Origin Story:

Mae D. and Anna B. chose the topic of Ocean Acidification. They went into DEEP together knowing they wanted to work together. They also knew that they were not strong in engineering so an experiment was the way to go.  Anna and Mae both have always loved the ocean and have both expressed worries about the ocean's struggle throughout climate change. They began to research and stumbled across the topic of ocean acidification. Anna and Mae were intrigued by this process and began to think of an experiment involving ocean acidification. They did research about the effect humans additional CO2 has on sea life. Anna and Mae soon decided to attempt to recreate ocean acidification testing on green algae. They created an environment for 2 green algae plants in 2 beakers. One beaker was the control beaker and the other beaker would have carbon added to it everyday. Anna and Mae expressed interest in saving the ocean and created a unique experiment to help.

Explanation of Results:

Our project is testing how green algae in the ocean reacts to additional CO2 emissions. By consistently testing the pH levels of our two beakers, we have discovered a pattern. In the control beaker, we have found that the pH level has stayed pretty consistent. Throughout the experiment, the pH has dropped slightly, but eventually increased back to the starting level the next day. On the other hand, in the carbon beaker, the pH has had drastic changes. The pH started the same as the control beaker but after the first addition of carbon, the pH level decreased and the water became more acidic. After waiting one day, the pH level of the water in the carbon beaker had increased and was at the same level it had started at. The pattern continued where the pH level would drop immediately after the carbon addition and then go back to the starting level. This means the plant is absorbing the carbon and photosynthesising. 

Our results partly proved our hypothesis. After we added carbon to the beakers, the water became more acidic, as predicted in our hypothesis. However, the plant immediately absorbed the carbon, and the pH level went back up. Becuase of the plant's intake of carbon, it is photosynthesizing normally and still living. We did not expect this to happen. 

Learning: 

Throughout this experiment, we learned many different things. Some important topics we learned about were ocean acidification, carbon pollution, and pH/acidity. We also learned about how to plant and take care of a marine plant, how to use a carbon tank, how to make a website, and how to test pH and salinity. We also learned how to plan ahead and use our time wisely in order to complete our experiment by the due date. 

Connections:

In our experiment, we not only discovered how plants react to CO2, but also saw that these results could be applied to the real world. The connection we found to the human condition was the pollution caused by humans. Carbon pollution is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The carbon released absorbs into the ocean and affects sea life. The impact this has on the ocean is it prevents some animals from growing their shells. The food chain in the ocean is all connected, so when certain marine life is affected, many other species start to struggle. However, we found that the green algae actually thrives when given carbon because it photosynthesizes. 

There are a few steps we can take to help solve this. First, the United States is not a part of the Paris Agreement. This is a world wide agreement to help climate change. The US is doing its part in trying to help stop climate change, however joining this agreement is a step further. Also, if we grow more green algae in the ocean, it will absorb the carbon and help the other marine life without being severely affected. We are able to reduce the carbon already released but not much progress will be made if we do not stop the source of CO2. Even more carbon is being released this second. Humans should only be releasing CO2 if it is completely necessary. We should require companies to be carbon neutral or carbon positive unless there is a good reason to why those options are unavailable. Planting green algae may potentially cut down the effect on our important marine life, but we must first stop the source of unnecessary carbon.