Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature (16A)

 

1. Describe the shape of your standard curve. Is this relationship linear of curvilinear? Explain.
   • The standard curve is curvilinear possibly because we used tap water instead of spring water, but more likely because the warmer water is, the faster the molecules are moving. The movement of molecules allows for more oxygen to diffuse at a faster rate. There may be some human errors that also modified the curve.
2. If the oxygen is dissolved in cold water, what happens to the oxygen when water warms up? Have you ever observed this phenomenon?
   • The oxygen increases and expands. I've observed this in boiling water which produces bubbles of gaseous oxygen.
3. In your field site, how did the data compare with your standard curve? Was the water at this site saturated with oxygen, based on its temperature, or not? Explain other factors that may have affected oxygen levels, based on your observations.
   • Our field samples did not compare to our standard curve at all. Only the water from the Sarasota Bay and from the toilet seemed to have oxygen saturation based on temperature. The other samples may have had different levels of interactions with vegetation than those samples that fit on the standard curve.
4. How might the relationship between temperature and dissolved oxygen explain the adaptive significance of symbiotic algae within the bodies of coral polyps on tropical reefs?
   • In tropical reefs warmer temperatures likely increase the amount of dissolved oxygen. This may enhance algae growth because algae consumes oxygen at night. Increased levels of oxygen also increase the success of coral polyps, which provide algae with needed carbon dioxide, thus further increasing the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water.
5. Trapping of infrared radiation by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has the potential to warm the atmosphere a few degrees over the next century. This does not seem very significant to a terrestrial mammal like yourself, but how might this change affect tropical aquatic habitats?
   • This could affect tropical aquatic habitats by increasing the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water significantly. These increases will change the survival rates of all aquatic wildlife, from fish to algae to corals.
   

**Aidan Bailey and I worked together on this lab.