The Relationship Between Water Quality and Epiphyton Area Density

In the competitive food web of an aquatic ecosystem, microorganisms such as epipthyon make up a large part of the primary level; whatever happens to them affects the rest of the food web. We would like to find out the effect of O2 concentration and pH on epiphyton in the aquatic ecosystems of Lake Suggs and Lake Barco. We chose to focus on epithyton, a type of periphyton found within aquatic plants, mainly consisting of photosynthetic microorganisms.The outcome of this study could provide direct implications on how O2 and pH affect epiphyton density, and therefore their overall health. It also provides indirect implications to the overall health of the ecosystem. Too much epithyton could lead to harmful algal blooms, killing heterotrophs. Too little could lead to less dissolved O2, killing the aerobes in the ecosystem. O2 is a product produced by phytoplankton and epithyton through photosynthesis. The reason we chose to measure a product rather than a reactant is because the O2 product ultimately shows the photosynthetic activity of these organisms (indicating their health), enabling us to see how the abundance/lack of resources affects their density in times of ideal or poor conditions. From this, we can deduce the expected density of phytoplankton when nutrients are abundant or scarce, and if there are limitations to their growth. We also chose to measure pH, because the delicate acidic / basic balance may have major effects on epithyton density, either increasing or decreasing them.While pH is not a direct reactant or product of photosynthesis, it is a crucial factor in maintaining the health of these microorganisms and is typically considered when studying the balance of biochemical systems. Understanding how factors like O2 concentration and pH affects these microorganisms can help us to understand and predict the homeostatic capacity of these microorganisms and the health of an ecosystem.