The Effect of Motor Oil on
the Survival Rate of Brine Shrimp
photo of Lyndsey at Mid Columbia Science Fair

Researched by Lyndsey S.
2005-06


PURPOSE

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of motor oil on the survival rate of brine shrimp.

I first became interested in this idea because I had heard horrible reports, over and over, from watching the news about the pollutants getting in our lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans that damage the aquatic life. I wanted to see for myself how a common pollutant would affect an organism. I chose to test on brine shrimp because they are at the bottom of the food chain. If the motor oil killed them then the whole food chain itself would collapse.

The information gained from this experiment could warn anyone who owns a car how much the motor oil that they dispose of could affect the population of living creatures in our waters. Oil must be disposed of correctly. Pollutants add up in the environment, so my results would help us in the future.

HYPOTHESIS

My first hypothesis was that as the amount of motor oil in the water increased the survival rate of the brine shrimp would decrease.

My second hypothesis was that the more motor oil there was in the water the shorter time the brine shrimp would survive.

I based my hypothesis on a statement from http:///www.recycleoil.org/ that says the following What we do with the used oil from our cars plays an important role in balancing our desire for convenient transportation with our desire for a clean and healthy environment today and for future generations.
 
EXPERIMENT DESIGN

The constants in this study were:
-    The amount of brine shrimp in each Petri dish (10)
-    The amount of water in each Petri dish (5 ml.)
-    The type of water in each Petri dish (salt water)
-    The total time the brine shrimp were left in the Petri dishes (1 hour)
-    The frequency of when the brine shrimp are checked during the test (every 10 min.)

The manipulated variable was the amount of motor oil put in each Petri dish.

The responding variable was the rate of the deaths of the tested brine shrimp. 

To measure the responding variable, I counted how many brine shrimp survived in each petri dish about every 10 min. for a period of 1 hour.

MATERIALS

QUANTITY  ITEM DESCRIPTION
4
 droppers
1
 brine shrimp hatcher
1
 container of brine shrimp eggs
20
 Petri dishes
1
 timer
1
 bottle motor oil
1
 L. water
55
 g. salt
1
 egg
1
 disecting microscope
4
 syringes

                    

PROCEDURES

1.    Prepare the salt water
-mix 55 grams of non-iodized salt into each 1 liter of distilled water

2.    Culture brine shrimp at 20ο  C.  
-add ¼ tsp. Of dry eggs to ½ a liter of salt sulution
-Let them grow for about 48 hours

3.    Mixing together the salt water and motor oil
-Mix water and motor oil together using an emulsifier, then stir
-I used 5 ml. of egg white in each petri dish
-Have 10%of motor oil with 5 ml. of salt water into one petri dish
-Then double the amount of motor oil that you put in on the other petri dishes as you go on, but keep the amount of salt water the same

4.    Move 10 brine shrimp into the 5 petri dishes
-using a dropper
-count the brine shrimp that are inside just by looking inside

5.    Checking the brine shrimp
-I took each petri dish with the different amounts of motor oil one at a time under a microscope and counted how many were still living
-They might not be moving around much, but check carefully to see if they are still kicking
-Every 10 min. I counted how many were living out of 10
-I continued each trial for 1 hour
-Then I recorded how many brine shrimp had survived the trial at the last counting
 
 RESULTS

The original purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of motor oil on the survival rate of brine shrimp.


The average results of the experiment were that the brine shrimp that were held in the petri dish with 5% motor oil only had 85% living after 1 hour. The brine shrimp that where being held in the petri dish with 10% motor oil only had 83% living after 1 hour. The brine shrimp that were being held in the petri dish with 20% motor only had 76% living after 1 hour. The brine shrimp that were being held in the petri dish with 40% motor oil only had 76% living after 1 hour. The control group with no oil had 98% living after 1 hour.


See the table and graph below
 
CONCLUSION

My first hypothesis was that as the amount of motor oil in the water increased the survival rate of the brine shrimp would decrease.

The results indicate that my first hypothesis should be accepted, because having the motor oil increase did have the survival rate of brine shrimp decrease.

My second hypothesis was that the more motor oil there was in the water the shorter time the brine shrimp would survive.

The results indicate that my second hypothesis should be accepted, because the more motor oil there was in the water the shorter time the brine shrimp would survive.

After thinking about the results of this experiment, I wonder if antifreeze would decrease the survival rate of brine shrimp even more than the motor oil did. Antiifreeze is soluable in water and motor oil is not. I also wonder if I used water from a different water source the results would change.

If I were to conduct this project again I would probably add  more motor oil in with the brine shrimp to get bigger results.
 

RESEARCH REPORT

Introduction
Brine shrimp are important as an “indicator species“ because this animal is at the bottom of the food chain, so if they disappear or become extinct then the food chain will begin to collapse. We need oil because many things are powered or fueled by it daily. Polluting our water sources is becoming a problem  more and more every minute . This is because people don’t always dispose of their used oil correctly, or when oil is being transported over seas to wherever it is needed there might be an accidential leak that pollutes our waters.

