4/1 BLOG

Today I continued to make progress on my lab report. At this point what I'm to focus on is writing my data analysis and my graph. For some reason it's been really complicated doing the graph.

PICTURE OF SET UP

SPRING BREAK-3/31 BLOG

At this point, experimenting is over, and I've been working diligently on my lab report. In this blog I've included my research paper, experimental design, empty data table, and filled out data table.

Research Paper:

The topic which I’m studying is acid rain’s effect on fungi. My first variable, the independent one, is acid rain. Acid rain is a form of precipitation containing a large concentration of sulfuric and nitric acids. Acid rain is also defined by its level of pH which is lower then neutral. pH is the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration in kilograms per cubic meter. Neutral pH level is 7 and on a pH scale, lower pH level than neutral makes a substance acidic, thus giving the name acid rain. The pollutants that contaminate rain making it into acid rain are sulfur (sulfuric), nitrogen (nitric) and carbon. There are many contributors to these gases getting into and then contaminating our rain, major contributors to the contamination are smoke stacks. Smoke stacks burn coal and oil, releasing high amounts of fossil fuels which mix with the water vapor to create the sulfuric and nitric acids which are so contaminating, making acid rain. Cars also contribute as the carbon dioxide emissions are also released into the atmosphere. And just using electricity at home contributes since a lot of our energy comes from burning coal which adds to the sulfur dioxide.

Many things are affected by acid rain, insects, human beings, fish, all sorts of animals; it can even affect statues made of marble and limestone. But one of the most important things acid rain affects is soil. Almost every living thing depends upon, or is affected by, the quality of soil, and when there is enough acid rain, low pH build up, soil can be badly affected. Acid rain affects soil by taking necessary nutrients out of the soil and also it dissolves some aluminum out of the soil which can actually negatively affect the organisms in the soil. The reason why so many things are affected by acid rain is because of its low pH levels. Most things are not used to the low levels and so they can be badly broken down by low levels of pH (“acid rain”, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010).

One of the most extensive kingdoms of life is the fungi kingdom. The fungi kingdom was originally non existent since fungi used to be considered a type of plant. But it has been found that fungi is non-photosynthetic, meaning it does not self-produce using photosynthesis like plants. It is also separate from the plant kingdom because of its different cell wall structure. The cell walls of fungi are mainly made of chitin, not cellulose like plants’ cell walls. Another difference between fungi and plants is that fungi develop straight from spores without any stage of being an embryo. Many forms of fungi are decomposers. There are many forms of fungi with there different tasks and different things they take part in our environment. They are a huge part of the decomposition of soil and fresh water. Some fungi enhance the growing of many plants, including many forest trees, by gathering certain nutrients for the roots of the plant. Some fungi are harmful in the form of disease and poison to plants and animals, while others can serve as antibiotics. Fungi such as yeast are used for fermentation in brewing of commercial alcohol. Even many cheeses are only tasty because of the moldy growth that gets them to be that way (Bailey, Jill 2003).

The fungi kingdom has about 100,000 species, from the honey mushroom that spans for 2,000 acres underground in Oregon, to the mold that forms from left over bread, even the yeast that turns juice into wine. The fungi kingdom has an extremely vast range of size, color, harm, smell, taste, and texture. Most of the fungus is extremely important to our ecosystem and environment. The whole fungi kingdom consists of so many different forms of fungi with different ways of getting nutrients. Some, such as mold and decomposers, get there nutrients by breaking down expired substances such as bread and dead animals. Other mushrooms take nutrients from the ground such as plants, but it’s known that almost all fungi requires some moisture for proper growth. For a long time mushrooms have been used as a form of food for various organisms and if not for fungi nothing on earth would have ever decomposed, decomposition is extremely important to our environment. All in all fungus play a huge part in our ecosystem and are a necessity to existence (“fungus”, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010) .

The specific fungi I’m using is the oyster mushroom. An oyster mushroom in the wild can often be found on the stump or bark of a tree, sticking off of it in a way that makes it look like an oyster, hence the name. Oyster mushrooms start growth by forming a mycelium which forms bumps which eventually turn into mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are sturdy, hard to kill, mushrooms which have low requirments, something which will neutralize the spores and enough moisture.

Since fungus is so important to our ecosystem, and the amount of acid rain in our atmosphere is increasing, I believe it’s extremely important to study acid rain’s affect on fungi. If acid rain is so harmful to plants and so many other organisms I assume it will do the same to fungi, specifically mushrooms, specifically the Enokitake mushroom (Flammulina velutipes). That is why my hypothesis is: If fungus is watered regularly with acid rain then its growth and fruiting will be stunted.

