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Oxygen versus Carbon Dioxide
Introduction
Oxygen is one of the essential ingredients to life. In this section we will discuss the relationship between dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in the Rappahannock River. We will show the ways in which the levels of the two parameters increase and decrease on each seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the Rappahannock River correlate positively in each of these cycles. We will show how and why this happens.
As students at Christchurch School, we have the rare opportunity to explore these ideas and other questions that we have concerning the world around us. Using the data we have accumulated from the waterfront of our school on the Rappahannock River, we will attempt to show the direct correlation between the levels of dissolved oxygen and levels of carbon dioxide. We will also show the correlation between the levels of different seasons. Having this waterfront system allows our community to engage in and know what is going on in the world around us. It also allows us to bring our waterfront and real life data and situations in to our classroom to use as a tool to enhance our learning skills.
Overview of Weather/Water Monitoring System
At Christchurch we have hardware at our dock to take measurements of water quality and weather. We also have an internet site so that anyone has the ability to see our data.
This is a video describing the system at our dock that takes all of the measurements we have used in creating this site.
This is a picture of the internet site that displays all of our measurements in real time. All of the data recorded by the hardware at the dock is put directly on to this site.
The link to this site is: http://waterquality.christchurchschool.org/Waterfront5.html
To hear an explanation of how the site works, click the link below.
What is Oxygen?
Oxygen does not have color, taste, or smell. It is an element that is able to react with many elements. It forms with two atoms and when it forms with three atoms, it becomes an ozone that is a completely different property.In 1773, it was founded by a Swede, Carl Wilhelm Scheele however, many people give more credit to an Englishman, Joseph Priestly, who announced the experiment's result. In 1778, it was confirmed as a new element called Oxygen. Oxygen takes 21% of air.Oxygen itself does not not burn; however, it efficiently helps other matters to be burned. Usually, Oxygen is made by green plants through photosynthesis, and when the percentage of oxygen that dissolved in air is lower than 16%, living creatures are in danger.
What is Carbon Dioxide?
Carbon Dioxide has no color or smell. If pressure is applied, it becomes liquefied. Also, if more pressure is applied to it, it becomes dry ice. When Carbon Dioxide dissolves in the water, it becomes carbonic acid. To make a carbonated drink(soda), low temperature and high pressure is required. Carbon Dioxide is the opposite of oxygen which interrupts the spread of fire. Due to Carbon Dioxide's tendencies, when people blow into a candle, CO2 that comes out as you exhale blow out the flame from the candle. Carbon Dioxide is used in fire extinguishers.
Dissolved Oxygen (general information)
Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen gas found in a liquid solution. Oxygen gets into the water through diffusion of the air around the water as well as being a by product of photosynthesis. The amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water is directly related to the temperature of the body of water. For example, if the water temperature is warmer, the solubility of oxygen is more than it would be if the water were colder.
The daily cycle automatically has a temperature cycle where the temperature is cooler at night and warmer during the day. This means that each day, as the temperature rises and falls, the amount of DO in the water is, at the same time, rising and falling. During the night hours of the day with a lower temperature, respiration takes place and the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water decreases. On the other hand, in the middle of the day, when the temperature is the highest, photosynthesis takes place and the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water increases.
The graph to the right is a prime example of the daily cycles of dissolved oxygen. The green dotted line, illustrating the amounts of dissolved oxygen throughout the day, clearly shows the cycle. In the morning, when the temperatures are still low, the amount of DO is the lowest. In the middle of the day when the temperatures are the highest, the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water is the highest.
Correlation between Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide
Oxygen (Red Line)Carbon Dioxide (Blue Line)
#1 Spring (April 4th)
This is a graph of the correlation between oxygen and pH. pH can be used to know how much carbon dioxide is in the water because when the pH is high, carbon dioxide is low, and when the pH is low, carbon dioxide is high.
As time goes by in the time period of spring, the levels of the oxygen gradually increase and the levels of carbon dioxide slowly decreases. The reason is that there are many plants that release abundant amounts of oxygen through the process of photosynthesis during the day and release carbon dioxide through respiration during the night. Based on the level of oxygen, carbon dioxide has an opposite correlation. It may seem odd on the circle portion of the graph. The possible question may be…
Why are they both increasing on the graph?