Brine Shrimp

Habitat
In the U.S. brine shrimp are found in two regions, in Mono and little soda lakes along the south coast of San Fransisco, in California, in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, they’re also found in salt flats, and in places were salt water is evaporated commercially. Even though this organism lives in the ocean, they aren’t found in the open waters. Brine shrimp eggs con basically be found at almost any place were pets are sold. These popular organisms   are only found in nature in 250 places around the world, and are only in places were the water is so salty that animals that want to eat them can’t survive.

Their Eggs
It all starts when the female brine shrimp lays  eggs in small salt water pools, but usually some of the many eggs can get washed onto shore. To make sure that scientists can rehatch the eggs they dehydrate the eggs to store and save. If it is possible to store the eggs in a cool dry place, then they can last for up to 12 years. These eggs aren’t hard to get ahold of. You can purchae these eggs at tropica fish supply houses , local tropical fish dealers , pet stores, or maybe in biological supply houses. Brine shrimp eggs look like very small brown dust.



Brine Shrimp As Food
It’s really hard to believe that an organismjust bigger than a centimeter is balancing out our food chain. Our brine shrimp can be an excellent source of food for fish in aquariums, aquaculture systems, and in laboratories.

All About The Family
Arthropods are the biggest family out of all animals. Brine shrimp are very closely related to the fairy shrimp, and other small arthropods.

Crustaceans
Most crustaceans live in water , usually the sea or ocean, they breath with gills, and are born from fertilized eggs. This group is seperated into two different parts, the smaller half and the larger half of crustaceans. The smaller half would contain daphnia, brine shrimp, and fairy shrimp. The larger half would contain sowbugs, crayfish, lobsters, and crabs.

Full Grown Brine Shrimp
Brine shrimp mature in about six weeks and are then ready to breed. Full grown brine shrimp look a pale, white, pinkish color. Brine shrimp also have prominent compound eyes which means that they don’t just see one image, but a lot of them. Brine shrimp have 11 legs on each side of their body. The largest brine shrimp can measure up to about 10 centimeters. Brine shrimp also have from 10 to 30 little limbs that beat up and down 150 to 200 times per minute. To tell brine shrimp apart from each other the female brine shrimp have lateral egg pouches, and the males are the ones holding on to females during mating and are larger. 

Brine Shrimp Eat Algae
Algae and bacteria are the natural food for brine shrimp. Under artificial conditions the best possible way to give brine shrimp food is to add in some powdered yeast or some “Quick Oats“ two or three times a week to create the bacteria, but too much of either of those thigs can kill them. To help measure out how much yeast or quick oats to give them only give them the amount that would disappear in the water after two days making the water clear again.

Acompanying The Brine Shrimp
The only other living thing that accompany brine shrimp in their small salt water pools are different species and types of algae and bacteria.

The Nauplious Stage
Brine shrimp have this stage unlike daphnia that have direct development. The first batch of eggs that come from a female brine shrimp usually go to the nauplious stage inside of the brood  pouch, and then the egg can escape ful grown. A lot of batches from that same brine shrimp are then called “resting eggs“. These eggs float on the surface of the water. These are the eggs that scientists like to collect, dehydrate, and then rehatch.

Salt Water
To make home made salt water you can use 55 table spoons of non iodized salt in every 1 gallon for water. Tuo could also measure 35-37 grams of salt for every liter of water.

The Life Cycle
In the US waters , such as the Great Salt Lake brine shrimp start their life cycles in the beginning of the spring. Once the eggs are hatched the larvae will go through 15 stages before it finally reaches the adult stage. They start to die during October and almost all of them are gone by December. From May to December female brine shrimp give birth to either live naupli or if conditions are bad for larvae survival they will lay a lot of cysts. Those will be dispersed by the winds and waves around them. A lot of times the cysts hatch later when oxygen, water, salinity, temperature, and seasonal conditions are ready and right.

Motor Oil

How Recycling Your Motor Oil Helps
If someone recycled only 2 gallons of used motor oil, it could generate all of the electricity to run the tropical house for about 24 hours.

Cars
Most people say that they couldn’t live without cars, but we also need clean, non polluted waters just as much if not more.What we do with the used oil from our cars plays an important role in balancing our desire for a clean and healthy water enviroment today and for future generations. Our motor oil does not wear out it just gets really dirty. It can easily be recycled. Motor oil is the most harmful (known) pollutant , mostly because accidental spills are widely reported.

Non-Accidental contamination
When the world didn’t know contaminate our waters or even dispose of it correctly, tankers used to dispose of their used motor oil by spraying the inside of the tank to get the motor oil out and then let the contaminated water flow back into our waters. One of the many nick-names for motor oil is black gold.

