THE EFFECT OF VARIOUS PH LEVELS ON THE
SURVIVAL OF PARAMECIUM MULTIMICRO
NUCLEATUM
BY MAHMOOD SABOUNGI
WHAT IS PARAMECIUM MULTIMICRO
NUCLEATUM?
•
P a r a m e c i u m i s a s i n g l e - c e l l e u k a ry o t i c
organism.
•
I t i s a g e n u s o f P r o t o z o a , a l s o r e l at e d t o
a m o e b a , a n d f l a g e l l at e s .
•
It is also a member of the phylum
ciliophora.
•
Paramecium are heterotrophs which
means their common form of prey is
b a c t e r i a . A s i n g l e pa r a m e c i u m h a s t h e
a b i l i t y t o c o n s u m e 5 , 0 0 0 b a c t e r i u m a d ay,
t h e y a l s o f e e d o n y e a s t, a l g a e , a n d o t h e r
small protozoa.
•
P a r a m e c i u m l i v e i n wa r m f r e s h wa t e r
environments such as rivers and lakes.
PURPOSE
•
The purpose of this project is to
determine which level of pH in distilled
wa t e r w i l l a f f e c t t h e s u rv i va l r a t e o f
Paramecium. In other words finding a
r a n g e o f p H l e v e l s t h at pa r a m e c i u m c a n
s u rv i v e i n .
•
Vinegar will be added to the distilled
wa t e r t o m a k e t h e wa t e r a l k a l i n e ( b a s i c ) .
•
S i n c e pa r a m e c i u m c a n b e f o u n d r a r e ly i n
t h e h u m a n b o d y, i n t h e g a s t r o i n t e s t i n a l
t r a c t, i n t e r e s t i n pa r a m e c i u m a n d t h i s
s u b j e c t wa s t h e r e a s o n f o r t h i s t o p i c ,
along with my interest in any type of
organisms.
EXPERIMENT
M AT E R I A L S :
• 11 petri dishes
• One jar paramecium
(Carolina issued)
• 4 pipettes
• A pH tester
• A Microscope
• Laptop Computer with
Motic Images Plus 2.0
Software
• One gallon distilled
water
• One bottle distilled white
vinegar
• One box baking soda
• A few microscope slides
(with dimples)
• Metric measuring units
EXPERIMENT CONTINUATION
PROCEDURE
1.
Obtain all materials.
2.
In order to determine how
much vinegar and how
much baking soda is
needed to change the pH
level, test the pH level of
distilled water with each
varying quantity of
vinegar and baking soda
applied in the distilled
wa ter.
3.
Make a data table of the
amount of vinegar and
baking soda and their
specific outcomes of pH
levels by how many drops
and squirts from every
substance.
4.
Set up the microscope
a nd t h e l a ptop c o mputer.
5.
Start by adding 45
milliliters of distilled
water in the first petri
dish.
6.
Then add .025 of a
milliliter (one drop) of
vinegar to the petri dish.
7.
Stir the contents in the
water until the vinegar is
fully dissolved.
8.
Place .05 milliliters (2
drops) of the solution on
the microscope slide,
then add .025 milliliters
of the paramecium from
the jar onto the
microscope with the
solution, it should be
easy to count 15
paramecium with your
naked eye (the amount of
paramecium you should
put on the slide).
9.
Observe what you see in
the microscope eye, and
on the laptop.
10. Record and average the
data.
11 . Ta ke a p i c t ure o f t h e
paramecium.
12.Repeat this process 2
more times.
13. Clean pipette for the
vinegar to remove all the
exc ess v i negar.
PROCEDURE CONTINUATION
14. Repeat steps 5-10 but adding
2 drops, or .05 milliliters of
vinegar this time, and then 3
drops of vinegar, and so on
until 5 drops (use a different
petri dish for every solution, or
every time your adding another
drop of the substance).
15. Repeat steps 4-13 but this
time use baking soda for every
thing that was vinegar.
16. If needed, keep adding squirts
of baking soda to the solution
until the paramecium dies.
