UNDERSTANDING THE CRITICAL ROLE OF A WETLAND IN MAINTAINING THE ECOSYSTEM

The research intended to study the life of the Beaver Valley Wetland in Iowa. Firstly, the water quality at nine sampling points of the wetland was studied from May through August, 2011 with a sampling interval of 21 days. The different physical, chemical and microbiological parameters were considered to assess the quality of water. Secondly, the research intended to determine the sub-surface flow which helps to explain how actively it flows toward the wetland. For this, six temporary monitoring wells were constructed and were used for dye tracing experiments.

The field analysis at different time interval revealed that the pH of water ranges from acidic to basic. In most of the samples the water was basic in nature. Likewise, the temperature ranges from a minimum of 15.27^oC to a maximum of 33.9^oC. The turbidity values range between 2.5 NTU and 32.7 NTU. On an average, the conductivity and the TDS values were 264 µs/cm and 182 mg/L respectively. The study revealed that the DO levels were low at the inlet areas whereas there were high levels of DO toward the outlet areas. Ion chromatographic analysis for chloride, nitrate, phosphate and sulfate showed that only chloride and sulfate were detected in all samples. The average ammonia concentration was 0.15 mg/L. In the bacteriological analysis, most of the samples showed E.coli contamination. The dye tracer test showed that there were no detections of fluorescein and bromide in the monitoring wells. However, continuous monitoring of these wells is required to find more information. Soil samples from 14 different sites were also collected to analyze porosity and heavy metal. The analysis of phosphorous is currently in progress.