is 100. This lab
used lichen as our indicator species since they are susceptible to different levels of nitrogen and
sulfur in the atmosphere. Since sulfur and nitrogen can be introduced in the air via from
industrial emissions, we can assume I think that their it’s an abundant source of sulfur/nitrogen
pollution in the parking lot. The other group informed me that these emissions end up in the
lichen since it is absorbed in rain water or in the case of acid rain due to sulfur and nitrogen, the
lichen absorbs acid rain. The purpose of this lab is to figure out the air pollution amount outside
our school building, while also figuring out the main pollutant (particulate matter or dissolved
gases), and where it comes from. You figure this out by collecting particulate matter off vasoline
I think it was and gathering the information off the lichen.
Hypothesis
The group hypothesis was that pollutant levels in our area will remain low in our area, why you
might ask? There are very few polluters near our area that would cause us to have medium to
high ranges of air pollution gather near our school.
Data and Observations
This is data Alec Carlson’s group let me use due to unforeseen circumstances of losing
something when Emma and I were working together for this experiment. Anyways they had a 0
M Solution which news flash is the greatest thing you can grow stuff in and besides the having a
massive intake of salt at .1 M, I think this group did pretty good and the school is able to grow
stuff.
Data Analysis
Lichen
Tree Diameter - 5.75 inches
# of....
Crustose - 5
Foliose - 0
Fruticose - 0
Hawksworth and Rose index: 3
Ozone
Ozone number - 10
Ozone ppb - 130
Particulate Matter
I was informed that their want much particulate matter to be found, but that there was some
particulate matter that could be seen in the gel, overall rating was light I was told.
Don’t have a drawin or a picture, this is a, this is it Mrs. Masterson.
Pictures that may be mine, but I got from that group.
Post Analysis Quesstions
1. And the numbers come out to be 120, 60 , 20 in that order
2. And the numbers come out to be 2, 3, 7 in that order
3. So here is the one of the few things I can use from my original groups data, we had the
wind blowing south where industrial/light polluting cities of Durham blow its pollutants
through Cary.
4. I can say that this Scale is reliable for this lab for the area we covered, but Air Quality
Index is takes in a lot of things into consideration and may range different for the
Carlson’s data.
5. With a 2 on the UV index, the parking lot of panther creek is generally safe from large
amounts of UV radiation, Explanation of UV radiation – the molecule 03 or ozone is
formed when UV ryas hit oxygen molecules giving it that extra oxygen molecule or 03.
The UV index gets higher when the troposphere ozone amount is greater than the low
atmosphere oxygen.
6. Well not all is great in wake with a 130PPB (parts per billion) on that fateful day, a
130ppb is 50PPB above regulation and for that number we failed to reach that EPA
standard. I really think though that this number is not accurate since this is another groups
work and the fact that everyone had such trouble with gathering the data correctly while
keeping everything in tact led to some errors.
7. So the industry states of the north east love to create pollution along our stretch of eastern
seaboard (personally I blame Akron, Ohio) since the winds will blow our way and carry
wouldn’t you guess it pollution. This pollution is due to the fact that cities like Akron
pollute too much and then deliver it our way via wind.
8. Like global warming people see Particulate matter as natural occurrences that happen,
simple as that, or the fact that these particulates are picked up from a galaxy far far away
(or you know other places in a country) and carried to new lands like the swamps of
Dagobah or lakes of Naboo (North eastern particulates settingling here via wind).
Conclusion
The Labs purpose was to discover how much air pollution was in our schools area and where it is
found, the data supported that the schools parking lot outskirts are relatively safe with the data
reporting that there is still high sulfur, nitrogen levels, and a bit of ozone pollution (shame on
you wake county). But the key thing here is that there is no particulate matter to harm us which
leads me to be able to say that we can go outside without fear of pollution. According to a map I
was shown from that group, the ozone levels fall in line with most eastern North America, which
means that most of the eastern states have high ozone which is pretty alarming to me. Essential
improvements that people can do is more testing easily and to cut back on ozone pollution in
wake country. Also I was told by Carlson’s group that their slides fell off many times so I will
have to say do something about that to.
Bibliography
Masterson, Notes
Epa.gov