Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

The full title of the subject is: The effect of higher concentrations of carbonic acid and dissolved copper on the marine microbial community.

BACKGROUND:Hey there! so I wanted to know how would more carbonic acid and/or more dissolved copper would affect the marine microbes.
I chose this topic because I am very interested in microorganisms, and because oceans are intaking more CO2. When CO2 reacts with water this generates carbonic acid which lowers the Ph of the oceans. So I was curious how does this affect the microorganisms, which is relevant because some of them are the main producers(autotrophs) for the marine ecosystem.
I am also aware that there are more heavy metals polluting the ocean. I chose to study copper because, I assume, it is the safest heavy metal to work with.
QUESTION: I am not sure how to culture the marine microorganisms. At first, I was thinking to create a Winogradsky column from mud and water from a local beach. However, the Winogradksy column cultures many anaerobic organisms, and I assume that is a poor model of the marine ecosystem. I don't suppose there are many anaerobic microbes in the ocean.
So, I decided that instead of using a winogradsky column, I would only culture some sort of algae or plankton, because they are the main producers in oceans.
But I don't know how to culture them or even get ahold of them. Are there media for algae or plankton? Are there special tanks in which I can grow them?
Please give me as much feedback as necessary. Is there anything else I should consider when planning this research project?
I appreciate your help. Have a nice day.

Hi,

Welcome to Science Buddies! This sounds like a great project and I do have some suggestions to help you get started:

Phytoplankton are the ocean algae that are efficient in sequestering carbon dioxide.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Featur ... oplankton/


Coccolithophores are members of the phytoplankton community that also sequester carbon in a calcium carbonate shell and I think this would be an ideal organism to use in your study.

http://www.geo.uni-bremen.de/cocco/inde ... 47&lang=en

Here’s a brief review with scientific references of studies done with coccolithophores and ocean acidification. I recommend that you read this review and as many of the references as possible to give you background for your project.

http://www.co2science.org/subject/o/sum ... ncocco.php\\\

Here is information on growth rates of coccolithophores.

http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_53/issue_3/1181.pdf
Here’s a thesis that describes in detail how to grow coccolithophores.
http://library.williams.edu/theses/pdf.php?id=88
A comment about your project title. It sounds like you are thinking about using two independent variables, carbonic acid and dissolved copper. I recommend that you do one set of experiments first with one independent variable before deciding to include a second variable.
Let us know if you have any more questions.


Donna Hardy