Conducted by…. The Scientifical Dolphins

 How do plants of a specific climate adapt to another climate?

 If the temperate plant (fern) is exposed to hot, dry, desert climate the process of photosynthesis will slow down

 Soil  Six Pots  Six Ferns  Water  Heat Lamp  Sand

 Step 1- put soil and sand in container  Step 2 – put the fern in sand/soil  Step 3- put heat lamp over plant and adjust it to the right temperature  Step 4- give the plant the same amount of water per day that it would receive in the desert (Arizona)  Step 5- Observe and wait  Watering desert plants every three days w/10ml of water  Watering temperate plants everyday w/50ml of water

 Phenol Red Test for photosynthesis-5ml phenol solution in d1 d2 t1 t2 cylinders 5 leaf samples in each cylinder  Desert -----(R) Desert1-lighter with leaves(pinkish)  (y) Desert2-turned a little darker almost looks like pink  Temperate –(R)Temperate1-same  (Y)Temperate2-turned red

 The reason the Desert Ferns weren’t able to Photosynthesize at the same rate as the Temperate Ferns was due to the lack of water in the desert climate. Plants use CO2 and H20 to make glucose, their food. This process is called Photosynthesis. A vital nutrient needed for a plant to photosynthesize is water. The desert receives very little water each day. Sometimes, desert droughts last for weeks. Our desert plants were given 10ml of water every three days, a process that mimicked the ways of precipitation in the desert. Thus, the lack of H20 slowed, and almost destroyed the plants process of Photosynthesis. Even though our desert plants were heavily ravaged by lack of nutrients, they still were photosynthesizing, as shown in our phenol red tests. In our Red phenol experiment, the rate of photosynthesis proved the same in both the temperate and desert plants. This was an amazing feat pulled of by the ferns placed in the desert, for at the beginning of our experiment, we thought that the desert plants had no chance at all. A vital aspect to surviving the desert life is the ability to store water for long periods of time. This is a characteristic that is not possessed by ferns.

 Our Experiments with the plants and the red phenol led to our conclusion, which was; the ferns planted in the desert climate photosynthesized at the same rate as the ferns in the temperate climate.  This proves our Hypothesis wrong.

 Group Leader……………………… Matt  Declan……………………… Declan  Jonathan…………………. Jonathan  Rocky………………Sylvester Stallone  Ferns………………… Ferns  Thomas Nascone………………..stunt man #101

 Leslyn Brusch- Richardson - She is a scientist connected with the University of North Carolna