Summer 2001

Student/Faculty Collaboration:

Keneeshia Williams and Prof. Bill Capman collaborate on reef aquarium nutrient study.

During the summer of 2001, Biology major and McNair Scholars Program student Keneesia Williams conducted research in collaboration with professors Bill Capman (Biology), and Arlin Gyberg (Chemistry). This research investigated the import and export of nutrients from Augsburg's coral reef aquarium system. This was original research, which made use of unique opportunities provided by our reef aquaria, as well as the combined and complementary expertise of Dr's Capman and Gyberg. Dr. Capman provided guidance in the area of reef aquarium biology and worked side-by-side with Keneeshia in the development and design of the project and on aspects of the work involving the aquaria. Dr. Gyberg provided invaluable help and advice regarding the chemical analyses of samples, and Keneesia's lab work was conducted partly in Chemistry department laboratories and partly in the Biology department.

 

Keneesia's presented a poster presentation of her results at an Augsburg College research fair, and she gave an oral/Powerpoint presentation of her project at a National McNair Scholars research conference in Puerto Rico in Fall 2001.

 

 

 

An abstract of a portion of Keneesia's project follows below:

 

---

 

Quantifying nutrient import and export in a coral reef aquarium: the algal turf scrubber

Keneeshia Nicole Williams, McNair Scholar
Mentors: William Capman, Ph.D., Dept. of Biology
Arlin Gyberg, Ph.D., Dept. of Chemistry
Augsburg College
Summer 2001

Abstract

Corals were long thought to be impossible to maintain in captivity, but in the past two decades aquarists have developed and refined techniques for successfully maintaining coral reef aquariums. While corals have many requirements for survival and growth, maintaining low nutrient levels is particularly important, so this issue has attracted particular attention. An algal turf scrubber (ATS) filters Augsburg College’s reef aquarium. The purpose of this study was to quantify the amount of nutrients (those limiting for algal growth) removed by the ATS.

During this study, algae were harvested from the ATS every 1-1.5 weeks for a total of 4 harvests. All imports into the system (food) and exports (harvested algae) were measured. Samples were also taken to the University of Minnesota for inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for phosphorus and iron analysis, total nitrogen (TN), and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) analyses. Between 19.22 and 29.74% of the total import of phosphorus and between 27.14 and 64.72% of the total import of nitrogen was removed by the ATS with each harvest. More iron was found in the biomass of the algae than was imported into the system during the first and last harvests.