Karen (UR) Got Weed ?

Have I got your attention now?  Thought so.....  :-)

My Research Project is on Duckweed, Lemna minor, and it's ability to filter excess nutrients (Nitrate and Phosphate) from fresh water. This tiny and I mean tiny plant can do big things.
 

This is what is known: For centuries, in Asia, small scale farmers have used this plant to filter out excess nutrients from their "sludge" ponds.  A sludge pond is where waste is kept, it can be animal or plant waste, and turned into fertilizer. Duckweed also purifies the water so that it can be reclaimed for watering crops and livestock. Because Duckweed can double it's mass in 48 hours it is also used as a high protein food source for humans, animals and fish, it has become a multi purpose plant.  Yes, the plant is rinsed and dried before being used.  Recently the University of North Carolina has been conducting research on this subject.  Many other countries have been using this plant for the above purpose as well.  It has been particularly useful in  the Middle East and Africa.

What is not known:  Is Lemna minor a possible answer for the bioremediation of excess nutrients from fresh water?

My scientific question:  Is there a concentration level that is lethal to the Duckweed?

I will be using these materials:

Distilled Water,  LaMotte Nitrate/Phosphate test kit #3119, 4 1/2 inch Culture Dishes, Miracle Gro 8-7-6 Liquid Fertilizer, Biotronette Mark III Environmental Chamber

Methods:

Using the above materials, 4 culture dishes will be prepared with 150 ml of

DI water and liquid fertilizer, 1 as a control, 3 with duckweed.  

Culture dishes will be placed under plant light in the chamber with 12 hours

of daylight.

Every 48 hours the liquid will be checked for evaporation/transpiration loss

and adjusted accordingly using the fertilizer/ DI water mixture. 

The DI water/fertilizer mixture in the dishes will be tested for Nitrate levels.

References:  

Ansari, A. A., & Khan, F. A. (2008). Remediation of eutrophic water using Lemna minor in a controlled environment. African Journal Of Aquatic Science, 33(3), 275-278. doi:10.2989/AJAS.2008.33.3.11.623

Burkholder, J., Libra, B., Weyer, P., Heathcote, S., Kolpin, D., Thorne, P. S., & Wichman, M. (2007). Impacts of Waste from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations on Water Quality. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(2), 308–312. http://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.8839

“Wildflower Preserve Water Quality Initiatives.” Lemon Bay Conservancy, lemonbayconservancy.org/wildflower-preserve/wildflower-preserve-water-quality-initiatives/.

 

Augustus (UR) - Arguing with Thermometers

While continuing my research on water level variation in Florida, I've stumbled across some very interesting articles. Now the common belief, by who you ask, is that the growing change in sea level is due to growing global temperatures that are increasing water temperatures and melting the polar ice caps, which in my opinion I agree with, but through my research I've learned that there is so much more. I was always so confused when Dr. Woodall wouldn't say this is a "Climate Change” project and now I see why, it's one of the reasons why I couldn't complete my midterm proposal because I wasn't quite sure what my project was looking for.

In a study produced in Geophysical Research Letters, undertaken by the university of Florida the sea levels in the south eastern United States have risen almost 6x faster than the national average through the years 2011 - 2015 and it has less to do with Climate Change than we thought. 

This Graph shows an average sea level increase of 3.2 mm/year

17 of the 18 warmest years in history have occurred since 2001

What is the cause? Well there are a few basic causes one being the melting of land-based ice and two the expansion of water. Now, in water like in most molecules as the temperature increases so does the space between the atoms as they gain more kinetic energy, thus causing an expansion in water, this according to NASA sea level division can cause an increase in sea levels from 0.4 to 0.8 mm. Those two can be attributed to Climate Change but the extreme increase in water level can also be attributed to natural occurring events exacerbated by increased Global Temperatures. These are El Niño which brings warmer air and increased rainfall over the oceans causing localized sea level increases to the south eastern United States and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) which concentrates that warmer air and water by causing a reduction in the atmospheric pressure which can greatly affect water levels. The NAO is a weather phenomenon of atmospheric pressures at sea level between Iceland and The Azores.

Water Level increases during El Nino

 With all this put together sea level rise could increase in Florida faster than anticipated. 

