| Summary: | Agriculture/Environmental Science: 2nd Place (The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research Forum) As concerns over future access to fresh water are beginning to spread in the United States, other more vulnerable regions like western-draining Andean watersheds in Peru are already feeling the effects of climate change on drinking water. Here, the glaciated peaks of the Andes buffer seasonal contrasts in stream runoff. However, these glaciers are now receding faster than ever before, and scientists have already recorded significant reductions in the water they supply to rivers. Furthermore, certain streams have also been found to have adversely high acidity and potentially toxic concentrations of certain heavy metals. Many such streams are used in agricultural irrigation. To test the extent and source(s) of river water contamination in Peruvian glacier-fed streams, surveys were undertaken during three consecutive dry seasons (June- July), 2011-13, to analyze the concentrations of various dissolved metals and isotopes along the Santa River draining the Cordillera Blanca to the Pacific coast. I joined the sampling survey during three weeks of June-July 2013, and I am now measuring dissolved concentrations of 32 different metals from over 60 sample locations the in Santa River watershed. Other researchers in our group are measuring the metal concentrations contained within the suspended sediments, and at the bottom of the river bed. These results will be compiled and compared against two previous surveys (2011, 2012), with a focus on certain toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic that are dangerous to human health if found above levels set by the World Health Organization. The goal of this research is to note any trends occurring in the concentrations of these metals. I hypothesize that the change in concentrations of metals will be correlated to their reactivity's and their atomic weights. National Science Foundation Byrd Polar Research Center Academic Major: Chemical Engineering
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