The Effect of Water Type on a Plant’s Rate of Photosynthesis Team: Natural Selection Members: Emily, Blake, Alex, Aaron

Photosynthesis Info Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis can be represented using a chemical equation 6CO2 + 6H2O --(sunlight energy)--> C6H12O6 + 6O2. CO2 represents Carbon Dioxide, H20 represents water, light energy is required, C6H12O6 represents glucose and CO2 represents oxygen. Many factors are said to have some effect on the rate at which a plant photosynthesizes, like the amount/type of nutrients in the soil, type of water used, type of light used, etc.

FLDA Info Used to determine the rate a plant photosynthesizes. Completed two trials for each plant. Each plant was watered with a different type of water. (Well water, salt water, sugar water, city water, and melted snow. The Floating Leaf Disk Assay is then completed with the same type of water with which the plant is watered. Ex. Well water is used in the Floating Leaf Disk Assay for the plant that was watered with well water.

Independent Info The Independent Variable consists of four types of water, Salt, City, Sugar, and Well. Well water= Positive outcome Increased amount of nutrients in the soil (mainly iron) Iron is necessary in plant growth Salt, Sugar, and City water= Negative outcome Salt and sugar both limit the rate of osmosis by shrinking cell walls City water contains Chlorine and Fluoride, which cause a plant to grow slowly and lose coloration

Purpose/Hypothesis Hypothesis: Salt Water: If water is used in the Floating Leaf Disk Assay on a basil plant that was also watered with salt water, then the plant will photosynthesis at a slower rate than the melted snow. City Water: If city water is used to water a basil plant and is used in the Floating Leaf Disk Assay, then the plant will photosynthesize at a slower rate than the control. Well Water: If well (ground) water is used to water a basil plant and is used in the Floating Leaf Disk Assay, then the plant's rate of photosynthesis will be increased due to the nutrients (iron) in the ground. Sugar water: If sugar water is used to water a basil plant and used in the Floating Leaf Disk Assay, then the basil plant will photosynthesize at a faster rate than the control. The purpose of testing water as the independent variable is because water is so crucial to Photosynthesis.

Experiment Different types of water may affect the rate of photosynthesis in plants Water 5 plant each having a different type of water (salt, sugar, well, city, and melted snow) We chose these types of water because snow/rain is what plants in the wild use and people who use well or city water to water their house plants. We have sugar water because we think it will give the plant extra glucose and salt water because we think it will have a negative affect on the plant. Water plants 20ml of water each day all at the same time of day Once the plants had time to absorb the types of water we will do the Floating Leaf Disk Assay The FLDA will tell us what the rate of photosynthesis and if the different types of water affected the rate of photosynthesis

Materials Floating Disk Assay Sodium Bicarbonate syringe leaf material hole punch timer light source plastic cups 5 basil plants 5 types of water soil clear plastic cups sunlight syringe

Basic Procedure Plant 5 basil plants in separate clear plastic cups with holes poked in the bottom to allow water to flow out. Once a day from March 23rd through March 26th water each plant with one of the five different types of water and make sure each plant receives the same type of water each day(20 ml). On March 26th perform the Floating Leaf Disk Assay on each basil plant. Record all observations and data from the floating leaf disk assay. Analyze all of the recorded data make data tables and graphs through Excel.

Stats Trial 1 P-values Well water=.003961 Salt Water=.00000242 Sugar Water=.0000221 City Water=.000132 Melted Snow=.000000122 Confidence Well Water= 99.6039% Salt Water= 99.999758% Sugar Water= 99.99779% City Water= 99.9868% Melted Snow= 99.9999878%

Stats Trial 2 P-values Well water=.000000166 Sugar Water=.014573 City Water=.000868 Melted Snow=.00000128 Confidence Well Water= 99.9999834% Sugar Water= 98.5427% City Water= 99.9132% Melted Snow= 99.999872%

Interpret City and Sugar water had the two highest rates of photosynthesis in both of our trials. Shockingly the basil plant with melted snow had the slowest rate of photosynthesis the Well water plant also had a very slow rate of photosynthesis The salt water plant surprisingly was in the middle for rate of photosynthesis compared to the other plants. City water had a significantly faster rate of photosynthesis than the melted snow which contradicted our hypothesis Salt water had a higher rate of photosynthesis than the melted snow in the one trial we were able to do with the salt water, which contradicted our hypothesis. Well water had a slightly faster rate of photosynthesis compared to the melted snow which agreed with our hypothesis. Sugar water had a significantly faster rate of photosynthesis compared to the melted snow which agreed with our hypothesis

Limitations and Implications Change from spinach to basil plants (the rate of photosynthesis or growth may be different). Contaminated control (snow) could change results of FLDA. Salt leafs were not abundant enough to run a second trial. The table that the FLDA took place on was not sturdy and would shake Some bubbles formed on a few of the trials during the FLDA. For the salt water basil plant we were unable to hole punch the leaves because of how shriveled up the leaves were, so we just used the full leaf.

Basil Plants after watering for 3 days Salt Sugar Snow

Well Water City Water

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