The Effect of Oil on Elodea

Overview

Our Essential Question was "How does oil affect aquatic plants?" Our Hypothesis was "If we increase the amount of oil in a water like habitat the elodeas health will decrease." We were able to have access to a microscope, so we could look closely at the elodeas cells, which happen to be very large. When the plants were put into different amounts of oil we noticed that when comparing the plant inside of the most amount of oil and the least amount, we could see the change in color from a more vibrant green color to a grayish color and the leaves became brittle. We found that our Hypothesis was correct, as there was more oil there was, the more unhealthy conditions were showing in the Elodea. We found that the oil created a layer on the water called sheen, which blocks sunlight and oxygen. Making it hard for the Elodea to perform photosynthesis, and leading to the elodeas health declining.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Earth & Environmental Sciences (Track 2) (Junior Division) · Entry J-09-19

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