Chemistry Abstracts

How does the color of the pollen foraged by bees differ in percent protein concentration? Bee’s are an integral part to our ecosystems, ensuring the bee population health also ensures the health and stability of our agricultural systems and local flora. Five different colors of bee pollen were collected and analyzed from the bees at Edmonds College to determine the protein concentration of each using the Bradford assay method. The highest percent protein was found in the dark yellow pollen, while the orange pollen yielded the lowest concentration of protein. Future research could investigate the foraging patterns of Edmonds College bees to determine which plants are preferable for foraging (link to poster).

Copper is a metal that has many different functions in society, but it can also pose a danger to the environment. Runoff water from storms, for example, will collect copper particles from roads and structures and flow into the ocean from  storm drains. However, if the copper concentration in runoff water is kept under state regulations, the effect of copper on aquatic wildlife will be negligible. To see how much copper is usually collected by rainwater, an ion-selective electrode  and red beet extract were used to measure the mV and absorbance of copper ions respectively These methods were chosen because we want to see which one was better at detecting copper ions in runoff water. Unfortunately, both procedures suffered from crippling technical difficulties. The copper electrode meter was unable to provide a linear standard range for multiple lab sessions, and the liquid from known standards and the red beet extract method provided unverifiable data because of procedural oversight and lacking information from the source article on it's lab procedure (Cao et al, 2019). While there were many things that could have gone better in this project , the errors themselves did provide helpful insight about how to rectify these mistakes the next time this experiment is attempted (link to poster).

Calcium is a common mineral essential for the human body that helps regulate body functions and promote healthy bones. Calcium is found in many foods that we consume on a daily basis such as coconut water, leafy greens and dairy products. In our experiment we chose to investigate if there is truly a significant difference between organic and non organic coconut water calcium contents. To do this we used visible spectroscopy to analyze the absorbance of the organic and non organic coconut waters to see if it is worth it to spend more money on organic coconut water. We used two different brands of coconut water: Simple Truth for the organic coconut water and Vita Coco for the non organic coconut water. The experiment was run by generating a calibration curve with o-cresolphthalein and pH 10 buffer, and measuring the absorbance of coconut samples diluted to within the linear range. From the results we have found that the non organic coconut water (Vita Coco) has a lower calcium concentration than the organic coconut water (Simple Truth) which leads to the conclusion that the organic coconut water has a greater amount of calcium content than the non organic coconut water, but only by 3.1 mg, which is not much relative to the 1,000 mg required per day for the average adult. Future experiments would explore other methods of validating that calcium content on the label is accurate, such as complexometric titration, along with exploring differences between brands claiming the same calcium content (link to poster).

Dissolved Oxygen (DO) is an incredibly important metric for assessing the quality and health of an ecosystem. Keeping an ecosystem healthy by maintaining the level of DO can be immensely important for both economic reasons (such as the fishing industry or the oyster farming industry) and for the obvious environmental reasons that low oxygen levels, when given enough time, will kill off vital members of an ecosystem. In our project we sought out to calculate the amount of DO between three separate fish tanks each with varying levels of plant coverage using a method called the Winkler Method, which involves a redox titration and is the standard method of calculating DO levels in a sample of water. We also hypothesized that the tank with the most plants would have the greatest amount of DO due to photosynthesis. The tank containing the largest amount of plants per gallon did not in fact have the highest amount of DO within our samples From our results we concluded that the overall effect of plant coverage within an ecosystem is generally insignificant when it comes to DO levels, and factors like physical agitation (i.e. from a flowing source of water) will have a much greater effect (link to poster).

All marine life is dependent on the level of oxygen in water for their biological processes and in many cases the level of dissolved oxygen (DO) in a body of water is a good indicator of the overall health of that body of water. The DO levels themselves can be affected by temperature, pressure, excessive nutrients, ammonia, and sediment levels and Urban development - that being roads, homes, farmland, sewers and their drainage, and general human activity - can affect all of these things. The Swamp Creek Basin, which has been classified as a “Summer Salmonid Spawning Location,” while also being 88% developed land was a starting point for measuring the effect urban developments has on DO concentration; two sets of samples were done at 5 locations one week apart at varying distances from an urban element. The samples were then titrated by the Winkler method to calculate DO levels with their averages and distance from an urban element recorded for analysis. A general trend from the data shows that as the distance from urban development increases so  does the Dissolved Oxygen concentration in the basin, while only one location had DO levels in line with the state’s minimum standard of 10.0 mg/L which is an indication that the Swamp Creek Basin’s water quality isn’t suitable for all of its marine inhabitants (link to poster).

