Photosynthesis practice IA

Research Question:
How do different concentrations of CO2 affect the rate of photosynthesis in the aquatic
Cabomba plant?

Aim:
To investigate the effect of varying concentrations of CO2 on the rate of photosynthesis in the
Cabomba plant via measuring the number of bubbles that rise up from the plant, to the top of
the test tube within 3 minutes.

The reason we are doing this experiment is because

Hypothesis:
As the concentration of CO2 (in the form of Bicarbonate of Soda, NaHCO3) increases, the
rate of photosynthesis and the number of bubbles increase, till they level off, since the
amount of water molecules would become a limiting reactant.

6CO2 + 6H2O → 6C6H12O6 + 6O2 (Libre Texts, 2022)

After the limit of CO2 to H2O is reached, i.e., when all the particles of CO2 react with H2O
molecules, the number of bubbles will level off and not increase since there wouldn’t be any
extra water to react with, leaving the CO2 dissolved in the water.

10CO2 + 6H2O → 6C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 4CO2

Predicted graph:

Graph 1: Predicted graph

Independent Variable:
The chosen independent variable for this experiment is the concentration of CO2 (in the form
of NaHCO3 dissolved in water). The independent variable will be changed by changing the
amount of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) dissolved in a certain amount of water. The values
that are being used are: 5 grams, 7 grams, 9 grams, 11 grams, and 13 grams. The reason
these values were chosen is because of the results of the pretrials, which showed that with
any lower values, such as 3 or 4 grams, counting the bubbles was too hard since they barely
started coming out, and those that did, came up right at the end and were very slow, leading
to the conclusion that, those amounts of bicarbonate were too less for the plant to
photosynthesize with.

Dependent Variable:
The chosen dependent variable for this experiment is the rate of photosynthesis in the
Cabomba plant. When the independent variable, in this case the concentration of CO2 is
changed, the rate of photosynthesis can either increase or decrease, based on the
modifications made to the dependent variable. As the concentration of CO 2 will increase
from 5 grams to 7 grams, in theory, the rate of photosynthesis will also increase, which can
be seen by the number of bubbles that come out of the Cabomba stem within a set time
period of 3 minutes. This happens because there is a lot more CO2 that can be used up by
the plant and it is still the limiting reactant at that point, indicating that the reaction was not at
its full potential yet, so it will produce more bubbles in this round. This process will continue
to increase the number of bubbles and rate of photosynthesis till CO2 is a limiting reactant,
after which the number of bubbles will plateau. This happens since there will be no more
water left for the CO2 to react with.

Controlled variables:

Controlled Why the variable needs to be controlled How the variable will
Variables and what will happen if it is not controlled be controlled

Colour of light The colour of the light being used for the Throughout the
experiment must remain constant throughout experiment, only the
since there are studies suggesting that same cream-yellow
different colours of light can affect the rate of coloured lights were
photosynthesis. For example, in a study used.
conducted by a few scientists in 2014, they
found out that leaves have higher rates of
photosynthesis in blue coloured LEDs when
compared to red and green coloured LEDs
(Muneer et al.).

Temperature of The temperature of the water being used for Throughout the
water the experiment can also influence the results experiment, water was
since plants have an optimum temperature taken out from the same
to photosynthesize at. For example, a study tap without heating or
done in 2018 showed that there can be a cooling.
great amounts of difference in
photosynthesis by changing the temperature
 of the water, in this case, the rate of
photosynthesis dropped a net total of 26% at
32ºC, when the optimal temperature was
28ºC (Carlson).

Time The amount of time a plant is given to Throughout the

photosynthesize highly affects the amount of experiment, all plant
O2 gas it can produce, and giving unequal beakers were only kept
times to different concentration beakers in the light for 3 minutes
would influence our results a lot each.

Quantity of The quantity of water being used also highly Throughout the
water affects the amount of O2 gas produced since experiment, the same
that tampers with the concentration of CO2. amount of water and the
For example, 5 grams of NaHCO3 in 1000 same beakers were
mls of water has a much lower concentration used.
than 3 grams of NaHCO3 in 250 mls of water.

Light intensity* The intensity of the light being used is a Throughout the
factor that has been proven to affect the rate experiment, the beakers
of photosynthesis in plants. For example, in with the plants should
a study done in 2019, a scientist determined be put at a certain,
that a change in the light intensity in the form measured distance from
of the wavelengths of the incoming light can the same lights being
drastically affect the rate of photosynthesis in used
that plant, and too high or too low light
intensity can influence otherwise perfectly
controlled experiments a lot (Wimalasekera).

