Conductivity

Conductivity is a measure of water’s ability to pass an electric flow.  This measure is indicative of the abundance of ions in the water.  The erosion of minerals from soil, rain and snow from the atmosphere, and runoff can increase conductivity.  These conductive ions come from dissolved salts and inorganic materials such as chlorides, alkalis, carbonate compounds, and sulfides. In our tests, conductivity was measured in siemens per centimeter (uS/cm).

In environmental sciences, the conductivity of water was directly proportional to the salinity, which is a measure of sodium chloride ions. Therefore, we can predict the salinity of a river based on the conductivity of said river.  This was important because organisms often adapt to survive in certain salinities and not in others, so salinity measures can help us predict benthic composition of the surrounding area.  Although no studies have been done on the James River Spinymussel specifically in regards to salinity, research on other species has shown that in mussels, salinity can affect the growth rate, reflected as “reduced shell growth rate and decreasing weight specific growth.”  Because salinity can potentially have such a large effect on mussels, perhaps salinity should be a variable we test more vigorously in the future.