Praveen Kumaravelan
H Science Research 2A
The Effect of Plant Hormones on Barley Height in Unfavorable Soil Profiles
Question
Rationale
Can Indole 3- Butyric Acid Improve Barley Height in Unfavorable Soil Profiles?
In countries around the world, soil quality is constantly degrading and it is getting increasingly hard to maintain what little arable land is left. In soil deficient of nutrients and organic matter, crops cannot grow so these countries have low food production. These countries range from Haiti to Kenya to Australia, where each has a different soil profile. To try to increase food production, I tested if plant hormones could help plants grow in soil profiles that normally can't support plant growth, from rocky soil to soil with no humus or organic matter to sandy soil, so that these plant hormones can be used worldwide to increase food production and fight global hunger. I also simultaneously tested how well these plants grew to see if the plant hormones could increase food yields in countries that already have good food production, such as India, China, and the United States.
Hypothesis
If Plant Hormones are applied to plants growing in unfavorable soil profiles, then the experimental plants will be able to grow quicker than the control because the plant hormones are specifically designed to expand cell size and replicate much quicker, increasing the size of the plant. Also, the plant will grow out of the soil because it will follow the idea of phototropism and plants will search for solar energy for photosynthesis, and grow towards the sun.
Abstract
When thinking about the idea of auxins and rooting hormones, I was curious as to whether rooting hormones, normally used to help roots grow, would help barley plants grow taller. Because of this purpose I designed an experiment that would allow me to test the use of butyric acid, a natural auxin, and if it would help barley plants grow in unfavorable soil profiles. Originially, I ppicked barley for this experiment because barley is a crop similar to major food crops around the world, like rice, or wheat. Also, barley is a much more hardy plant, so it can grow better in the conditions similar to the ones i presented in my various soil profiles. I based my soil profiles off of three countries in geographically different locations and with agricultural difficulties, whether it be the lack of arable land, rocky soil, nutrient poor soil, or soil that did not retain water very well. These factors can and do pose significant challenges to food production in today's global economy. For my procedures, I tested the germination of the barley seeds to make sure they were viable, and then essentially set up 3 experimental soil profiles and one control profile with soil rich in clay and nutrients. I watered them every day with 10 mL of a .004 g/L density solution of butyric acid, and measured every day as well. To document change, I photographed them every other day as the experiment carried on for two weeks. My data showed that the Kenyan and Haitian soil profiles, which both had nutrient poor soil, harbored the tallest barley mainly because the butyric acid promoted the growth of nitrogen fixing bacteria that returned nutrients to the soil the barley was in, which it used to grow. By also not competing with other sprouts, the barley plants were able to use all of the resources around them to grow quickly in two weeks. My hypothesis only partially came true because the Australian soil profile's barley grew very poorly, but the results are still promising because the use of auxins and other hormones that are organic can increase food production by increasing the amount and types of land that is considered arable, and can support the growth of healthy crops, allowing us to take a global effort to solve starvation in countries that don't always have ready access to food.