Chosen HALVE IT goal & SDG

The goal I chose for my HALVE IT project is goal 4:Halve our environmental pollution intercepting and filtering rubbish,chemicals, or plastics before they damage our ecosystem.

My chosen SDG is SDG 13: climate action

Background Research:

The reasons I'm doing my project and the evidence of moss being excellent at helping with air pollution are as follows: first a study conducted over multiple years starting in 2012 showing that schools in areas with worse air pollution had students with lower GPAs.  Studies showed respiratory risk from HAP's (hazardous air pollution) had a bigger effect on GPA´s than diesel partial matter did. This study shows just how important clean air near schools is. Not to mention the chemical and airborne diseases that can be floating around. There's also the issue of how air pollution affects the environment and its ecosystems, air pollution has a whole lot of negative effects on the earth, studies show that chemicals used as refrigerants such as  chlorofluorocarbons have made/ are making a hole in the ozone, these chemicals contain chlorine atoms, a single chlorine atom can destroy thousands of ozone molecules, the ozone is an extremely important part of earth's atmosphere it keeps out harmful ultraviolet and ultraviolet radiation, a hole in the ozone puts all living things on earth  in danger, ultraviolet and ultraviolet radiation have all sorts of risks and negative effects from increasing cancer risk to changing the chemical make up of soil or even reducing the growth of fish, amphibians and other water dwellers. Air pollution is also harming plants and reducing their ability to breathe, not to mention the damage done by acid rain, another effect of air pollution caused by emissions of sulphur dioxide(SO2) and Nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere, the pollutants then mix with water, oxygen and other chemicals after which they form sulfuric and nitric acids which then fall to the ground as rain, snow or fog. All this to say that air pollution can cause a cold or a cough, you could even get asthma from to much exposure to polluted air, or it can cause many more things that are more extreme from damage to a liver or spleen, to harming your nervous system, giving you cancer or even causing death in extreme cases and that's only risks to humans and creatures there's also nature to think of. Air pollution is a much bigger issue than many people think and is often overlooked which can be a devastating mistake in the long run.

 

Contributing factors

 There are far far too many factors contributing to air pollution however some of the more main issues are : 

Deforestation- as plants help produce more clean air, the massive amount of deforestation is devastating for earth and its ecosystems

Factories- the excessive amounts of smoke and smog produced by factories is one of the main issues for air pollution

Coal mining,mining, and oil drilling- coal mining, mining, and oil drilling produce massive amounts of all kinds of nasty things, particle matter like soot and dust, toxic gases such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

Food industries- from cattle farming (green house gases) to spraying crops with pesticides(bad for the environment especially bees and other pollinators), from transporting it to factories to be packed (the fumes of vehicles and factory fumes), to taking it to shops (more truck fumes) the food industry at large is very bad for air pollution.

Theses are just some of the many different things that contribute to air pollution along with the population of earth, purely humans were nearing a whoping 8.3 billion people, this number fluctuates constantly due to births and deaths but it continues to increase and that's just humans not to mention other animals

 

 

My project:

 

Aim:

To utilize moss and how its biology can capture particle matter and airborne metal

 

Current science being used to combat air pollution with moss

  There are many different examples that have been developed already using this idea such as green city solutions. Why? Well because the moss is so good, it's biologically suited to filter air though not all species are as effective. The best species for air filtration are cushion moss (Leucobryum glaucum), carpet moss(Hypnum cupressiforme)and sphagnum moss or peat moss referred to by locals as bog moss (Sphagnum cristatum) For my prototype i will be using carpet moss(Hypnum cupressiforme). Many studies show how moss cleans air, due to moss' unique root system moss absorbs nutrients and water directly through its leaves. Due to this the leaves stay partially moist making them excellent at trapping particulate matter, absorbing excess moisture which can prevent mold growth indoors, it can support microbial activity that breaks down certain pollutants and functions out of direct sunlight unlike many other air purifying plants. However like anything moss has its flaws, moss doesn't pull in large amounts of air unlike mechanical air purifiers, moss does not act as a carbon skin the same way trees do nor does it completely replace air filtration in high pollution zones. Due to these factors it's important to have the moss near windows or already installed ventilation for maximum air flow, have large bits of moss in lots of places so it can purify more, continue to plant trees in nature and remember that moss has limits and is not a substitute for air purifiers in areas with HIGH amounts of air pollution though it does still help.

 

What is a moss mural?

A moss mural is a mural made of moss -as the name suggests- there are a few methods which one can use to create a moss mural, 

 

the milkshake method - blend a few clumps of moss, 2 cups of buttermilk or yogurt, 2 tablespoons of sugar and water together forming a sort of paint, paint it on to your chosen surface and mist every day- ever few days- wait a few weeks and it will grow, as it becomes paint like you can paint designs with it.

 

The cut and paste method- this ones pretty self explanatory, you simply collect patches of moss, trim and arrange them into your desired shape and paste them to the desired surface

 

The last method is the removal method- in this method you simply find an area already covered in moss and scrape away the shapes, utilising negative space.

