RATIONALE
In this investigation I am going to be investigating how minerals affect the growth of plants and perceive the essential minerals that the vegetation requires to develop efficiently. The motive why I am going to research how minerals influence the plant increase is to be able to detect a less expensive alternative manner to make fertiliser, which can reduce the cost of plant germination and might lower the rate of crops. Also, by discovering an inexpensive alternative way of making fertiliser this enables me to perform some primary and secondary research to determine which minerals are important to offer natural plant growth. I’m going to exploit 5 different sorts of secondary sources to discover some more statistics roughly plant nutrition. Then I am going to carry out some research into primary studies that assist me to analyse the effect of minerals on plant growth. This would make growing plants and crops affordable because the faster the plant grows, the more produced. This would be mostly useful in areas such as Africa because minerals are expensive and as a less developed country it is hard to obtain all the useful minerals to assist plant growth and the land is dry which affects soil productivity. This is a huge impact on the continent because for people such as farmers, they will be unable to grow enough crops and plants meaning shortage of income which can lead to families suffering.
LITERATURE REVIEW
There are many factors that restrict plant growth and these factors include; nutrition, temperature and water. As mentioned by (OSU Extension Service, 2020) that “the environmental factors that affect plant growth are water, humidity, temperature, light and nutrition” this shows that these factors are common limitations of plant growth. (OSU Extension Service, 2020) also states that “poor environmental conditions such as too little water can damage a plant directly” which mostly implies to areas such as Africa un locations such as the Sahara Desert because the land is deserted as stated by (Sharp, 2020)”the Sahara has substantial underground water reservoirs” this suggests that there is little water which makes it impossible to grow plants or crops.
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(Soils4teachers.org, 2018) mentions that “desert soils form in areas where evaporation and transpiration is much greater than precipitation” which emphasises that soil productivity is important because plant growth begin in the roots and if there is insufficient water, this can lead to plants and crops dying. According to Fao,2019 “many soils are losing the minerals and organic matter that makes them fertile “and this shows that dry farming would encourage soil loss, and this restricts plant growth and soil productivity.
One of the other serious issues which affect plant growth according to (Slavikova and Popescu,2017) are humans through overgrazing and deforestation “overgrazing leads to land degradation which leads to loss of topsoil which makes it impossible for native plants to start growing again “this means that if humans continue overgrazing this will influence the natural habitats such as animals and mostly plants as this will lead to animals feeding in one area which will destroy the soil productivity. (Slavikova and Popescu, 2017) also suggest that “plants will be unable to grow which can eventually lead to damage in the root system” and this will make the plant regrowth harder because transpiration cycle will be affected. As specified in the Life of plant blog (2020) that “as forest habitat shrinks through deforestation, many plants and animals become vulnerable “this implies that the more overgrazing and deforestation, the lesser of a chance soil productivity taking place because without trees there is dryland because lack of trees encourages climate change and global warming as mentioned by (European Environment Agency, 2015) “higher temperatures could also increase decomposition and mineralisation “which affects the soil moisture.
Can nutrient deficiency affect plant growth? Parson (2001) states that “for a healthy plant growth, three crucial mineral irons are required in the soil to have soil productivity” which implies that within my investigation l have to implant some minerals irons into the soil to ensure the soil is mineral iron rich to prevent the deficiency which will enable faster growth. The source also mentions “most beneficial minerals include nitrate, phosphate and potassium” which is very useful because nitrate is mainly used in making amino acids, phosphates are an essential to plants during aspiration and respiration, and potassium assists enzymes and also assists plants during photosynthesis and respiration. However in the ‘epic garden’ blog (Espiritu, 2017) talks about the effect of nutrient deficiency on plant growth. (Espiritu, 2017) also mentions “primary nutrients which determine the plant growth including phosphate, nitrate and potassium” this is known as the NPK which is mostly found in fertilisers used by farmers to grow crops.
Limitations
Enclosed area; as the practical investigation has to be carried out in a laboratory, this illustrates that my observation is limited as l will not have to access to the laboratory without assistance. Therefore, this means the outcome will not be observed throughout which can have an impact on my results as l cannot change the environment settings to an area which plants can easily undergo photosynthesis. Changing the environment will make the investigation difficult because it is supposed to be a controlled environment which means changing the environment will make it into a dependent variable.
Restricted time; the conduction of the experiment is time limited which suggest that the conditions of the plant growth has to be met as l have to meet my aim to complete the investigation. Within this given time, l have to research plants which are able to germinate in as early as 3 weeks or less in order to meet any given time while using time contingency to complete the investigative project.
Type of seed; when it comes to seeds, a rotten seed can have a huge impact on my investigation because there are no physical signs which can make me aware that the seed used is not fresh. This can eventually be time consuming as it can take a longer time period than using fresh seeds because even in good conditions the plant growth will still be minimised.
Initial method shows germination of barley seeds and during this experiment I might need to propagate barley with fluid culture. This would enable me to collect relevant results related to my aim and hypothesis which means l might need to live the mass of the seed before and once it germinates. I will also need to link the 2 ideals to be able to make the comparison. By undertaking this experiment, I will need to use secondary data values as it will allow me to identify what l did wrong and how l can improve to give me reliable supply of knowledge. On the opposite hand, this test wouldn't relate to my investigative project aim which is to check the way quantity of minerals will affect plant growth. This experiment is aimed to check what quantity minerals the plant absorbs. Also, this experiment does not require time contingency as it takes three weeks for the barley to germinate. However, I may acclimate my experiment to allow it to match the restricted quantity of my time frame.
The second method I reviewed was the research of algal suspension. During this experiment I might be observant the speed that the algal grows within the culture answer. I might use haemocytometer to estimate what quantity algal grows. This experiment relates a lot of to my aim then the primary methodology. This is often because the aim of the experiment is to seek out however the culture answer impact the expansion of the algal. However, this methodology is extremely temporary and doesn't make a case for the characteristics I want to be trying to find. Also, if I perform this experiment once observant the plant growth, l might be biased because this will allow me to relate my results to my aim.
Conclusion
Generally speaking, the two methods that I have investigated would not be appropriate for my experiment. However I could utilize parts from the two experiments in my investigation as I need to record my findings by quantitative information and by observation. I would do this by estimating the length of my plant after a particular time. Also would need to be able to distinguish any physical changes in the plant for instance, colour shade pattern of the plant or inadequacies the plant may have to an absence of minerals. Additionally, would need to consider certain variables such as volumes of fluid culture in each seed.
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