1. RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2015 www.PosterPresentations.com Wisconsin fast plant (Brassica rapa, Brassicaceae) seeds were planted in three, six-celled planting containers filled with potting soil and put beneath a continuous grow-lux light. One week after sprouting, one container (E1) was put into a separate tray filled with 0.5% NaCl solution, another container (E2) was put into a separate tray filled with 1.0% NaCl solution, and the third container was left in regular tap water. At seven day intervals thereafter the height of all plants was recorded, and the numbers of leaves and flowers were recorded. By week five of recording data, the average height (mm) of the control plants was 175.1, 88.5 in the E1 plants, and 66.4 in the E2 plants. The t- test for height of the control plants vs the height of the E1 plants was significant (p = 0.00004). Similarly, the t-test for the control plants vs E2 plants was highly significant (p = 0.000002). The height of E1 plants vs E2 plants was also significant (p = 0.004). That same week, the average number of leaves for control plants was 4.07, for E1 plants was 1.36, and for E2 plants was 2.00. The average weight for control plants was.51g, for E1 plants was.19 g, and for E2 plants was.15g. The T-Test for weight comparison between control and E1 was significant (p=.00003), between control and E2 was also significant (p=.000003), but between E1 and E2 was not significant (p=.225). Our hypothesis that higher salinity hinders plant growth, flower production, and leaf production was fully supported. We infer that fast plants and other herbaceous species may have a lower tolerance of salinity compared to that of woody plants. Abstract Introduction A large plastic tray with a liner had three small, 6 (4x4 cm) celled planting containers placed inside. They were labeled: Control, E1 for 0.5% NaCl solution, and E2 for 1.0% NaCl solution. Potting soil was put into each cell making sure that the soil was packed down. We made small, approximately 1 cm holes in each of the cells and placed one Wisconsin Fast Plant seed (Brassica rapa) into each of the holes. A minimum of 15 seeds were planted in each 6-celled pack. The three packs were then placed into the large tray and set under the grow lux light. Two cm of water was poured into the tray. The Wisconsin Fast plants were then left under the 24 hour grow lux light for a week with a constant temperature of 27 degrees Celsius and with the water level maintained at 1 cm. On week 2 the E1 and E2 packs were put into individual plastic containers. E1 and E2 were filled with their corresponding salt water solutions. Every week for the next 5 weeks, our group maintained all of the specialized water levels at 1 cm. The heights of each plant were recorded every Tuesday morning for the five weeks by measuring from the soil surface to the top of the apical meristem. The number of leaves and fruits of each plant were also recorded at this time. After 3 weeks, bamboo braces were added to each plant for support. On the sixth week, we recorded the heights, number of leaves, and number of fruits. We then cut all of the plants at the base of the stem, as close to the soil as possible. The plants were weighed individually. All statistical analysis were done by the student T-test. Methods Figure 1 shows that the control fast plants grew taller and faster than the plants of E1 and of E2. The first week, where all of the plants were in the same conditions, the heights were the same. By week 3, the control plant’s average height was 153 mm, while E1 was just 99 mm and E2 was 72 mm. Week 5’s average height differences proved to be significant. The difference in height between control and E1 was significant (p=.00005), as were between control and E2 (p=.000002), and also between E1 and E2 (p=.005). Figure 2 exhibits the average heights of each experimental group between weeks 2 and 5. The difference in growth over those weeks in each of the groups is clear. The control plants grew an average of 119.6 mm over the 3 weeks while E1 plants only grew 33.3, and E2 plants only grew 20.5 mm (Figure 2). Significant results occured when comparing the average weights on week 5 (Figure 3). Average weight on week 5 for control was.51 g, for E1 was.19 g, and for E2 was.15 g. Figure 3 shows that the weight comparison between control and E1 were significant (p=.00003), between control and E2 were significant (p=.000003), but between E1 and E2 was not significant at all (p=.225). Average number of leaves on week 5 demonstrated similar results. Figure 4 shows that with control’s average leaves at 4.07, E1’s leaves at 1.35, and E2’s leaves at 1.23, the comparison between control and E1 was more significant (p=.0000002) than the comparison between control and E2 (p=.000001). E1 and E2’s average number of leaves were not statistically significant (p=.393). ResultsDiscussion Our study of the Wisconsin Fast Plants corroborated other scientific studies that exhibited decreased plant height and a reduced amount of leaves in other species of plants (Qados, 2011). Rameeh