Phytoplankton

[CarrillXXP]

Long time no talk to everyone! It's been a while since I've been on, school has been the main priority and I moved for college so my life has been adjusting! BUT I am currently enrolled in college and would like to eventually earn a BA in Marine Biology although it is limited.....

 

For now I am taking a marine bio class to fill the void and as a class we are actually studying phytoplankton/growing our own under differentiated variables. I had convinced my group to treat our phytoplankton with small traces of copper sulfate (as it would be considered a pollutant) and basically see what happens! I actually did a little research ahead and was somewhat intrigued to learn that plantae actually need small doses of trace metals in their systems for enzymes in photosynthesis production....

 

(Please quote me if I am wrong about the above statement.)

 

...My hypothesis "Copper concentrations of 10˜⁵ will decrease phytoplankton growth in flasks more than phytoplankton in copper concentrations of 10˜⁷."

 

Experiment:

-Phytoplankton in 5 flasks; 1 control, 4 experimental.

 

-Control flask, 2 flask with copper sulfate 10˜⁷, 2 flasks with copper concentrations of 10˜⁵.

(Added 1ml of each concentration in each of the experimental flasks.)

 

- Sample phytoplankton growth in spectrometer reading a peak absorbance at 670nm of chlorophyll A, about 2-3 times a week.

 

Results THUS far (week 5):

Phytoplankton in the flasks of 10˜⁷ had a decreasing rate during the start up period but have outgrown the control flask CONSIDERABLY. (I don't have my excel file at the moment)

 

Thought I'd share! Let me know what you think!