Plant virtual Lab - Grade: A+ PDF

Preview

Summary

Plant Virtual lab assignment...

Description

BIOLOGY LAB REPORT: EFFECTS OF LIGHT INTENSITY ON PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Samantha Monge Sherifieldann John November 4th, 2020 SBI4U1 10 PAGES

Introduction: Photosynthesis is a complex series of reactions catalysed by a number of different enzymes.This is an important process in plants and microorganisms because it is able to absorb sunlight and use that source to transform CO2 and H2O into glucose and oxygen, this is known as an endothermic chemical reaction. Photosynthetic process in plants is contracted into four different stages, each stages taking location in the chloroplasts: (1) absorption of light, (2) electron transport that is leading to the reduction of NADP+ to NADPH, (3) the generation of ATP, and lastly (4) the conversion of CO2 into carbohydrates also known as the carbon fixation. The main limiting factors in photosynthesis and the significant roles that each of these factors take upon in photosynthesis are: (1) the light intensity: without enough light, a plant cannot photosynthesize quickly even if there is plenty enough of water and CO2. (2) temperature: if it gets too cold, the rate photosynthesis will decrease and if it is to hot plants cannot photosynthesise. (3) carbon dioxide concentration: a plant cannot photosynthesis if there is an insufficient amount of carbon dioxide.

Materials: -Computer/ Laptop/ Cellular device with Adobe Flash Player -Lab document -Virtual Lab #1: http://www.reading.ac.uk/virtualexperiments/ves/preloader-photosynthesis-full.html -Virtual Lab #2: http://www.kscience.co.uk/animations/photolab.htm

Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is investigating the effects of light intensity on the rate of photosynthesis by counting oxygen bubbles that are being released. You are able to resemble this lab with the glencoe photosynthesis lab.

Procedure: Observations & Results: Summary for Virtual Lab #1: Table 1# Bubbles per minute vs light distance (cm)

Light Distance (cm):

Bubbles per minute:

100

212

120

148

150

54

180

48

200

20

Graph #1: Bubbles per minute vs light distance

When the distance between the plant and source increases, the light intensity decreases.

Photosynthesis Virtual Labs: Virtual Lab #1 1. Plants use photosynthesis to make food for the plant 2. What do plants need in order to perform photosynthesis? Plants need sunlight to be able to perform photosynthesis. Plants rely on this energy source because it produces nutrients that they need. It gives a plant the light energy it needs to photosynthesize that converts that light energy into a storable form to help keep the plants alive. 3. How is the plant able to obtain each “ingredient”? Plants are able to obtain each ingredient because they are able to get water from the roots and up the stem going through tubes to the leaves. They are able to gain carbon dioxide through open pores in the leaves. 4. Identify the plant cell organelle in which photosynthesis takes place. In plants, photosynthesis takes place in chloroplasts. Chloroplasts contain chlorophyll and are surrounded by a double membrane that contains a third inner membrane called the thylakoid membrane that is able to form folds within the organelle itself. 5. Summarize the process of photosynthesis The best way to be able to summarize the process of photosynthesis is that photosynthesis takes in the carbon dioxide that is produced by all breathing organisms and reintroduces oxygen into the atmosphere. Photosynthesis is the process that is used by plants, algae and even certain bacteria to harness energy from sunlight and convert that into a useful chemical energy. 6. What happens to the oxygen that is produced as a result of photosynthesis? When oxygen is being produced in the result of the photosynthesis process is that oxygen is being released into the air. The oxygen is being “exhaled” from the leaves while the energy contained within the molecule of glucose is being pre owned throughout the plant for growth, flower formation and even the development of fruits. 7. Why is photosynthesis also important for people and animals? Photosynthesis is also a very cruel process for people and animals because it is the number source for oxygen in the atmosphere. Without photosynthesis, the carbon cycle will not be able to occur and the plants and animals that require oxygen will then pass away. Photosynthesis is how plants are able to combine light, water, and carbon dioxide to help produce energy, glucose and oxygen. Animals on the other hand are able to obtain this chemical energy from the foods they are digesting.

