Posted: September 13th, 2017

Growth Analysis Report 2014

Growth Analysis Report 2014
Brief Instructions for the Growth Analysis Report 2014

The report title should be ‘Growth responsesto nitrogen in three species’

(although both growth and development were measured in the pracs, onlythe growth data will be analysed in this report). The report should
be approximately 2000-2500 words long and is worth 30% ofthe final mark. It is due Thursday 22 May, 5pm. Ahardcopy should be submitted
to the MSLE assignment box, next to the Student Centre. The 2000-2500 word limit is a rough guide. lwill not penalise students who go over
the word limit, usually because they write a long discussion. I much prefer a good discussion that is a bit too long, to a short one that

does not explain the experimental results.

An important difference between this report and the previous one (transpiration report) is that

you will need to cite scientific papers in Introduction and Discussion. lwill give a few lead references, but you will need to find some

extra onesto write a good discussion.

1) Figures required in the Results section

Figure 1 (shoot dry matter),figure 2 (leaf area),

figure 3 ($3M partitioning to roots), figure 4 (RGR),figure 5 (LAR), figure 6 (NAR) and figure 7 (SLA). Start by completing the spreadsheet
entitled ‘ ummary Data : add the C s or Coefficients ofVariation (this summary table will nee to go in Appendix). Use the summary

data to produce the figures.

I have done all the other calculations, including RGR (in Materials 8. Methods, you will need to indicate that

RGR was calculated using the following formula: RGR SDW= (LN(SDWfinal) – LN(SDWinitial)) / number of days, where number of days= 21).
2) Writing up the nutrition report

Introduction

The Introduction should be halfto one page long.

Reminder: structure your

introduction using paragraphs (but do not add subheadings), citing references (ca. 2-3 times per paragraph). Check ‘References for the
report’ on the subject website: these references will give you a lead into relevant literature, and also show you how scientific papers

are written.

Pointsthat you need to mention:

Differences in growth responsesto nutrients (particularly nitrogen) between

species

Biological N2 fixation in legumes and its advantage on N-deficient soils

Growth analysis (RGR, NAR, LAR, SLA) as a useful method

to understand growth responsesto nutrients

Aim(s) ofthe experiment (always finish the introduction with the aim or aims)

Materials and

Methods

In addition to a summary ofthe information in the prac manual, you will need to include the following information on sowing, plant
management and nutrient solutions:

Corn (Zea mays cv. SR73), barley (Hordeum vulgare cv. Schooner) and field peas (Pisum sativ um) were

sown on the 2nd March 2012 into trays of seed raising mix (Debco). After 6 days, seedlings of similar size and developmental stage were
selected and sown into pots of soil – sand (1:4) mix,watered and placed in the Glasshouse Complex.

Afterthe second practical (Mar 12-13)

when initial measurements were taken, plants were watered three times a week with modified Hoagland solution containing 16 mM NO3- and 8 mM
NH4+ (High N) or no NO3- or NH4+ (Low N). Enough nutrient solution was applied to ensure the soil – sand mix remained moist but little
remained in the trays by the end ofthe watering period. On March 21, several corn plants in the High N treatment began showing symptoms of
nitrogen deficiency (yellowing ofthe first leaf). The amount of nutrient solution applied was doubled but two days later the first leaves

of most corn plants were yellowing. As these observations indicated a low N status (and a problem with the nutrient solution used), the High
N plants were then watered with Aquasol (Hortico) (1.6g/L, containing 0.3 mM MA , 1.5 mM KNO3 and 5.3 mM Urea) for one week and with
double-strength Aquasol for the remainder ofthe experiment.

Experimental Design

For each nutrient treatment and species, there were

three replicate trays containing 5 pots each (15 in total).

Measurements during the practicals

Summarise the information provided in the

practical manual. Although you are working on the 2012 dataset, measurements were the same in 2014.

Results

Reminders: it is essential

that you describe the main points of each figure, and you should write in the pasttense. You also need to write the figure caption/legend
belowthe figure. Figures need to show standard errors. Make sure thatthe background of each figure is white, not grey (it is sometimes
verfy difficult forthe readerto distinguish grey lines on a grey background). Describe each figure immediately below it (do not present

all igurestogether and the text separate rom the figures -too hard to read).

Present the following figures (all bar graphs):

igure 1. Shoot dry weight

Figure 2. Leaf area

Figure 3. DM partitioning to roots

Figure 4. RGR

Figure 5. LAR

Figure

5. NAR

Figure 7. SLA

Please note that l have abbreviated the figure legends just above. In your report, you will need to write more

complete legends (ideally, the reader should be able to look at a figure on its own and understand what it is about). For example,
Response of leaf area to N in corn, barley and pea’ is more informative than ‘Leaf area’.

When describing Figure 1 , mention the

tiller numbers/plantfor barley. Growth in barley is strongly dependent on the number oftillers produced. Tiller numbers were low in

2012, probably because ofthe problem with the nutrient solution (tillering is very responsive to N, a point worth mentioning in the
discussion).

When describing Figure 3, mention that very few nodules were observed on the roots ofthe field peas. This is an important

pointforthe discussion, because legumesthat do not nodulate respond to nitrogen in a similarwayto non-legumes.

he best wayto

describe the results isto use % reductions or increases (relative to either +N or oN). Mention in Resultsthat the CVvalues were low
(usually less than 5%). Use the standard errorsto determine whether the responses are likely to be statistically significant or not (you
would need to do ANOVAs, or analyses ofvariance,to confirm that significant differences existed between N treatments or between species).
About a page oftext describing the figures would be appropriate (the more concise, the better).

Discussion
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