Algae Comes First, Then Comes Oxygen, and Last but not Yeast, There is Carbon

Abstract

The key impact of this research inquiry was to gain a better understanding of how decomposers affect algal populations and how the algal populations in turn affect the oxygen concentration in bodies of water. The subject matter for this experiment was to determine how the oxygen level, of the same initial algal populations, was affected by varying amounts of yeast. This analysis was tested through careful experimentation in this study, more specifically by creating 3 replications of the same four sample groups and then testing the levels of O₂ and the algal population density in each sample. Each sample group contained four centrifuge tubes that contained the same amount of water sample, and different amounts of yeast and deionized water. Our research concluded that yeast, or decomposers, effects the amount of oxygen in a given sample of water.