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Effect of Chlorine Concentration on the
Germination of Soybeans
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Researched by Joel F.
2004-05
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The purpose of this experiment was to determine the minimum
concentration of chlorine that would inhibit 50% of the soybean
germination.
I became interested in this idea when I saw on the news that a lot of
countries that have sanitizers for their water use chlorine to help
purify it. A lot of the citizens will use the water that was previously
purified with chlorine on their plants and maybe even their crops. Also
soybeans are important to world agriculture and are a large part of the
diet in many countries.
The information gained from this experiment could help farmers,
botanists and anyone who is involved in or has a job in agriculture.
My first hypothesis was that the 10-milliliter chlorine mixture would
prevent the 50% of the seeds from germinating.
My second hypothesis was that the 0.625-milliliter chlorine mixture
would not inhibit any of the seeds from germinating.
I based my hypotheses on the fact that the Turkish Department of
Wastewater Reuse filters use 1-milliliter to 5-milliliters of chlorine
per liter of wastewater in the filtration process. Also the Turkish
Department of Wastewater Refuse stated that using more than
5-milliliters of chlorine per liter should prove to have deadly side
affects to plants.
The constants in this study were:
∑ The number of soybean seeds in each group.
∑ The amount of light each group receives.
∑ The amount of chlorine water mixture each designated group receives.
∑ The environment the soybeans are grown in such as the temperature,
and the humidity.
∑ The type of container the soybeans are grown in.
∑ The type of sand the soybeans are grown in.
∑ The amount of sand the soybeans are grown in.
The manipulated variable was the concentration of chlorine in the water
that the soybeans were given.
The responding variable was the percentage of germination of seeds in
each group.
To measure the responding variable I counted the number of seeds that
germinated in each group.
QUANTITY ITEM
DESCRIPTION
3 Graduated Cylinders
1,296 Soybean Seeds
1 Gallon Chlorine (Household
Bleach)
6 72 cup Garden Planters
1 Marker
1 Pair of scissors
1 Roll of tape
6
1 Gallon water containers
1 Bag Pure chemical free playground sand
1 Growth light
1. Labeling the planters.
A. Label the first planter “Control”.
B. Label the second planter “O.625ml”.
C. Label the third planter “1.25ml”.
D. Label the fourth planter “2.5ml”.
E. Label the fifth planter “5.0ml”.
F. Label the sixth planter “10.0ml”.
2. Labeling the water containers.
A. Label the first container “Control”.
B. Label the second container “O.625ml”.
C. Label the third container “1.25ml”.
D. Label the fourth container “2.5ml”.
E. Label the fifth container “5.0ml”.
F. Label the sixth container “10.0ml”.
3. Filling the sand planters.
A. Measure out 30 ml of chemical free playground sand.
B. Pour the sand into the first cup of the Control planter.
C. Repeat procedures “3-A through 3-B” for each of the other cups in
all the other planters.
4. Planting the seeds.
A. Plant three soybean seeds in each of the cups for a total of 216
beans planted in each planter.
B. Be sure to plant all the seeds at least a quarter an inch under the
sand.
5. Setting up the growth light.
A. Attach a light to a shelf or a surface directly above the planters.
B. Leave the light on all day and all night until the experiment is
completed.
6. Mixing the Chlorine Solutions.
A. Using the graduated cylinder measure out 3 liters of water.
B. Pour the water into the container labeled “Control”.
C. This is your control solution.
D. Measure out 10 ml of chlorine.
E. Measure out another 3 liters of water.
F. Mix the 10 ml of chlorine and water together to create the 10 ml
chlorine mixture.
G. Pour the 10 ml solution into the 10 ml container.
H. Repeat steps “6-B through 6-F” four more times, except replace the
10 ml of chlorine with the remaining solutions, 5 ml, 2.5 ml, 1.25 ml,
and 0.625 ml.
7. Watering the seeds.
A. Water the Control planter with 10 ml’s of water from its matching
water container.
B. Repeat step “7-A” with the other planters but water using the
planters matching water containers.
C. Water the plants every day until at least 90% of the Control planter
germinates.
8. Recoding the results.
A. After germination of 90%of the Control group dig up the plants.
B. Record the number of seeds that germinated.
C. Create a table and graph your results.
The original purpose of this experiment was to determine the minimum
concentration of chlorine that would inhibit the germination of soybean
seeds up to 50%.
