Daphnia Magna Heart Rate Lab Report

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The effect of trisodium phosphate on Daphnia magna’s heart rate

Abstract: Trisodium phosphate is a key regulator of body systems such as the heart. The heart rate of Daphnia magna can be influenced by many factors, since these water dwelling creatures are quite small. To find the change in heartbeat of the D. magna, we counted the heart beats of D. magna that were soaked in either water or trisodium phosphate. There was a significant difference between the heartbeat of the D. magna in the different liquids. The trisodium phosphate stresses the heart, causing faster heart beats. Therefore, trisodium phosphate can be dangerous to D. magna.
Introduction:
Pollutants harm every animal in the environment in which it was released into;
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magna for the six control drops ranged from 204 to 276 beats per minute with 276 being the first control treatment the water flea experienced. We used a large water flea and had an average heart rate much lower than the average class trial data. Two percent trisodium phosphate significantly dropped the heart rate of the water fleas to 53.5 beats per minute. The D. magna picked for test two was pregnant, but that did not alter the results. It was not until six percent trisodium phosphate that the D. magna started to die in the mist of the treatment; therefore, not yielding results. A problem that occurred in several trials at different treatment levels as well. Our lowest average was 10 percent trisodium phosphate at 26.5 beats per minutes. The highest treatment average heartbeat, not including 0 percent trisodium phosphate, was 53.3 beats per minute at 2 percent trisodium phosphate. As seen on the graph, trisodium phosphate had significantly different error bars on the horizontal axis. Therefore, a significant difference was found between the treatment levels.
At first, the size of the water flea was large; however, there were not many large water fleas, so small D. magna had to be used. The pregnant D. magna survived all the treatment levels and was returned to the recovery tank. The additional system when compared to the other water fleas was