 

Most moss murals you see including when searching other methods are using the cut and paste method as it is the often the quickest but this method requires constant maintenance and after too long left untended often dies, the removal method is very good for mural as the moss was already growing there it tends not to die, the issue with this method is you need a wall or surface already coated in moss which can be hard to find if you want the mural in the middle of a building, the milkshake method has its own struggles as it often doesn't work, moss can be very particular about where it grows if it was growing on a rotten tree it likely needs moistness and is probably a wood moss, some moss prefer concrete or rocks, some moss prefers dirt, some grows on trees, additionally some moss doesn't grow vertically but the milkshake method works if you have the right moss for the job.

 

 

My method and process

Each website i went to had a different result for what moss should or shouldn't be used for the milkshake method - the method i will be using-, so i went into woods and other areas around lismore and my home and collected a variety of moss species

I will be experimenting with different species of moss on different surfaces, time likely won't allow me to finish conducting my experiment before HALVE IT as the moss takes 3-5 weeks just to show fuzz however i am still going to attempt it outside of the HALVE IT deadline so that if my project is put into play it has the most success possible. 

The primary moss species im using is carpet moss or Hypnum cupressiforme which is one of the best moss species for air filtration though only time will tell how well it will work for the mural as it tends not to grow vertically often growing on rocks and dirt though i have found it on trees before. There will be a mix of other random mosses found around on various surfaces, for my first test I plan to mix all the moss species I have gathered together as one paint (after thorough cleaning to remove dirt, rocks ect) if this method works my hypothesis is that all over the mural among the main moss species Hypnum cupressiforme there will be patches of the other species, it is also highly likely only some species will survive -as i've mentioned moss can be quite particular about where it grows- for this first experiment i will put the moss paint concoction on a brick, a piece of ply wood, a piece of naturally found (likely moist or partially rotted) wood or bark and a tub of moist dirt. All 4 subjects will be lightly misted the same amount each day though the amount a day may vary due to, weather, humidity, signs of the moss being too dry or too moist and other variables. I will keep a log of the amount of misting I do per day listed in the number of sprays. depending on the success of this first experiment - Did it work? Did all the moss stay alive? Do the species work together? - I may conduct other experiments using just 1 species at a time or different specific mixes, ultimately I want to determine: what moss/ moss mix worked best? What did it work best on? Did it grow vertically? How often does it need to be misted and how much?

Once I have determined the best mixture and material I will sketch a design that has simple shapes so the moss can grow and a large surface area. Likely a large sign for the school with the school name on it along with a border, there might be another mural outside depending on what the school will allow, along with the mural/ murals i plan to have wooden frames/boxes full of moss preferably cushion moss or carpet moss as they have the greatest air cleaning abilities.

 

Potential risks & solutions

 

Risks to the moss:

Children pose the risk of: picking it, killing it, ingesting it, choking on it, shredding it, not taking care of it and not misting it

Nature poses the risk of: floods, particularly bad storms might kill certain moss, over exposure to sunlight

Other things pose the risk of: drying out

 

 

Risks to students/Teachers

Physical danger risks: moss can be a possible slip risk, if ingested it could cause harm

Other dangers to people at the school include: the possibility of mold growth and fungus growth due to moistness 

 

How do I plan to combat these risks?

While I can never guarantee that children will respect the moss and not destroy it there are things we can do to help reduce the risk. The first thing that comes to mind is including a segment in the start of year assembly telling students about the moss, what purpose it serves and what the consequences will be if you break the rules around respecting and coexisting with the moss, hopefully each classroom will have at least one moss patch likely near a window or vent the air flow helps them clean more air and moving air can also help prevent mould and fungus risk, another way to combat mould and fungus growth is ensuring that the moss has a healthy community of isopods, specifically the small isopods, dwarf white and dwarf purple, these isopods serve as a tiny clean up and maintenance crew and have a symbiotic relationship with moss, they keep the moss clean and healthy and the moss feeds them. To stop the moss drying out or being over watered we will need to figure out a misting schedule and it will need to be certain students jobs to at a specific time every day/ few days/ week where they go around and mist  the moss, to stop slip risk the moss simply won't be put anywhere someone might step and kept away from stair wells and banisters. Additionally to help stop kids from killing the moss we will try and have it high up though it will still be in reach so it can be cared for, unfortunately we can't control natural disasters and storms so if the moss dies due to these we will simply have to re plant we can however keep it out of direct sunlight.

 

 

My prototype

I went to my local oval and forests in the area and collected a variety of moss. I then blended together a small handful of moss, roughly 2 cups of plain yogurt, 2 cups water(I accidentally put too much but this is the rough amount) , 2 pinches of sugar and a handful of cornflour. I spread this mixture on a piece of broken concrete I found, an old piece of dry wood, a tub with 3 kinds of dirt, river soil, general mud, and dry soil after which I set up a roof of damp paper towel over them as I would be going away and unable to mist I in trusted a teacher at my school to keep an eye on and mist the moss during the weekend, said teacher has been a massive help with various things during this project. Over the following weeks I hope to see positive results but only time will tell

 

Conclusion 

 

To conclude taking into consideration past examples of moss air filtration success, past examples of moss mural success my project would likely be successful in reducing the amount of air pollution in our school.