Ammonium Hydroxide’s Affect on Spore Germination By: Nina, Scott, and Rachel (Fern smurfs) Mentor: Emily Sessa Introduction: Ceratopteris richardii begin as simple spores in the first week and within a week time they germinate into gametophytes; these gametophytes are the basis of sexual reproduction. After germination the sex is determined by the end of the second week and once fertilized the zygote develops into the sporophytes. There are many impacts on fern development and pollutant is one of them. If you add ammonium hydroxide to the agar that the spores are placed in, then it will affect the germination and gametophyte development in a negative way. Procedure: Label the dishes, control, .25, and .5 both A and B. Add agar to all dishes, before the agar hardens put in .25 NH4 OH in the dishes labeled .25 A and B. After that put .5 NH4 OH in the dishes labeled .5 A and B. Leave dishes control A and B alone. Add spores to all 6 dishes and spread the spores around with a paper clip. Place all 6 dishes in a Ziploc baggy with a damp paper towel under them. Materials: Ammonium hydroxide Spores Petri-dishes (6) Agar Rubbing alcohol Paper clip Microscope Data (Table 1): Control .25 NH4 OH .5 NH4 OH Week 1 Spores Week 2 Week 3 Spore Conclusion: Once adding the different amounts of ammonium hydroxide to the agar all that was left was to wait for the spores to germinate. Within the next week the spores had not developed in any of the plates. On day 9 of the experiment contamination was apparent and no germination had taken place. Each plate including the control had made no improvements. Through outside sources the experiment was believed to be contaminated by the ammonium hydroxide being let into the air within the bag. This is what led to the control not germinating at all. The hypothesis was supported as seen in the data table (Table 1) the spores did not turn into gametophytes. The petri-dishes showed that each tray stayed spores for all 21 days of the experiment. If given the chance to redo this experiment then separating the control petri-dishes into a different bag then the polluted dishes would be beneficial in seeing if the gases in the air were affecting the germination of the controls.