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Liang, Diana; Petersons, Lydia

Among the many environmental threats facing Earth today, pollution in water bodies continues to stand out as a serious issue. One substantial source of aquatic pollution is synthetic dye, an estimated 800,000 tons of which are released into water bodies yearly during manufacturing (El-Ahmady El-Naggar et al., 2020). While removing dye pollution is difficult and costly with conventional methods, absorbing and or degrading the contaminant with living organisms or organic material--bioremediation--offers a powerful and sustainable alternative (Zohoorian et al., 2020). The goal of this investigation was to examine the potential of Ulva lactuca (sea lettuce) to remediate seawater samples contaminated with commercial textile dye at a range of initial concentrations. The action of the algae, removing and degrading dye, was indirectly measured with light transmittance as a proxy for dye concentration, recorded by an Arduino-based photometer. With data taken over a 96-hour period, samples with algae consistently demonstrated greater total change in transmittance and greater rates of change than samples without algae. Additionally, our analysis suggested that initial dye concentration affects dye removal, increasing total change in transmittance up to a point and then decreasing as initial concentration increases. Overall, this investigation supports previous research in demonstrating U. lactuca’s potential as a bioremediator of dye pollution.

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University of British Columbia. Science One Research Projects; University of British Columbia. SCIE 001

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0398360

Science, Faculty of

Undergraduate

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