I plan on testing how acid rain is going to affect oyster mushrooms by simply watering the different pots of oyster mushrooms with different pHs of acid as you would water a plant everyday and seeing how the acid is affecting the growth and fruiting of the mushrooms.

Experimental Design (Data Table [not filled out] included):

Jack Szumski-Experimental Design

My experimental question is: What is acid rain’s affect on fungi?

If fungi is watered with acidic water rather than with water of a neutral ph than its rate of growth and fruiting will decrease.

MATERIALS:

· 4 Buckets

· 4 Trays

· 4 Beakers

· 8 Popsicle sticks

· 4 Squares of plastic wrap with the dimensions of at least 1’ by 1’

· 4 Beakers

· 200ml of 2.5pH acid

· 200ml of 4pH acid

· 200ml of 5pH acid

· 200ml of 7pH (neutral) water

· Goggles

· Gloves

· Tape

· Ruler

· Laptop/pencil and paper

In this experiment the independent variable is acid rain.

· The control in this experiment

are the oyster mushrooms being watered with neutral pH 7 water

The dependent variable in this experiment are the oyster mushrooms.

The following is the procedure for this experiment:

1. Set up four buckets of oyster mushroom spores as directed in the instructions received with the spores.

2. Place two popsicle sticks into the soil on either side of the bucket and place plastic wrap on top of the sticks as to create a sort-of tent over the bucket.

3. Fill four beakers with 200 ml of water; one with 2.5 pH water, one with 4 pH water, one with 5 pH water, and one with neutral (7pH) water.

4. Label each bucket and label each beaker corresponding to the bucket you will water it with.

5. Before you water the buckets or handle the acid, put on goggles and gloves.

6. Water each bucket everyday and record observations of how each bucket is being affected and/or record the length and width of each mushroom in the bucket and record how many mushrooms are in the bucket.

7. When the mushrooms get to the point where the plastic wrap is not a high enough tent, create new larger tents using a garbage bag, which involves cutting holes in the bag for ventilation.

DATA TABLE:

Date	50 ml of pH of water	Observations	Height

Data Table (filled out):

Date	50 ml of pH of water	Observations	Height
2/9	2.5	Growths of white mold on edges	-
	7	Growth of white mold on one edge of bucket	-
	4	Growths of white mold on some edges	-
	5	Growths of white mold on edges	-
2/16	2.5	Some green growths and white	-
	7	White growths around edges and tiny bit of green	-
	4	White growth covering basically all of surface	-
	5	White growth covering surface	-
2/17	2.5	White growths around edges and small amount of green in edges	-
	7	White around edges and yellowish mold a bit in the middle with brown specks	-
	4	White stiff-like mold on whole surface except for few spots	-
	5	White stiff-like mold on whole surface	-
2/18	2.5	Green on inside circle of white all around edge	-
	7	Some neon green mold, lots of yellow mold and brown specks. White mold around edges	-
	4	=	-
	5	=	-
2/19	2.5	Some green, white all around edge but soil in the middle.	-
	7	=	-
	4	=	-
	5	All white on surface but tiny bit of yellow.	-
3/2	2.5	Thin ring around edges of white mycelium, bumps shoring starting of growth.	-
	7	Yellowish white mold around edges soil and green mold in middle and some white mold in middle.	-
	4	4 clumps of mushrooms, three tiny groups, the mushrooms are brown and droopy, they were healthy looking	Tallest about 2.5cm
	5	White mycelium on whole surface with bumps, slightly yellowish now.	-
3/3	2.5	Small amount of white around edges, mostly soil, some green around edges.	-
	7	Green mold in middle, not a lot, whitish yellowish bumpy mold around edges.	-
	4	Yellowish white mycelium on whole surface. 3 large, 3-4 small clumps of mushrooms. Mushrooms are drooping even more.	Tallest 2.5 cm
	5	Less white mycelium on surface. More streaks of soil. No mushrooms yet.	-
3/4	2.5	Mold not looking too good, getting better	-
	7	Mold not improving	-
	4	Mushrooms are now dying	Highest about 2.5 cm
	5	More brown	-
3/10	2.5	Thin white ring around edges thin green ring on inner edge, soil in the middle	-
	7	Two small clumps of mushrooms	3.5 tallest
	4	Tall groups of mushrooms, about two. Some small groups of mushrooms.	5 cm tall on tallest, 2 cm wide on cap of widest
	5	One group six mushrooms	1 cm tall highest
3/11	2.5	Mostly soil, tiny bit of green and white around edges.	-
	7	Mushrooms are getting bigger, two clumps. Soil and green around them though	3 cm tallest
	4	Mushrooms are now smaller and are beginning to die since I began to water them again.	Tallest 3.5 cm, widest 1 cm
	5	One small clump of no capped mushrooms, dried out	Tallest .5 cm

