The Effects of Nacl on the Germination of Radish Seeds

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Background: Farmers in the Central Valley of California have become increasingly concerned about the build-up of salt in the soil & water. Farmers know that a small amount of salt in the soil & water will not adversely affect the germination & growth of their crops. But how much is too much??? Salt build-up is an existing or potential hazard on almost all of the 42 million acres of irrigated farmland in the US. Much of the world’s unused land is in arid & semiarid regions where irrigation will be necessary. Excessive salinity is presently costing the US billions of dollars. Salt can kill germinating seedlings by removing the water from their cells. Several salts and their ions are responsible: NaCl, CaCl2 , KCl, MgCl2, MgSO4, HCO3-, CO3-2, MgCO3, NO3-, NH4+, and K+. Materials: 1 rectangular container 1 grease pencil 4 petri dishes 4 pieces of filter paper or paper towel 40 radish seeds (10 per petri dish) 1 paper plate Tweezers 100 mL beaker Stirring Stick Salt (1g, 2g and 3g)-measured out for you Dropper Procedure: (Don’t forget to take notes in your lab notebook. Keep a detailed description of every step you take so that someone else could accurately and precisely reproduce your results). See Lab Report Format for how your final Lab Report should look. 1. Determine what your group’s hypothesis will be and write it as an “if, then” statement on your lab report. 2. Label each petri dish with the 4 different amounts of salt using the grease pencil: (control (0%), 1%, 2% and 3%) 3. To make salt concentrations of 1%, 2% and 3%: -Place 100 mL of water in beaker -To make a concentration of 1%, add 1 gram of salt (for

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