David Sanchez 4-21-14 Period

Do Plants conduct photosynthesis and cellular respiration at the same time?

If I made a hypothesis before the experiment, I could have predicted a few specific outcomes. If we have 5 grams of radish seed then we will see if the radish grows in the light and in the dark. Then I think the treatment in the light will grow in biomass and in height than it being in the dark because in order for plants to grow they need light, water, and carbon dioxide to successfully grow to gain its biomass. These ingredients help the plant create glucose to gain its biomass.

I'm including all of the graphs because they were needed in this lab. The title for these to graphs is: Average Height for Dark and Light, and The Average Change in Biomass in the Dark and Light. The data was surprising in it's results. The radishes, after a week in the dark, grew 4.6cm tall, and their final color was yellow. The radishes, after being exposed in the light grew 1.4cm tall and were green. The radishes mass increased in the light. The average growth in biomass was .26 gram and the range was between 0 and 0.7 grams. The radishes biomass decreased in the dark. The average biomass in the dark was -13; the range in the dark was between -0.1 and -0.2 grams.

My hypothesis was partially correct, because the plants in the light grew biomass. I also thought they would grow tall, but the plants in the dark grew taller and had a decrease in biomass, I didn't predict this result. Plants do photosynthesis and they respire because when they photosynthesis they gain biomass but when they're respirating they grow tall and lose their biomass. The radishes that were in the light photosynthesized because they had access to the reactants that they need to create the glucose to increase their biomass. It was meaningful because they didn't need to grow tall to reach the light to get the light, they all access to the light. The mass came from the air and a little water which helped create the glucose and stayed in the plant so that helped it gain biomass. The radishes in the light lost biomass because they used all their energy in their endosperm, because their energy was used to grow tall to reach the light. The mass from the glucose went into the atmosphere.

Plants can conduct both because when they photosynthesize they gain biomass and helps them grow tall. In my collection of data there could've been methods that could have collected the inaccurate data. Some ways are mismeasuring mostly, like one thing I didn't do was measure how long the radishes were in the light before they were suppose to be in complete darkness. Also I didn't have a very good scale that measured to the hundredths place. Something that I can next time to confirm that plants do photosynthesis and cellular respiration is by using Tetrazoliium Chloride because TZ turns respiring cells red and we could put the TZ in the radishes to see if they photosynthesize and respire. This is a step I would like to take next. I would put TZ in the light and in the dark radishes. I would expect similar results with the dark plants respirating and the light respirating also.

Radish Lab

Question:

Do Plants conduct photosynthesis and cellular respiration at the same time?

1.

Put 4 layers of wet paper towels on the Petri dish, make enough petri dishes for all of the groups.

2. Label the petri dishes with tape, on the tape there should be the groups names and their treatment.

3.

Add 0.5 grams of radish seeds to the dish and separate them evenly.

4.

Put half of the petri dishes in the light and in the dark

5.

Water both groups of petri dishes with 10 ml of water for 7 days

6.

Measure the tallest seed and record this data

7. Put all of the seeds from one petri dish into an envelope, and do this for the rest of the petri dishes into different envelopes and label

8.

Put all the envelopes into the dehydrator for 24 hours

9. After the 24 hours weigh the envelope and subtract the initial weight of the envelope from the starting weight of the seedlings. (0.5 grams).

10. The difference between these numbers is the change in biomass of the seeds. If its negative it means it has a loss in weight. If its positive its a gain in biomass, and if theres no change then its 0.