Jack Szumski

3/5-weekend BLOG

On Friday I continued to water my mushrooms which are now growing some different looking mushrooms. I think that the mushrooms growing on the control couldn't be oyster since there was no white mycelium.

3/4 BLOG

Today I continued to water my mushrooms which aren't looking to great. I noticed that although the pH 4 acid seemed to speed up the growth of the mushrooms, once the mushrooms were up and getting watered they began to die. Other buckets aren't looking to good either.

3/3 BLOG

Today I continued to water the mushrooms. It looks like the mushrooms (where there were any) are dying. Also I think I have a problem because I don't have any data that are numbers, instead I have observations which won't make a data table.

snowdays & weekend-3/2 BLOG

Thursday and friday were both snow days so I wasn't able to water my mushrooms or collect any data. Also on monday 3/1 I was sick so I wasn't able to water or collect data. Today I finally watered my mushrooms again and it seems like the bad buckets are recovering but the good buckets aren't improving.

2/23 BLOG

Today I continued to water the mushrooms and saw a lot of progress in some of the pots. Unfortunately it seems that the one pot being watered as the control (with neutral pH) is looking the worst at the time. So possibly, maybe, acid rain contributes to the growth of mushrooms.

2/22 BLOG

Today I continued to water my mushrooms, and noticed that one pot has little mushrooms growing on it already. Unfortunately, the blue fungi on two of the pots isn't letting up. I believe this is because these are the two pots that I first brought to school.

2/19-weekend BLOG

On Friday, 2/19, I continued to water my mushrooms and because of recent availability of space, I moved my mushroom pots into a line rather than two in front. This way, all of the pots can get an equal amount of space.

2/18 BLOG

Today I watered the mushrooms more and got spray bottles. I also worked on my data table.

2/17 BLOG

Today I continued to water my mushrooms despite the small growths of green mold. I also found out today, (by looking at pictures of each of the pots of mushrooms) that the excessive amount of white mold is the start of oyster mushrooms (I knew there was supposed to be some white mold but I didn't know there was supposed to be quite so much). I'm going to need to get some more spray bottles because pouring the water on isn't working.

I would put my data table on this blog but I don't actually know how...

weekend-2/16 BLOG

Today 2/16, I came to the mushrooms only to find that they had an excessive amount of mold. Two buckets were covered with the white mold and the other two buckets had some white mold and some green mold. I'm afraid that from either under-watering over the long weekend or because the buckets are TOO moist the mushrooms have instead turned into this excess mold.

2/6 weekend- 2/11

On monday 2/8 I didn't have class but I watered the mushrooms anyway, and on tuesday 2/9 I began watering the mushrooms with different amounts of pH and I began using my data table which I will be posting on this blog soon. Wednesday and today have now turned out to be snow days so unfortunately the mushrooms won't be receiving any nourishment until next tuesday because of the four day weekend.

2/4 BLOG

Today I brought in the rest of the oyster mushrooms and set them up in trays. I also boiled water to water the mushrooms because they can't use tap water(chlorine), and they can't use distilled water(lack of proper nutrients). Tomorrow I'm setting up my acid rain situation to begin watering certain mushrooms with it and to start recording data.

2/3 BLOG

Today I was assigned a designated space for my experiment. Tomorrow I'm setting up all four sets of oyster mushrooms.

2/2 BLOG

Today I brought in the oyster mushrooms and discussed a little bit about how I will set them up. I will be bringing in the rest of the mushrooms tomorrow for a variation of acid rain testing.

2/1 BLOG

Today I had to visit the neurologist and rest while my side effects of the concussion improve so I didn't go to school and couldn't talk with Mrs. Weissman so writing my experimental design will have to wait for yet another night, (since I have to figure out what a good setup would be before I can write about the setup).

