Factors Of Cellular Respiration

Cellular respiration is “The series of metabolic processes by which living cells produce energy through the oxidation of organic substances” (dictionary.com). These metabolic processes are fueled through O2 consumption. The equation of cellular respiration is as follows: C6H12O6 + O2 ---> CO2 + H2O + ATP (Pidwirny). The actual pathways of cellular respiration are glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, and oxidative-phosphorylation (Campbell pg. 166). The big picture problem is the rate at which this reaction takes place is dependant on several factors. The factors that affect cellular respiration are, stage of the organism 's life cycle, the type of organism, and diet. These factors affect homeostasis because it controls how much energy the cells utilizes to do work. In the experiments conducted, several of the cellular respiration factors were tested in different manners to ascertain how each of these factors specifically …show more content…
The respirometer is a device that has the capability to measure the oxygen consumption of an organism. The respirometers basic makeup is a syringe attached to a pipette. To construct the respirometer, a syringe without a needle is attached to a one ml pipette via one cm of aquarium tubing. The respirometers then had to be prepared for use before each experiment. The first step is to draw soapy water through the pipette (not into the syringe) in order to clean the tubing of any foreign contaminants. After cleansing the pipette, the plunger is removed and using proper safety techniques, carefully add 12 pieces of soda lime into the syringe with minimal contact to the air. In order to separate the soda lime from the test subject, a piece of cotton large enough in size to fill the syringe wall to wall is inserted and pushed to the bottom to rest on the soda lime pieces. The final step to respirometer preparation is adding the test