Green House Effect, Methane Emission and its Relevance to Abiotic Stress, Use...
Group 9 Powerpoint Defence
1. The Effects of Increased Atmospheric
CO2 on the Interaction Between Myzus
persicae and Arabidopsis thaliana
Group 9: the Ace-Phids
Monish Ahluwalia, Bronwyn Barker, Elsie Loukiantchenko, Urszula Sitarz, Elias Vitali
2. Introduction
• CO2 (g) levels are rising
• This affects plants and animals in different ways:
• Photosynthesis
• Negative effects of CO2
• Interactions
3. Research Questions
How does the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere affect
the growth rate of Arabidopsis thaliana and the per capita
growth rate of Myzus persicae?
What concentration will be too high to support aphid
populations, despite potentially increased plant
performance?
4. Null Hypothesis
An increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels has no
significant effect on aphid per capita growth rate or
Arabidopsis thaliana growth
5. Alternate Hypotheses
Aphid per capita growth rate will:
i. Increase
ii. Decrease
iii. Or initially increase until a certain point
7. Methods
Day of
Experiment
Amount of CO2 added to the Chambers (±0.005g)
Control (C) 1 2 3
1 0 0.50 1.50 3.00
5 0 1.08 3.00 6.70
7 0 0.48 1.52 3.00
8 0 1.06 3.00 6.02
12 0 0.55 1.49 3.10
8.
9. • Linear regression of
data
• P = 0.183; R2 = 0.09
• Log transformation of
data showed little
difference
Aphid Per Capita Growth Rate Per Day
10. • Linear regression of
data
• P = 0.672, R2 = -0.066
• Log transformation of
data showed little
difference
Stem Growth Rate Per Day
11. Discussion - Plants
• Two variables to consider:
• Elevated CO2 levels: would increase plant
performance and growth
• Aphid presence: would stunt plant growth
• Balanced out - no net effect
12. Discussion - Aphids
• Many variables to consider
• No predators or enemies
• Soil quality
• Plant performance
• No immediate CO2 effects observed
• Stressed but not stressed enough
14. Future Directions
Long term study
• Stress and molting effects
• Consistent CO2 concentrations
• Death rate
• Increased temperature
How does this translate to greater ecosystems?
Editor's Notes
4 chambers of 6 plants and 2 aphids on each plants. We measured co2 and temperature with a co2 monitored
Collected measurements automatically every 15 minutes
Can’t conclude CO2 has no effect on plant growth
It may not have balanced out, rather that neither had any effect whatsoever.
Aphids performed well in elevated carbon dioxide environments
There a bunch of different variables to consider when determining why they may have survived
There was no natural predators or enemies in the environment - not natural environment - proliferate more
Study suggested aphid performance may be highly dependent on nitrogen concentration of the soil, which was not measured
Aphids are phloem sucking insects
