Researched by Kyle M.
2000-01

• PURPOSE 
• HYPOTHESIS 
• EXPERIMENT DESIGN 
• MATERIALS 
• PROCEDURES 
• RESULTS 
• CONCLUSION 

• RESEARCH REPORT 
• BIBLIOGRAPHY 
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• ABOUT THE RESEARCHER

INTRODUCTION

 Pollution is bad for all living things, especially for aquatic animals.  A lot of microorganisms like brine shrimp get killed when pollutants get into the water.  Brine shrimp are a small crustacean near the bottom of the food chain.

Brine Shrimp

Brine shrimp are used for fish food.  Brine shrimp are also called "sea monkeys." They are closely related to fairy shrimp which live in fresh water.  The brine shrimp life cycle starts with the hatching of dormant cysts in the spring.  Cysts are what brine shrimp are called when they are eggs.  Cysts can remain dormant for many years if the are kept dry and oxygen free.  Cysts are about 200 micrometers in diameter.  About 50 cysts could fit on the head of a pin. When the cysts are placed back in salt water they get rehydrated.  After 15 to 20 hours the cysts break open and the embryo leaves the shell.  For the first few hours the embryo hangs beneath the shell, still in the hatching membrane.  This is called the umbrella stage.  Newly hatched brine shrimp make great food for Hydra, small freshwater fish, planarian, and sea horses.  Brine shrimp will breed in captivity.  The brine shrimp molt around 15 times before they become the adult size of about 10 millimeters long.  They molt about every 4 to 6 days throughout their whole life.  Brine shrimp are found all over the world in inland saline lakes and ponds. They are found in two main regions of the United States.  They are found in Mono Lake and Little Soda Lakes and along the coast of San Francisco. They are also found in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Some times there are so many brine shrimp that look like a big red-brown streak on the surface of the lake.    Brine shrimp do not live in the oceans. 

Adult male shrimp are easily identified by the pair of graspers on the head.  The graspers are modified antenna and are used to hold the female during mating.  The whole body of the brine shrimp is covered by a thin exoskeleton that is impermeable to both water and salt.  Brine shrimp swim on their back.  As their legs move they create water currents that move through the feeding filters.  Food  is captured from the water and then passed to the mouth.  The tail of the brine shrimp has two rudders used for making sudden movements through the water.  Adult male shrimp mostly feed on phytoplankton.  Pigments from the phytoplankton give colors of blue, green, and red to the brine shrimp’s body.  The color of brine shrimp ranges from pale pink to deep red.  Brine shrimp live in water bodies that are so salty that other living things that eat the same food as the shrimp cannot survive.  The only other living things in these ponds are a couple of species of bacteria and algae, which the shrimp eat. 

If they get enough food and not a lot of stress or decreasing dissolved oxygen then fertilized female shrimp can produce eggs that hatch soon after coming out of the ovisac.  This is known as oviparous reproduction.  If the conditions are perfect the female shrimp can live up to three months and produce up to 300 cysts every four days. Since brine shrimp require no food they were chosen to be the test organism for the early space experiments. 

Ammonia

 Ammonia is a chemical made by both nature and man.  The chemical compound of ammonia is NH3.  Man creates a lot less ammonia every year than nature does.  Ammonia is a colorless gas or liquid with a very strong smell.  Ammonia is used in smelling salts, household cleaners, and window cleaners.  Ammonia easily dissolves in water.  Most ammonia is changed into ammonium when put into water.  Ammonium is not a gas and does not smell.  The ammonium form is most common in wells, rivers, lakes, and wet soils.  Both ammonia and ammonium can change back and forth when in water. 
Ammonia is really important for animal and human life.  Ammonia is a source of much needed nitrogen for plants.  It is found in soil, water, and the air.  Most ammonia in the environment comes from the natural breakdown of manure and dead plants and animals.  Eighty percent of all man-made ammonia is used in fertilizer.  A third of this is applied as pure ammonia.  The rest is used to produce other fertilizers that have ammonium in them. It is also used to manufacture synthetic fibers, plastics, and explosives.  Many cleaning products also contain ammonia. 

