Welcome to the Dark Side- growing Algae with various amount of exposure to artificial light

Abstract

In the equation in which photosynthesis happens, light is key factor. With this, we were curious in which how much light is needed for photosynthesis to take place. How much light is ideal? We decided to conduct an experiment to see first-handily how much light effects this process. We created a photobioreacter to hold our experiment. The first week to the second week, we had a control group that had full exposure to artificial light and an experimental group that had zero exposure. After the second week we decided to spice up our experiment by testing how much exposure will affect the rate of photosynthesis on order for algae to grow. For this, we had one control bottle with full exposure, one bottle with 1/4 covered in foil, one bottle with 1/2 covered, and lastly, one bottle with 3/4 coverage. We found that with the fully covered bottle, no algae was grown. The most algae grown was in the fully exposed bottle, which is what we hypnotized. Photosynthesis did take place, just at a slower rate. This resulting in a smaller amount of algae grown.