Hey Susan,
While iron is abundant in the oceans in general, it is not evenly distributed. There are many iron deficient areas in the oceans. These areas are limited in their supply of iron, a key nutrient in the growth of algae, which in turn reduces the viable amount of algae in the area. By introducing iron in these iron deficient zones, we would be able to promote the growth of algae in ecosystems otherwise devoid of them. This increase in algae would help to absorb more dissolved CO2 in the ocean through the increased photosynthesis occurring. More algae would also provide more food for the organisms in the ecosystem which would promote a general increase in sea life and biodiversity in the ecosystem. Several groups have embarked upon iron fertilization such as LOHAFEX in 2009, who have fertilized low silicic acid waters, EIFEX in 2005, who made progress fertilizing the waters of Africa, and HSRC who caused an increase in algae growth near the islands of Haida Gwaii.

Hey Brian,
Iron is an element that is required in the process of photosynthesis. Because multiple areas of the ocean are iron deficient, iron acts as a limiting factor in the growth of algae; there is not enough iron to support the photosynthesis that algae rely upon for life in places like the Ross Sea by Antarctica. While we would have loved to be able to simulate iron fertilization and perform further testing ourselves (and still hope to be able to do in the future), we were never able to. Guided by our teacher and one of his colleagues, we ran into consistent obstacles with experimentation that focused on proving the inverse relationship between dissolved CO2 concentration and pH. Determined to lay the foundation for future work, we spent much of our time early on trying to correct these experiments, but when we had finally succeeded in our efforts, the competition had reached a point where carrying out more experimentation would have left us unprepared for the judging and at end of the project. Because of this, we decided to look more towards innovation than tangible and provable solutions (in our own lab). The machine would distribute iron meticulously as controlled by the software programmed into it.

Hey Gilly,
We went to Revere beach and gathered ocean water samples with a few test tubes. In our lab at our high school, we introduced CO2 into multiple samples in a controlled system by means of baking soda and vinegar reactions. We were able to measure the pH of our modified samples to find that with a pH probe detector the acidity increased (h+ ions were created), which was made evident by the lower pH value (below 7) read by the pH detector. Algae absorb dissolved CO2 in a process much like that of normal plants and create glucose and O2 through photosynthesis, however, in order to receive such energy from the sun, algae must be situated in areas where the sunlight can reach which make them populous in the photic zone of waters. If we manipulate the number of algae in the ocean then we can control the amount of harmful CO2 the ocean has obtained through the atmosphere and prevent damaging effects such as coral reef erosion. In terms of innovating a method of determining pH with an autonomous structure like the machine we proposed, we had ideas for creating a portable titration system whose functionality would be governed by computer software. With a little research, we found an organization known as Marianda (Marine Analytics and Data) who specializes in developing instrumentation in the field of chemical analysis and has prepared the VINDTA 3D, a CO2 extraction and alkalinity detection system which is very similar to our design.

I can’t speak for my whole team, but personally I was drawn to the opportunity to actually do something tangible with what I had been learning in school. I love academics, but I am also interested in applying what I learn (which is why I am drawn so strongly to computer science).

The most frustrating part of the project definitely centered around our early trouble with setting a baseline for pH changes in water due to CO2. Even with the help of our Chemistry teacher and one of his colleagues who works in a lab in the area, we were unable to get accurate results for much of the early part of this school year. In the end we succeeded, but the experimentation route was seeming less viable as the deadline approached and so we focused on innovation and the use of completed research for our final product in lieu of rigorous testing.

I know that personally I would love to test what we came up and to see the results for myself. While my passion doesn’t strictly lie in this field now (as I mentioned, it lies in computer science), I would love to see where our work could take us in the future. As of right now I am planning on getting some experience in computer science/programming over the summer through internships or research programs in the Boston area.

Thanks for the comment. While we would like to continue to explore this topic in a more research-oriented environment in the future, we all enjoyed the innovation aspect of the project and what we learned from the process that went into thinking about and researching our ideas.