Salinity and Seed Germination and Environmental Condition Laboratory Report

Introduction

The abiotic features of an ecosystem are significant to understand the biological community that comprises the biotic component of the ecosystem. The availability of water is particularly significant in everyone’s life.

Freshwater helps the world’s water to make it up to about one percent. Scarcity of freshwater limits the range of many terrestrial species of plants and animals (Rhines et al. 7). Plants like animals have different tolerances to salt their environment.

As it is known, that all soils have some salts for water-soluble, and in this form of soil, essential nutrients of plants are absorbed. High salinity in the soil makes it more difficult for plants to extract water from the soil.

Freshwater enters an ecosystem in the form of precipitation, a river or lake, or an underground aquifer. With the growth of the human population, intensive practices of agriculture and water demand for urban, water levels in many of the world’s aquifer are dropping.

If freshwater is pumped out of an aquifer at a rate exceeding its natural recharge rate saltwater and other pollutants may intrude into the traditional aquifer basin (Martínez-Ballesta, et al. 42). Saltwater encroachment is a growing problem in the aquifers of coastal communities.

Salty soil is also an obstacle that can arise in agriculture. As irrigation water is consumed by plants and evaporated by the sun, salts are left behind.

Over time, salt may collect such that the soil becomes too salty for many plants to grow. It is believed that the ancient population of Sumeria first flourished with its practice of irrigation, but over many generations began to undergo reduced crop yields due to the expanding salinity of the soil.

Extreme soil and water salinity are environmental stress constituents that restrain the growth and yield of glycophytic crop plants in various regions of the world.

Plant growth may describe as an irreversible increment in size emerging from cell division and expansion and, in principle, established by rates of water uptake and metabolically interfered cell wall loosening and the uptake of nutrients into the cells (Chhabra 252).

Methods

In experiment 1, which is named water transport and salinity, several methods or steps are used to obtain the result of the experiment. In this experiment, four cups taken filled with 400 ml of water. Then use the red dye to satin the two cups darkly, and for another two-cup strain, blue dye is used.

Measure each cup with the same amount of dye and record it. Label the red and blue dye cup with an S. Then add four spoons full of salt in each cup and stir the solutions thoroughly. Obtain two similar stalks of celery, each with some leaves at the top. Cut the stalk in a 1-cm piece off bottom.

Then carefully, split the stalks up the middle about half-way. After, performing all the functions of stalks, place both the strain in two different S, which means put one leg of one stalk into red S cup and other legs of the stock into the blue S cup. With the function of stalks and S cups, record the time at which place each celery into the pair of a cup which is the start time.

After recording the start time, wait for the stalks or leaves to get dry, and then record the stop time. Then examine the top of the celery stalks, and again record the result, and both as high salt and low salt or S cups or non-S cups.

After these steps, remove the celery from the cups to measure the climbing of each red and blue dye. After this year, the parts of celery stalk, and notice the feel of vascular tissue, and lying of food colouring in it.

In experiment 2, which is named as seed germination and environmental conditions, consist of several methods for implementing the experimenting.

For this, need to prepare solutions for salinity by taking different 6 cups of different measurement. Then the measuring spoon to add the salt in it with 50 ml of water in the measuring cups. Then add 1.5 tablespoon sodium chloride in it. In the same way, in different cups with different amounts of water, add the salt and by following the steps for procedure pour the required materials in the cups.

From the steps obtained from the procedure, it is found that different cup contained different materials and get emptied and filled with another material to measure the germination of seed. For preparing seed germination, need to take three paper towels and cut them in half then again fold each half towel in half.

These towels will be the germinating environment of seed. With the steps followed from the procedure in point 13 to 17, the proper germination of seed and environmental conditions will be obtained and measured.

Results

Record the time at which you place each celery into the pairs of cups as start time

Start time Stop time

S cups 8 AM 2 PM

Non-S cups 9 AM 3 PM

Distance measured for the Different S cup with red and blue dye.

Distance

Red dye (S) 4 cm

Blue dye (S) 4 cm

Red dye (non-S) 4 cm

Blue dye (non-S) 4 cm

Results for sprouted seeds present in each group per day.

With these experiments, it is obtained that the seed is germinated and found with the dry cup. With the different dry cup, the time for start and stop are recorded. Then, after this for seed germination for different the S cup and non-S cup, the distance measured for it. Then the results for sprouted seeds for each group per day obtained for the germination of seed.

The appearance of salt had an extensive influence on the germination of seeds. It performs that the more salt that is present; the slower seeds can develop and developed. Large amounts of salt present revealed very little growth compared to the less salty brother/sister seeds. The substitutes that I used, in this experiment, aspirin, and sugar, appeared to aid in the germination of the seeds.

Discussion and Conclusion

In this lab assignment, two experiments are performed, one is on water transport and salinity, and the other is seed germination and environmental condition. In the water transport and salinity, the start and stop time for the dry and not dry cups.

Then, in the second experiment, the distance for it is calculated, and then the germination of seed for each group per day is observed and calculated. By following the methods, the experiment performed and obtained the results for it.

In this experiment, I studied those numerous natural processes within plants can easily be prevented by outside stimuli. Salt injured both the celery and radish seeds, and the more salt that was present, the slower their original processes became.

I also found that, in the second part of the experiment, there were supplementary elements added such as sugar and aspirin which appeared to serve the process of the germination. This analysis shows that the processes of plants can be positively or negatively influenced by several different types of environmental stimuli.

Works Cited

Chhabra, Ranbir. Soil salinity and water quality. Routledge, 2017. 250-255.

Martínez-Ballesta, Mª Carmen, et al. “Multiwalled carbon nanotubes enter broccoli cells enhancing growth and water uptake of plants exposed to salinity.” Journal of nanobiotechnology 14.1 (2016): 42.

Rhines, P. B., et al. “A Better MOC Index: AMOC-theta/S in the North Atlantic Ocean: Spatial Circulation, Water-mass Transformation and Heat Transport on the Temperature/Salinity Plane.” American Geophysical Union, Ocean Sciences Meeting 2016, abstract# PO13E-02. 2016. 5-20

Alternative: Sugar Sprouts: None, Sugar appears Sprouts: One seed, Sugar less visible Sprouts: two seeds, sugar hardly visible Sprouts: None, Slight red color 0 3.1% (“1/32” cup) Sprouts: None, Slight red color 1 12.5% (“1/8” cup) Sprouts: None, Slight red color 1 50% (“1/2” cup) Sprouts: None, Slight red color 1

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