Does The Color Of Light Affect Plant Growth? - Paper Example

Introduction

The paper shows the connection involving light as well as plant growth can be illustrated through revealing leaves on different color light filters. Light facilities the energy needed to carry out the photosynthesis, which is a food-making procedure in leaves. Plants tend to be specific on the part of light in the light spectrum they use during photosynthesis. For that reason, plants tend to behavior different based on the color light filter they are present with during photosynthesis. Blue light color lead to rapid growth on stem and leaves of a plant, while green color light leads to slower growth both on leaves and the stem. Blue lights are essential in the first stage of growth because it's used in the production of chlorophyll, which is essential for photosynthesis. Plants tend to appear green since the green color light filter allows leaves to reflect the green light instead of absorbing and utilizing as energy for germination. . With each day, plants tend to grow based on the spectrum of light that has been used with all other factors such as water are held constant. Each type of color light filters leads to growth in different parts of the plant; hence, plants exposed in blue color light filter would grow faster compared to a plant exposed to green color light filter. This paper will discuss how different color light filters influence growth in the plant's various parts such as the stems and leaves

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Photosynthesis Laboratory Report

Photosynthesis is the manner by which plants among other utilizes the sunshine to manufacture nutrients from carbon dioxide as well as water. Photosynthesis in plants engages the referred to chlorophyll (green pigment) in the generation of oxygen as a byproduct. DeMarco (2014) states that, through photosynthesis, green plants, as well as some organisms, utilizes sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water providing food and energy for sustainability. The importance of photosynthesis is to produce carbohydrates utilized in building plant cell structures such as cellulose cell wall. . According to Petroutsos (2016), for photosynthesis to take place some cellular component such as the pigment ought to be present for they bestow color on plants as well as trapping sunlight during the process. o When light is produced from the sun, it tends to have both long and short waves that contain different colors forming the light spectrum which is used in most virtual labs to experiment. Therefore, in this experiment, the light from the bulb acts as the light from the sun, while the color light filter demonstrates the various color within the wavelength and how its utilized by the plant.

According to Couto (2016), chlorophyll assists in trapping both blue and red light for the photosynthesizing plant .This paper assumes that, if a plant is exposed in an unlimited amount of sunlight in the presence of blue color light filter, the plant would increase to its most significant possible size. The paper explains the different types of colors in the light spectrum that are significant for plant growth.

Method

The experiment was carried out to investigate which color of the light spectrum led to stem growth and the other color leading to leaves growth. The seed of radish, spinach, and lettuce were placed in different seed packet and presented to different color light filters to investigate the part that would grow once the light was on. After switching on the lights, plants produced in various sizes on stem and leaves; hence the rule was used to measure the height of each plant calculate the average height and compare the results between different color light filters. The experiment was carried out through virtual laboratory software , on each seed from the three plants exposed on different color light filters to investigate which color led to the most and least growth..

Results

When lettuce seeds were placed on packet seed, and the red color light was used the average height recorded was an 11cm while, the leaves grew in average size. For the orange color filter, the average height of the stem was 10cm, and violet color light filter had an average height of 11cm with leaves of medium size, while on the other hand, the blue color light filter recorded the highest average elevation of stem growth of 18cm while average growth on the leaves. However, for the green color light filter marked the lowest average height of 4.5 cm with less increase of the leaves compared to the rest of the color filters. The blue colored light filter had the highest average height of 18cm with average leave growth.

For spinach seeds, the stem grew with an average height of 28cm when exposed to the red color light filter with average growth on the leave while the violet 14cm with an average extension on leaves. On the contrarily, the green color light filter had the lowest average height of 3 cm and small-sized leaves. The orange color light filter had an average height of 22cm and average growth in leaf size. But the blue color light filter had the highest average height of 29cm with an average increase in the size of the leaves.

As for the radish seeds, the average growth height for the red color light filter was 19cm with average growth in leaves while violet color light filter had an average height of 16cm. With an average growth on leaves, the orange color light filter had an average height of 12cm and average growth on leaves, while the blue color light filter had the highest average height of 21cm and average growth of leaves. But the green color light filter had the least average height of 1.5cm and minimal growth on leaves. The Table below shows how different color light filter facilitates stem growth, which is recorded by attain their average height after using three seeds from each plant.

Plant Growth Under Different Color Filters

Discussion

After the experiment with the three types of seedlings from lettuce, spinach and radish, the blue color light filter lead to the highest average height growth among other color light filters. The blue color in the visible spectrum causes the most plant growth while the green color in the invisible spectrum causes the least plant growth, because, blue color light filter has the highest photosynthetic capacity at the chloroplast level. The green color has the lowest growth because the leaves reflect the green color in the invisible light spectrum instead of absorbing it for germination and stem growth. To test for the hypothesis, different types of seeds were used and their heights were compared. When seeds were exposed to blue color light filter they recorded the highest growth rate but when exposed to green color light they recorded the lowest growth rate. The graph below shows a relationship between light intensity and the arte of photosynthesis.

Thus, the conclusion that was drawn about the color in the visible spectrum caused the most growth was blue. White light has better balance of chlorophyll and has all colors of the spectrum; hence, has higher chances of making plants grow at a higher rate compared to blue color light filter. e. The reasons as to why blue has the highest growth rate compared to other color light filters in the three seedlings are due to its low irradiance as well as high photosynthetic capacity.

The kind of changes suitable for this experiment is in the growth rate of seeds when exposed to the green color light filters, at least the leaves have to grow since the green pigments facilitate photosynthesis. Also, changes ought to be done on the growth rate of seeds when exposed to violet, orange as well as red color light filters. Each color light filter ought to have different changes in the size of leaves. Another significant modification from the experiment is the change on the duration of time when the seed is left to germinate because the growth of stem and leaves do not tend to grow at equal time, for some plants, leaves emerge first to make food for the whole plant giving it minimal changes to broaden.

Conclusion

In summary, blue light has shown to trigger the highest growth height among all other colors because of it the capability to manipulate the properties of the leaf under low irradiance to be associated with high irradiances. Therefore, due to its relatively lower irradiance and high photosynthetic capacity, blue color light filter facilitates high plant growth rate. The kind of changes to be made in this experiment to further the knowledge of photosynthesis in future is to use natural pigments such as melanin rather than color light filters that differ based on the wavelength from the sun. Melanin assists in boosting photosynthesis; hence, leading to most plant growth.

References

Couto, C. E. D. (2016). Chlorophyll and green color stabilization on vegetable homogenates (Doctoral dissertation, ISA-UL).

DeMarco, L. W., & Jamison, K. (2014). Exploring the World of Plants and Soils. Project Book 3, Sprouting Out and Growing Up.

Petroutsos, D., Tokutsu, R., Maruyama, S., Flori, S., Greiner, A., Magneschi, L. ... & Finazzi, G. (2016). A blue-light photoreceptor mediates the feedback regulation of photosynthesis. Nature, 537(7621), 563.