fairfolio
Saved Projects

An Assessment of the Health of Eelgrass Under Varying Ocean Acidification Simulations

AJAS · 2026 Earth and Environmental Sciences (inferred)

Lillian Boyd · New Jersey Academy of Science

Overview

Eelgrass, or Zostera marina, is a species of submerged aquatic vegetation that grows in shallow bays and estuaries. Ocean acidification is the gradual increase in the acidity of seawater caused by the absorption of CO2. Eelgrass, like other vegetation, uptakes CO2 during the process of photosynthesis. Eelgrass specimens were harvested from Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, and planted in two tanks, with a control tank containing only water. Over a three-month period, chlorophyll levels were measured intermittently. Gaseous CO2 was added in 30-second intervals to both the control tank and one eelgrass tank. After 24 hours, the eelgrass tank showed a 100% reduction in CO2 concentration, while the control tank displayed only a 47% reduction. With this, there was a larger increase in pH in the tank containing eelgrass. Additionally, relative fluorescence was measured using a chlorophyll fluorometer, revealing a notable increase in the rate of photosynthesis in the eelgrass after CO2 exposure. Water samples from Barnegat Bay indicated that areas with eelgrass patches had significantly lower CO2 concentrations compared to areas without eelgrass. In conclusion, eelgrass demonstrates high efficiency in absorbing CO2 from the water, highlighting its significance in the context of escalating CO2 levels.

Competition history

  • AJAS 2026 Category not listed

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: AAAS Annual Meeting (Confex) / American Junior Academy of Science

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google