Environmental pollution has become a rising problem around the world with an increase of combustion of fossil fuels becoming more prevalent in the past 100 years. Copious amounts of menacing chemicals, through these processes, thus have been able to contaminate the environment causing adverse effects on not only the environment itself, but on human health too (Kampa and Castanas 2008). Daphnia Magna are miniscule crustaceans with qualities that are key in the laboratory: they are economically cheap, low maintenance, and transparent. Because of these properties, Daphnia are essential in being able to see the effects of chemical agents on heart rate (Corotto et al. 2010). Furthermore, Daphnia may also serve as a model system to help aid us in measuring the effects of contaminants on Daphnia just as we would in humans. In this experiment we analyzed the heart rate of the Daphnia when given caffeine, ethanol, vinegar, triclosan, and sodium phosphate in order to explore how Daphnia magna behaved when exposed to potential contaminants. The five agents utilized in this experiment included caffeine, ethanol, vinegar, triclosan, and sodium phosphate. Caffeine and ethanol produce clear effects on the heart rate of the Daphnia. Previous literature has found that in 5% and 10% concentrations, ethanol tends to be a depressant as it substantially decreases the heart rate of the Daphnia (Corotto et al. 2010). Caffeine on the other hand acts as a stimulant as it proves to have about a
The purpose of this experiment was to determine the relationship between tail spine length and hemoglobin levels as well as the relationship between tail spine length and heart rate. The concentration of the hemoglobin in Daphnia is dependent on the oxygen available to them.
The projects purpose was to determine the effects of alcohol and caffeine on the heartbeat rate in Daphnia Magnus. Our hypothesis is alcohol causes a decrease in heart rate, whereas caffeine causes an accelerated heart rate, predicting that the more caffeine we give the daphnia the faster it heartbeat rate will become and the heartbeat rate will decrease as we give the Daphnia alcohol. After doing the experiment we found that the more caffeine we added to the Daphnia Magna the faster its heartbeat rate became. We also found that
An experiment was conducted to study and explore the circulatory system by exposing Lumbriculus variegatus, black worms, to household drugs. Lumbriculus variegatus was chosen as the experimental organism because of their transparent bodies and their simple physiology.
The physiological effect of different medicines is successfully determined by counting the heart rate of Daphnia through this experiment. The data shows that different chemicals affect the heart rate of Daphnia differently. In the presence of Ephedrine, the heart rate of Daphnia has increased, and in the presence of Ethyl Alcohol and caffeine, the heart rate has decreased. The Daphnia under water is a control group, and the average heart rate is 269 BPM. The heart rate has decreased to 267.33 BPM when 0.5M Ethyl Alcohol is added and to 256 BPM when 0.5M caffeine is added.
The purpose of this experiment was to test the affect of caffeine on the heart rate of Daphnia by observing their behavior and heart rate under a microscope when exposed to different concentrations of caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant drug used in many energy drinks and causes large amounts of stimulatory neurotransmitters to be released. Therefore, as caffeine is a stimulant drug it was hypothesized that the Daphnia heart rate would increase immensely. Daphnia is a group of microscopic, planktonic crustaceans that are arthropods that measure 1-5 millimeters in length. Daphnia live in multiple aquatic environments such as freshwater lakes, ponds and rivers. “The development of genomic infrastructure coupled with a wide range of phenotypic diversity make Daphnia a versatile model
Introduction: In the previous lab class, students did an experiment on a water flea known as the “Daphnia Magna”. The experiment consisted of locating the Daphnia’s heart and counting its heart rate. The heart rate is the number of times the heart beats per minute. The normal beats per minute in that the heart should endure is 60-100 BPM, (> 100 Tachycardia & <60 Bradycardia).
