Measurements of Daphnia Heart Rate When Affected

by Caffeine, Nicotine, and Melatonin

By:Hasan Khan

Purpose: Procedure:
The purpose of this research is to measure the effects For this experiment, Daphnia were housed in one
common substances, such as caffeine, melatonin, and container. At time of testing, Daphnia would be taken
nicotine, on the heart of Daphnia. While these by pipette and transferred into a beaker with the
substances are all very known and commonly used, solution of the substance for ten minutes. One these ten
their cardiac effects are not known in detail. This minutes pass, the Daphnia were placed onto a
project investigated the direct relationship between microscope slide where heart rate would be measured
these substances and heart rate by using the model due to their translucent skin. After completing the
organism, Daphnia. trials, Daphnia were put into 3 separate containers
based on which solution they were immersed in.
Findings: When reflecting upon the data, we see that
caffeine had the lowest heart rate, melatonin had the
second highest, and nicotine had the highest with a
total of 476 bpm. This is not what was expected and
was quite a shock. It was found that melatonin and
nicotine both accounted for a greater spike in heart
rate compared to caffeine.