1/29-weekend BLOG

On 1/29 I decided officially to abort the Enokitake mushroom kits because of my failure to take proper care of them but It's fine because I'm using the oyster mushrooms anyway.

Weekend- Basically my whole weekend was taken up by going skiing early Saturday, getting a concussion, going to the hospital, attending a reception for accepted students to SPP and then going to confirmation class in the evening on Sunday. So I didn't get a chance to work on much of anything. Fortunately there wasn't much for me to work on until I discuss the oyster mushroom setup with Mrs. Weissman.

1/28 BLOG

Today in class I thought about my experimental design but when I got home today I decided to make a pretty big change in my experiment; I going to use the oyster mushrooms rather than the Enokitake kits. I decided to make this change because there was a major problem with the Enokitakes, one kit already had extensive amounts of mushroom growths and other one had none (and I don't even know if the growths were Enokitake growths). I added the ice cubes to the Enokitakes anyway just as a side project but now I'm focusing on the oyster mushroom kits my dad also ordered and are now set up and ready to experiment on. I'm bring the oyster mushrooms in on monday to set up and start my experiment.

1/25-27 BLOG

On 1/25 I submitted my research paper rough draft. The only problem I think my research paper had was it's length, it definitely should've been longer and I already know that that's one of the things I'm going to work on for my final draft.

On 1/26 I thought a lot about what I should measure in my experiment and how it's going to be set up.

1/27, I was sick today, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be back at school tomorrow. Unfortunately I've noticed that one Enokitake kit has a pretty large amount of growths already and the other kit has none. Tomorrow I'm supposed to add the ice cubes and whatever is in the next step.

weekend BLOG

It's Jan. 24th and I just unwrapped and began the growing process of the enokitake mushrooms, these were my observations:

Observations:

@ 3:20 pm on 1/24 I unwrapped both enokitake kits. I would like to note that the kit I brought to school that one day looked the same when I unwrapped it as it did when it got here, but the kit that stayed at home already had growths of mushrooms. They are sitting in indirect light and are supposed to stay that way for four days until i can add the ice cubes and continue with the growing procedure.

Also I'm just finishing up my research paper. There are just a few questions I plan on asking Ms. Weissman in class tomorrow before I submit the paper.

1/21 BLOG

Today I continued research with the same source.

1/20 BLOG

Today in class I began my research for the paper. My first source is on Encyclopedia Britannica. The URL is: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-216166

1/19 BLOG

Today I continued to work on my application. MLK weekend was really busy for me, and I did little work on the project, but tonight I'm finishing my application and tomorrow in class I'm going to begin working on the research paper.

P.S. There was no blog for friday since I was at SPP all day, not at school.

1/14 BLOG

This was my last science class of the week and I think I used it really well. I did a little more than double the length of my first paragraph in the application and did some research on fungi. Over the weekend I plan to finish my application.

1/13 BLOG

Today in class I looked over my intern application. I was expecting it to be rejected mostly because of it's length but there are some other details, especially in the first paragraphs, that I should add in. I also did the forum question about the research paper.

Over the next few days I think I'm going to be focusing mainly on the application so it can be nice and solid for next tuesday. I've also really got to start researching more about acid rain and mushrooms, I know that there's a lot out there about both.

Also, this is the link to the site where we bought the mushrooms from: http://www2.mailordercentral.com/fungi/Prodinfo.ASP?NUMBER=LKFP/K&VARIATION=&AITEM=1&MITEM=1

My Topic

I am proposing this as my topic on the intern application: the affect of acid rain on fungi.

I thought of it mostly because of its originality and because fungi is kingdom of life less known about then most others and its good to educate people about how it can also be damaged by acid rain, not just the wisconsin fast plant or brine shrimp.

I plan on using the Enokitake mushroom as the fungi I'm experimenting on. I'm using this type of mushroom because it's a fast growing, fast fruiting mushroom made to be grown for fun in a household (so it comes with a whole kit on growing it).

Possible Experimental Questions

How does X affect Y?

At what point does X affect Y?

What are the implications of X to Y?

At what point does X not affect Y?

Biotic and Abiotic Factors

Biotic Factors-

• living or produced by living thing
• organisms
• predation
• starvation - lack of food
• disease
• old age
• injury
• competition

Abiotic Factors-

• dead
• water
• minerals (rocks)
• gases---CO2, O2, CH4 (methane)
• air
• sunlight
• rocks
• Weather
• temperature
• too hot too cold
• drought
• flood

Other-

• Toxic waste
• depends on what waste is.