Inhibition Of Direct Light Affects Elodea s Co2...

Name: Diana Monyancha Date: 10/02/15 BIOL 1441-014 Lab Instructor: Audra Andrew Lab Partners: Sydney Censullo Monica Mendoza Saul Longoria Inhibition of Direct Light affects Elodea’s CO2 production during Photosynthesis. Abstract Plants rely upon photosynthesis to acquire their energy and make food. To determine exactly how important light energy is in the process of photosynthesis, we decided to conduct an experiment in which an Elodea plant was exposed to different light intensities. One Elodea plant was placed inside CO2 saturated water and under full light exposure while the other was covered with mesh clothing. The solutions to this plants were then neutralized and compared to a control group beaker which had no Elodea to see the†¦show more content†¦2014). Various researchers have conducted numerous experiments to examine if altering light energy will have an effect on photosynthesis. One particular research found that under high intensities of light, a specific plant, R. Nathalie had greater amounts of CO2 uptake (Rakic et al. 2014). Another found that a sugarcane plant increased its productivity with higher rates of CO2; it was able to photosynthesize more by 30% (De Souza et al. 2008) To det ermine the effect of light on CO2 production for photosynthesis, the amount of light an Elodea plant received was inhibited with a mesh cloth while a second beaker of the same Elodea plant was exposed to the full light intensity. The purpose of this experiment was to then compare and determine if CO2 production would be decreased if direct light was inhibited. Methods Equal amounts of water saturated with CO2 were divided into three separate beakers each 50ml. Elodea plants were then added into these two beakers, each plant weighed 1.5g. A separate beaker, which was the control group contained none; it also did not receive any light. Both beakers with Elodea were exposed to a light source 30cm away. One beaker was covered with a mesh cloth to reduce that amount of light that its Elodea plant received. The plants were then left in their respective beakers for an hour. After this time period, three drops of