Squam Lake\u27s Water Quality Through Time

I am doing water quality research on Squam and Newfound Lake, to find whether the water quality is driven by local drivers or a bigger driver like climate. My hypothesis is that an outside the watershed factor, climate, is what is driving the water quality of Newfound and Squam Lakes. If this is true, the two lakes will go through the same changes such as algal blooms around the same time. If not, then there will be different patterns in the water chemistry and diatoms due to local factors. I will be collecting water samples for water chemistry analysis and collecting diatoms for diatom identification. These lakes are in separate watersheds so, if their water quality is driven by local factors theses should have different water quality chemistry and diatoms. This project is the primary step of the project before analyzing both Squam and Newfound Lakes. This step included taking water samples for water chemistry, analyzing diatoms in a sediment core from Squam Lake from 2014 to learn about the past water quality. Also, analyzing diatoms from a pond that was under eutrophication to compare the diatoms to see if Squam Lake has been through eutrophication in the past