In soil or water, microorganisms and plants take up ammonia very fast.  Ammonia will last about a week in the air. Ammonia doesn’t last very long in the environment because ammonia is recycled naturally.  Ammonia is at a lot of waste sites, in the air around waste sites as gas. Ammonia is also dissolved into ponds and other bodies of water around waste sites.  It can also be found sticking to the soil at waste sites.  Since ammonia happens naturally in the environment, we are exposed to low levels of ammonia in the air, soil, and water.  Ammonia is commonly in the rain.  The ammonia levels change throughout the day and throughout the seasons.  Ammonia levels are generally higher in the summer and spring. 
Ammonia can enter your body if you inhale ammonia gas or if you swallow food or water containing ammonia.  A small amount of ammonia might enter your body through your skin if you spill ammonia on your skin.  After you inhale ammonia you exhale most of it back out.  If you swallow food or water that has ammonia in it, it will get into your bloodstream.  Almost all of the ammonia that enters your body will change into other substances that will not hurt your body.  The rest of the ammonia leaves your body in urine.  If you were exposed to very high amounts of ammonia than you might get severe burns on your skin, eyes, throat, or lungs.  The burns might be serious enough to cause permanent blindness, lung disease, or death.  If you swallowed large amounts of ammonia than you might get severe burns in your mouth, throat, and stomach. 

Ammonia also has good effects too.  Such as when ammonia is used in smelling salts.  Some ammonium salts are used in medicine.  There are tests that measure the amount of ammonia in the blood and urine, but these tests would probably not tell you if you have been exposed because ammonia is found in the body.  If you have been exposed you would know by the strong smell, the strong taste, and the skin, eye, nose, and throat irritation. 

Bleach

 The active ingredient in household bleach is Sodium hypochlorite.  Sodium hypochlorite was discovered by a French chemist in 1787.  Every day, millions of people rely on bleach to disinfect, deodorize and clean.  Household bleach is the most common toxic exposure in the United States.  Children under six years of age were involved in 42 percent of bleach exposures.  Bleach was ingested by more than 19,837 preschoolers in 1995.  Bleach is dangerous because it can burn your skin and it might kill you if you swallow it.  Bleach is used to remove soil, stains, bacteria and odors from fabrics.  Bleach reacts with stains and soils.  When the bleach reacts it becomes mostly salt water.  Any remaining bleach goes down the drain into the local sewer system or septic tank and reacts with the wastewater and then is deactive before it is released into any waterway. 

Detergent

 Detergents have many household jobs.  People use detergents to clean a lot of things.  Some motor oils have detergents in them that break down soot, dust, and other things that could hurt the engine.  Detergents have a basic cleaning agent called surfactant or surface active agent.  Surfactants are made out of molecules that attach themselves to dirt particles.  The molecules pull the dirt particles out of the fabric and hold on to them in the wash water until they are rinsed away.  Detergent is a very serious environmental hazard.  It is extremely dangerous to fish.  All detergents destroy the mucus layers that protect the fish from bacteria and parasites.  It can also cause severe damage to the gills of the fish.  Almost all fish will die when detergent concentrations get near 15 parts per million (ppm).  Detergent concentrations as low as 5 ppm will kill fish eggs.  Detergent causes problems for all aquatic life by lowering the surface tension of the water.  Organic chemicals like pesticides and phenols are then a lot more easily absorbed by the fish.  A detergent concentration of only 2 ppm can cause fish to absorb twice as much chemicals as they would normally absorb. 

SUMMARY

Pollution is very bad for all living things.  There is already a lot of pollution in the world and it will get a lot worse if people do not find a way to reduce it.  If people keep polluting then eventually it will affect the whole ecosystem.

"Ammonia", [Online] Available http://www. atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/phs 9003.html, December 1990

"Bleach", [Online] Available http://www.clorox.com/science/rmp/rmp.html

"Brine Shrimp",[Online] Available http://aqualink.com/marine/z-artemia.html,

"Brine Shrimp", [Online] Available http://ut.water.usgs.gov/shrimp/, 6/28/2000

"Detergent", [Online] Available http://ci.fort-worth.tx.us/dem/detergent-fish.html,

Orlans, Barbara F., Animal Care From Protozoa to Small Mammals, Menlo Park, California, Addison-Weasley Publishing Company, 1977