The Effect of Different Temperatures on the Cellular Respiration of Crickets PDF

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The Effect of Different Temperatures on the Cellular Respiration of Crickets

Written By: Ashley Lawton Lab Partner: Andrew Egan January 14th,2019 Introduction

This lab aims to discover if a cricket's cellular respiration rate is affected by varying temperatures in its environment. The crickets used in this experiment were placed in a closed test tube submerged in hot water, and the respiration quantity was measured by the amount of O2 released. All living cells require energy to function. This energy is created by the process of cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is a set of metabolic reactions that convert energy from nutrients into ATP(adenosine triphosphate), and then eventually releases the waste products. Cellular respiration occurs in 3 stages, glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and electron transport. During glycolysis, Glycolysis is the pathway that converts sugar into energy then into pyruvate, generating ATP during the conversion. During the Krebs cycle, a set of chemical reactions is used by all aerobic organisms to generate energy. The last stage is electron transport. During this stage, the NADH and FADH2 produced during the catabolic processes are oxidized therefore releasing energy in the form of ATP. This process is important because it plays an important role in daily activities as its the main production of energy. It provides the energy for living organisms to perform all of the other necessary functions to maintain life. During this lab, KOH, also known as Potassium hydroxide is used to absorb the CO2 and form a soluble precipitate. Potassium hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide to produce potassium carbonate and water. The KOH scrubs with the C02 from the container to consume oxygen and release carbon dioxide. This resulted in a decrease in the volume of gas in the vial. Hypothesis If crickets are placed in a hot environment, the rate of cellular respiration will increase because the crickets need to use energy to keep cool to maintain homeostasis. Data

See class data Discussion

After analyzing the graph and the class data, the hypothesis previously stated was correct due to the best fit line increasing. The line of best fit clearly shows a correlation between heat and metabolic rate. In the data, there were a few outliers but other than those points the strength was fairly strong. Throughout the trial, the students noticed that some crickets were healthier than others. The outliers located about could have been caused by bad health. Towards the end of the graph, the line of best fit started to even out. At 35 degrees Celsius, the line of best fit showed .055 respiration rate. This affects the data because not having optimum potential crickets will cause the line of best fit to not accurately show the correct data. Based on the graph and supporting evidence, one cannot make assumptions that the crickets will work better in hot conditions due to a weak line of best fit. An error that was possible for the lab was not having a constant temperature. If the temperature remained constant then the volume of the gas should have been proportion to the

number of gas molecules, therefore, causing the CO2 to be removed from the system and the water should have been pushed up the tube. The water was never pushed up in the tube. Another error could have been the KOH not reacting properly. If the KOH never scrubbed fully then the volume of the CO2 would have never decreased causing invalid results. A way to prevent this from happening again would be to test the strength of the KOH over three experiments. This would cause more accurate data and it would also allow comparsion between the two sets of data. Conclusion The result of the crickets change in respiration was due to the fact that crickets are coldblooded creatures, meaning that they take on whatever temperature their environment is around them. Due to the temperature changes, the crickets changed their cellular activity to make up for the change of environment. This overall change ended up affecting the respiration rate. From the supporting evidence and graph, one can conclude that crickets have a higher cellular respiration rate in warmer temperatures and a lower cellular respiration rate in cold temperatures. Future Directions If the lab could change in one way, it would be to test more than just different temperatures. The test would be for different noises and different heat environments with those noises. For example; set up an experiment where one group could yell very loud for a minute in room temperature versus yelling for one minute outside in the cold to see how respiration would change. I would test this to see if sound waves affect respiration. I would expect to see an increase in respiration due to the vibrations off the tubes. One other thing would be to test different lengths of time in the cold temperature to keep the crickets in the ice bath for a shorter amount of time. If the cricket is left too long, it has a higher chance of freezing to death, which

almost happened. I would be curious to see where the breaking point is between an increase and decrease in their respiration. In the end, I would expect to find that there is a breaking point at around 17 degrees celsius due to the fact that about 10 degrees warmer the best fit line started to decrease. I expect to see this because the crickets are cold-blooded and can adjust to the temperature frequently....