Group 1 Section 009 BIOL 212 1. We edited our discussions and removed terms that would classify as brevity Final Discussion Introduction In this experiment, we analyzed the effect of salt on algae, zooplankton diversity and abundance of specific zooplankton taxa. We expected that the salt would have a negative effect in each of these cases and that increasing salt concentrations would lead to the degradation of algae, decreased biodiversity of zooplankton as well as a decreased abundance of the specific taxon of zooplankton. Our results overall did not follow what we expected and the increase of salt concentration showed no effect on algae, zooplankton biodiversity and only had an effect on some specific taxa of zooplankton. Effect of Salt on Algae The experiment conducted observed the effect of road salt concentration on freshwater algae. We inferred that the results of the experiment would display a decrease in algae growth after being exposed to higher road salt concentrations. We also believed that algae in the higher concentrations of salt would decrease at a quicker rate compared to algae exposed to lower concentrations. Therefore, we theorized our results would show that road salt would have a negative effect on algae leading to its decrease in concentration. However, our results showed that there was no significant correlation between the post-salt chlorine concentrations and chlorophyll A-concentrations. We assumed these results since our p-value (0.091) was greater
than 0.05. This may be due to unequal light placed on each microcosm which could have affected growth or the uneven amounts of algal populations placed in the microcosms at the start of the experiment. Our results did not agree with a related study found on prolonged salt stress conducted by Affenzeller and other colleagues. Prolonged salt stress (around 24 hours) led to the degradation of organelles by autophagy, a special form of PCD, both in NaCl- and KCl-treated cells. These results showed that it was likely that abiotic and biotic salt stress factors in the unicellular green alga Micrasterias denticulata resulted in cell death based on the decreasing function and degradation of the organelles in these species (Affenzeller et al. 2009). Since there was no significant correlation between the chlorine and algae concentrations, the prolonged salt stress study did not support our findings. We also compared our results to a study that observed the primary production of edaphic algal communities in a Delaware salt marsh run by Gallagher and Daiber. The gross primary production of edaphic algae in the study was estimated for five areas in a high salinity tidal marsh near Lewcs, Delaware. The study determined that salt pan and bare bank (free of angiosperms) algal production did not vary significantly from one part of the year to another. In the short S. alterniflora area algal productivity, they noticed higher rates in the warming portion of the year with lower rates during other seasons. They also noticed that in colder temperature from December to January, there was an increase in algal activity in the salt