Ivy Plants.

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Ivy Plants.

Prediction:

I predict that the ivy plant that grows on the south side of the wall will be smaller than the north facing ivy. This is because they have less limiting factors affecting them such as availability of light. The south side ivy have no problem with availability of light as the earth is tilted on its axis facing the sun, so this side has more sunlight. The purpose of the leaves to be able to photosynthesise, so I think that the north leaves will be bigger in size as they need a larger surface area in order to photosynthesise at the same rate as the smaller south ivy.

Conclusion:

For the ivy growing on the north side of the wall the results are generally very varied. The graphs show skewed results, as there is an uneven distribution of growth by the plant, and there is no pattern between the data collected. Between 50-80mm on the north petiole length there are more results, with the highest amount being 6 petioles at 75-80mm in length. The north leaf length has the most in the group 30-35mm with 11 petioles in this category. Again there is an uneven distribution, but the numbers seem to decline, as the length gets bigger. The common width is between 40-45mm with 9 and most of the ivy plants having a leaf width of 35-70mm before we see a significant decline at 70-75mm with only one plant.

The ivy growing on the south side has results, which aren’t as varied as the north side ivy. There is a much more even distribution amongst the plants. This suggests to me that they have less limiting factors acting against them. These limiting factors can affect he rate of photosynthesis in a plant, these factors can be light intensity, carbon dioxide levels and temperature.  The equation for photosynthesis is:

                                                     Light

                           CO2 + H2O                          O2 + C6H12O6

This equation shows that you need the input variables, which in this case is carbon dioxide and water to produce the output variables that are oxygen and glucose. Both light intensity and carbon dioxide levels feature in the equation but temperature doesn’t. However photosynthesis is driven by enzymes that work better in warmer conditions, but if the temperature is too hot they become denatured and therefore cannot carry out their function.

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The south petiole length of 25-30 mm and 30-35mm have the same number of ivy, which is 11. With 20-25mm and 35-40mm with 9 and 8. This instantly shows a different picture to the north graphs as their results didn’t steadily increase and decrease but grew statically and erratically. The south leaf width between 30-35mm there was 14 plants, this was the highest number in the group and the south leaf length had also 14 plants but this time in the 35-40mm group.

If I compare the highest number of results for leaf length, with and petiole for ...

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