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Group 6D |
Tiffany Melvill |
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Sample
Spread Sheet for Soil - pdf |
Plant
Growth Information - pdf |
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INAA Sample from
Sweet Home |
INAA Sample from
Crescent Valley |
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INAA Results
from Sweet Home |
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The Question: How Do Arsenic Levels In Soil Affect the Growth of English Ivy? Our project: By Lotos Chen 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. Methods: By Luke Cotton In order to find out if arsenic levels in the soil affect the plant growth, our plant is English Ivy. We retrieved soil samples from Crescent Valley High School, Corvallis Oregon and Sweet Home Oregon. First Sweet Home Oregon we collected the soil samples. The Soil samples were four-six inches deep the seventh inch was the soil that we gathered (Jim Childs 1999). We found the exact position with a GPS so this can be duplicated. Then after the soil had been collected we put the soil evenly into eight jars, filled to 6 inches uncompressed. Then label each jar S1, S2 ext. up to eight. Then put the soil in a box so when you put the lids on the jars they don’t get any sun, like what we did. Store the samples in a room at a normal room temp. Repeat this procedure at Crescent Valley High School Corvallis Oregon the next day. After the samples were collected and stored in the same spot, then you take the jars and pore the entire contents into the sixteen pots labeling each. Then take the English Ivy sprouts and plant one in each pot. Place the pots in an outside room with ventilation to the outdoors and a sunroof. Then analyze the growth every Friday. The way we are analyzing is by measuring the growth and comparing the plants too each other. Water them with the same amount of water (about 50ml) every other day from the first day on. While you are doing this also send a sample down to the OSU reactor to have it analyzed. Materials: By Lotos Chen & Luke Cotton
References: Updated - January 30, 2007 |