Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi I'm in the 9th grade and need some help with the Science Fair,
For my Science fair project I can't afford all the materials and items I need to test this, so I was wondering if I could get a professional perspective.

I'm trying to fix dying oceans because of the rising heat in the ocean. I did some research and found that Phytoplankton are absorbing the light and heat, and are being consumed by Zooplankton. Zooplankton are starting to take over, decreasing the Phytoplankton and killing animals and plants.

I needed to find a way to decrease Zooplankton naturally without hurting the environment, I came up with the idea of placing a cylindrical glass case near the surface of the ocean that will be fish friendly and has the following features,

A sand-filter at one end that is going through a current and filtering Zooplankton,

There is a second filter on the other side to filter fresh water, too small to let predators in,

There will be fish larvae (Zooplankton's top predator) inside that will eat the Zooplankton and grow,

A glass hatch on the top that will be opened by man to let the adult fish out, or clean the glass, add in more eggs, and make sure it's running smoothly,

The case will protect the fish from it's natural enemies so that they can eat the Zooplankton safely,

Everything will be monitored by us and controlled by us, like if the plan is not working or if the fish population gets too high, that sort of thing,


If I could just get some insight to things that could go wrong or be ineffective, please re-email me so that I may be able to fix and adjust my plan to work effectively.

Thank you so much

-Olivia

That's a fantastic idea you have Olivia and I would truly like to see it work.

There are an awful lot of details to be worked out in a creation like that and it might be a bit too ambitious for one science project. And, as you said, it could be pretty expensive.

I am not an expert in ocean biology and that's really whom you would need to talk to about setting up such a project. If you really want to pursue this idea, you will have to create a detailed plan for testing it and that means a lot of reading online, thinking about the design of your chambers and talking to experts in ocean ecosystems.

I can help you with some questions and details, but I'm afraid most of the work is going to be up to you. Once you get into the science more deeply, however, I'm sure you will get even more excited and your enthusiasm will push the project forward and your sincerity will get others involved and then...who knows!

Best of luck!

Sybee