The Effect of Elevated CO(2) Concentration on Plant Growth

Overview

Objectives/Goals If the percentage of CO2 in a plant's environment affects how fast the plant will grow, then - considering that plants require CO2 for photosynthesis and the production of carbonic acid is slow - the higher the percentage of CO2, the faster the plant will grow. Methods/Materials Four healthy dwarf pea sprouts were placed in each of four clear glass jars and the concentration of Co2 in each jar was adjusted to normal air, 10%, 50%, and 100% respectively. The accurate adjustment of the Co2 concentration was achieved using a technique where each jar was filled with water, then blown out and replaced by Co2 until the respective percentage of Co2 was fulfilled, then blow the rest of the water with normal air. This set up was placed under a grow light so that each plant had the same amount of #sunlight#, then the plant's were measured every day for eight days and their gain or loss in height was recorded. Repeat this procedure four times to eliminate as much uncontrollable error as possible. Results All plants started at approximately the same height. In the 100% Co2 the average height reduced to 42% of its original height over eight days. In the 50% Co2 the average height reduced to 62% of its original height over eight days. In the 10% Co2 the average height increased to 114% of its original height over eight days. In the normal air the average height increased to 115.5% of its original height over eight days. A significant amount of water vapor was found on the 100% Co2 and it seemed as if the water vapor corresponded to the percentage of Co2 in that jar. Conclusions/Discussion The data proves my hypothesis wrong, but even though I was wrong the data displays a clear pattern. As the Co2 levels rise the plants seem to keel over and die faster or their growth was slowed. There was two noticeable groups though. One which grew from its original point and the other that dramatically died from its original point.

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Environmental Engineering (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1008

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

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

Browse more like this

• All Environmental Engineering projects
• CSEF Environmental Engineering projects
• Every CSEF 2014 project