Introduction: The Yarra River Catchment covers an over 4000 Kilometres. The water of the Yarra River was clear during the European settlement, but there has been intensive land clearing and ongoing development since the mid 1800’s. As a result of the industrialisation clay particles have appeared. The ecosystem is home to over 240 faunas, including the endangered growling grass frog.
Given that over time industrialisation has resulted and therefore the salt from the building products that have been used to construct the buildings may have resulted in affecting the salinity levels.
Although with saying this the more rainfall will decrease the salinity levels. Though over the past years there has been little rainfall therefore this means that …show more content…
Relevant Past Research:
Has been conducted from Koonung Secondary during the years 2012, 2014 and 2016 (current). Results were found to be similar with changing over time, showing the link between salinity levels and the Yarra River
Aim: to investigate the effect of salinity levels in the Yarra river and explore how the salinity levels affects the surrounding land use
Definition of terms:
Abiotic: Physical rather than biological; not derived from living organisms (Google, Wikipedia)
Salinity: is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water (Google, Wikipedia)
Estuary: the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the streamOptimum range: the best or most favourable point for temperature, light and moisture for the growth or reproduction of an organism. The greatest degree or best result obtained under specific conditions
By testing how salinity levels effect the ecosystem of the Yarra River. And how the rainfall links with the salinity …show more content…
This is due to the water flow from the top of site A all the way down to the top of Site D, the rest of the salt would have mixed with the water from all the above sites (so site, A, B, C) and would have helped create the level of salinity in Site D. The results show that salinity levels are more prominent at site B, which could suggest that my hypothesis is currently false and not true. As according to the previous research there had been more salinity in site B in 2012, however looking at this year’s numbers its said that Site C now has more salinity in the water then Site B has. This could result from more industrialisation and from the building products, the salt within the cement could be an answer to why there is so much salt in the water.
Furthermore, across the board during the years 2012 through to 2016 of site A there has been a consistent amount of salinity, however site B in 2012 had stated that there was 593 mg/L where the next two years fell to 201 mg/L, therefore its correct to assume that the 2012 amount could be an outlier as it’s a bit high for the other years. However, across site B there has been a decreased in salinity. Site C has also decreased across the years. Although it still does carry the most salinity in 2016, where my hypothesis is correct