need help narrowing what to research about water

[emmaa740]

Hello!javascript:emoticon(':)')
I need some help with narrowing down what to search for my background research about liquid water. I tried searching it on trust-worthy sources, like access science on infohio.com, but I got so many confusing results!javascript:emoticon(':?:') My research question is "how does the temperature of water effect the breathing rate of fish?" I need to do some research about water, it's components, it's history, but I need to know how to narrow that down! I'd appreciate help fastjavascript:emoticon(':D')
Thank you!

-seventh grade science fair particiapaterjavascript:emoticon('8)')

[ChrisG]

Hi,
Welcome to Science Buddies. What is your grade level? That info will help us to give answers that are most helpful for someone with your experience.

Are you thinking about performing an experiment with fish? There are usually restrictions regarding the use of vertebrate animals, so you should ask your teacher about whether this will be an issue.

If I understand your question correctly, you are interested in the rate of oxygen uptake by fish, and how that rate depends on temperature. For starters, try using an internet search engine such as google.com to find pages with "gill oxygen uptake". Keep in mind that as water temperature increases, the solubility of oxygen decreases.

Of course, feel free to check back here with questions about any material that you find.

Good luck. I hope to hear more about your ideas as they progress.

[HeatherL]

My research question is "how does the temperature of water effect the breathing rate of fish?"

Hi emmaa740,

This is a great topic! So many animals are affected by temperature, and temperature is a hot topic right now (no pun intended, sorry ).

One thing to keep in mind is that fish are ectotherms ("cold-blooded"), which means that their body temperature changes with the temperature of the water. For ectotherms, metabolic rate (often measured as oxygen consumption) also changes with temperature: the warmer the temperature, the faster the fish's metabolism goes. This means you may see increases in respiration (breathing) rate with temperature that are related to the physiology of the fish. Try putting words like "ectotherm," "metabolism," and "temperature" into search engines to get more information about this.

I need to do some research about water, it's components, it's history, but I need to know how to narrow that down!

ChrisG's point about the solubility of oxygen in water is an important one. If there is less oxygen in the water, you would expect the fish to breathe more. You should be able to find information about the basic properties of water in a chemistry or biology textbook, and can work from there.

One more thing to keep in mind: How will you monitor the fish's breathing rate? For example, will you count gill flap movements per minute?

I hope this information helps. Feel free to post back with more questions!

Cheers,
Heather