Team:UCL Academy/Algae Experiments

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Algae experiments!

School Algae experiment:

Aims:

We carried out an investigation in order to determine the optimum concentrations of nitrates and phosphates for the highest growth of algae in distilled water. These nutrients have been identified as substances that increase algal growth in water columns, and are therefore responsible for the increasing occurrence of algal blooms. Therefore, we aimed to prove that nitrates and phosphates were in fact responsible for an increase in algal growth, as well as determining the optimum concentrations of nitrates and phosphates that produced the highest growth of algae.

Why did we carry out this investigation?

We made the decision to carry out this investigation as a result of our findings in Hampstead Heath in London as part of our human practice work. We discovered that fertilisers were added to water columns containing prominent algal blooms, and therefore decided to investigate the effect of different concentrations of nutrients found in fertilisers, namely nitrates and phosphates, on algal growth.

Hypotheses:

We predicted that the addition of nitrates and phosphates to distilled water resulted in an increase in algal growth, as demonstrated by a higher reading on the colorimeter. Moreover, we predicted that the highest concentration of nitrate and phosphate used, specifically 0.05g/dm³, would produce the highest growth of algae.

Scenedesmus quadricauda:

We used a strain of algae called Scenedesmus quadricauda, which is a good example of typical planktonic algae: -Contains between four to eight cells, -Remains buoyant (keeps afloat) because of its spines.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate that:

The addition of phosphate and nitrate to distilled water increases algae growth as the control beaker had the lowest reading on the colorimeter. As the concentration of phosphate increases, the reading on the colorimeter and therefore the amount of algae growth increase. The optimum concentration of phosphate for the highest algae growth is 0.05 g/dm³. There is no distinct trend relating to an increase in the concentration of nitrate and algae growth. The optimum concentration of nitrate for the highest algae growth is 0.04 g/dm³, which is lower than the expected concentration of 0.05 g/dm³.

Abstract

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