The second original purpose of this experiment was to determine the
effect of various concentrations of chlorine, below the 50% inhibiting
amount, on the germination of soybeans.
After 5 days of growth, the results of the experiment were:
∑ 90% of the soybeans in the Control group germinated.
∑ 82% of the soybean seeds in the 0.0625ml group germinated.
∑ 75% of the soybean seeds in the 1.25ml group germinated.
∑ 72% of the soybean seeds in the 2.5ml group germinated.
∑ 60% of the soybean seeds in the 5.0ml group germinated.
∑ 46% of the soybean seeds in the 10.0ml group germinated.
My first hypothesis was that the 10-milliliter chlorine mixture would
prevent 50% or more of the seeds germinating.
My second hypothesis was that the 0.0625-milliliter chlorine mixture
would not inhibit any of the seeds from germinating.
The results indicate that my first hypothesis should be accepted
because 64% of 10ml group did not germinate, that was 54% worse than
the control group.
The results also indicate that my second hypothesis should be rejected
because 18% of the 0.625ml group did not germinate, that was 8% less
that in the control group.
Because of the results of this experiment, I wonder if the soybeans
were watered another group with 0.03125ml or 0.015625ml of chlorine
would the results be better or worse, I predict better. I also wonder
if I watered a group with 15ml or 20ml of chlorine how much of the
group would germinate.
If I were to conduct this project again I would conduct it outside in
the summertime and I would water them more. I would also use more
groups with more seeds. Also maybe use more soil.
Introduction
Without plants all life would cease to exist. That is why scientists
must research what is harmful to plants. The soybean is a very
important plant in agriculture in many counties. Chlorine can be very
harmful to most plants including soybeans.
Plants
Plants are important to every living thing. Plants provide many
needed
products including food, clothing, shelter and fuel. They provide jobs
for people who grow them or sell them. They also provide lumber and
other materials for homes, are used in medicines, and have even been
used as currency. They also provide us with oxygen. Fossil fuels were
once growing plants that have been transformed over millions of years.
Plants are capable of making their own food, especially sugar, like
glucose. The chemical equation for this is 6 H20 + 6 CO2 =
C6H12O6 + 6
O2. This process is called photosynthesis, but it requires the energy
of the sun and a special plant chemical called chlorophyll to occur.
Humans and animals only use a small percentage of all plants. Many are
microscopic and live in the ocean. There are so many plants in the
world many of them haven’t been discovered yet. So it would be
impossible to list or even count every type of plant. Plants live all
over the world, but most of them are in the ocean. Plants live in
desserts, on mountains, in meadows, in forests, and even in the cities.
People who study plants are called botanists. Botanists do research
that benefits agriculture.
Agriculture
Agriculture is the biggest and most important industry in the world.
Half of the worlds’ workers are employed in agriculture. It made
civilization possible. Agriculture provides us with many, many
things,
including lots of food, clothing, paint, and jobs. One of the jobs it
provides is farming.
Farming is the commercial use of agriculture to grow plants and animals
for food, clothing and lumber. The products used to make clothing are
cotton, silk, wool, jute, flax, and sisal.
The food farming provides is land animals, sea animals and
plants.
The land animals include hogs, turkeys, chickens, dairy cattle, beef
cattle, goats, and sheep. The sea animals that farming provides are
salmon, catfish, trout, oysters and other salt-water shellfish.
The plants farming provides are coco beans, radishes, sweet potatoes,
potatoes, sorghum, oats, wheat, barley and rice. Some other plants are
rye, millet, oil crops, almost every type of fruit, dry beans, grass,
and corn. Other plants include sugar cane, sweet beats, tea, nuts,
coffee, tobacco, honey, hay, and soybeans.
Legumes
Legumes are the second largest family of flowering plants. They get
there name from the seed pods that grow off them. There are 14,000 to
17,000 different species of legumes. The main types of legumes are
peas, nuts, peanuts, beans, clover, alfalfa and vetch. The sub classes’
legumes include trees, shrubs, herbs, climbing plants and flowers.
Legumes are used to make oils, dyes, medicines and timber.
Legumes have a bacteria called rhizobia that live in growths on the
roots. These bacteria take in nitrogen from the air and transfer it to
the root system. This makes the legumes very valuable to farmers.
Farmers often use legumes as “green manure”. This manure helps
transform bad soil into usable soil.
