miércoles, 21 de diciembre de 2016

Seeds do not germinate with high acetic acid concentrations

Some days later we have realised that seeds do not germinate with high concentrations of acetic acid. So we decided to prepared news solutions with 0,5% and 0,1% of acetic acid. Only some lentil plants have germinated in solutions with acetic acid 0,1%. You have the results in this table.



We have made more experiments. We have transferred seeds treated with high concentrations of acid to water. And these seeds are not able to germinate five days later. In conclusion, acid damages seeds permanently.


With our control plates we have made two sets with three plants. All al the plates had small lentil plants. One of these set has been irrigated with acetic acid 0,1%; the other one with pure water. We are going to study differences in the growing of lentils plants.

viernes, 16 de diciembre de 2016

Our results, 16th December 2016

Today we have observed that no seeds have germinated in acid media. Almost all the seeds grew only in water have grown. You can see the result in the table below.
We are going to study if the damage caused by acid is permanent. So we have removed the acid and put the seeds into water and we are going to study if they can germinate next week.
We have a lot of small plants. We have divided them in two groups. One will be irrigated with water. The other one will be watered with a solution of acetic acid 1%, simulating acid rain. Next week we will see if there is any effect on the leaves and growth of the plants.

jueves, 15 de diciembre de 2016

Seeds are germinating

Now we have our first results. Almost all the control seeds, those watered, with water have germinated. On the contrary, no seeds have germinated in acid media. We will have to wait to the next days. 


In the second experiment, seeds have germinated and we can see the small plants in the pots. When they grow, half of them will be treat with an acid solution remembering acid rain. 
So, we can have our first conclusions. Would you mind to write them as comments?


miércoles, 14 de diciembre de 2016

Our experiments with acid rain

You know that rain is an important part of the water cycle. Rain is also very important for life; all living beings need water to live, even people, and rain brings us the water we need. But rain can be dangerous in some parts of the world because of pollution of the air. This rain is what we know as acid rain.
Acid gases are produced when fossil fuels are burned. But nature can also produce this kind of gases in volcanoes. When they mix when the water in clouds it can cause rain to become acid. Lemon juice, vinegar are acids; and sometimes rain is as acid as lemon juice.
Acids can be harmful. If there is too much acid in soil, seeds will not germinate and plants will not grow. Leaves affected by acid rain cannot make photosynthesis.
So, we are going to study the effect of acid rain in plants in our laboratory. We are going to prepare two experiments. In the first one we are going to study the effect of acid rain on the germination of lentil seeds. We are going to prepare some Petri dishes with 16 seeds. We are going to add only water to five of them; we will add different solutions of acetic acid in water to the rest. We will study the germination of seeds in every plate for a time.
In the second one we are going to grow lentil plants until they have leaves. Half of the plants will be watered with fresh water; the rest will be irrigated with a solution of acetic acid. We will study differences between these two treatments. In our blog we will post pictures with our results. Please, contribute to our research with comments.
(Spanish version)





And our first results

Two days after the beginning of our experiment, we have our first results. Two seeds have germinated in control plates. No seed have germinated in plates with acid solutions. Here you have a picture of these plates.