Most people take calcium to improve bone, teeth strength and nerve transmission. Thus, it is important to know the calcium content of milk products, such as cow’s milk, and oat milk to choose the appropriate milk to fit people’s nutrient demands. Analyzing the calcium amount in oat milk vs cow’s milk will answer the question of which milk contains more calcium and if they contain the exact amount of calcium as advertised on their nutrition label which is important to informing the customer. In our research, visible spectroscopy was used to identify the amount of calcium ion by preparing four different concentrations of known standard solutions with preparing 2 diluted oat milk samples and 2 diluted cow’s milk samples. We hypothesized cow’s milk would have more calcium concentration than oat milk based on preliminary research. The results showed that cow’s milk had more calcium concentration than oat milk. While the cow’s milk contained an average of 1370 ppm of calcium, the oat milk contained 983 ppm of calcium. Our samples of both milks also had different amounts of calcium than advertised, with cow’s milk having slightly higher calcium concentration than advertised while oat milk had lower than advertised. Overall, cow’s milk is a better choice for people to meet their daily need, as it provides more calcium for the body than oat milk. However, for people with vegan diets, oat milk is not a bad option for calcium (link to poster).

Copper has many common applications in our everyday lives which leads to inevitable contamination of our water systems. While the water we drink is tested heavily and certain bodies of water get some testing most water sources in our everyday lives are not. In this experiment, we will be using copper ISE to detect the concentration of copper in our various water samples. These are water samples that have been taken from places in our everyday lives, filtered to remove large contaminants and then tested. Our results indicate that there was copper present in most of the samples but these sources do not contain irresponsible levels. These results indicate that shingled roofs continue to leach copper over their lives and disc brakes are a significant contributor to copper pollution in outdoor water sources (link to poster).

Dissolved oxygen is the amount of gaseous oxygen in water, it is the most vital indicator of water quality, and it is essential for the survival of aquatic living organisms. The DO saturation in water is significantly affected by the atmospheric pressure and temperature; more DO in cooler water than in warmer water. Oxygen dissolves on the water surface due to wind aeration and as a byproduct of photosynthesis by aquatic plants. A hypothesis, less DO content in golf course pond waters due to the use of nitrogenous fertilizers on the lawn that end up in the pond and promote algae growth, which diminishes the DO concentration of a pond. This hypothesis was tested in the lab using water samples from ponds located on three different golf courses. The Winkler method was used to analyze the DO content of the samples. The result of the experiments supported the hypothesis as less DO content was found in samples from ponds with high algae growth and more DO content in samples from ponds with less algal growth (link to poster). 

Pollen is important in the development and survival of honey bees. Honey bees rely on plants for pollen and plants rely on honey bees for pollination. We used the Bradford Assay method to analyze pollen obtained from the Edmonds College campus farm. Pollen samples were collected from pollen traps at the campus farm and then sorted by color to determine if there was significant data between colors. There were 5 colors, and we did two trials, adding up to 10 tubes of pollen. After 48 hours, the tubes were shaken before placing them into the centrifuge to extract the protein from pollen. We also used a spectrophotometer to obtain the concentration from testing a standard of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) as well as the absorbance of all the pollen samples. Green pollen had the highest percent of protein present in both trials. The different pollen colors and their protein content had no significant difference. Pollen rich in protein will allow the honeybees not only to feed their young but also for their colony to thrive (link to poster).

Copper in water can be toxic in high levels. Identifying and preventing sources of copper in the environment can help reduce the risk of toxicity in both people and all other organisms. To achieve this, we identified an area we suspected to be higher in copper and planned to use known copper identifying methods to analyze the current state of our high-risk area. We used beetroot extract combined with spectroscopy to attempt to find the concentration of copper in samples. Samples were soaked in nitric acid, where necessary, and filtered to remove large particles. We were unable to identify the level of copper in Scriber Lake, because the method of beetroot extract spectroscopy did not give a linear range (link to poster).

Dissolved oxygen is essential to aquatic life; without oxygen in the water, aquatic organisms struggle to thrive. Like humans, fish require oxygen to breathe, and for the fish, their main source of oxygen is the dissolved oxygen in the water. Higher levels of dissolved oxygen creates a good environment for aquatic life. On the other hand, aquatic life struggles to flourish in water with lower dissolved oxygen levels. To determine the “healthier” lake for aquatic life, the Winkler titration method was performed on carefully collected water samples from Lake Ballinger, Lake Ballinger’s stream, Martha Lake, and Martha Lake’s stream. Dissolved oxygen concentrations are measured by carefully taking water samples from select locations then treating the water with magnesium sulfate, alkali iodide, and sulfuric acid. This solution is then titrated with sodium thiosulfate and starch till the remaining solution turns clear. The amount titrated is then recalculated to get the dissolved oxygen amount. The results of this experiment showed that lakes tend to have more dissolved oxygen than the streams that are connected to them. Additional to our findings, we found that Martha lake has a healthier habitat. Water sources like lakes with more dissolved oxygen concentrations should become great habitats for aquatic life compared to streams with less dissolved oxygen (link to poster).