2004 Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair

The abstract below was written by the student. The Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District made no editorial changes.

Abstract

What factors cause algae to grow so much and suffocate other pond and river life? Well, chief among them is nitrogen.

In this experiment different concentrations of nitrogen were combined with algae to see how nitrogen affected algae’s growth. The purpose of this experiment was to see how much nitrogen really affected algal growth in a short period of time. For example, if a higher concentration of nitrogen is used, then the algae growth will increase. Distilled water, and nitrogen fertilizer were blended, and then put together with an algae culture. Each algae culture was divided into three jars. Results were found by the amount of light transmitted through the jar, showing how cloudy the water was from the algae.

From the experiment it could be determined that a median amount of nitrogen causes the most increase in growth. Too much stifles the algae, and too little deprives it of nutrients it needs to grow.