Eutropthic Observation

Methods

To begin the experiment we calculated the measurements of phosphate for a eutrophic (high and nutrients) and hypertrophic (extremely high in nutrients) environment using the formula, Gross weight- Tare weight divided by volume, provided in French (2015). We decided to test a hypertrophic environment to see if it was possible to return it to eutrophic and then eventually a mesotrophic environment. For our eutrophic environment, we measured out 12µL of phosphate for our eutrophic and 120µL of phosphate for our hypertrophic environment using a micropipette. Next, we measured out 40mL of pond water 12 times using a plastic beaker, making sure our hands didn’t contaminate the sample, and then we poured the sample into a centrifuge tube.

In the 12µL phosphate samples with the Marigolds, we could tell, barely, that there was a smaller amount of algae than the samples without the flowers. The 120µL samples in both groups looked as though they had the same amount of phosphate. In the control groups, however, we noticed there were more algae in the control group with Marigolds than the control group without flowers. We measured the biomass of each sample and discovered that the pond water control group with flowers had a greater biomass gain than the biomass gain of the control group without flowers. The differences in the samples ranged from 0.0003g to 0.00035g. The samples with phosphate with the Marigolds, however, had the least biomass gain compared to the samples with phosphate only. The biomass between the samples in each group had minuscule fluctuations between one another. The 120µL of phosphate exposed to the flowers had a difference in biomass in the samples of 0.00025g while in the phosphate only group there was a difference of 0.0005g. These minuscule differences in biomass between each sample occurred throughout both groups. Overall, the group with Marigolds produced the least amount of algae compared to the group without the flowers. See figure