Coral Bleaching Lab Size Experiment By: Tom, Meredith, Eric, Lina, & Kristian.

Complications Accidental increase in salinity in experiment tanks Unsuitable for testing Control tank still has live Aiptasia Change in experiment

The Size Experiment The data from a 0.5 gram Aiptasia deviated from the data of other groups Other groups had smaller Aiptasia Does the weight of the Aiptasia affect the numbers in each category? Zooxanthellae Density Chlorophyll Protein

Hypothesis The Aiptasia which weighs more will have higher zooxanthellae densities, more chlorophyll, and more protein than those Aiptasia which weigh less

Procedure Collect data in same ways as previous weeks: Zooxanthellae count Chlorophyll extraction Protein assay Collect data from other groups Set up tables to analyze data Plot data to see if there is any reliable correlation between the weight and the other factor

Table of Results We essentially had 8 blocks of data Weight (g) Zoox Density (zoox/g wt.) Chlorophyll (ch/10^6cells) Protein (mg/g) 0.062 60.887 11.94 0.02339 0.0884 152.71 0.5719 0.0011282 0.1113 233.6 7.99 1.6 0.1596 191 11.6 3.72 0.2032 126 21.38 0.95 0.2742 0.496 49.7 2.82 0.5 19.433 37.7 0.03174 0.742 92 60.9 1.7

Zooxanthellae Density Graph

Chlorophyll Graph

Protein Graph

Discussion No graphs have any reliable correlation between weight and any of the other factors. Chlorophyll was slightly correlated, but not close enough to accept as true I still believe there must be some type of correlation; therefore, what went wrong?

Possible Explanations for Data No correlation exists More data is needed Human error* Data collected from my group Problems? Collecting data from other groups Eliminate extremes?

Adjusted Table of Data weight (g) Zoox Density (zoox/g wt.) Chlorophyll (ch/10^6 cells) Protein (mg/g) 0.062 60.887 11.94 0.02339** 0.0884 152.71 0.5719** 0.0011282** 0.1113 233.6 7.99 1.6 0.1596 191 11.6 3.72 0.2032 126 21.38 0.95 0.2742 0.496** 49.7 2.82 0.5 19.433** 37.7 0.03174** 0.742 92 60.9 1.7

Adjusted Zooxanthellae Density Graph

Adjusted Chlorophyll Graph

Adjusted Protein Graph

Further Discussion Even the adjusted graphs don’t display any promising results Some patterns do slightly arise More weight = less zoox density More weight = more chlorophyll No reliable correlations with protein Much more data needed Data HAS to be as accurate as possible

Why? A correlation will help other groups determine what size Aiptasia to test for more results A correlation will also help groups predict the outcome of a lighter or heavier Aiptasia No correlation warns groups that nothing can be assumed