Virtual Lab #2: In this lab, you will be experimenting with how different variables affect the rate of photosynthesis: 9. Set the thermometer to 25 degrees celsius (room temperature) and the light intensity to 20. a. What were the bubbles per minute at this setting? 32 Bpm b. Now increase the CO2 available to the elodea. What were bubbles per minute? 48 Bpm c. Based on your data, how does the amount of available CO2 affect the rate of photosynthesis? According to my analysis, the higher the amount of CO2, the faster the rate of photosynthesis. 10. Keep your settings from 9c (25 degrees celsius, light intensity of 20, increased CO2) a. What were the bubbles per minute at this setting? 52 Bpm b. Now increase the temperature to 40 degrees celsius. What were your bubbles per minute? 44 Bpm c. Based on your data, how does an increase in temperature affect the rate of photosynthesis? According to my analysis, an increase in temperature decreases the rate of photosynthesis. 11. Return to your settings from 9c (25 degrees celsius, light intensity of 20, increased CO2) a. What were the bubbles per minute at this setting? 52 Bpm b. Now decrease the temperature to 10 degrees celsius. What were your bubbles per minute? 16 Bpm c. Based on your data, how does a decrease in temperature affect the rate of photosynthesis? According to my analysis, a decrease in temperature it would decrease the rate of photosynthesis 12. Alter the variables in order to determine which combination leads to the highest rate of photosynthesis. Which combination of settings produced the highest number of bubbles per minute?

a. Temperature: 25 Bpm b. Ligh: 50/white c. CO2: Increased 13. In the black portion of this paper, draw the picture which shows the overall process of photosynthesis.

14. Write the chemical equation for photosynthesis. 6CO2 + 6H2O + Light ----> C6H12O6 + 6O2 15. Photosynthesis converts light energy into the chemical energy of sugars and other organic compounds.

Table #2: Temperature vs Bubbles per minute Temperature:

Light Intensity:

CO2 decreased or increased

Bubbles per minute:

40 degrees celsius

20

Increased

44 Bpm

25 degrees celsius

20

Increased

48 Bpm

10 degrees celsius

20

Increased

16 Bpm

Discussion and Analysis: 1. Based on your data from Virtual Lab #1, what relationship is there between light intensity and the rate of photosynthesis? Explain your results, taking into consideration the role of light in the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. Based on the data I have answered from Virtual Lab #1, the relationship between light intensity and the rate of photosynthesis is that when you are increasing the light intensity it increases the rate of photosynthesis until the limiting factor becomes short in supply. In other words when the light intensity increases the volume of oxygen increases, like the rate of the bubble production. This then indicates that the rate of photosynthesis increases when the light intensity increases. According to my analysis, when the light distance keeps increasing the bubbles per minute keeps decreasing. The photosynthesis rate is affected by the distance of the light meaning the rate of photosynthesis is more efficient in the 100 cm because of the light intensity, basing on how the I observed the relationship between the rate of photosynthesis and distance between light source and plant is how inversely proportional it is from the distance of the light source.

2. Chlorophyll pigments play an important role in photosynthesis. How is the wavelength of light important to the functionality of the chlorophyll and the overall rate of photosynthesis? Based on the data I have collected from my research, wavelength of light is important to the functionality of the chlorophyll and the overall rate of photosynthesis because during photosynthesis the sun’s energy is converted into chemical energy because of photosynthetic organisms. With this information we then know that since various wavelengths in sunlight are not used equally in photosynthesis it is used instead in photosynthetic organisms that contain light-absorbing molecules called pigments that can be specifically absorbed by specific wavelengths of visible light. In chlorophyll, the use of accessory pigment is allowed to create a broader range of wavelengths to be absorbed and letting more energy be captured from sunlight. Chlorophyll molecules absorb blue and red wavelengths. The wavelength is affecting the overall rate of photosynthesis by keeping the light intensity the same, meaning that it will have no additional effect on the rate of photosynthesis.

