Tarandeep Deol
Zara Suleman, Annabelle Malinowski, Ceiry Bedolido
Biology 1441-Sec 005; Professor Murshida; October 10, 2014
Photosynthesis and respiration are vital processes that are needed for the growth and development of plants. Photosynthesis is the process through which plants make their food by converting light energy into chemical energy. Likewise, respiration is the process of burning sugars to provide energy for growth and reproduction of the plants. In this experiment, the effect of temperature on CO2 concentration in water containing Elodea was studied to see whether more photosynthesis than aerobic respiration occurs when a plant is placed in warmer temperatures. …show more content…
There are many factors that affect the rate of photosynthesis; some factors are light, temperature, and carbon dioxide. Although temperature does not play the biggest role in determining how much photosynthesis will occur in a plant, it still is a key factor. Plants generally prefer temperatures around 16-18 °C, anything thing higher than that brings a decline in the overall rate of the photosynthetic reaction. Plants also photosynthesize at a faster rate when the temperatures are varying instead of being constant (Shuna, Et.al. 2012). Plants photosynthesize the best at greater temperature because of the enzymes that are involved in a photosynthetic reaction. As temperature increase there is more kinetic energy being produced. Therefore the enzymes consume more energy, making the reaction occur at a quicker rate and leading to the increase in photosynthesis. Although temperatures too high can have a negative result on the rate of photosynthesis because the enzymes will begin to loose their shape, and would not be able to function correctly, leading to a decreases in the rate of photosynthesis. Whereas when the temperature is colder, plants photosynthesize at a slower rate because the enzymes have very little energy and there is less movement of the molecules at lower temperatures, ultimately leading to a slower rate of …show more content…
The water finished pre-heating to roughly 48 degrees and one of the beakers with the Elodea plant was placed into the incubator. The beaker that was the control group and the beaker that was kept at room temperature were placed on the table away from the incubator under direct light from the lamp. The three beakers were left there for fifty minute for the respiring period while being exposed to the light. After about a fifty-minute wait the respiring period was finished and the Elodea plants were taken out of the beakers and placed back into the fish tank. After this three drops of phenolphthalein while stirring were added into each beaker to detect the changes in pH in water from the production and consumption of CO2. The last step in the experiment was to add drops of 0.02N NaOh into the beakers until all the beakers turned the same shade of light pink; this was done to neutralize the carbonic acid produced by the CO2 released from respiring Elodea (Walsh and Wolst