BIOL 114: The Effect of ash on Arabidopsis thaliana growth and development

Due to recent wildfires in California and their dramatic effect on plant ecosystems, we decided to create an experiment that would compare the growth of the plant Arabidopsis with and without ash on its topsoil. We hypothesized that the plants with ash would do better and grow larger in diameter than those without. We got ash from a controlled burn of Oak wood and applied it at a consistent rate of 1 gram poured evenly on the surface on the soil surface. Four experimental conditions were created, Wild type control, Wild type ash, Mutant control, and Mutant ash. The plants were grown under the controlled conditions of light, and all watered from the bottom for 15 minutes each week. The plant's growth was measured by the diameter of the two longest leaves every Monday for 6 weeks. Our results revealed that the wild type ash had a significant increase in diameter compared to wild type control, which indicates a positive effect of ash on diameter growth of Arabidopsis. But the Mutant control and Mutant ash groups had no significant difference. The wild type control showed significantly greater growth than the mutant control. Our findings suggest that ash application can promote growth in wild type Arabidopsis. The mutant gene may have some genetic modification that prevents the ash as working as an accelerant as it did with the wild type. Our study helps contribute to the understanding of wildlife response to wildfire ash. And can provide information that is applicable to larger understandings of plant recovery.