Chau Vu Per. 1 Introduction There are many chemicals present in the environment that are regulated.

Certain metals such as mercury, arsenic, lead and copper are very harmful to humans and are often present in polluted waters and soils. In order to determine is water is safe for recreational use, drinking, and other uses, metal concentrations have to be below a certain limit set by the local government. Often, these levels are based on experiments done by scientists to determine the LD-50. In this lab, you will be the scientist trying to determine the level of copper that might be safe to have in a local water source. You will determine the LD-50, and ED-50 of blackworms in freshwater with various copper concentrations. LD-50 (Lethal Dose-50) of the chemical, which is the concentration (or dose) of the chemical where 50% of the population would die upon exposure. Similarly, they also often determine the ED-50 (Effective Dose- 50), which is the concentration of the chemical where they see negative effects in 50% of the population Initial Questions: 1. The worms would react to the copper at what dose? 2. At what dose would a half of number of worms die?

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0% 37.5 %

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Chau Vu Per. 1
40% 35% %of mortality of blackworms 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 0% 0.01% 0.10% % concentration of CuSO4 1% 10%

Follow-up questions: 1. Review your initial questions before starting the lab. Did you answer these after finishing the lab? Explain. -> My initial questions before starting the lab are The worms would react to the copper at what dose? and At what dose would a half of number of worms die? After finishing the lab, I could not answer the half population die question because the worms did not die as a half of population.

Chau Vu Per. 1 2. Look at the graph you made above of the % of blackworms that died at each concentration of copper sulfate. What is the LD-50 that you would calculate from this data? -> There is no LD-50 in this graph. We only can calculate the LD-25, that is about 6% or 7% of concentration of copper, 25% of population would die. 3. How would your answer change if you were trying to determine the ED-50 (effective dose, or dose where 50% of the blackworms changed behavior)? Hint: Think about what concentration of copper made about half of the blackworms stop moving unless poked, etcIs this value less than the LD-50? Why? -> The ED-50 would less than LD-50, because more percent concentration of copper, more blackworms will die. Less concentration of copper, less blackworms will die, so they would have changed behavior at that time instead of dying. 4. If you were the policy-maker in charge of determining the highest level of copper that should be allowed in San Diego Bay, what concentration would you choose? Why? -> If I were the policy-maker in charge of determining the highest level of copper that should be allowed in San Diego Bay, I would choose 0% concentration of copper because no more blackworms have to die and they will be save from being killed or changing behavior.