Gippsland Lakes ecosystem - Sophie

.Gippsland Lakes ecosystem.

1.

a) Because in the 1890's the lake was opened up to the sea which is constantly flushing in more and more salt water, there for making the lake increasingly more saline.

b) The temperature change could be due to global warming and temperature increase in the air.

c) When the Thompson damn begins to decrease in water levels due to the drought, then the water levels in the lake will be effected as well.

d) This could be due to the increasing temperature in the lakes water. Organisims and microbes grow much better in warm temperatures and algae is an organism, this is a very likely possibility for the algal blooms in the lake.

e) Because of all the clearing that has occured around the lake, corrosion happens which causes silt to form on the bottom of the lake. It is possible that it is the clearing of the trees from the lakes bank side that has caused the creeks to become silted up.

2.

a) I think that the fish's gills may have closed over vital breathing holes or filters which slowly caused the fish to die.

b) If I were a scientist, I would first, check back on past data to see the reccord of fish life in the lake, I would look at the data all the way up to the current year and work out what changes have happened. I would then take pH samples of the water and compare the pH of the water to the fish's life expectancy and the fish reccords. I would from there, try to determine what was killing the fish.

Sophie...