Microplastics Affect on Algae Reproduction

The problem we want to solve is microplastics affect on algae reproduction. We want to know if there are filters out there that can be put in waterstream to filter out microplastics, and if you can make a filter out of algae. 

Algae are very important to the aquatic ecosystem, they are fertilizers, they feed certain animals, and their reproduction is very important to maintaining homeostasis. If algae can't do their job, or can't reproduce because of microplastics the whole aquatic ecosystem can be upturned. That would not only have major consequences for all aquatic life, but also will affect land creatures. We hope microplastics are not affecting algae reproduction very much, but the reality is that it probably is. We would create a computer model that graphs the reproduction rate of the algae “with” and “without” microplastics. We can use the computer model to hopefully predict feature algae reproduction rates, or see what algae production might look like with different scenarios. We can also test different filters that say they filter microplastics. 

We will work on this by growing algae in a lab and having a control group and an experiment group. In one group we would have the algae reproduce normally and in the other group we would introduce microplastics to the system. We would look at reproduction rates of both groups and put the data into a python program to graph them. We can also test different scenarios on the algae. We can use that data to graph on a larger scale, or look at the future with different scenarios.