Druga gimnazija Sarajevo

Lab Report

How does the temperature affect germination of the seed?

December, 2011.

Student: Kerim Panjeta, II1 MYP

Introduction:

This lab report's main focus will be the germination of the seed and how do the certain effects affect the seed (temperature mostly). Also, I will collect, record data, organize, analyse and present the data using numerical and visual forms. The problem that can be considered in this work can be the data that I am collecting for a week now, that is will the corn seed develop as it should according to the hypothesis.Germination is the process in which a plant develops from a seed or spore, respectively, and begins growth. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. Factors which affect seed germination include moisture, temperature and light. One way in which global warming potentially could affect the biology of weeds is by the changes in the germination requirements of seeds in spring and early summer. Seeds of some summer annuals would not germinate as early in spring as they do now. Changes in germination phenology would be in response to periods of relatively high temperatures in winter. The problem that can be considered in this work can be the data that I am collecting for a week now, that is will the corn seed develop as it should according to the hypothesis.

Hypothesis:

I predict that the germination of the seeds is going to happen much faster in the high temperatures (seeds that are located on the heater) then in the lower temperatures (seeds that are located in the room temperatures and balcony cold temperatures). In the case of my work I predict that the seeds that will be located on the heater would germinate in a much bigger number then the seeds that will be located in the room temperature and balcony.

Scientific reasoning:

I made this hypothesis based on the common knowledge that higher temperatures stimulate seeds with proper quantity of moisture and light aswell.

Aim:

The aim of this lab report is to see the germination of the corn seeds, that is when the germination is higher or lower. Once more I will mention that global warming could affect our world because certain seeds are germinating much better and in the larger number.

Procedure and Method used:

Last week, I was preparing for my lab report and I did following procedure:

I bought 60 corn seeds and I placed them into 3 different groups. I placed cotton wool on the bottom of the small bucket, then I put 20 corn seeds onto the wool and then I have put it on the balcony. I repeated the process, I placed cotton wool on the bottom of the small bucket that was identical to the one before, then I put 20 corn seeds onto the wool and I have put it in my room. And for the last time I took the same small bucket, inputed the cotton wool and on the wool I have put the last 20 corn seeds, I placed this bucket on the heater in my room. Just to mention that I sipped some water over the cotton wool so that the seeds could start growing.

Every night I was regularly checking up on my seeds, taking photo of them to serve as a proof and also I added water on the cotton wool if it was necessary. Adding the water was very delicant process because the bucket that was located on the heater would evaporate the water very quickly, so I had to add the water in that bucket more frequently. The one on the balcony was almost in no need of the water at all, I sipped water once or twice. And the bucket on the room temperature required water more frequently than the bucket on the balcony, but less water then the bucket on the heater. The quantity of water that I was adding was not high because I always sipped enough water so that the cotton wool stays wet. Having too much water in the bucket would not be good, so I took care of it. Also, I was constantly monitoring how many seeds did germinate every night, that is to test my hypothesis. I measured how many seeds germinated every night in the same time frame, 21:00 - 21:15. Those information will later on serve me to make a data table.

Materials:

60 corn seeds3 same small bucketsThe cameraWater3 different places with different temperatures (room temperature, heater temperature, balcony temperature)

Processing Data:

The seeds that germinated on the heater

(picture taken by me, 16.12.2011.)

Days Number of germinated seeds

Temperaturein Celsius

1 0 292 0 283 3 284 3 305 3 286 3 277 3 29

This table present the data that was collected through 7 days about the seeds that germinate on the heater. First 2 days not one single seed germinated, but on the day 3. the number of germinated seeds was 3 and it stayed that way for the entire week. This does not look too promising. The temperature varied from 27-30. (in Celsius). 15% of the entire seeds were germinated.

The seeds germinated at the room temperature:

(photo taken by me, 20.12.2011.)

Days Number of germinated seeds

Temperature

1 0 222 0 213 2 224 3 225 4 206 6 197 6 22

This table represents the data of seeds germinated at the room temperature. As we can see, first 2 days there was no germinated seeds, but on the 3. day the number slowly started to raise, and eventually at 7. day the number of germinated seeds reached 6. The temperature varied from 19-22. (in Celsius). 30% of the entire seeds were germinated.

The seeds germinated in the cold temperature, on the balcony:

(photo taken by me, 17.12.2011.)

Days Number of germinated seeds

Temperature

1 0 152 0 143 0 144 2 155 2 136 2 157 3 15

In this table you can read the data that I collected for the seeds that germinated in the cold temperatures, on a balcony. As we can see the number of the germinated seeds for the first 3 days were 0. However, on the 4. day the number of germinated seeds rose to 2 and stayed like that till 7. day. On the 7. day I calculated that there were 3 germinated seeds. The temperature varied from 13-15. (in Celsius). 15% of the entire seeds were germinated.

The 3 tables:

As we could conclude from the following 3 tables, the seeds that were germinating in the room temperature were the most succesful. The other too, that is the seeds that were located on the heater (higher temperatures) and the seeds that were located on the balcony (lower temperatures) were equally succesful. To help us understand a bit better these datas, I will draw a graph that will contain all 3 groups of seed germination.

dependent variable - seedsindependent variable - temperature

The graph:

The graph presented here made the information even more clear. Hot (blue line) represents the seeds that germinated on the heater (highest temperatures), the Mid (pink line) represents the seeds that germinated in my room (medium temperature), and finally the Cold (yellow line) represents the seeds that germinated on the balcony (lowest temperatures). On the left side (vertical) the number of seeds that germinated is located, and in the horizontal position there are the number of days. We can see that the most productive temperature for the germination was the temperature of the room.

The agriculturally important seeds are studied on the different temperatures purely because of the economy. If scientists find a way to germinate more seeds in a less amount of time that means that that way would be much more useful for the economy. Basically the more seeds that germinate in a smaller amount of time, the better the profit is.

When I compared my corn seed graph with the others graphs of different seeds, I found that:

I took the graph of Tarik Hadzović's wheat and I found out that he had similar problem, his wheat that was located on the room temperature was the most productive, then his wheat that was located in the cold environment, and on the last place the wheat that was located on the heater with hot environment. Also, it was very interesting that all of his seeds did manage to germinate in the room temperature (all 20 of them).

While analyzing Irma Lugušić's bean's there was completely different result then from mine and Tarik's. Irma's beans were the most succesful in the cold environment, less succesful in the room temperature and the least succesful in the extremely hot environment (probably heater). With all of these information, I will now summarise everything in a very important part, conclusion.

Conclusion:

To conclude this lab report I can say that first of all I have learnt a lot about the germination. I also mentioned the importance of global warming and the development of the seed according to the time of the year. The hypothesis I predicted was not correct and I am feeling a bit sad that it didn't work as planned. I said in my hypothesis that the seeds that are located in the warmest environment would be the most productive ones but that was not the case. The most productive seeds were located in the environment with medium temperature, that is the room temperature. I need to give reasoning why my hypothesis was not correct. Well, first of all, all seeds have a certain temperature gap that they can developed. I believe that the heater had too hot temperature for the development. The proof of that can be seen on the corn as the black marks on it's surface. Also, the warmer environment was evaporating the water more quickly and maybe I didn't input needed amount of water regularly. On the other hand, the corn seeds that were in the room temperature had an ideal environment. It was full of moisture, light and enough temperature to develop. Those are the main reason for the hypothesis that I made, and it is incorrect. But also, we can see from the examples of the other students that neither their seed was best at the warmest temperature, which means that they also provided too much heat for the seeds. I collected and provided data that are relevant and relible for this lab report.