fairfolio
Saved Projects

Effects of Polyethylene Microbeads on Lactuca sativa var. longifolia

CSEF · 2019 Toxicology

Beatrice M. Mihalache · Los Gatos High School, Los Gatos, Santa Clara County

Overview

Objectives The objective of this study is to examine the effects of microplastics in the soil on plant health and on soil properties. Methods A group of lettuce was grown in soil with a 10% concentration of polyethylene microplastics, while a control group was grown in plain soil. After 49 days, the plant height was measured with a ruler, the biomass was weighed with a gram balance, and the root length was measured with a ruler. The water holding capacity of the soils with and without microplastics was also quantified. To visualize whether microplastics were taken in by the lettuce, fluorescent microplastics were added to the soil of another group. After 19 days, these plants were cleaned thoroughly, mashed up, and tested for fluorescent beads. Results Results demonstrated that microplastics in the soil increase the water holding capacity by 29%, that plants growing in soil with microplastics grew 17.9% taller than the control plants, and that the differences in dry biomass and root length between the two groups were not statistically significant. The analysis of the lettuce grown with fluorescent microplastics demonstrates that microplastics are carried along with the plant matter even after rinsing thoroughly with water. Conclusions This study demonstrates that microplastics do not come off the plant even after plants are thoroughly washed, which is possibly harmful to animal and human plant consumers. This study also demonstrates that microplastics in the soil significantly increase the water holding capacity of the soil and the height of the plants, which are positives for the agriculture business.

Summary statement

I showed that microplastics in the soil increase the water holding capacity of the soil, that plants grown in soil with microplastics are taller, and that microplastics have a tenacious tendency to adhere to plant matter.

Help received

Feedback received from Cathy Messenger, teacher & mentor at Los Gatos High School, throughout the entirety of my project. She also helped me develop a method for how to determine whether microplastics were taken in by the plants. All experiment setups, data collection, and data analysis were done by me.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2019 Toxicology · Entry S2110

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