ResilienTogether is creating a Smart Catchment using innovations in technology and practices to reduce flood risk, enhance the water environment and improve community resilience in the Pix Brook catchment.
ResilienTogether undertook water quality sampling for a nine month period at eight sites along the Pix Brook. Pix Piece #01 provides information on how we undertook our water quality sampling. This provided a baseline water quality for a range of parameters across a long stretch of the watercourse, which allowed us to build up a picture of where different determinants may be an issue and why. This Pix Piece focuses on the dissolved oxygen (DO) level in the Pix Brook, what DO is and why DO levels are important.
Read more about Dissolved Oxygen, and its affects on the Pix Brook: Pix Brook Water Quality: Dissolved Oxygen- Pix Piece #03
Dissolved oxygen is a measure of the amount of oxygen that is dissolved in water. Oxygen gets into water through photosynthesis of aquatic plants and algae which take up carbon dioxide dissolved in the water and release oxygen. Oxygen can also enter water directly from the air as movement and mixing of water helps to increase the amount of oxygen able to dissolve.
The amount of DO in a watercourse is affected by flow rates, temperature, salinity, time of day, water pollution and depth.
The DO level in the Pix Brook is within the “high” classification which means there is a high percentage of dissolved oxygen at all sample sites and it is good at supporting fish populations. If you’re interested in the water quality of the Pix, you can join our River Warden programme to monitor and sample a section of the Pix Brook.