Valle‐Levinson, Arnoldo, et al. “Spatial and Temporal Variability of Sea Level Rise Hot Spots over the Eastern United States.” Geophysical Research Levels, vol. 44, no. 15, 16 Aug. 2017, pp. 7876–7882.

NASA. “Global Climate Change.” NASA, NASA, 3 June 2014, climate.nasa.gov/.

NASA. “Sea Level Change.” NASA, NASA, 3 June 2014, sealevel.nasa.gov/.

“Sea-Level Rise in Florida.” Florida Sea Grant, www.flseagrant.org/climate-change/sea-level-rise/.

"Plastic Problems: Polluting our Seas" UR- Allie Femiano

   The time of industrialization brought a new way of life for humans, many believed plastics to have positively impacted human life. In a way- plastics had freed us from the restrictions of limited resources and adversity the previous generations had faced. The availability and ease of man-made constructed materials authorizes humans to have ideal control over their daily lives. Although, the environment would argue that we are not in control of the impacts of our own influences. 
   By producing plastic in mass quantities, the world had now found a more productive and efficient way to function. However, the use and abuse of these forever materials are discarded improperly at an alarming rate into the natural world. Specifically our seas- by infecting and polluting the waters with toxicity, our marine life is suffering indisputably. By establishing and polluting such material, we endanger and kill many species. 

Photo by a water filtration company 

IRP Proposal: Microplastics in local fish species

  As most of you are aware, my independent research project is based on data from microplastics discovered in local fish remains. My goal is to collect information from locally caught/ recently dead fish's stomach contents. The accumulation of data from each catch/ collection will reveal a lot of answers to the questions I have about local fish microplastic consumption and answer my scientific question. 

What we know about Microplastic studies in local fish species 

   It's a fairly new study that people have began to pay attention to. Not much data has been documented on this, especially not locally. In the 1970's scientists began to produce records of plastics discovered in the stomachs of sea creatures. Since then, 92 species of fish have been affected and growing. This collected data proves this to be an important research project. We know the seas are filled with tiny pieces of microplastics that once consumed by marine life animals cause mutations and death. In an ecosystem all animals rely on other species for food- one consumption of plastics can spread to more and more animals. Causing the plastic to never break down and to continue polluting and infecting. Not only dangering one species but in turn dangering many more and possibly you (the consumer). 
  
What dont we know?

   Through my research, it has been determined there have not been clear differences in plastic consumption between the pelagic and benthic fishes. It's also prevalent that the plastic micro-pollution and relation to toxicity and impact on the oceanic food chain have also yet to be further studied. All information is also left unanswered on a local scale of which I plan on collecting data from.

My Scientific Question

   Are local fish species suffering from the impacts of microplastic consumption?

Dead fish captured amongst plastic pollution

My Methods 

   From numerous location, I will collect previously dead/ recently caught fish from fishermen and other local beach goers. Also- reaching out to anyone reading my independent research project proposal, contact me if you have any fish available for me to study. I just request a few environmental notes (long. lat), Fish ID, and initial fish mass.

   As I reach the scene, I will record lat/long, fish ID, mass of fish. Then I will remove the fish's stomach contents, weigh and remove the plastics discovered. After examining the remains I will then weigh the microplastics in proportion to the size of the fish (g of plastic per kg of fish) this will become a median between the data. I will record the data for each individual fish species and create an accurate representation of the data interpreted. For example, are local fish affected by microplastic consumption? Is there an underlying relation to fish species habitat and amount of plastics consumed? 

My Materials 

Gloves, Fish scale, GPS, camera, measuring tape, Fish ID guide, knife 

My Data represented 
These interpretations are still a work in process! I know that I will be including information on type of fish species and amount of plastics found in a bar graph. I also hope to create a graph tying the local data of plastics and relation to fish species habitat (pelagic, bottom dwellers).




Works Cited-

oAmaral, Kimberly. “Plastics in Our Oceans.” Plastics in Our Oceans, www.whoi.edu/science/B/people/kamaral/plasticsarticle.html.

oLonne, Torben. “How Ocean Pollution Impacts Marine Life-and All of Us.” MarineSafe, AlterNet, 3 May 2016, www.marinesafe.org/blog/2016/04/18/how-ocean-pollution-impacts-marine-life-and-all-of-us/.