Soybeans
Soybeans are very important to agriculture. They supply food for humans
and animals. They also provide raw materials for farming. Soybeans are
the third largest crop grown in the United States, second only to wheat
and corn. More than 75 million acres in the U.S. is dedicated to the
growth of soybeans. The United States grows about 40% of the worlds
soybeans, growing two and a half billion bushels yearly. More than one
third of this is exported to eastern Asia. Other important soybean
growers are Brazil, Argentina, China and Ontario. The two states that
produce the most soybeans are Illinois and Iowa.
The soybean is an annual. Meaning that it only lives for one year
before it has to be replanted. Soybeans are usually planted in the
spring. In six to eight weeks small purple or white flowers appear.
Soy has more protein than beef, fish, or eggs. A lot of people decide
to eat soy instead of eggs, fish, beef, and chicken. This is because
soy is 40% protein while beef, fish and eggs are only 18% protein.
Soybeans provide food for humans, animals and raw materials. Soybeans
are the largest source of vegetable oil in the world. Soy oil has
almost no saturated fat and no cholesterol. Soybeans are in the same
family as peas and are sometimes known as soy or soda. People in
eastern Asia are the largest consumers of tofu. Tofu is made from soy
curd.
Water Pollution
Most water pollution comes from the 400,000 manufacturing companies all
around the U.S. They use gallons and gallons of water to wash out many
different types of wastes. The water is then washed into the ground,
lakes and oceans.
In 1998 the national water quality inventory stated that 45% of the U.S
lakes, rivers, streams and ocean shores that were surveyed were
polluted so much that you should’t drink it, swim in it, or even fish
in it.
Some of the chemicals that were in the polluted lakes, rivers, streams
and oceans were phosphates, mercury, asbestos, sulfur, sulfuric acid,
nitrate and lead. There were also sodium compounds and petrol
chemicals. In 1986-1990 over 6000 injuries occurred because of
chemicals in the water. Another potentially harmful chemical found in
water pollution is chlorine.
Chlorine
Chlorine is very poisonous. Chlorine can cause irritation to the
throat, nose, lungs and skin. If breathed in it can cause health
problems. If a large amount of chlorine is consumed call poison control
immediately. It also has a very unpleasant odor. In gas form it is
explosive when combined with hydrogen.
Chlorine is also widely used to purify drinking water, since it kills
bacteria. It is also used to create paint, petroleum products,
medicines and cleaners. Chlorine is also used to make antifreeze,
insecticides, paper and plastic.
The gas form of chlorine is made from treating metal sodium with
hydrochloric acid. It creates a yellow-greenish gas. When this gas is
compressed it creates the liquid form of chlorine. Today the gas is
made from passing electric currents through sodium chloride in water.
Then the gas is pressurized to form the liquid. In nature chlorine only
exists in chloride compounds. Chloride occurs in seawater, salt lakes,
and rock salt.
Pure chlorine gas was first created in 1774 by the Swedish chemist Carl
Wilhelm Scheele. Scheele treated hydrochloric acid with manganese
dioxide and accidentally made chlorine. It wasn’t until 1810 that
chlorine was named and identified as a chemical element by Sir Humphrey
Davy. Davy named it for the Greek word “chloros” meaning
greenish-yellow.
Summary
Soybeans are very important plants and are very important to
agriculture. Chlorine is very dangerous to plants, animals and people.
Water pollution is an ever-present global problem. If something is not
done to reduce this problem then it will continue to threaten the
environment and possibly the human existence. |
“Agriculture” www.agricultureplants.com
Obrecht, Dan “Changing face of water pollution”
www.polutionchangeswater/facechange
“Chlorine” www.blueandgoldfleet.con/html
“Chlorine” 11-5-04
www.pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/carbaryl-dictrotophos/chlorine-ext.html
“Legumes” www.food.com
Smith, Aaron “Plants” www.plantshowtosavethem.com
“Poly chlorinatedbypenthenols” www.chlorinatedbypenthenols/polution
“Soybeans” www.food.com |
I would like to thank the following people for helping make my project
possible:
∑ My parents for supporting me in all that I have done during this
project. Also I would like to thanks them for helping handle the
chlorine when I was mixing the solutions.
∑ Mr. Newkirk for explaining things to me when I didn’t understand
them. Also for providing a workspace for my research and the tools I
needed.
∑ Mrs. Helms for finding helpful facts for my research.
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