Tyler Burroughs

Acid Rain on Fast Plants Lab

Acid rain by definition according to dictionary.com, is “precipitation, as rain, snow, or

sleet, containing relatively high concentrations of acid forming chemicals, as the pollutants of

coal smoke, chemical manufacturing, and smelting, that have been released into the atmosphere

and combined with water vapor”. About ⅔ of all sulfuric oxygen and a ¼ of nitrous oxide

released comes from electric power that runs off of fossil fuels. Acid rains occurs when sulfuric

oxygen and nitrous oxide react in the clouds with water vapor, to form acidic water droplets that

can blow hundreds of miles from where they started. Wet deposition is when acid rain combines

with snow or fog or any kind of wet weather, and it becomes acidic. Dry deposition is when acid

rain combines with dry particles, and it can cover trees and cars. Acid rain kills fish and aquatic

life, but frogs can withstand pH lower than 4.0. Once a plant or fish is removed in an ecosystem,

it creates an effect that changes the entire ecosystem. Acid rain can also affect automobile

coatings. It can make marks and irregular shapes, and the marks are best viewed under a

fluorescent light and on darker vehicles. There are several options for making acid rain-causing

pollution go down. There are devices, called scrubbers, that are put on smokestacks to trap the

pollution. You could also wash the coal, to remove more sulfur. Catalytic converters on cars are

pieces that trap pollution coming from a car before it comes out the exhaust pipe. Most of the

acid rain in the U.S. comes the Midwest, and blows up into the Northeast, which has the lowest

pH compared to the rain in the West and Midwest.

Problem: What will happen if we put acid rain on fast plants?

Hypothesis: The plants that have acid rain on them will become stunted and dead-looking, while

the control plants will grow normally.

Materials:
● Wisconsin fast plant seeds
● fertilizer
● 2 plant quads
● acid rain
● felt strips
● water
● dirt

Procedure:
1. Put dirt in the two plant quads.

2. Place 2 seeds in each square in the quad with three fertilizers.

3. The plants should be up in around three days.

4. Every day spray acid rain on each of the acid rain plants.

Data:

Averages

1/25 1/26 1/27 1/28 2/1 2/2 2/3 2/4 2/5 2/8 2/9 2/12

C 16.3 20.8 24.8 30.5 47 55 61.8 78 85 122 136. 162.

3 8

AR 23.3 25 29.7 29.3 36.7 44 46.7 50.3 53.3 71.3 80 82.7

C=Control
AR= Acid Rain
units are in mm

Observations:

The acid rain plants were bigger than control for a little while, then the control took off.
Conclusion:

The acid rain stunted the growing of the plants, and made brown spots all over the leaves.

The acid rain plants also had a weird shape to them, while the control grew straight. The acid

rain plants in the end grew less and less, and were dwarfed by the control. We could’ve used an

exact amount of acid rain each day to keep things consistent. I learned how acid rain can affect

plants in the real world.

WORK CITED

http://www3.epa.gov/acidrain/