Grow Baby Grow: A Study of Algal Growth on Nitrate and Phosphate Polluted Waters

Abstract

Eutrophication is the oversaturation of an environment with nutrients such as phosphorous or nitrogen in an aquatic ecosystem (French 2015). Our lab compared the levels of phosphorous and nitrogen in a contaminated water sample after algae inside was given time to grow. We questioned how pollutants in the water affected algae growth. We compared three different contaminated water samples from water supplies around the Oklahoma City area, and gave them conditions preferable to algae growth before letting them sit for a week. The majority of the samples showed a decrease in the amount of both pollutants, supporting the fact that algae growth thrives off these nutrients. However there was one sample that showed increase in the pollutants after given time to grow which provided support against our hypothesis.