The Effects Of Warming And Elevated Carbon Dioxide On The Suberin Composition Of Roots: A Case Study With A C3 Plant Species
School Name
South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics
Grade Level
12th Grade
Presentation Topic
Botany
Presentation Type
Mentored
Abstract
Warming temperature and increasing CO2 have a positive feedback loop known as the greenhouse effect. To estimate the changes that will present themselves in future years, the Prairie Heating and CO2 Enrichment (PHACE) experiment in Wyoming set up twenty plots to see how the greenhouse effect will affect mixed-grass prairie. The amount of suberin, a compound found in the radial and transverse cell walls of the endodermal plant roots cells can help determine the rate of decomposition which affects the amount of carbon in the soil. The storage of carbon in soil is particularly important because soil is the largest reservoir of organic carbon in the terrestrial ecosystems (Rasse, Rumpel, & Dignac, 2005). We took C3 roots from the PHACE experiment, ground them in a mill until powdered, completed a solvent extraction, conducted base hydrolysis with and without heat, and a phase separation to try to determine the amount of suberin in the plant roots from each plot. The solvent extract and the methyl chloride from the phase separation were analyzed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Using the area of the peaks as references, it was determined that warming and CO2 had a p = .07 effect on the C3 species suberin production.
Recommended Citation
Dellinger, Rose, "The Effects Of Warming And Elevated Carbon Dioxide On The Suberin Composition Of Roots: A Case Study With A C3 Plant Species" (2015). South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 111.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2015/all/111
Start Date
4-11-2015 10:00 AM
End Date
4-11-2015 10:15 AM
The Effects Of Warming And Elevated Carbon Dioxide On The Suberin Composition Of Roots: A Case Study With A C3 Plant Species
Warming temperature and increasing CO2 have a positive feedback loop known as the greenhouse effect. To estimate the changes that will present themselves in future years, the Prairie Heating and CO2 Enrichment (PHACE) experiment in Wyoming set up twenty plots to see how the greenhouse effect will affect mixed-grass prairie. The amount of suberin, a compound found in the radial and transverse cell walls of the endodermal plant roots cells can help determine the rate of decomposition which affects the amount of carbon in the soil. The storage of carbon in soil is particularly important because soil is the largest reservoir of organic carbon in the terrestrial ecosystems (Rasse, Rumpel, & Dignac, 2005). We took C3 roots from the PHACE experiment, ground them in a mill until powdered, completed a solvent extraction, conducted base hydrolysis with and without heat, and a phase separation to try to determine the amount of suberin in the plant roots from each plot. The solvent extract and the methyl chloride from the phase separation were analyzed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Using the area of the peaks as references, it was determined that warming and CO2 had a p = .07 effect on the C3 species suberin production.
Mentor
Mentor: Vidya Suseela, School of Agricultural, Forest, and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University