Seedling Report
“Biotic components are the living things that shape an ecosystem. A biotic factor is any living component that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question and the living food that the organism consumes” (Biotic components, 2013). Each biotic factor needs energy to do work and food for proper growth.
The aim of our experiment that will be conducted in class is to see whether or not competition between plants for water and sunlight will affect their growth.To do this we will set up two pots with soil in them, one will have a radish seed inside and the other will have a radish seed surrounded by crest seeds. The independent variable will be the amount of seeds in each pot and the dependent variable will be the height of each radish at the end of the experiment. The constant factors will be the amount of sunlight each pot receives; this will be done by placing both pots by the window every day and also the amount of water each pot receives will be another constant factor, this will be done by measuring out ten millimetres of water for both pots.I hypothesise that the radish seed without competition will grow much faster and stronger than a seed that is growing with competition.
Abstract The aim of this practical was to test the hypothesis that either having competition or no competition will affect the rate of growth of a radish seed. The way we would conduct this was using a test having two pots, one containing a radish seed and crest, the other having just the radish seed.This would reveal how well a radish seedling grows with competition around it and if the radish without competition would grow bigger and stronger. We conducted the experiment and found that the radish with no competition out grew the other radish by a couple of centimeters. Materials Required: * Two small pots. * Two radish seeds.
* Soil. * Twenty four grass seeds. * Measuring scales. * Measuring cylinder. Method: * Two pot plants will be filled with soil and be labelled ‘competition’ and ‘no competition’.
Both of the pots will have a radish seed planted into them. * ‘Competition’ will also have twenty four grass seeds planted with the radish. * Both pots will be watered every day with ten millimetres of water and placed in direct sunlight by the window sill. * Each radish seedling will be monitored daily and information will be recorded every day. * Measurements and pictures of the plants will be taken down. * The radishes will be compared in size and time taken to grow at the end of the experiment.
ResultsHeight growth between the radishes (figure 1) As you can see in the graph above, the radish without competition always had the little bit of the edge on the radish with competition, one reason this could have happened is because maybe the radish without competition absorbed more water and nutrients when it was germination since it didn’t have to share water with other seeds like the competition radish. This could be why it out grew it in the early stages. Figure 2 shows the ending result for the growth of the two radishes.As you can see, the radish without competition (the radish on the left) is much longer and thicker than the competition radish, which supports our hypothesis. (Figure 2) (Figure 2) These two photos are of the two pots, as you can see, the radish without competition seems to be growing much better than the struggling radish with the crest surrounding it.
Discussion The results showed that (when taken apart and sifted through the soil) the radish without competition didn’t have a bigger root system than the radish with competition, this may have been because the radish without competition idn’t need to extend its roots out fully as it already had a plentiful supply of water and nutrients. The radish with competition on the other hand had its roots reach as far down as possible, this could be because the water and nutrients up higher in the soil were being taken by the crest that had shallow roots so it need to dig down to find more water/nutrients. Repetition of the experiment could help us find accurate results.One of the strengths of the experiment was the fact that the experiment is easy to repeat so if we needed to find more results or more accurate results, we can repeat the experiment in only a week or two. Another strength of the experiment was that it was easy to upkeep, by only having two pots to maintain, it made our job of up keeping and recording so much easier compared to other groups who had more than two pots.
One of the weaknesses in our experiment was that we could not record the progress of the plants everyday as we did not have a lesson every day.We did come in and water the plants on the days that we did not have a lesson but no results were recorded, this could be improved by actually bringing our notes and record information. Another weakness in the experiment was that we did not take photographs or record the height of the radish seedlings until later on in the experiment. Although we did take notes of our findings, measurements of height could have helped a lot more. This could be improved by repeating the experiment and actually taking measurements every time we check the seedlings.
Conclusion The experiments results showed that the radish without competition did in fact grow much larger and quicker than the radish in the competition pot; this supports our hypothesis but does not prove it for now. If the experiment is to be repeated, better results will be found to finally prove the hypothesis. References Biotic components. 2013. Biotic components. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.
botany. uwc. ac. za/sci_ed/grade10/ecology/biotic/biot. htm. [Accessed 04 June 2013].