Plant length* The length of the plant being used would Throughout the
also affect the overall rate of photosynthesis, experiment, the plants
since this also determines the amount of being used should be
leaves there are in the plant, where measured equally and
photosynthesis occurs. should have almost the
same amount of
branches and/or leaves.

Day of The day the experiment takes place would The whole experiment
experiment* also affect the overall photosynthesis rate should happen on the
since the plants may have started dying by same day.
the next day or week, depending on when
the experiments were done. This would
highly influence our results overall since
dead or half dead plants would not be able to
produce as much O2 in the same
concentration as a new and alive plant would
be able to.

Plant exposure Plants start photosynthesizing wherever All the plants should be
to light possible, as long as they find a little bit of placed in a dark box,
pre-experiment* light, which would influence our results. and in ideal conditions,
Some of the plants being used, if exposed to before starting the
light pre-experiment, would have already experiment the room
started photosynthesizing, which means they should be very dark.
 would already be bubbling when we start the
experiment. This would end up almost fully
changing our results since the rates of
photosynthesis would be all over the place.
For example, in one of our rounds of
experimenting, when a plant was exposed to
light pre-experiment, it produced ~200
bubbles, whereas a plant with less exposure
to light before the experiment, only produced
~60 bubbles.

*Please do note that these controlled variables should have been controlled in the
experiment, but weren’t because of certain circumstances and difficulties, since three groups
were merged during the experimentation process because two of them weren’t getting any
results.

Background knowledge
Photosynthesis is the production of carbon compounds in cells using light energy. It involves
the conversion of light energy to chemical energy. The chemical energy is stored in glucose
or other carbon compounds. Photosynthesis is carried out by photosynthetic autotrophs,
organisms which synthesise their own organic molecules from simple inorganic substances,
like plants producing glucose from carbon
dioxide and water (Trivedi, 2023).

Photosynthesis consists of two reactions,

namely light dependent and light independent
reactions, as seen in fig 1. Both of these
reactions occur inside the cells, in
chloroplasts, but in different places. The light
dependent reaction focuses on taking sunlight
and water, and breaking it down into oxygen
via the process of photolysis. Photolysis is the
process of breaking down water with light into
hydrogen and oxygen. In the independent
reactions, NADP is also converted into
NADPH with the Hydrogen left over from photolysis, and finally it also converts ADP back
into ATP for the plant to reuse both the NADPH
and the ATP in the light independent reaction, also
known as the Calvin cycle (Khan Academy, 2016).
The Calvin cycle is the process that converts the
inorganic sources into organic molecules that the
plant can use. The cycle starts by taking in CO2
from its surroundings and carboxylating ribulose
biphosphate (RuBP). Carboxylation is the
combination of an organic compound with carbon
monoxide. The carboxylation of RuBP makes a
hexose bisphosphate, which is highly unstable,
resulting in it breaking into 2 glycerate-3-phosphate molecules immediately. The G3P
molecules are then reduced by converting ATP into ADP and NADPH into NADP, making
triose phosphate. Each round of the cycle produces 6 Triose phosphate, out of which 1 goes
to make a glucose molecule each round, and the other 5 are recycled to make RuBP. This
means that it takes 6 rounds of the cycle to make 1 molecule of Glucose (BioNinja).

Materials

X1 1000 ml beakers (±25 X1 measuring scale X1 Chopping board

ml, {50[smallest measurement]/2}) (±0.01g)

X1 test tubes Tap water X1 Knife

X1 funnel X1 stopwatch (±0.05 240g NaHCO3

second)

X1 lamp X30 cabomba stems X1 glass rod

Fig 3: Required materials

Methodology
1. Take a stem of the cabomba plant and cut to the approximate size of the funnel
2. Cut the end of the plant diagonally and pinch slightly
3. Put the cabomba plant inside a funnel, with the stem coming out of the funnel stem
4. Put a 1000 ml beaker on a zeroed scale and measure exactly 5 grams of sodium
bicarbonate.
5. Slowly add water and start mixing till the bicarbonate is fully dissolved in the water,
making sure the water level is kept below 1000 ml
6. Once mixed, fill the beaker to exactly 1000 ml
7. Put the funnel inside, mouth down
8. Fill a test tube to the brim with tap water
 9. Put your thumb on top and flip it upside down
10. Put the test tube on top of the funnel stem, making sure no air gets inside
11. Move the beaker near the lamp
12. Turn the lamp and the stopwatch on at the exact same time
13. Make sure your head is levelled with the beaker and look at it from a diagonal
direction (from the direction the light is coming)
14. Record the beaker from a lateral view
15. Count the number of bubbles coming out of the cabomba stem
16. After exactly 3 minutes, turn off the lamp and stop counting the bubbles
17. Note down the number of bubbles
18. Repeat the steps 1-17 with the same concentration 4 more times
19. Once 5 trials are done with one concentration, repeat steps 1-18 with varying
concentrations (7g, 9g, 11g, 13g)