17. Record and average the data.
18. Make a data table of all
observations.
19. Graph the averages of the final
productivity on the survival
rate of paramecium.
PRE-EXPERIMENT
For my pre-experiment, I will have to identify how much vinegar and baking soda
is needed to reach a desired pH level.
TEST
1st trial 2nd trial 3rd trial Average
CONTROL
Distilled Water
5.6 pH
5.6 pH
5.9 pH
5.70 pH
ACIDIC
.025 mL vinegar
3.8 pH
3.9 pH
4.2 pH
3.97 pH
.050 mL vinegar
3.6 pH
3.7 pH
3.8 pH
3.70 pH
.075 mL vinegar
3.5 pH
3.6 pH
3.7 pH
3.60 pH
.10 mL vinegar
3.4 pH
3.5 pH
3.6 pH
3.50 pH
.125 mL vinegar
3.4 pH
3.5 pH
3.5 pH
3.47 pH
ALKALINE
.025g Baking Soda
7.0 pH
7.1 pH
7.0 pH
7.03 pH
.050g Baking Soda
7.7 pH
7.7 pH
7.8 pH
7.73 pH
.075g Baking Soda
7.9 pH
7.8 pH
7.9 pH
7.87 pH
.10 g Baking Soda
8.0 pH
8.0 pH
8.1 pH
8.03 pH
.125g Baking Soda
8.1 pH
8.1 pH
8.2 pH
8.13 pH
.25 g Baking Soda
9.0 pH
9.0 pH
9.2 pH
9.07 pH
.375g Baking Soda
9.9 pH
10.0 pH 10.2 pH 10.03 pH
PICTURES
RESULTS
The control that was
utilized in this experiment
was distilled water without
added substances. This
experiment was to identify
the range of pH level that
paramecium could survive
in. Five pH levels for
vinegar and seven pH l
levels for baking soda were
reached. The paramecium
died when placed in the 1
drop vinegar, along with all
the other drops of vinegar.
In the control,
the paramecium were very
hyper and stayed alive
for the entire 20 minute
duration viewing time. In
the baking soda until 5
squirts, the paramecium
were overly and
exceedingly hyper. When
placed in the water with 10
squirts, they became
sluggish and slow but
remained alive for the
entire duration viewing
time. When placed in the
water with 15 squirts, they
died after 4 minutes.
CONCLUSION
The hypothesis of this experiment was the Paramecium Multimicro nucleatum will not
survive in water at pH levels lower than 4 nor higher than 8. The paramecium died
instantly when placed in the water that had a pH level of 3.97 and lower, The
paramecium thrived in water that had a pH level up to 8.13. The paramecium was
sluggish when placed in the water that had a pH level of 9.07 but remained alive for
the entire duration of viewing them. However, when placed in the water that had a
pH level of 10.03 the paramecium was very slow moving and died within 4 minutes.
This concluded the paramecium does not survive in water of 4 pH level or lower, nor
in water of 10 pH level or higher.
The hypothesis therefore was partially proved
because the paramecium did not survive in water with pH level less than 4. However,
the hypothesis was also partially disproved because the paramecium did survive in
water with pH level greater than 8 but only up to 10.
APPLICATION
Every person in the world distastes and fears bacteria. Bacteria make
you ill, they may carry diseases, and they are contagious. Humans
always think of ways to eradicate bacteria. Paramecia apply to this real
world because they can terminate any sort of insalubrious and harmful
bacteria. A single paramecium can consume 5,000 bacterium a day.
This proves how important it is to assure the paramecia thrive in order to
wipe out a great deal of bacteria from the face of this Earth. Regrettably, a
paramecium’s life is always at risk. There are some areas of freshwater
that may be highly malignant to their sort. Polluted water is considered
exceedingly acidic. Paramecia do not have the ability to survive in acidic
water. The purpose of this experiment was to find the range of the pH
level of water that paramecium can survive in. As pollution is acidic,
there is a great need to control it from entering Earth’s eco-system, in
order to maintain ideal water conditions that paramecia can survive in.