Biology Form and Function Interpreting Data

Task 5: 1. Table 1 Dry Weights of Tomato Plants Grown Under Different CO2 Regimes with Calculated Mean and Standard Deviations

Weight of Plant Under Different CO2 Conditions (g) initial replicates weight 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 mean Standard Deviation 0.31 0.12 0.09 0.15 0.4 0.14 0.19 0.17 0.13 0.28 0.3 0.22 0.08 0.2 0.26 low co2 0.51 0.41 0.05 0.32 0.15 0.11 0.13 0.11 0.21 0.14 0.19 0.21 0.05 0.12 0.04 normal co2 0.67 0.57 0.46 0.72 0.05 0.69 0.59 0.41 0.21 0.37 0.87 0.92 0.61 0.41 0.43 high co2 2.04 1.74 1.27 1.36 1.98 2.22 1.45 1.89 1.18 1.49 2.08 1.14 1.1 1.25 0.78

0.202667 0.183333333 0.091532 0.134942669

0.532 1.531333 0.23339727 0.432581

Graph 1 - Mean Dry Weights of Tomato Plants Grown Under Different CO2 Regimes with Standard Deviation Error Bars

Graph of Mean
2.5

Weight of Plant (g)

1.5

0.5

0 0 1 2 3 4 5

Amount of CO2

2. Table 2 T- Test Table Calculated from Dry Weights of Tomato Plants Grown Under Different CO2 Regimes T-Test Values for Comparison of Different CO2 Environments. initial to initial to initial to lownormal low normal high normal low to high to high 7.42393E5.46538E2.29109E8.96E0.650109 05 09 4.9E-05 09 08

t-test

3. The results obtained from the experiments was expected. Except for the initial weight to the low CO2 weight of the plants. This exception is shown in the above T-test table where the T-test value is

above 0.1 and 0.5 showing that they are similar. However, the rest of the data shows a significant difference due to their t-test values being below 0.1which is to be expected. The Standard deviation of the graph also increases with the increase of CO2 as not all plants absorb CO2 at the same rate causing larger deviations.

4. As CO2 is an essential part of the Light dependant photosynthetic cycle which also contributes to the calvin cycle, the increase of CO2 in the environment would hence yield more Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and Adenosine Diphosphate ADP than if there was restricted CO2. With the Low CO2 restrictions plant regimes 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 all had a decrease in weight while the rest had an increase. This is possibly due to the individual plants requirements of CO2 at that time. As for the normal and high CO2 exposure all the plants increased in weight due to sufficient amounts of CO2 being present allowing for the increase in ATP and ADP production. The normal CO2 environment produced the most similar results compared to the high and low CO2 environments. This is because for the heavier/ bigger plants would be absorbed faster than the smaller plants allowing for faster growth. However, as the CO2 is at a normal amount there is still a restriction of CO2 reducing the growth advantages of the larger plants. The high CO2 exposure produced heavier plants as more energy could be created. However, it also yielded a larger deviation in plant weight. This could be due to the individual plants absorption and usage of CO2 from the environment, as all plants are different in structure and the specimens were not all the same initial size and weight. This could have provided the heavier/ bigger plants with an exponential growth rate as it is able to absorb more light and had the CO2 requirements to complete the Light dependant and independent stages of photosynthesis.