Introduction
In the summer of 2013, a biota
survey was taken in a deciduous forest in Baltimore, Maryland. Results from the
biota survey showed that there were unusual levels of ferric iron, and
manganese in a low flatland within the forest.
These results sparked the initial interest in
an experiment involving ferric iron and manganese.
Plants use the micronutrient iron to produce chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is
used in the process to create carbohydrates which are used for immediate energy.
Manganese, another micronutrient, is used to break down carbohydrates to release
this immedite energy. Because of this antagonistic relationship, we suspected
that there was an inverse relationship between the two
micronutrients, iron and manganese in the plants and soil in the low flatland.
We believe that it is formed because if one is present and is producing
enough energy then the other isn't needed and vise versa for the plants in the
opposite area. Plants in direct sunlight need more chlorophyll to produce
carbohydrates and to perform the process of photosynthesis. Therefore plants
that are in direct sunlight would need to have high levels of iron in them but
not necassarily high levels of
manganese. The soil under
these plants would have low levels of iron and high levels of manganese because
the iron is being absorbed into the plant but the manganese is not. Plants that are shaded by tree canopy
would have higher amounts of manganese and lower amounts of iron because they
are not using the iron for chlorophyll since there is not enough sunlight for
photosynthesis but they would need the manganese to convert the carbohydrates
for energy. Therefore we hypothesized the soil under the plants under the canopy would have high
amounts of iron and low amounts of chlorophyll.
The unusual results and the inverse relationship between
iron and manganese created the inspiration for this experiment. To conduct the
experiment, soil and plant samples were collected. The samples collected
originated from five different sites. Each of the five sites has different
amounts of sun exposure because one potential factor that can influence the iron
and manganese’s inverse relationship is the amount of sun exposure.
For more information related to performing the experiment see
Procedure page.
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