Katowitz 1

Sam Katowitz
Mrs. Norris
APES
30 January, 2015
Ocean Acidification Lab
Collaborators:
Justin Kunz, Deena Kayyali, and CJ Shatilla

Introduction:
The purpose of the Ocean Acidification Lab is to find out how carbon dioxide affects the pH of
water. The worlds oceans are having a decrease in pH levels because of the uptake of carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere (pmel.noaa.gov). The normal pH of the ocean is 8.1, but it is
buffering (to lessen or moderate the impact of something) because of all the carbon dioxide
intake, therefore, decreasing the pH level.

Problem:
How does carbon dioxide affect the pH of water?

Hypothesis:
If carbon dioxide (CO2) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) are added to the ocean water, then the
ocean water will become more acidic and the pH level will decrease, causing the color of the
solution to change.

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Parts of the experiment:

Control Group: plain ocean water and plain distilled water without the universal indicator
Experimental Group: Ocean and distilled water with universal indicator
Independent Variable: carbon dioxide
Dependent Variable: pH
Control Variables: universal indicator, calcium carbonate

Materials:
-Two test tubes
-Universal indicator
-Ocean water
-Distilled water
-Straw
-CaCO3

Methods:
1. Put 1 ml of universal indicator into 10 ml of ocean water, record the pH.
2. Put 1 ml of universal indicator into 10 ml of distilled water, record the pH.
3. Using a straw, slowly breathe into the test tubes, record the time it takes for the color to
change.
4. Add 1g of crushed CaCO3 to each test tube, record the results.

Data Table:

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pH
Distilled Water

Time it took to
change colors
17.98 seconds

Ocean Water

7.5

27.41 seconds

pH after
4.5

pH after adding
CaCO3
8

6.5

Conclusion:
The most common pH of surface ocean water is 8.1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawater). This
was different from our ocean water, which had a pH of 7.5. This may be because the ocean water
we had was in a smaller container and does not involve as much carbonic acid and bicarbonate
ions and the sea life in a real ocean. The distilled water and ocean water responded differently to
the CO2 because the ocean water has a more efficient buffering system. When CaCO3 was added
to the ocean water, the pH became slightly more neutral but didnt change much because of the
buffering system it has. The distilled waters pH became a lot more basic when CaCO3 was
added because CaCO3 is a base and the water didnt have an effective buffering system. My
hypothesis was incorrect because although I hypothesized that the ocean water would become
more acidic when CO2 was added, the pH level of the ocean water became more basic when
CaCO3 was added.

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Citations:

"OceanAcidification."OceanAcidification.N.p.,n.d.Web.29Jan.2015.
"OceanAcidification."Wikipedia.WikimediaFoundation,n.d.Web.30Jan.2015.