Description
What We Are Doing
We will be testing in order to find out what causes coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is when a coral expels the zooxanthellae, or photosynthetic algae living inside of it due to stress. Because the zooxanthellae gives the coral most of its nutrients and food, the coral will not be able to sustain itself and eventually dies. It also turns white because the zooanthellae gives the coral its color.
We will be testing four environmental stressors which we think might cause Coral Bleaching. These stressors are Light / Turbidity, Nitrates, Feeding, and Temperature. Light / Turbidity affects the coral by reducing the amount of light shining through the water. Because coral get most of their food from the algae living in their carbonthe algae living inside the coral are photosynthetic We are testing to see how these cause Coral Bleaching and the effect it gives on the coral. We will also test three levels of these stressors, High, Medium, and Low and also have a Control group for each of these levels. These levels are divided into the three classes in the Patton, Leader, Morissette, Corner Team, classes D, E, and F. Class D is testing Medium, Class E is testing Low, and Class F is testing High. My Team, Class F, is Testing High stressors. I am currently in the Control Group and will be setting a baseline for all of our class' tests.
In order to conduct our tests, in Environmental Engineering, we built tanks that will house our coral along a rack to hold the tank and a sump that will filter the water circling through our tank.
We will also enter into the QuikScience Competition. QuikScience is a competition sponsored by the clothing company Quiksilver. The Grand Prize for this competition is a 2-day Paid Vacation to Catalina Island of the Coast of California. In the QuikScience portion of the Coral Reef Conservation Project, we will be producing four Products that we will enter into QuikScience, a Research Paper / Proposal, a Service Plan, a Lesson Plan, and a five minute Video with an Interview of a Scientist. Our products will be based off of our Research in the Coral Reef Conservation Project.
We will be testing four environmental stressors which we think might cause Coral Bleaching. These stressors are Light / Turbidity, Nitrates, Feeding, and Temperature. Light / Turbidity affects the coral by reducing the amount of light shining through the water. Because coral get most of their food from the algae living in their carbonthe algae living inside the coral are photosynthetic We are testing to see how these cause Coral Bleaching and the effect it gives on the coral. We will also test three levels of these stressors, High, Medium, and Low and also have a Control group for each of these levels. These levels are divided into the three classes in the Patton, Leader, Morissette, Corner Team, classes D, E, and F. Class D is testing Medium, Class E is testing Low, and Class F is testing High. My Team, Class F, is Testing High stressors. I am currently in the Control Group and will be setting a baseline for all of our class' tests.
In order to conduct our tests, in Environmental Engineering, we built tanks that will house our coral along a rack to hold the tank and a sump that will filter the water circling through our tank.
We will also enter into the QuikScience Competition. QuikScience is a competition sponsored by the clothing company Quiksilver. The Grand Prize for this competition is a 2-day Paid Vacation to Catalina Island of the Coast of California. In the QuikScience portion of the Coral Reef Conservation Project, we will be producing four Products that we will enter into QuikScience, a Research Paper / Proposal, a Service Plan, a Lesson Plan, and a five minute Video with an Interview of a Scientist. Our products will be based off of our Research in the Coral Reef Conservation Project.
Who We've Been Doing It With
We are working with Aaron Hartmann, a PHD Candidate at UCSD. He has helped us almost every step of the way by teaching us about Coral Bleaching and how it affects the ecosystem. Aaron has been researching in Curacao, an Island in the Southern Carribean, which he says has arguably the most diverse coral reef ecosystem in the Carribean and possibly the World. This Coral Reef ecosystem is however, being threatened by property development near the North part of the island.
Why We're Doing It
The purpose of this project is to help find the causes of Coral Bleaching and to help find a way to prevent it.