CH311: Marine Chemistry

Field Trip Report

Flexi – 2021

Name: Kaotinrerei

Surname: Tebau

Student ID: s11125080

Due date: 24/03/2021

Abstract
The field trip report is focus on collecting seawater samples from four different site on Suva (Kinoya, Rewa
Delta, Nukulau and USP Jetty) and collecting the data for pH, Conductivity, DO in both % and in mg/L,
Temperature and Salinity in each sites as well. The main purpose of this field trip was to compare the water
parameters in the selected sites and their seawater quality as well.
Introduction
Seawater is one of the most essential natural resource around the globe, especially in the pacific countries as
well as most of the food for instance fishes, our income, medicines and so forth are acquired from it. There are
several physical, biological and chemical factors that have great impact to the seawater and these are include,
temperature, salinity, conductivity, DO and pH. Marine organisms are dependent these factors as they
adapted to these conditions and several of these organisms share different distribution towards the seawater
quality, for instance, few organisms can survive in low DO (4.0-6.5 mg/L) whereas more organisms can survive
in high DO (6.5-9.0 mg/L).
Therefore the main purpose of this field trip report was to be able to collect the sample of seawater in four
different sites using Niskin Bottle, recording its parameters and to interpret the quality state of the seawater.
Apparatus
*pH digital meter *Naskin Bottle *Plastic Bottles * Hydrometer *Grab sampler
Methods
Students are divided into two groups and each group consists of about 7-10 student. Each group have got on
separated boats provided and once done, our boatman travelled to our sampling locations where two
students collected the sampling seawater using Niskin bottle. One student close one end of the Niskin while
the other end was opened for collecting the sampling seawater.
The Niskin was thrown to the sea with its string attached with and was held by the same student to prevent
the Niskin bottle from falling down the sea. Another other student release the weight or messenger attached
to the same string with the Niskin to close the filled Niskin bottle below the sea. When the Niskin cap’s close,
the students lifted it and transfer the seawater into the plastic bottle provided. Steps were repeated 5 times
to fill up 5 plastic bottles in one sites, however, new students were applying the working. After all filled, we
moved to other locations and repeated the same procedure as before.
Some students were recording the seawater parameters include its salinity, temperature, and pH and so forth
using the hydrometer and the pH digital meter by putting the pH digital meter and hydrometer into the water
and started recording the reading. The other groups from another boat have collected sediments sample from
hard bottom using the grab sampler.
Result and Discussions
Table:

Site
Parameters Kinoya Rewa Delta Nukulau USP Jetty
Ph 8.45 8.26 8.31 8.46
Conductivity(Mv) 150.6 162.1 167.6 174.6
% DO 69.8 81.7 70.5 120.6
DO mg/L 4.51 6.90 5.80 7.15
Temperature(°C) 28.3 27.9 28.2 28.4
Salinity (ppt) 21.3 22.4 25.4 18.7
Table 1: The data for seawater parameter values for the 4 given locations in Suva, Fiji.
The table above display the parameter values for the seawater in different site in Suva Sea. As we can see in
the table, the values are closely to each other specifically for pH, Conductivity in millivolt, DO in percentage
and in milligram per Liter, Temperature in degree Celsius, and salinity in parts per trillion. PH is a scale that
determine whether the molecules are either acidic or basicity.
In the above table, the pH in seawater displayed means seawater for all sites were basicity but the most
basicity to the least are USP Jetty seawater, Kinoya seawater, Nukulau and then Rewa Delta. “The pH scale
ranges from the strongly acidic 0 to the highly basic 14” (Hach Company’ H2O University, 2007”. The pH
determine the quality of the seawater because if the pH decrease, it can cause ocean acidification which can
affects the marine lives especially marine shell-organisms. The main causes of this is when the carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere dissolve into the seawater, it can decrease the pH level. However, the seawater in
different four sites in Suva are healthy because they fall under the basicity level which falls in the pH range
from 8.25-8.47.
Conductivity is a measurement for the water’s capacity to pass electric flow. A higher capacity of conductivity
acquired indicates that there are more chemicals dissolved in that specific area of seawater. Referring to the
above table, USP Jetty seawater have shown a higher conductivity value means there is a lots of chemical
(ions) along with dissolve salts compared to the other sites.
Do is the measurement of a dissolve oxygen found in seawater. “When water in creeks and rivers pours over
rocks, oxygen can enter into the water”. Healthy water should generally have dissolved oxygen concentrations
above 6.5-8 mg/L and between about 80-120 %. In the above result, the DO for seawater in the given
locations Rewa Delta and USP Jetty have a DO% of 81.7 and 120.6% and DO mg/L of 6.90 and 7.15 respectively
which indicate that both location are healthy enough to have marine organism in their environment. However
the other site (Kinoya and Nukulau) are considered as the unsafe place for the marine organism because few
organism can only survive.
Temperature is the physical scale to express the warm, hot or cold. Both temperature and salinity were high in
summer and low in winter. Referring to the data above, the temperature range is between 27.9 ℃ - 28.4 ℃
and the salinity is between 18.7- 25.4 ppt for all sites. Since both salinity and temperature affect the chemical
conditions in the water, especially the dissolve oxygen level. Temperature is essential to evaporate the water
molecules from the lake or rivers which move and combine with seawater, leaving the saltiness behind so the
higher the temperature, the healthier the sea is. Salinity is important for the movement of ocean current rate
because a higher salinity causes the DO to reduce its ability to dissolve in water and thus making its hard for
fish to survive.
Conclusion
To conclude, seawater qualities highly depend on the chemical and biological factors which include Dissolve
Oxygen (DO), Conductivity, Salinity, pH and Temperature. In order to determine the seawater quality state, we
need to determine the values for these factors using particular materials such as pH digital meter and
Hydrometer. I have learned how to collected samples using Niskin, I have learned to use pH digital meter and
Hydrometer to collect the data for parameter values and additionally, I have learned that the parameter
values are important to compare the quality state in different location for example, seawater require higher
amount of temperature, salinity, Dissolve Oxygen, pH and Conductivity. Some parameter can share the same
relationship as well for example, the increase of temperature can increase salinity as well due to evaporation
rate of water leaving the salt behind and Mezhoud, Temimi, M, Zhao, Al Shehhi and Ghedira, 2016) suggested
that phenomenon could probably be explained by the fact that the acidifying AG waters is utilizing this
increased salinity to balance the pH”. Since these factors have inversely or proportionally relationship to each
other, it is likely important to interpret and monitor the seawater value to compare the parameters values and
its quality states as well because after all, our source of incomes, foods and pharmaceutical needs comes from
it.

References
Hach Company’ H2O University. 2007. Important Water Quality Factors. http://www.h2ou.com/h2wtrqual.htm#Oxygen

Mezhoud, N., Temimi, M., Zhao, J., Al Shehhi, M. R., & Ghedira, H. (2016). Analysis of the spatio-temporal variability of
seawater quality in the southeastern Arabian Gulf. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 106(1/2), 127–138.

U.S. E.P.A. Dissolved Oxygen and Biochemical Oxygen Demand. http://water.epa.gov/type/rsl/monitoring/vms52.cfm