Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
I'm doing an experiment to model the process of eutrophication within aquatic systems, and researching how increased concentrations of phosphorus effects the growth of blue green algae (cyanobacteria) and also measuring the changes of distilled oxygen over a period of 3 weeks.
My experiment has not worked and was wondering if you had any available secondary data or data that supports the hypothesis of phosphorus increasing the physical growth of blue green algae and decrease of available distilled oxygen?

Kel

Hi Kel,

I hope you are having a good day. I am sorry that your project hasn't worked out yet, but that is very typical for science experiments, so don't be too discouraged

Through a Google search, I have found several studies/articles that suggest high levels of phosphorus are associated with increased algae growth and decreased levels of dissolved oxygen. I believe this has been fairly well-studied. Below are some links I found that support your hypothesis (there are many that I found, but I just attached a few to get you started).

https://phys.org/news/2016-08-phosphoru ... tists.html
https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-re ... l%20health.
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowled ... 102364466/

For your experiment, there are plenty of studies on NCBI that can be accessed to help develop a eutrophication model or optimize your conditions -- this may be necessary since you said that you haven't gotten your experiment to work yet. I just did a quick search for "eutrophication model" on the NCBI site. Also, please feel free to provide more details about your project and reach out if you have any specific questions!

-Brandi

Thank you so much for this !!