Extended Essay

Biology (SL)

“The effect of light intensity on the amount of chlorophyll in “Cicer arietinum”

Word count: 4 413 words

Content

Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… 2
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Hypothesis …………………………………………………………………………… 3
Method:
Description ..………………………………………………………………………….. 8
Results ……………………………………………………………………………….. 10
Discussion ……………………………………………………………………..…….. 14
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………..….. 14
Evaluation of the method ………………………………………………………..…… 15
Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………. 16

Abstract.

Plants, growing on the shaded area has less concentrated green color and are much longer and thinner than plants growing on the sun areas as they are dark green, short and thick. Research question was: “How does the amount of chlorophyll-a and chlorophyll-b, gram per gram of plant, depends on the light intensity in which plants are placed?”

Hypothesis suggests that there are several inner and outer factors that affect the amount of chlorophylls a and b in plants and that with the increase of light intensity the amount of chlorophyll will also increase until light intensity exceeds the value when the amount of destructed chlorophylls is greater than formatted thus decreasing the total amount of chlorophylls in a plant.

The seeds of Cicer arietinum were divided into seven groups and placed into various places with different values of light intensities.
Light intensities were measured with digital colorimeter. After three weeks length was measured. Then plants were cut and quickly dried. Their biomass was also measured. Three plants from each group were grinded and the ethanol extract of pigments was prepared. The amount of chlorophylls was measured using method of titration and different formulas.

The investigation showed that plants growing on the lowest light intensity equal 0 lux contained no chlorophyll and had the longest length.
The amount of chlorophyll quickly increased and length decreased with the increase of light intensity from 0 lux to 1200 lux. The amount of chlorophyll in plants unpredictably decreased during light intensity equal to 142 lux and than continued increasing and didn’t start decreasing reaching very high value (1200 lux).

The sudden decrease happened due to mighty existence of some inner genetical damages of seeds which prevented them from normal chlorophyll synthesis and predicted decrease didn’t decrease because extremely high light intensity was not exceeded.

Word count: 300 words

I. Introduction.

This theme seemed to be attractive for me because I could see that results of my investigation could find application in real life.

While walking in the forest in summer I saw lots of plants of different shades of green color: some of them were dark green, some were light green and some even very-very light green with yellow shades, hence I became very interested in this situation and wanted to know why it happens to be so. I also saw that those plants that were growing on sunny parts of forest, where trees were not very high, had dark green color and those, that were growing in shady parts of the same forest had very light green color. They also had difference in their length and thickness – those, that were growing on light were very short, but thick and strong, and those, growing in shady regions were very thin and fragile.

Hence I became very interested in finding scientifical description of my observations.

The aim of my project is to find out how does the changes in light intensity affect balance of chlorophyll in Cicer arietinum.

II. Hypothesis.

There are several factors that affect the development of chlorophyll in plants.[1]

Inner factors. The most important one is – genetical potential of a plant, because sometimes happen mutations that follow in inability of chlorophyll formation. But most of the times it happens that the process of chlorophyll synthesis is broken only partly, revealing in absence of chlorophyll only in several parts of the plant or in general low rate of chlorophyll. Therefore plants obtain yellowish color. Lots of genes participate in the process of chlorophyll synthesis, therefore different anomalies are widely represented. Development of chloroplasts depends on nuclear and plastid DNA and also on cytoplasmatic and chloroplastic ribosomes.

Full provision of carbohydrates seem to be essential for chlorophyll formation, and those plants that suffer from deficit of soluble carbohydrates may not become green even if all other conditions are perfect. Such leaves, placed into sugar solution normally start to form chlorophyll. Very often it happens that different viruses prevent chlorophyll formation, causing yellow color of leaves.

Outside factors. The most important outside factors, affecting the formation of chlorophyll are: light intensity, temperature, pH of soil, provision of minerals, water and oxygen. Synthesis of chlorophyll is very sensitive to all the factors, disturbing metabolic processes in plants.

Light. Light is very important for the chlorophyll formation, though some plants are able to produce chlorophyll in absolute darkness. Relatively low light intensity is rather effective for initialization and speeding of chlorophyll development. Green plants grown in darkness have yellow color and contain protochlorophyll – predecessor of chlorophyll а, which needs lite to restore until chlorophyll а. Very high light intensity causes the destruction of chlorophyll. Hence chlorophyll is synthesized and destructed both at the same time. In the condition of very high light intensity balance is set during lower chlorophyll concentration, than in condition of low light intensity.

Temperature. Chlorophyll synthesis seems to happen during rather broad temperature intervals. Lots of plants of умеренной зоны synthesize chlorophyll from very low temperatures till very high temperatures in the mid of the summer. Many pine trees loose some chlorophyll during winters and therefore loose some of their green color. It may happen because the destruction of chlorophyll exceeds its formation during very low temperatures.

Поделитесь этой записью или добавьте в закладки