Science Fair Project Environmental Global Warming Callie Fong Mrs. Mcnees Syracuse Junior High
Problem How does carbon dioxide affect plant growth? (Investing global warming)
Research More Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is not necessarily good for plants, even though carbon dioxide is generally seen as beneficial to them. Too much CO 2 in the atmosphere can intensify the greenhouse effect, trapping too much heat at the Earth's surface, which may not be good for plant growth Nearly every plant living today had its roots in the Cenozoic Era. During the early part of the era, forests overran most of North America. However, as the climate changed and global warming progressed, forests died off, creating more open land. Higher CO2 levels do enable most plants to grow more productively, but protein concentrations, minerals, and other nutritional importance decreases. But global warming may not be damaging the Earth as quickly as feared after scientists found that plants can soak up more carbon dioxide than previously thought.
Citations for Research John Cook. Is CO2 just plant food. 2015 Kim Ann Zimmermann. Cenozoic Era: Facts About Climate, Animals & Plants. 2013 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. How Plants Run the Carbon Cycle. 2015 Rachel Martin. Is Global Warming good for plants?. 2013 Sarah Knapton. Global warming: plants may absorb more carbon dioxide than previously thought. 2014 Thomas Gale Moore. Global Warming. 2008
Hypothesis If we test the effect of carbon dioxide on plant growth, then we will see that the plants are being harmed with carbon dioxide because global warming is caused by the increased levels of carbon dioxide, and plants are affected by higher greenhouse gases. But maybe the concentration of carbon dioxide may not be enough to influence the experiment. And global warming is not just affected by carbon dioxide Also, plants are dependent on carbon dioxide, and it may help them grow.
Procedure: Materials 1 small bag of potting soil 2 containers of the same size. (about half a liter to a liter) seeds that have just sprouted 2 peat cups 2 shallow dishes or paper cups cut in half 10 g baking soda 20 ml white vinegar Graduated cylinder Ruler
Procedure: Steps Find a place where your experiment can sit for the week. Check the seeds to make sure they have partially sprouted. Set them aside. Make a control experiment by putting five seedling underneath an upside-down container. Set the control aside. Now, get ready to make the experimental system. Measure 10 g of baking soda into the shallow dish or paper cup. Measure 20 ml white vinegar in your graduated cylinder. Slowly add the vinegar to the cup with the baking soda. Carefully place one peat cup and the cup with the vinegar mixture under another upside down container. Wait 20 minutes, and record your observations in Day 1 of the observation table below. Do this for both the control and the experimental systems. Make sure to measure the plant s height with your ruler. Do this on the outside of the containers, to avoid disrupting the system. Record data on your chart every day. On the fifth day, graph both plant s growth on axes comparing time and height.
Variables Constants: The location of the experiment. How many seeds were under each container. The amount of time given to each plant to grow. Controlled variables: The plants that did not have any carbon dioxide mixture added. Independent (manipulated) variable: The plants that were placed under the container with the carbon mixture. Dependent (measured) variable: The growthv(in centimeters) and quality of the plants after 5 days.
Height (centimeters) Originally, I was supposed to record five days, but the sprouts took longer to grow than I thought to begin with. The sprouts started at about 1 ¼ centimeters. It was difficult to measure plants through the containers, so I just observed that both subjects appeared to have grown after two days. Environmental Pollution 5 4 3 2 1 0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Time (Days) Without the Carbon Dioxide Mixture (control) With the Carbon Dioxide Mixture
Conclusion After three days, I removed the containers and measured the plants with the carbon dioxide mixture to be about 3-4 ½ centimeters. The controls were about 3-4 centimeters. Although it seems that plants influenced with the carbon dioxide mixture grew more, there were more healthy looking plants in the control groups. Carbon dioxide is usually beneficial to plants because it is used in the photosynthesis process. It generally enables plants to grow more productively, but the quantity decreases. My hypothesis was not supported because the carbon dioxide did not actually harm the plant growth, it harmed the plant health.