Protists live in freshwater environments. The photosynthetic protist Volvox is commonly found in a local freshwater pond. Unfortunately, due to fertilizer runoff from a surrounding farm, the pH of the pond is starting to become more acidic. What do you think will be the likely outcome of the Volvox population?

Question

I have no idea - we've been doing online learning and idk when we learned this. I'm assuming Volvox will adapt in some way but i'm not sure if there is a more specific answer

Answer 1

DW, I had the exact same question on a "quiz" for bio (hint hint). I mean it's really down to common sense at this point. There are two likely outcomes, but one is more right than the other. The first (and probably wrong one)is that the fertilizer will give nutrients to the algae (a type of protist) and the population will skyrocket.

The more right answer is down to common sense if we're just looking at the ph environment. If they normally live in neutral ph value water, they probably only survive in that, it's kind of like drinking water, you don't want the ph of your water to be very acidic unless you're... adventurous. The point is, the population will probably turn to zero.

Also, don't just copy-paste this, because now that it's online, "your" teacher can detect if you just paraphrased my answer.