Throughout my experiment my control acted normally, the daphnia had average movement and calm manner. On a scale from 1 to 5 I ranked the control group as a 3 for normal movement and health. When I introduced car antifreeze to my pure water daphnia there was an immediate change in the color of the daphnia, their bodies turned from a white opaque color to a light pink (the same color as the antifreeze). Not only did the physical appearance change but their behavior became more aggressive and panicked. As time passed the daphnia moved in a circular motion and the chemical caused one of their antennas to cripple. The antifreeze surprisingly resulted in no deaths so I gave the effect of antifreeze to daphnia a 2 (table 2 and 2B). When exposed
Table 2: Mann-Whitney U statistical testing for the difference in average heart rate of Daphnia before and after the addition of aged water:
The following was the procedure used by the team that introduced chemicals into the environment of the Daphnia. First a zero reading was taken before any chemicals were introduced. The zero reading was an observation of the Daphnia’s heart rate before any substances were administered. All fluids were drawn off the slide using the corner of a Kimwipe. Then two drops of two percent alcohol solution were dropped onto the Daphnia. After a minute a heart rate reading was taken. The same procedure, including using the Kimwipe to draw off previous solution, was then used with four, six, eight, and ten percent solutions. A heart rate reading was taken after each solution was introduced.
The intention of the experiment was to measure how different pH levels affect the heart rate of daphnia. The objective of this experiment was to measure the heart rate of
Investigating the Effect of Alcohol on Heartbeat of Daphnia Daphnia are the organisms that are involved in this experiment to find out what effect alcohol has on their heartbeat. It is easy to study the effects of alcohol on the heart of Daphnia as the organ can be easily seen through the transparent body of Daphnia. The number of heartbeats may be counted before submersion in alcohol and after submersion in alcohol to investigate the effect of alcohol. Daphnia belong to the Phylum Arthropoda and are Branchiopoda which belong to the class, Crustacea. Daphnia are invertebrates and also have an exoskeleton, jointed appendages, a dorsal heart and open blood system.
The effects of caffeine and alcohol on daphnia are expressive of whether these substances are harmful or beneficial to the organism. By understanding the results of this experiment, it may also be understood how these substances effect humans. In this study, one daphnia was exposed to increasing levels of alcohol, while the other was exposed to increasing levels of caffeine, each in order to test the hypothesis that when given amounts of caffeine and alcohol, the daphnia will be affected the same way a human would. The effect of each substance was measured by the daphnia’s heart rate one minute after the substance was added. Results reveal that alcohol slows the heart rate, while caffeine increases heart rate. Furthermore, caffeine shows a
The experiment took place in a laboratory setting, and the first step was obtaining sixty individual Daphnia magna (that were neither adults nor tiny offspring) from a large tank in the lab. These individuals were equally divided into three groups; low density, medium density, and high density. The twenty Daphnia assigned to the low density group were split into four groups of five and pipetted into one of four tubes filled with 10mL of Chlamydomonas algae. The twenty Daphnia assigned to the medium density group were split into two groups of ten and placed into one of two tubes also filled up to 10mL with Chlamydomonas. The final twenty Daphnia were all placed into a single tube filled with 10mL of the algae. In order to avoid suffocation-related
In this experiment we find how caffeine can affect the heart rate of a culture Daphnia. Heart rate of a living organism’s can vary depending on the individual, age, body size, heart conditions, medication use and even temperature. This report will examine if the caffeine is good or bad for the living organism’s health and body. And discuss about where the caffeine is produced and used in daily life of human beings and on the environment. Daphnia is a water flea used in this experiment because of its genomic infrastructure with wide range of phenotypic diversity. This quality of Daphnia makes them a versatile model for the experiment. Also their transparent body allows the experimenter to visually see how the heart beats and count them under the light microscope during the experiment as required. The heart rate of Daphnia is monitored under different concentration of caffeine solution and the results are shown in a table and a graph. Experiment carried out to locate the effects of caffeine on a heart rate of Daphnia may or may not be a predictor of change in human heart rate under caffeine. The effects of caffeine can also be tested on humans but those experiment involving humans contains high risk, as Daphnia can only live for a short period of time and in nature most of them get eaten within their first few days or weeks of life.
Daphnia are naturally found at very high densities, they play important roles on the community food web dynamics, as they feed on algae which is important to energy transfer between consumers. Also, Daphnia may directly affect the structure of their community by consuming algae, not only by providing food to consumers but also regulating algae, as different organisms survive better in more or less algae accumulation. Therefore, it is important to understand what effects their rate of feeding.