Environmental systems and societies

Internal assessment

RQ: To what extent does the change of soil acidity (Ph1-7) affect the plant growth in centimeters?

Date written: …
 Introduction

Aim: The experiment is designed to find out whether the change of acidity level in soil (Ph 1-7) can affect the
growth, measured as height of leaves of the plant (in centimeters). Also, it will provide the understanding of soil
acidity reduction and how it affects fertility of the soil. The experiment is connected to the environmental issue
of acid rain, that is found around the world.

It has been demonstrated that acid rain, which precipitates solid pollutants from industrial facilities on the soil,
facilitates soil pollution. Acid precipitation causes the soil to lose not just essential plant nutrients but also
poisonous heavy and light metals including lead, cadmium, aluminum, and other metals. They then either
become absorbed by plants and other soil creatures directly or by the poisonous substances they produce, which
has very detrimental effects. Garbage, liquid and solid emissions, tailings, pesticides, and radioactive chemicals
carried by the rain all damage the soil.

The issue of heavy metals is significant. The careless application of mineral fertilizers reduces the biopotential
of soils and contaminates them with heavy metals, which causes the metals to accumulate in the soil, further
permeate agricultural goods, and finally result in human health problems.
Plant growth and root absorption capacity are directly impacted by the alkalinity or acidity index. To indicate
the reaction of the soil, the well-known letter combination is used - pH. The abbreviation is derived from the
Latin phrase "pondus Hydrogenii," which means "hydrogen weight."

The "weight of hydrogen" or pH is the level of the ratio of H⁺ and OH⁻ ions. The presence of colloids of H+
ions in the environment causes soils to become acidic. A neutral reaction occurs when the concentrations of OH
and H+ are equal. For distilled water, this is typical. We are discussing alkali if OH dominates the solution.
Otherwise, when there is more H⁺, the environment is acidic.

it must first be identified the type of soil and the degree of acidity to cultivate a decent harvest. This indicator
influences both the soil's quality composition and how easily plants may access specific trace elements.
Which soil microorganisms will dominate, whether applied fertilizers will be beneficial, and how fast and
accurately crops will develop all rely on how acidic the soil is.
Numerous plants prefer soil that is neutral or slightly acidic and cannot handle soil that is too acidic because the
roots cannot absorb the essential nutrients.
High soil acidity makes it difficult to acquire nutrients, reduces the efficacy of fertilizers, and causes starvation
and withering of the plants.
Planning
In the case of this particular experiment, seeds of tomatoes will be used. The normal acidity level of soil that is
going to be labeled as the control group of tomatoes has acidic level of 6. Hypothesis states that the higher
acidity level of a group is, the less likely the plants are going to be able to grow. Furthemore, the more time it
will take for the water to absorb overabundant acids.

Having 6 groups of plants, each one arithmetically increased in acidic level (Ph6-11), containing 5 samples in
each group will be measured using the Ph stripes.

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