How Oil Was Created
Scientists think that the earth‘s petroleum formed millions of years ago when a lof of areas from our continents were under water. Once the plants and animals reproduced and died their remains fell to the sea floor. When covered by mud and other sedimens this substance started to change. The pressure from the sediments transformed it into compounds of hydrogen and carbon called hydrocarbons. Rich varities of hydrocarbons makes petroleum. Petroleum, natural gas, and coal all formed from millions of years ago. These are called fossil fuels. The thing that changes plant and animal remains into foossil fuels also changed the area area around them into rock. There are about 70 regions of sedimentary rocks in the U.S. Scientists go there searching for oil andnatural gas.

Oil Deposits
Oil can reach us by faults, or cracks that let petroleum come through. Most of the time though oil is trapped under ground, or under layers of salt, limestone, or shale. Oil’s not just underneath rocks in pools. Formations can be miles long and 100’s of feet thick. They’re like a sponge to oil. Oil and gasses are lighter than waterso they rise to the tops of the underground deposits. When a drill just passes sandstone the gas comes out first, then oil, and then salt water. Once the salt water comes out that means that all of the easily recovered oil has been obtained .

Different Types of Oil
There are light and heavy oil , but there is also extra heavy crude, oil. Heavy oil can be denser than water, but is still a liquid. Venezula has the worlds biggest stores of extra heavy oil. Canada also has extra heavy oil and sandstones.

The First Oil Well In The U.S.
The first oil well in the US was drilled by a steam powered bit in 1859 by Titusville,, Pennsylvania. The oil came through deposits that were close to the surface. To get this oil they only had to drill down 70 feet . Today we usually have to drill down miles to finally reach oil.
How Oil Can Reach The Sea
Oil can get to the ocean from rivers, air, smoke, from factories, and from cars that have unburned fues that gets washed away by rain. The land pollution is a problem in coastal areal and doesn‘ thave that much of effect on the ocean.
Serious Problem Areas
Oil is only serious in coastal waters and seas largely enclosed by land because pollutants are discharged from land, especially rivers.

Oil and Petroleum As Weapons
Oil can burn so it became a chemical warfare weapon. Petroleum filled trenches and set fire to guard/protect cities in ancient times. Oil  was one of the ingredient for a famous greek fire: invented in660 A.D. The greek fire was used against Arabian ships that attacked.  At a close range the greek galleys fired jets of firey liquid through tubes on Arab galleys. Water purn on this fire did little when it came to putting it out and the Arabian fleat was almost destroyed.

Christopher Columbus
In the year 1948 Christopher Columbus discovered petroleum in form in the great tar lake  in th eisland of Trinidad. He and others used the tar to fill cracks in hteir ships‘ hulls and to keep them waterproof.

Our Society
We live in a petroleum/hydrocarbon based society. Oil has altered the landscape. We use petroleum to power and lubricate automobiles, made suburban spraawl,highways, and parking lots too.

Living Without Oil
Without or petroleum or oil it would eliminate or minimize your supply of some of your clothes, footwear, furniture, apliances, games, and food. You wouldn’t have those things because petroleum is used in artificial fertilizers, fuel, lubricants for farm machinary, for trucks, and other vehicles. You also wouldn‘t be able to read very many new books coming out because ink has petroleum in it, but like a few books ink can be made out of soy.



Summary
So we really can’t live without either of these things. Oil helps make or fuel things that everyone needs. Brine shrimp support the food chain because without brine shrimp it would collapse. One thing for sure though is that everyone needs to recycle oil to re-use it and not pollute our waters any more.
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • “Brine Shrimp.“ Foss Web. November 23, 2005 http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/foss/fossweb/teachers/materials/plantanimal/brines…
  • “Brine Shrimp“. Mono Lake‘s Unique Species. November 23, 2005 http://www.monolake.org/naturalhistory/shrimp.htm
  • “Clean Water Act“. Microsoft Encarta. 2001 edition. CD-ROM.  Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 1993-2000.
  • Duerr, Christine. “Brine shrimp“. Rhode Island Sea Grant Fact Sheet. November 23, 2005 http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/factsheets/931brine.html
  • “Oil“. Biomes of the World. 1999.    
  • Orlans, Barbara. Animal care from protozoa to small mammals. Menlo Park, California: Addison-Wesly Publishing Company, 1997. pg. 94, 101-106
  • Pringle, Laurence. Oil Spills. New York: William Morrow, and Company, Inc., 1993. Pp. 1-end.
  • “Used Motor Oil Collection and Recycling“. October 27, 2000 http://www.recycleoil.org/
 


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for helping make my project possible:
•    My parents for always helping me whether it was keeping me on task or running me to the store for some last minute supplies.
•    Mr. Newkirk and Mrs. Viernesfor always being there for me whenever I needed help or advice.
•    Also Mr. Sherwood for helping me on my experiment.
•    My friends Mary for most the time keeping me off task but we had fun and I still got my work done.
•    Mrs. Veirnes for being like an encyclopedia to me. She holds all the info that I need.
•    Last, but not least my loving, caring, and dependable, brother T.J.

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