fairfolio
Saved Projects

Effects of Aluminum on Leaf Consumption in Porcellio laevis

CSEF · 2003 Pharmacology/ Toxicology

Nicole L. Sheaffer · Mount Miguel High School, Spring Valley

Overview

Objectives/Goals I wanted to determine that higher concentrations of aluminum in leaves has a negative correlation to the consumption of those leaves. Methods/Materials I used an oven to dry the leaves and I then added 10 ml of aluminum solution and distilled water to each cluster of 0.10 g of leaves. Then I determined how the aluminum affected the consumption by counting the fecal pellets. Results My data supported my hypothesis with the exception of a "spike" in the leaves that contained 1,000 micrograms of aluminum. Conclusions/Discussion The "spike" in the 1,000 microgram concentration led me to believe that a trace amount of aluminum is either wanted or needed by the sowbugs.

Summary statement

I put different concentrations of aluminum into Bougainvillea leaves and tested the consumption of the leaves in Porcellio laevis (sowbugs) in an attempt to determine if aluminum affects the consumption rate of the sowbugs.

Help received

Mr. Nordell helped me to collect the leaves and bugs, and to help me mix the aluminum solution; Sister helped to count the fecal pellets for one of the trials while I was away.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2003 Pharmacology/ Toxicology · Entry S1423

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google