Lotos Chen

Tiffany Melvill

Sample Spread Sheet for Soil - pdf
1/22/04

How to Interpret the INAA
Information Results

INAA Sample from Sweet Home 1/22/04	INAA Sample from Crescent Valley 1/22/04
INAA Results from Sweet Home 1/22/04	INAA Results from Crescent Valley 1/23/04

Lotos Chen

How Arsenic Levels in Soil

Affect the Growth of English Ivy

I. Introduction

We have been told to research about the arsenic levels in Sweet Home, Oregon. My group and I have decided that our goal is to research and experiment about the relationship between arsenic levels in the soil and the growth of plants. In other words, we want to find out if the arsenic levels in the soil affect the growth of plants. The plant that my group and I have chosen to experiment with is English Ivy. English Ivy is also known as Hedera helix, it is an evergreen climbing vine that belongs in the ginseng family. English Ivy is a very aggressive plant that invades the space of many plants both on ground and in the air. Most of the time this ivy kills plants, for example trees. (Swearingen and Diedrich, 2000) We chose to use the plant, English Ivy because we thought that it would grow more effectively and relatively faster then most other plants. Thus we decided that it would be the best choice for our experiments. We plan to monitor the growth of the English Ivy seeds as much as possible to determine whether or not arsenic in the soil prevents or slows down the growth of plants. To monitor the growth of the English Ivy we are going to measure them by their stems with a ruler.

Arsenic is an extremely toxic and poisonous element. It is a natural occurring element and is widely dispersed in the earth’s crust. Arsenic is made up of oxygen, chlorine, and sulfur. When oxygen, chlorine, and sulfur are combined it makes inorganic arsenic compounds but when it is combined in animals and plants it forms organic arsenic compounds. (Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia, 2003) Arsenic is mainly used on woods to make it last longer, however it is also used in pesticides. (Hoover, 2001) Arsenic leaches the nutrients out of soil, which then makes the soil less fertile; it slows and sometimes even stops the growth of for instance different crops.

There have not been any researches or experiments that my group and I know off that have specifically tested whether or not the growth of English Ivy is affect by arsenic. However, there was a research in Florida done by Aziz Shiralipour, Lena Q Ma, and Rocky X. Cao that was a little bit similar to what we are doing. They found that a certain type of plant called the Chinese Brake Fern. This Chinese Brake Fern leached the arsenic out of the soil and it didn’t harm the plant at all. They learned about this when they planted Chinese Brake Ferns in soils that were purposely artificially contaminated with arsenic to see what would happen. The results were that the ferns could efficiently leach up large amounts of arsenic from the soil without any problems. (Aziz Shiralipour, Lena Q Ma, and Rocky X. Cao, 2002) Many of the plants that we know of and that we have researched and done experiments with are affected by soil contaminated with arsenic, but this fern was an exception.

My group and I believe that the issue that we are researching and experimenting about is valuable and important to know about. This is because what if arsenic does affect plant growth then as the plant growth is affected it will affect all living things in the area, in this case Sweet Home or Oregon itself. If arsenic has an affect on a plant then it will have an affect on the animal that eats the plant, this will eventually spread up to the top of the food chain, which is the humans who eat the plant or the animal. The reason is because all livings things are connected in some way or another.

By doing this study we can help our community members by informing them about how it is important to test your soil for arsenic even though it might just be your backyard. By testing the soil that you are going to plant things in you can be sure that whatever grows from that soil, which you then cultivate and eat is not contaminated by arsenic. It can mainly help farmers so that they will not lose so much money and time on land that has been affected by arsenic. Because as I said before soil affected by arsenic is not as fertile and contains almost no nutrients compared to unaffected soil.

We plan to obtain our soil from Sankey Park in Sweet Home and from Crescent Valley High School. To get to Sankey Park from Interstate 5 at Albany exit US Route 20 (exit 233) southeast through Lebanon to Sweet Home and continue from Highway 20 and then turn south at 12^th Avenue. Then turn east on Kalmia Street and then south on to 14^th Avenue for two block and Sankey Park is on the left. Here are some maps of Sankey Park and Sweet Home:

(http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmap&&csz=Sweet+Home+OR+&Get%A0Map=Get+Map)

Sankey Park is a seven-acre park. It has a duck pond. Sankey Park is where the Weddle and Dahlenburg Covered Bridges are located. Near the Sankey Park is the Ames Creek. Most of the vegetation in Sankey Park is grass, but there are some trees.

My hypothesis is that the English Ivy Seeds that are planted in the soil unaffected by arsenic will thrive and grow better. The reason being is because arsenic is poisonous and toxic. The arsenic is toxic so it makes the soil toxic too. The poison could kill some of the plant cells, which would prevent the plant from growing. The killing of some plant cells might slow down the growth of the plant. Arsenic leaches the nutrients out of the soil, which leaves the soil unfertile. And plants need nutrients to grow, to be healthy, and to grow strong and without nutrients it grows very slowly and might not grow at all in contaminated soil. (Stilwell, 2002)

II. Methods and Materials

In order to find out if arsenic levels in the soil affect the plant growth, in this case English Ivy, we have to get soil samples from Crescent Valley and Sweet Home. We are going to do 8 pots for each type soil and so we have backup incase one of the pot of seeds fail to grow. We have to collect enough soil for four flowerpots that are the same size and put the same amount in each pot. After putting the soil in, we have to write and label on each of the pots where the soil came from. We then take the English Ivy Seeds and plant the same amount of seeds into each of the four pots filled with soil. The next step is to water the seeds in each pot everyday with the same amount of water. The last step is to monitor and measure the amount of growth in the English Ivy seed every Friday with a ruler and record it on paper. In order to monitor the growth, we are going to measure the stem of the ivy from the soil and up until the end of the stem.

Materials needed to do this experiment are:

v 16 flowerpots- School

v English Ivy seeds - School

v Soil from CV - Group

v Soil from Sweet Home - Group

v Two large plastic bags - School

v A ruler- School

v Water- School

v A small hand shovel - School

III. References

1. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. (2003). “Arsenic”, [Online]. Available: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid= 761574751 [ 2003, October 16].

2. Shiralipour, Aziz., Ma , Lena Q., and Cao, Rocky X. (2003). Effects Of Compost On Arsenic Leachiability In Soils And Arsenic Uptake By A Fern, [Online]. Available: http://www.floridacenter.org/publications/02_04shiralipour.PDF [2003, October 16].

3. Hoover, Aaron. (2001). UF Research: Plant Soaks Up Deadly Arsenic From Soil, [Online]. Available: http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2001news/fern.htm [2003, October 16].

4. Stilwell, David E. (2002). Excerpts on Uptake of Arsenic by Plants Grown Near CCA Preserved Wood, [Online]. Available: http://www.noccawood.ca/stilwell 1.htm#plants [2003, October 16].

5. Swearingen, Jil M. and Diedrich, Sandra. (2000). English Ivy, [Online]. Available: http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/hehe1.htm [2003, October 16].