Title:

The Effect of Road Salt Runoff in Surface Waters around the University of New Hampshire

At the University of New Hampshire hundreds of tons of road salt are applied on roads and sidewalks in the College Brook Water Shed. The road salt runoffs into various bodies of water like the Oyster River Reservoir, Petee Brook, and College Brook. This is disastrous for aquatic life and especially amphibians. Eight different sites were surveyed throughout the winter and had their water tested for pH and conductivity to see how the water was affected from salt run off. Through background research it was discovered that adding salt to water can impact its pH and conductivity drastically which has been shown in other observational studies and experiments to decrease life expectancy and fitness of amphibians and their larvae. Our results showed that road salt run off did significantly affect the pH and conductivity of the sites and is potentially disastrous for amphibian populations.

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