- They are both increasing on the graph because the days start to get longer in the spring so there is more time for plants to go through photosynthesis and release oxygen. Also, since the amount of carbon dioxide is decreasing the pH is increasing.
#2 Summer (June 26th)
According to the graph of summer, there are not much of changes from the graph of spring. The reason is that during spring, the temperature is changing from cold weather to warm weather and the levels are slowly increasing. During the summer the temperature remains at a high level. The level of oxygen now remains at a higher state and the level of carbon dioxide remains at a lower state. In the summer, there is a clear distinguished correlation between oxygen and carbon dioxide.
#3 Autumn(September 25th)
According to the graph of autumn, the level of oxygen and carbon dioxide started high and continuously decrease. As the weather is getting colder, the level of oxygen decreases and the level of carbon dioxide starts to increase. In autumn, there is less daytime and more nighttime which means there is less photosynthesis and more respiration. When you compare the spring graph and autumn graph, there are clear differences. In spring, oxygen(red line) is higher than carbon dioxide(blue line) at the end of the graph. On the other hand, carbon dioxide(blue line) is higher than oxygen(red line) in autumn graph. The reason to these differences is that there is longer day time in the spring than autumn. During photosynthesis, plants produce more oxygen, while during respiration plants are producing carbon dioxide. There is still an adequate correlation between oxygen and carbon dioxide.
#4 Winter (December 16th)
In the graph of winter, there is clear correlation of oxygen and carbon dioxide. As Carbon dioxide decreases, oxygen oppositely increases. In winter, the weather start with very cold, and gradually become warmer. When you compare the starting point of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the ending point of oxygen and carbon dioxide, they both had gone decreased. Also, as time goes by, oxygen is becoming higher than carbon dioxide because gradual increase of photosynthesis. In addition, they both have correlation which they intend to heading opposite direction. Finally, the graph of winter demonstrated the opposite result from the graph of summer, and oxygen and carbon dioxide reacted based on increase of photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis and Respiration
pH is a measurement of how acidic or basic a solution is. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 14, 0 being the most acidic and 14 being basic. The pH value of purified water sits at the middle of the scale with a value of 7. Measurements of ocean water yield higher results but numbers have been dropping over the recent years.?
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pH is a very important measurement to consider when evaluating any type of ecosystem and has fluctuated on large scales over the last few hundred years. It has been estimated that between the years of 1751 and 1994 the average oceanic pH level has dropped .075 units. The diagram displayed above shows how pH levels have fluctuated over this period of time.
In respiration, there is expose of carbon dioxide out to the atmosphere. Through out respiration, the key words are oxygen and carbon dioxide. After observing oxygen, there is pressiong of carbon dioxide. Respiration and photosynthesis remain the level of carbon dioxide and oxygen to be balanced.
What is Photosynthesis?
Photosynethsis is very important in the correlation between carbon dioxide and oxygen. Through out the photosynthesis, plants oberves carbon dioxide with water to expose oxygen out to the atmosphere. In the summer, there is longer daytime than night time. It provide plants to activly respond to photosynthesis. Due to photosynthesis, the level of carbon dioxide decrease and the level of oxygen increase.
Conclusion
There is a huge connection between carbon dioxide and oxygen. As mentioned earlier, there is clear correlation between dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in the Rappahannock River. During the summer, the level of oxygen increased and the level of carbon dioxide decreased because there was active photosynthesis. On the other hand, there was respiration which led the level of oxygen to be decreased and the level of carbon dioxide to be increased. In spring and autumn, there were some portion of the graph that did not match with our hypothesis; however, there were still clear correlation between carbon dioxide and oxygen. Due to the weather change from warm to cold and cold to warm, they influenced to the graph. Finally, there was an opposite correlation between dissolved carbon dioxide and oxygen in the Rappahannock River during spring, summer, autumn, and winter
Put Together By: Phillip Jordan, HaRaum Cho, Carolyn Macaulay and Blake Atwell
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