3. What colour of light would have the highest influence on the rate of photosynthesis?Why? The colour of light that would have the highest influence on the rate of photosynthesis would fall within the blue range (425-450 nm) and the red range (600-700 nm). The reason for my answer is because the best light bulb for promoting photosynthesis in plants would be the LED plant bulb. This bulb is able produce a strong output in both the blue and red wavelengths that contains an additional light in other regions causing heat to build-up. The red and blue wavelengths of light are the most effective in photosynthesis because they have the exact right amount of energy to energize, or excite, chlorophyll electrons and boost them out of their orbits to a higher energy level. 4. Why does the rate of photosynthesis not increase at very high light intensities? The reason why the rate of photosynthesis does not increase at a very high light intensity is because when the light intensity gets high enough the rate will no longer increase because there will be other factors that are limiting the rate of photosynthesis. When at a very high intensity of life, the rate of photosynthesis could drop quickly as the light starts to damage the plant. The reason for this is most likely because of the leveling off of the reaction rate is the saturation of active sites in the enzymes catalyzing the reaction. A high temperature could cause the enzymes catalyzing the photosynthetic reaction to denature. 5. Based on your data from Virtual Lab #2, how does the amount of available CO2 affect the light of photosynthesis? Explain your results, taking into consideration the role of CO2 in the light-independent reaction of photosynthesis. Based on my observations from Virtual Lab #2, the amount of available CO2 is affecting the light of photosynthesis is that when an increase in the CO2 concentration increases, the rate of carbon is incorporated into carbohydrate during the light-independent reaction, then the rate of photosynthesis would generally increase until limited by another factor. According to my results, when CO2 increases in the rate of photosynthesis the bubbles per minute start to show up. Without the light, the bubbles would not appear at all. When I reduce the CO2 but leaving the light of photosynthesis on the bubbles would slowly appear but not as fast with an increasing amount of CO2. 6. Based on your data from Virtual Lab #2, how does temperature affect the rate of photosynthesis? Is this true for both stages of photosynthesis? According to my analysis and observation from virtual lab #2, when the temperature increases, the rate of photosynthesis increases. After a period of time enzymes will be denatured and the rate of photosynthesis will start to decrease. At a low temperature, the rate of photosynthesis is limited by the number of molecular collisions between enzymes and substrates. During the lab, when I set the temperature to 10 degrees the bubbles would appear at a slower pace with a 16 bpm per minute, if I were to increase the temperature up to 40 degrees the bubbles would appear at a more rapid pace with a 44 bpm per minute causing an increase in temperature to decrease the rate of photosynthesis. Based on my observation, I believe that it is true for both stages of photosynthesis to have this effect because the rate of photosynthesis is affected by temperature. Both stages of photosynthesis need a suitable amount of temperature to be able to function.

Conclusion: This experiment was able to investigate the relationships between the light intensity and photosynthesis rate. The hypothesis before the lab was that the light intensity would increase and the number of oxygen bubbles would also increase. I was able to conduct my theory into the lab and was able to accomplish each virtual lab. According to Table 1 for the first virtual lab, the photosynthesis rate was affected by the distance itself. When the light distance kept increasing, the bubbles per minute were decreasing. So the hypothesis was beyond out of reach, before this lab had started the theory was that the oxygen bubbles were gonna most likely increase because of the distance of the light but that was incorrect. For distance 100 cm, the number of oxygen bubbles per minute is 212. For distance 120 cm, the number of oxygen bubbles per minute is 148. For distance 150 cm, the number of oxygen bubbles per minute is 54. For distance 180 cm, the number of oxygen bubbles per minute is 48. For distance 200 cm, the number of oxygen bubbles is 20. My data is showing that the relationship between the rate of photosynthesis and distance between light source and plant is that when one value increases the other value would decrease for example, every time the light of the distance increases per cm, the oxygen bubbles per minute would decrease. This observation also explains that the rate of photosynthesis is more efficient in the 100 cm because of the light intensity. For my next observation for the virtual lab #2, I was able to depict how the temperature can affect photosynthesis. According to Table 2, it is shown that the higher the temperature the more oxygen bubbles per minute would appear. Temperature has a high effect with the rate of photosynthesis. I’ve observed that the higher the temperature the greater the rate of photosynthesis. The rate for most chemical reactions increases because of the effects of temperature. During this chemical reaction, enzymes are also being denatured. When it is a lower temperature the rate of photosynthesis is limited by the number of molecular collisions between enzymes and substrates. That’s why according to my Table 2, it’s shown that when the temperature is lower, the rate of photosynthesis is also pretty low, when the temperature is higher the temperature the lower the rate of photosynthesis. According to all of my observations, Table 1, Graph 1, Table 2 and the experiments with the virtual labs, photosynthesis rate is directly proportional with the light intensity. If the duration is increased, I was able to depict how effective the light intensity is on the photosynthesis rate. This investigation can be improved by being able to compare the photosynthesis rate of different kinds of plants. Going more into depth about how the different temperatures can affect different kinds of plants and being able to understand more about this topic.

REFERENCES: (What Are the Best Light Sources For Photosynthesis? - Vernier, 2020) Vernier. 2020. What Are The Best Light Sources For Photosynthesis? - Vernier. [online] Available at: [Accessed 4 November 2020].

“Factors Affecting Photosynthesis - Photosynthesis - OCR Gateway - GCSE Biology (Single Science) Revision - OCR Gateway - BBC Bitesize.” BBC News, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zx8vw6f/revision/2.

“Wavelengths of Light and Photosynthetic Pigments (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/photosynthesis-in-plants/the-light-dependent-reactions-of-pho tosynthesis/a/light-and-photosynthetic-pigments.

Khan, M. Nasir. “Why the Rate of Photosynthesis Is Higher in Red Light While the Rate of Absorption Is Highest of Blue Light?” ResearchGate, 1 Nov. 2013, www.researchgate.net/post/Why_the_rate_of_Photosynthesis_is_higher_in_red_light_while_the_rate _of_absorption_is_highest_of_blue_light....