Phytoplankton Groth and Nutrient Cycling impact
![Picture](http://www.editmysite.com/editor/images/na.png)
Background:
Nutrient fertilization refers to the production of growth-limiting of nutrients such as iron, nitrogen, and phosphorus to the surface of the ocean to stimulate phytoplankton production. The phytoplankton are supposed to increase photosynthesis and remove and reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere Phytoplankton are an important factor that make food and produce energy. They produce oxygen and take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere They are an important factor in the food web because, they are integral part of the oceanic food web and if global warming affects them they wont be able to grow and will hurt or destroy the entire oceanic ecosystem They are a resource for food for many animals and they are important to us.
Hypothesis:
If phytoplankton is mixed with just phytoplankton, nutrients, and then nutrients plus iron, then the Flask with nutrients plus iron will produce much more phytoplankton because phytoplankton need both nitrogen and iron to grow faster.
Brief Protocol:
1. Each lab pair would have on flask, each group should have three flask between the three groups.
2. We should contain the flask and label the flask either -Control, -+Nutrients (Nitrogen plus phosphate) , +Nutrients and Iron
3. Added 100mL of pure filtered saltwater in each flask
4. Cover the top of each container with a cotton ball
5. Add the equal amount of control, nutrients, nutrients plus iron in each flask.
6. Add about 5 ml of algae to each flask
7. Placed all flask under light for multiple days and temperature
9. Took observations of each flask
10. Each day we gathered a small amount of the water and put it under the microscope and counted the amount of phytoplankton over the course of 8 days.
11. Made sure the wavelength on the spectrometer read 540 and on the green filter
12. pippeted 1 mL of the pure filtered seawater into the cuvette.
13. Placed the cuvette in the spectrometer and turn the dial on the right until it read 100
14. Took that cuvette and took it aside
15. Pipette 1 mL of the phytoplankton culture into another cuvette, and read it on the spectrophotometer
Nutrient fertilization refers to the production of growth-limiting of nutrients such as iron, nitrogen, and phosphorus to the surface of the ocean to stimulate phytoplankton production. The phytoplankton are supposed to increase photosynthesis and remove and reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere Phytoplankton are an important factor that make food and produce energy. They produce oxygen and take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere They are an important factor in the food web because, they are integral part of the oceanic food web and if global warming affects them they wont be able to grow and will hurt or destroy the entire oceanic ecosystem They are a resource for food for many animals and they are important to us.
Hypothesis:
If phytoplankton is mixed with just phytoplankton, nutrients, and then nutrients plus iron, then the Flask with nutrients plus iron will produce much more phytoplankton because phytoplankton need both nitrogen and iron to grow faster.
Brief Protocol:
1. Each lab pair would have on flask, each group should have three flask between the three groups.
2. We should contain the flask and label the flask either -Control, -+Nutrients (Nitrogen plus phosphate) , +Nutrients and Iron
3. Added 100mL of pure filtered saltwater in each flask
4. Cover the top of each container with a cotton ball
5. Add the equal amount of control, nutrients, nutrients plus iron in each flask.
6. Add about 5 ml of algae to each flask
7. Placed all flask under light for multiple days and temperature
9. Took observations of each flask
10. Each day we gathered a small amount of the water and put it under the microscope and counted the amount of phytoplankton over the course of 8 days.
11. Made sure the wavelength on the spectrometer read 540 and on the green filter
12. pippeted 1 mL of the pure filtered seawater into the cuvette.