Fig 4: Step 12

Quantitative raw data*

5g/1000ml 7g/1000ml 9g/1000ml 11g/1000ml 13g/1000ml

Trial 1 194 245 42 69 39

Trial 2 195 232 48 21 40

Trial 3 198 247 40 30 33

*due to the anomalous data, 2 trials were removed from each of the different concentrations

Qualitative data
During the trials of 5g/1000ml and 7g/1000ml, the rate of the bubble flow was very high but
the size of the bubbles was much smaller than the trails that were done later. The trials of
9g/1000ml and 11g/1000ml had a very slow bubble flow rate, but the size of the bubbles was
much bigger than the other trials. This indicates that counting the bubbles was not the best
method to measure the rate of photosynthesis since a trial with 100 small bubbles could
have had the same amount of O2 as a trial with 50 big bubbles.

Processed data

5g/1000ml 7g/1000ml 9g/1000ml 11g/1000ml 13g/1000ml

Mean bubble 196 241 43.3 40.0 37.3

count*

Standard 1.70 6.64 3.40 20.8 3.09

Deviation* **
*rounded to 3sf.
**Standard Deviation was done using this calculator

Graph 2: Processed data

Interpretation of data
The data and the graph given above can be interpreted as the higher the concentration gets,
the lower the number of bubbles produced are. The data almost levels off at 9 grams, and
stays there for the rest of the graph, showing that an increase in the concentration is
probably not going to have any effects on the number of bubbles.

Safety, environmental and ethical issues

Risks Hazards Mitigation

 Safety NaHCO3 Irritation if in The usage of safety goggles and
contact with preventing horseplay. In case of
Medium-risk eyes contact, wash eyes thoroughly with
cold water and use a hand hose to
flush the eyes while holding the
eyelid upwards

Ethical Affecting Affecting the Cabomba plants are easily found in

species population of Singapore and the amount being
population the species, used is very low, wouldn’t even affect
and the the population in a pond, so won’t
Low-risk ecosystem have negative effects

Environmental Disposal of Drainage Making sure the concentration of the

NaHCO3 water issues NaHCO3 being disposed is low and
won’t interfere with the drainage or
Low-risk drainage cleaning

Citations:
● Libre Texts. “5.11B: Main Structures and Summary of Photosynthesis.” Biology LibreTexts,
24 Dec. 2022,
bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Microbiology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Microbial_
Metabolism/5.11%3A_Phototrophy/5.11B%3A_Main_Structures_and_Summary_of_Photosy
nthesis#. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023.
● Muneer, Sowbiya, et al. “Influence of Green, Red and Blue Light Emitting Diodes on
Multiprotein Complex Proteins and Photosynthetic Activity Under Different Light Intensities
in Lettuce Leaves (Lactuca Sativa L.).” NCBI.gov, Mar. 2014,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3975419. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023.
● Carlson, Alexander. “The Effects of Seawater Temperature on Photosynthesis in Crustose
Coralline Algae.” Independent Study Project Collection, 2018. Digital Collections,
digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3968&context=isp_collection. Accessed
21 Feb. 2023.
● Wimalasekera, Rinukshi. “Effect of Light Intensity on Photosynthesis.” Photosynthesis,
Productivity and Environmental Stress, Sept. 2019, pp. 65–73.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119501800.ch4.
● Trivedi, Trapti. “Photosynthesis and Light Absorption.” IBH1 Biology. Overseas Family
School. 17 Jan. 2023.
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=52B8F43483C17E3E%21985&authkey=%21AN9p9Jwt
B5_xY8Q&page=View&wd=target%28Topic%202.one%7Cabffb8f7-db8a-b047-9d08-2164d
1489821%2FPhotosynthesis%20and%20Light%20Absorption.ppt%7C5cbdff62-b65d-ae4a-b
cce-100c651ca2e6%2F%29&wdorigin=NavigationUrl Accessed 21 Feb, 2023.
● Khan Academy. “Light-dependent Reactions (Photosynthesis Reaction) (Article) | Khan
Academy.” Khan Academy, 2016,
www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/cellular-energetics/photosynthesis/a/light-depende
nt-reactions. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023.
● BioNinja. “Calvin Cycle | BioNinja.” BioNinja,
ib.bioninja.com.au/higher-level/topic-8-metabolism-cell/untitled-2/calvin-cycle.html.
Accessed 21 Feb. 2023.