The Effect of a Concentrated Oxybenzone Solution on Water pH Levels Based on Biological Responses of Red Corallina Algae in an Environment with a High Relative Acidity

The impact of human interference on physical environments has triggered major global events such as ocean acidification due to climate change and the direct chemical pollution of marine habitats. While research exists regarding the relationships between marine algal biological processes and current ecological patterns, calcification and photosynthetic characteristics of Corallina have not been sufficiently observed under these conditions. (Nash et al., 2019) The purpose of this study was to measure the change in water pH level exposed to Coralline algae samples and varying concentrations of oxybenzone in water with a high acidity level. It was hypothesized that as the concentration of oxybenzone in the water increased, and the algae was exposed to an environment with a high acidity, the photosynthetic abilities of the Corallina samples would decrease due to the weakening properties of oxybenzone on coral reefs. Lowering the pH level of the water by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the water. In order to perform this experiment, Corallina samples were exposed to water with an initial pH level of 7.9 and varying concentrations of oxybenzone. After several days, the water pH was recorded again as a measure of how well the biological processes of the algae responded to the treatment. The results of this experiment indicated that there was no significant difference in the pH levels after treatment exposure based on a one way ANOVA test with an alpha value of 0.05, (F(2,12) = [3.37], p = 0.07), as p \u3c 0.05. Meaning that the null hypothesis could not be rejected, and that there was no significant evidence to suggest that the biological processes of Corallina are lessened by a combined effect of high acidity and oxybenzone exposure