APFIVE A student conducted an experiment to understand the role of carbon dioxide in ocean acidification. They set up two aquariums with seawater and marine life, injecting CO2 into one aquarium while leaving the other as a control. After a few weeks, the student observed no significant difference in the health of marine life between the two aquariums. The student expected the aquarium with added CO2 to show signs of acidification and negatively affect marine life. What was the conceptual mistake in the student’s experimental setup?
The duration of the experiment was too short to observe the gradual effects of ocean acidification on marine life health.
The amount of CO2 injected was too low to significantly change the pH of the seawater in the experimental aquarium.
The marine life used in the experiment was of species that are particularly resilient to changes in pH, masking the effects of acidification.
The student did not account for the buffering capacity of seawater, which can neutralize small amounts of added CO2, preventing immediate acidification.
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