and Gerami’s (2015) experiment with Rapeseed showing that increased level of salinity caused decreased growth and lower seed production, agreed with our results. The Student T-Tests indicated that the plant heights of the Fast Plants was inhibited by increases of salinity. We found that the difference in height was statistically significant when comparing the means for each group, including the comparison between experiment group 1 and experiment group 2. This indicates that increasing amounts of salinity decreases the amount of stem growth in the plants. The significant difference between E1 and E2 indicates that increasing the amount of salinity has greater inhibition on the stem growth of Fast Plants. When comparing the plant weights of each experimental group to the control, both E1 and E2 were significant. Although the difference comparing plant weights between E1 and E2 was not significant, this could be due to the fact that many plants were already dead and had dried out. Our study confirmed that increasing levels of salinity is detrimental to the growth of Fast Plants. With levels of salinity predicted to increase, this could have increasingly negative effects on the growth of many plants, including the Fast Plant. It is believed that there could be a 50% loss of land from this salinization by 2050 (Baby and Jini, 2010). Further research should be done to examine the difference in salinity tolerance of other plants including a comparison of herbaceous plants and woody plants. Our hypothesis that higher salinity hinders plant growth, flower production, and leaf production was fully supported by the results. References Baby Joseph and D. Jini, 2010. Proteomic Analysis of Salinity Stress-responsive Proteins in Plants. Asian Journal of Plant Sciences, 9: 307-313. Courtney AJ, Jichen X, Yan X. 2016. Responses of growth, antioxidants and gene expression in smooth cordgrass (spartina alterniflora) to various levels of salinity. Plant Physiology & Biochemistry 99:162-170. Glenn, EP. & O’Leary, J. 1985. Productivity and irrigation requirements of halophytes grown with seawater in the Sonoran desert. Journal of Arid Environments. 9: 81-91. Qados A. 2011. Effect of salt stress on plant growth and metabolism of bean plant Vicia faba. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences 10(1):7-15. Rameeh V and Gerami M. 2015. Soil salinity effects on phenological traits, plant height and seed yield in rapeseed genotypes. Soil Science Annual. [serial online] [cited 2016 mar 17];66:17-20. Available from: Agricola. Serrano, R., Mulet, J., Rios, G., Marquez, J. A., Larrinoa, I., Leube, M., Mendizabal, I., Pascual-Ahuir, A., Proft, M., Ros, R., & Monesinos, C. 1999. A glimpse of the mechanisms of ion homeostasis during salt stress. Journal of Experimental Botany 50:1023-1036. Ramo´n Serrano1, Jose M. Mulet, Gabino Rios, Jose A. Marquez, In˜ igo F. de Larrinoa, Martin P. Leube, Iratxe Mendizabal, Amparo Pascual-Ahuir, Markus Proft, Roc Ros and Consuelo Montesinos Salt water makes up about 71% of the Earth’s surface, but only a few plants thrive in it (Glenn and O’Leary, 1985). High salinity of groundwater may not be a common problem now for land in Illinois, but that could change. Salinization of land is predicted to have detrimental, worldwide effects in the coming years due to global warming. Because of this, some believe that there will be up to 30% land loss within the next 25 years, and possibly up to 50% by 2050 (Baby and Jini, 2010). The genus, Brassica, includes mustard plants, cabbages, and other cruciferous vegetables. The Wisconsin Fast Plant (Brassica rapa) used in this experiment is a plant with numerous subspecies including many well-known leafy vegetables and field mustard. So, it is widely used for human and animal consumption throughout the world. Unlike some plants, such as smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) that actually do better with a higher concentration of salt, the Wisconsin Fast Plant is not accustomed to the excess NaCl (Courtney et al., 2016). According to Serrano and colleagues (1999), the stresses of salt water on the plants are mostly found to be osmotic, which disrupts homeostasis of cells and the distribution of ions. It has been found that Rapeseed plants, closely related to Fast Plants, grown in varying levels of salinity were found to have decreased height and lower seed production when compared to the plants grown without salinity (Raheem and Gerami, 2015). It was also found that in bean plants, the higher the concentration of NaCl, the lower the height of the plant and the lower the number of leaves were noticed (Qados, 2011). The present study was performed in order to determine the effects of two salinity levels on growth characteristics of stem, leaves, and fruit of the Wisconsin Fast Plant. We hypothesize that the higher the percentage of salinity, the shorter the plant height will be and the fewer fruit and leaves will be produced. Augustana College Megan Janssen, Emily Geison, Tiffany Bertoni, Matt Zimmerman The Effects of Two Levels of Salinity on Wisconsin Fast Plants