BIO703 Practical 4

School of Sciences, Applied Plant Physiology
Practical 4: Plant Respiration
Purpose Today’s lab will demonstrate that plants indeed carry out respiration and we will
manipulate some variables to see what factors affect the rate or magnitude of respiration.
Theory: All living things have some means of obtaining energy to carry out their life functions.
Just being alive requires energy - energy to move, energy to grow and repair damage, energy to
reproduce, energy to maintain homeostasis. We have learned of two basic types of organisms in
the world, producers and consumers. Plants, algae, and many microorganisms are producers,
while animals, fungi, and many other microorganisms are consumers. Consumers, like us, have
to get food from the environment by consuming (ingesting, digesting) other organisms or the
products of other organisms. Producers “produce” their own food. Plants are the most obvious
examples of producers and form an important part of our (human) food consumption. Let’s think
for a minute about what it means to be a producer and use plants as an example.
Plants take in carbon dioxide (CO 2) from the atmosphere through their leaves and they take in
water from the soil through their roots. The water travels up the roots and stems and into the
leaves where it “joins with” CO2 in a complex process called photosynthesis to produce sugar.
The chemical equation below simplifies and summarizes this process:
CO2 + H2O  C6H12O6 + O2

(Sunlight is the energy source that allows this process to take place.)
So plants produce sugar. Why? Well, not to make us happy but to supply their own energy needs.
Imagine this situation. You go out and buy groceries and put them in your refrigerator to store
for later when you get hungry. While you are asleep someone comes into your house and takes
some of your food, Next day you buy more groceries. Again someone takes some of your food.
This goes on for some time. An alien observer is watching this process and concludes that you
are a very nice person who buys groceries so that someone else can use them. You’re not very
smart, are you? OK. When you suggest that plants make food so that we (animals) will have
something to eat, you are saying the same thing as the alien observer watching you and the thief.
Plants make food for their own needs, and we come along and steal it. In some cases, such as
fruits, the plants are actually taking advantage of our “sticky fingers” and using us to help them
spread their seeds around. The function of fruits is to lure animals to carry away their seeds so
the seeds might have a better chance of finding a good place to take root and grow.
What do plants do with this sugar that they produce? The same thing that we do with it. Break it
down, through a process called respiration, to get energy from it for cellular activities.
Respiration is essentially the reverse of photosynthesis and is summarized in the equation below:
C6H12O6 + O2  CO2 + H2O + ATP/Energy
(In respiration, energy is released in the form of a molecule called ATP.)
Materials : Pipettes/test tubes, Cotton soaked in 1% NaOH, Seedlings, Petri Dish
Procedure:
1. Invert (turn upside down) a modified pipette and place 5 drops of
NaOH/Ca(OH)2 in the bulb.
2. Stuff a dry piece of cotton into the bulb to soak up all of the NaOH. Stuff the
cotton into the end of the bulb (loosely) so that it does not move when pipette is
placed right-side up.
3. Place 10 seedlings into each of 3 pipette bulbs, being careful not to break the
seedlings.
4. Place 10 dead seedlings into the other as a control.
5. Insert pipettes into the cardboard stabilizer so that you can stand the pipettes in
a petri dish.
6. Fill the petri dish about half of water.
7. One group will place their set-ups in a refrigerator; another group will place
set-ups in dark.
What’s Happening When organisms carry out respiration they take in oxygen and release
carbon dioxide. You should know this because you breathe in oxygen and out carbon dioxide as
a result of cellular respiration. Carbon dioxide reacts with NaOH to produce sodium bicarbonate,
AKA baking soda:
CO2(g) + NaOH(aq  NaHCO3(aq)
Gases take up a lot more space than dissolved solids. When the plants take in O 2 for respiration,
they essentially trade the O2 for CO2, which then reacts with the NaOH. When gaseous CO 2 (or
oxygen) is removed from the pipette, the volume of gases decreases, which allows water to rise
up in the pipette. The more respiration the higher the water will rise.
Safety/Precautions: NaOH (sodium hydroxide) is a caustic substance that you should not get
on your skin, eyes, mouth, mucous membranes, etc. Wear gloves and goggles when setting up
this experiment.
Discussion
1. What happened to the water in the pipettes that have living seedlings?
2. What happened to the water in the pipettes with dead seedling? Explain.
3. What would have happened if there were no NaOH in the pipette? Explain.
4. Describe the differences between your two experimental groups. How can you explain the
differences?

BIO703 Practical 4

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

BIO703 Practical 4

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

BIO703 Practical 4

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

School of Sciences, Applied Plant Physiology

Practical 4: Plant Respiration

CO2 + H2O  C6H12O6 + O2

C6H12O6 + O2  CO2 + H2O + ATP/Energy

(In respiration, energy is released in the form of a molecule called ATP.)

Materials : Pipettes/test tubes, Cotton soaked in 1% NaOH, Seedlings, Petri Dish

4. Place 10 dead seedlings into the other as a control.

6. Fill the petri dish about half of water.

CO2(g) + NaOH(aq  NaHCO3(aq)

You might also like