Algae+Bloom

Tamia Medina partner: Joshua Grillo Background Information: The independent variable is the amount of fertilizer the algae is given. This will be manipulated by changing the amount one tank with algae is given compared to the other. Fertilizer is what causes algae blooms. The dependent variable is the amount of algae there will be. This is measured by volume. The tank will have a certain volume, the area taken up will increase when there is more algae in the tank, then the two amounts will be subtracted, leaving the area that the algae is taking up. By definition, algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of [|algae] in an aquatic system (from Wikipedia). Algal blooms are microscopic, living in a cell and are usually green but can also be different colors. There are many things that affect algae bloom. An alga bloom happens when there are too many nutrients in the water. The nutrient that is usually exceeded is phosphorus. Phosphorus comes from fertilizer. What will happen in this experiment is that the fertilizer should cause the algae in one tank to bloom. The control group will not have any fertilizer at all. Fresh water algal blooms are cause because of fertilization and phosphorus. Salt water algal blooms occur on the surface where it is well lit. Algae needs sunlight to grow. They can also occur in aquariums. When fish are overfed, there are a lot of nutrients and wastes in the water. The plants take in the nutrients. This can be avoided by changing the water frequently and by reducing the amount of food given. Harmful algae blooms (HAB) are blooms that cause negative impacts to the environment. The independent variable will add nutrients causing algae to be overfed and bloom. The dependent variable (the algae) will be the result of the independent variable. Since there will be an excess of fertilizer, the algae will take in all of the nutrients, which will cause it to grow more and more. The relationship between the two variables is since fertilizer causes plants to grow, adding more fertilizer will cause algae to bloom. Algae itself is also used as a fertilizer. Algae are used to treat effluents that are pumped to the ponds or that enter an aquarium. It must be washed off because it has a lot of salt before used as a fertilizer. The salt does help the soil and the worms will move our because of the amount if salt. Like said before, fertilizers are used to make plants grow bigger and faster. The fertilizer in this experiment will help show how fast it actually grows and how bad that is to the environment. The constant in this group will be the aquarium that doesn’t get any fertilizer whatsoever and grows algae on its own. This should remain unchanged because it helps compare to how the algae would grow if it didn’t have fertilizer and how it grows with fertilizer. If the constant were to change, then there wouldn’t be a way of telling the difference between the variables because they would turn out the same. The difference in the independent variable would be the amount of fertilizer used for each aquarium or the type of fertilizer used, (referring to what it contains). They can’t be the changes together because then there would be too much variety for that is trying to be measured. If we were to change the amounts of fertilizer added, then the difference would be that then the rate at which the algae grows will change. If the amount changes, then one aquarium will have more algae than the other because one will have more fertilizer than the other. If the type of fertilizer changes then there would also be a difference because not all fertilizers are made the same way. One could be an organic fertilizer and one could be a nonorganic fertilizer and both would make a difference. I believe that the organic will be better because it would be better for the environment and the plant would have more nutrients. Another difference could be what the fertilizers have in them. One could have more nutrients or phosphorus than the other causing one of the aquariums to have a faster bloom even an even amount of fertilizer in given to each aquarium. Hypothesis: If fertilizer that is usually used for agriculture purposes is placed in water then algae bloom should occur in that body of water.