Investigate the Copper’s Toxicity to the Aquatic Environment
Your Names:
Objectives
Copper is a common heavy metal which is toxic to the aquatic environment. In today’s class,
you have to research about copper’s toxicity and answer the following questions. The research
results will help you to create an experiment about copper’s influence to aquatic environment for
next week.
Questions
1. What aquatic organisms can we use for the experiment? List around five organisms.
(Hints: Find aquatic animals and plants that are sensitive to dissolved copper)
2. What copper concentration will be suitable for the experiment?
(Hints: What copper concentration would lead to the organisms’ death?)
3. In order to observe the copper’s effective, we have to set up aquatic environments with
different copper concentrations. How many different conditions do we need?
(Hints: It is good to compare the organisms’ growth and development in conditions with
no copper (a control), non-fatal copper concentration, and fatal concentration)
4. How do other parameters affect the toxicity of copper?
(Hint: If the hardness of the water is high will more or less copper dissolve in the water?
What about the pH of the water?)
5. What parameters should be controlled for (i.e. remain the same throughout the
experiment and test conditions) in an experiment to observe the effect of copper on
aquatic environments?
6. How many organisms should be in each aquatic environment? In order to generate a
more reliable result, we have to put more than 1 organism in each condition.
7. How many days should the experiment last for?
8. Possible concerns? For example, do we have to feed the organisms? do we have to
pump air to the tank?