The Growth Of Aquatic Moss Under Different Lighting Conditions Essay

This lab was conducted to discover which level of light (measured in lux) would make Spinacia oleracea leaf disks float the fastest. Lux (lx) is latin for light, and is the unit of measurement for light in the International System of Units (Rouse 2011). Light plays a key role in the process of photosynthesis and in this we are essentially measuring the rate at which Spinacia oleracea leaf disks convert a bicarbonate solution into oxygen. The oxygen then would bubble up, allowing

Duckweed is a small aquatic plant that is able to grow rapidly, making it the ideal specimen for our experiment. It is hypothesized that altering the amount of light received by duckweed will alter its photosynthetic rate. It is predicted that a lower light intensity will lower the rate of growth in duckweed.

Introduction: Photosynthesis can be defined as a solar powered process that removes atmospheric carbon dioxide and transforms it into oxygen and carbohydrates (Harris-Haller 2014). Photosynthesis can be considered to be the most important biochemical process on Earth because it helps plants to grow its roots, leaves, and fruits, and plants serve as autotrophs which are crucial to the food chain on earth. Several factors determine the process of photosynthesis. Light is one these factors and is the main subject of this experiment. The intensity of light is a property of light that is important for photosynthesis to occur. Brighter light causes more light to touch the surface of the plant which increases the rate of photosynthesis (Speer 1997). This is why there is a tendency of higher rates of photosynthesis in climates with a lot of sunlight than areas that primarily do not get as much sunlight. Light wavelength is also a property of

The purpose of this lab is to observe the effect of white, green, and dark light on a photosynthetic plant using a volumeter and followed by the calculation of the net oxygen production using different wavelengths color of white and green light, and also the calculation of oxygen consumption under a dark environment, and finally the calculation of the gross oxygen production.

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effects of light intensity on the rate of photosynthesis in a Moneywort plant. By observing the plant in distilled water mixed with sodium bicarbonate, different light bulbs were targeted onto the plant. The measurement of the amount of bubbles present on the plant during the trial of the experiment enabled us to identify the comparisons between the activity of the light and the process of photosynthesis.

The rate of photosynthesis is affected by environmental factors like light intensity, light wavelength, and temperature. This experiment will test the

This lab will be driven by the research question, what is the effect of temperature (at 5oC, 15oC, 25oC, 35oC and 45oC) on the photosynthetic rate (measure of oxygen bubbles over a period of time) of Elodea (pondweed)?

4.) What conclusions can you draw about which color in the visible spectrum causes the most plant growth?

Our results indicate that green chads float at a faster rate when exposed to red light than reddish purple chads. A higher oxygen production rate allowed the chads to float. Because oxygen is a product of photosynthesis, we can conclude that a higher rate of floating chads indicates a higher rate of photosynthesis. Therefore, the green chads photosynthesized at a faster rate than the reddish-purple chads Conclusion/Context: Our data supported our hypothesis.

Algae can grow fast: Algae can double their numbers every few hours, can be harvested daily, and have the potential to produce a volume of biomass and biofuel many times greater than that of our most productive crops.

Studies have shown that under varying light conditions, different bryophyte species result in different growth responses. For example, although most of the tested bryophyte exhibited greater growth responses when irradiance levels decreased, this was not the case for every bryophyte species. Unlike the other 5 bryophyte moss species that Rincón observed, L. bidentate did not exhibit the typical decrease in growth with the increased irradiance levels (Rincón, 1993). This indicates that the variation in different species can affect the growth of bryophyte moss, which relates to the amount of microbial diversity and their abundance. Likewise, in North Carolina, researchers specifically studied the chlorophyll a/b ratios in mosses. The presence of chlorophyll a and b is indicative of the amount of photosynthesis a plant undergoes. Photosynthesis is a very important process that allows plants to produce their own food, glucose sugar, for proper plant growth and development. A variety of moss species were studied and their chlorophyll a/b ratios were shown to be less than or equal to 2.1 (Martin, 1980). Vascular plants would have higher chlorophyll a/b ratios because they require greater light exposure for growth and development. As we have observed in this experiment, this is not the case for moss. The darker bottom samples showed greater microbial diversity and abundance. In the same way, mosses grow better in environments with less light, which explains why the 11 mosses studied by Martin have a lower chorophyll a/b ratio than a typical vascular plant (Martin, 1980). In addition, mosses that vary in this ratio can show different degrees of microbial diversity and abundance, whether they are sampled in the same or different light

Moss has adapted to land because it takes water in through the leaves, and produces spores.

However, the photosynthetic process can be affected by different environmental factors. In the following experiment, we tested the effects that the light intensity, light wavelength and pigment had on photosynthesis. The action spectrum of photosynthesis shows which wavelength of light is the most effective using only one line. The absorption spectrum plots how much light is absorbed at different wavelengths by one or more different pigment types. Organisms have different optimal functional ranges, so it is for our benefit to discover the conditions that this process works best. If the environmental conditions of light intensity, light wavelength and pigment type are changed, then the rate of photosynthesis will increase with average light intensity and under the wavelengths of white light which will correspond to the absorption spectrum of the pigments. The null hypothesis to this would be; if the environmental conditions light intensity, light wavelength and pigment type are changed, then the rate of photosynthesis will decrease with average light intensity and under the white light which will correspond to the absorption spectrum of the pigments.

In this lab, varying wavelengths were used to test how light affects photosynthesis and respiration as a whole. The absorbance of lights from 380 nm to 720 nm of chlorophyll pigment from the Elodea sample

Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is an optically active component of total dissolved organic matter (DOM), absorbing light strongly in the UV and visible spectral range, hence influencing light availability in the aquatic environments [1]. Although CDOM protects marine biota from the harmful effects of UV radiation in surface waters [2], it can also adversely affect primary production and the ecosystem health by reducing the quality and the amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) to phytoplankton [3,4]. In estuarine environments, CDOM is primarily of terrestrial origin and is characterized by the presence of humic acid produced by bacterial decomposition of plant litter, animals and organically rich soils [5], whereas in-situ production of CDOM by bacterial and viral decomposition, excretion, grazing, and primary production dominates in oceanic waters [6-9]. Coastal bays are important transition zones between marine and terrigenous environments supplying elevated amounts of sediments, dissolved organic matter, and nutrients to the coastal waters, making them optically complex and challenging for ocean color remote sensing applications. For example, previous studies [8,10-12] have attributed errors in satellite-based estimates of chlorophyll-a to elevated levels of CDOM in coastal waters.