13. Placed the cuvette in the spectrometer and turn the dial on the right until it read 100
14. Took that cuvette and took it aside
15. Pipette 1 mL of the phytoplankton culture into another cuvette, and read it on the spectrophotometer
Day 1 Day 2 & Day 3 & Day 4 & Day 5 & Day 6 & Day 7 & Day 8
Phytoplankton Treatment
Control 83% & 70, 86% & 0, & 79%, 0 & 81% , 40 & 90%, 30 & 97%, 50 & 77%, 40 & 95%, 30
+ Nutrients 88%, 0 & 93%, 0 & 94%, 3 & 89%, 4 & 94%, 5 & 97%, 3 & 83%, 50 & 88%, 70
+ Nutrients and Iron 85%, 0 & 99%, 33 & 99%,20 & 93%, 60 & 99%,19 & 89%, 23 & 87%, 25 & 90%,20
Phytoplankton Treatment
Control 83% & 70, 86% & 0, & 79%, 0 & 81% , 40 & 90%, 30 & 97%, 50 & 77%, 40 & 95%, 30
+ Nutrients 88%, 0 & 93%, 0 & 94%, 3 & 89%, 4 & 94%, 5 & 97%, 3 & 83%, 50 & 88%, 70
+ Nutrients and Iron 85%, 0 & 99%, 33 & 99%,20 & 93%, 60 & 99%,19 & 89%, 23 & 87%, 25 & 90%,20
Conclusion:
My hypothesis in the beginning was If phytoplankton is mixed with just phytoplankton, nutrients, and then nutrients plus iron, then the Flask with nutrients plus iron will produce much more phytoplankton because phytoplankton need both nitrogen and iron to grow faster. This hypothesis was in fact incorrect because the nutrients and iron did have a high number by day four but by day 8 the numbers were low again. The ones that did grow were the nutrient alone they have low numbers but by day 8 the numbers were high. What i learned about nutrient is that they are important to the ecosystem. The phytoplankton did not grow much just a lone and with iron they did but the numbers lowered so nutrients are very important to keep the phytoplankton consistent and also because it is important for phytoplankton to decrease the CO2 for us. What i learned about phytoplankton in this lab was that they are very important food source for a lot of animals and the acidity of the water is not helping. Without the phytoplankton our CO2 rate could be bigger and many animals in the ocean could go extinct because phytoplankton is their food. What i learned about data collection and why we collected a large data set was that phytoplankton take some time to grow so a large scale was needed. A large scale was also needed to compare because their might f been some days where an area could of have a lot of phytoplankton but it wasn't counted and plus the phytoplankton are very small. Another possible reason for the collection of a lot of data could be for a cause of an experimental error. The way i saw the process of the experiment i believe that not many people got the same results as our because ours had an incident where most of our water had fallen, but much of the other ones such as the nutrients and control had the same results as other groups. I think this is because it was all in the same type of environments. I think that nutrients should be added to the water but not iron. I think iron wont help much because it will for a number of days then it will be back to normal and that i believe wont make much difference.
My hypothesis in the beginning was If phytoplankton is mixed with just phytoplankton, nutrients, and then nutrients plus iron, then the Flask with nutrients plus iron will produce much more phytoplankton because phytoplankton need both nitrogen and iron to grow faster. This hypothesis was in fact incorrect because the nutrients and iron did have a high number by day four but by day 8 the numbers were low again. The ones that did grow were the nutrient alone they have low numbers but by day 8 the numbers were high. What i learned about nutrient is that they are important to the ecosystem. The phytoplankton did not grow much just a lone and with iron they did but the numbers lowered so nutrients are very important to keep the phytoplankton consistent and also because it is important for phytoplankton to decrease the CO2 for us. What i learned about phytoplankton in this lab was that they are very important food source for a lot of animals and the acidity of the water is not helping. Without the phytoplankton our CO2 rate could be bigger and many animals in the ocean could go extinct because phytoplankton is their food. What i learned about data collection and why we collected a large data set was that phytoplankton take some time to grow so a large scale was needed. A large scale was also needed to compare because their might f been some days where an area could of have a lot of phytoplankton but it wasn't counted and plus the phytoplankton are very small. Another possible reason for the collection of a lot of data could be for a cause of an experimental error. The way i saw the process of the experiment i believe that not many people got the same results as our because ours had an incident where most of our water had fallen, but much of the other ones such as the nutrients and control had the same results as other groups. I think this is because it was all in the same type of environments. I think that nutrients should be added to the water but not iron. I think iron wont help much because it will for a number of days then it will be back to normal and that i believe wont make much difference.