The Effect of Fertilizer on Planaria By Maya RiserKositsky Garfield High School Ms' Rene Agatsuma Ge

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The Effect of Fertilizer on PlanariaBy Maya
Riser-KositskyGarfield High SchoolMs. Rene
AgatsumaGeneticsPeriod 5
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Fertilizer and Water Pollution

• There are 2 kind of water pollution
• Point source pollution where a pollutant is
  added directly to water e.g.- oil spill
• Non-point pollution where a pollutant is added
  indirectly to water e.g. farm runoff
• Polluted water can be one of three kinds
• Municipal from homes and businesses
• Treated to remove all suspended solids
• Industrial from factories
• Either pretreated onsite and then sent to be
  treated with municipal waste water or completely
  treated onsite
• Agricultural from farms
• Contained and treated onsite, it is the main
  source of water pollution through runoff and
  leaching however

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Fertilizer as a Water Pollutant

• Fertilizer is a major non-point pollutant
• The nitrogen and other mineral nutrients in it
  encourage the growth of aquatic plants which,
  when bacteria break them down, use up all of the
  dissolved oxygen in the water
• Fish and other aquatic life forms require
  dissolved oxygen to breath
• There are two kinds of fertilizer
• Quick release fertilizer is synthetic and
  releases all of its nutrients at once. It is
  very water soluble and easily runs off fields
• I used a synthetic fertilizer in my experiment
• Slow release fertilizer is organic and gradually
  releases its nutrients. It is not nearly as
  water soluble

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Procedure

• In my experiment, planaria were put into three
  flasks, one with a 1x solution of fertilizer
  water, one with a 10x solution of fertilizer
  water, and one with only regular water
• I hypothesized that the high levels of nitrogen
  in the fertilizer in the 10x flask would kill the
  most planaria, the 1x flask would have the next
  many planaria, and the control flask would have
  the most
• The planaria were fed pea-sized amounts of
  chicken liver twice a week and were counted each
  day for 24 days

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Discussion

• My results did not support my hypothesis as the
  control flask had the fewest planaria, the 1x
  flask had the next most planaria, and the 10x
  flask had the most planaria
• After reviewing my research I realized that my
  experiment did not allow any plants to grow and
  thus none could decompose, using the dissolved
  oxygen and killing the planaria
• My results also could have sprouted from a human
  error, such as an error in counting, or losing
  planaria when changing the water

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To Rerun this Experiment

• If I were to redo this experiment I would use
  motor oil instead of fertilizer as a pollutant.
  Motor oil has a direct effect on aquatic life.
• I would also use more planaria and complete more
  trials.
• If I were to continue using fertilizer, I would
  try to create a more realistic stream environment
  so that plants could grow and dissolved oxygen
  would be used up