Daniel's Jar
Research Projects
The Impact of Climate Change on Oceanic Organisms
Climate change is undeniably one of the most urgent issues of our time, driven by a concerning lack of regulation in human activities, its far-reaching impacts affect many aspects of our daily life, from the air we breathe to the food we consume. However, it is the oceans that bears a particularly heavy burden, as rising temperatures continue to afflict them and changes in pH levels continue to harm their diverse inhabitants. In this article, we will delve into the impact of rising temperatures on ocean pH and explore how it affects marine plant life. Additionally, we will discuss potential solutions to this pressing problem and suggest actionable changes that we can make in our lives to support this crucial cause.
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The Full Article can be found here
The Effects of Changing Water pH on Calcifying Marine Invertebrates
Ocean acidification is a result of excessive human CO2 emissions, reducing the amount of carbonate in ocean water as hydrogen ions fuse with carbonate into bicarbonate. As a result, calcifying organisms in water are being negatively impacted to a certain extent. However, the extent to which ocean acidification affects these creatures is still somewhat ambiguous. First, I chose the brine shrimp as my experimental animal, an aquatic invertebrate that can be easily reared within the aquarium hobby. So, to conduct this experiment I set up jars with different levels of acidity within the water to simulate increased hydrogen ion concentrations, as seen in water experiencing ocean acidification. A group with normal water was added as a control group, a group with low pH to simulate ocean acidification, and one with high pH to determine the effects of pH on brine shrimp overall. Such experimental sets were repeated in three trials, showing that there were higher numbers of adult shrimp and pregnant shrimp in the sets with normal water, and less deformed shrimp as well. The opposite was true for sets with acidic and basic water. This result is rational, as it makes sense for organisms living in conditions pushing their range of tolerance to produce less mature individuals and develop more deformities. This reveals the potential impact of climate change on these creatures in the future and is a concerning precedent for human impact on even the most niche aspects of our environment.
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The Effect of Carbonated Water on Plant Growth
This is a summary of my LCHS Science Fair entry. Various experiments were conducted in the past to test the validity of whether carbonation will actually help plants grow. Many studies have shown that plants do have the ability to absorb carbon via root systems, and others have also shown that plants will pertain increased levels of calcium, magnesium, and zinc in their leaves. Quoting a study from the University of Colorado in 2002, “Plants watered with carbonated water grew more than twice as fast and developed healthier shades of green over a 10 day period.
However other studies have found carbonated water did not change the growth rate, or in some cases, stunted growth.” The outliers in this experiment were likely due to the acidity of the water interfering with the nutrient absorption process as the ph of the soil can have great effect on nutrient intake. There’s a distinct possibility in experimentation that soil pH might drop too low (5.5) and will start to toxify aluminium and magnesium in the soil, therefore stunting growth. I hope to contribute to the field of agriculture in this experiment as carbonated water might prove to be a more affordable alternative to fertilizer to improving plant growth.
In this experiment, I am exposing various groups of garden cress to different types of water to test their rates of growth.