Biology Ia Proposal.docx 1m2e47

BIOLOGY IA PROPOSAL IBNU ISHAQUE FIRDAUS BIN IBRAHIM S18B Research Question: To what extent does the construction of different type of buildings have an impact on the natural ecology of the area, measured by the comparison of biomass using quadrat sampling technique. Hypothesis: The biomass of Axonopus Poaceae is the lowest near to non-eco-friendly (standard) buildings. Introduction: Ecology is the complex relation of organisms to one another and their physical surroundings. Plants absorb sunlight using chlorophyll and other photosynthetic pigments. This converts the light energy to chemical energy, which is used to make carbohydrates, lipids and all the other carbon compounds in producers. Plants are the first organisms in a food chain and are eaten by primary consumers. Only 10% of the energy from the plant is successfully ed on to the primary consumer. If there is a significant change in the population of the primary producer, this would adversely affect the population of primary consumers and animals in the higher trophic level in general. Biomass is the mass of living biological organisms in a given area or ecosystem at a given time. It consists of the cells and tissues of organisms, including the carbohydrates and other carbon compounds that they contain. It is usually measured in the unit g/m2. Personal Engagement: I live at one of the many residential areas of Malaysia’s capital city, Kuala Lumpur since 2010. Over the years, I have noticed that there is a rapid increase in the urbanization and has changed the cityscape quite significantly. Despite that, I noticed that recent construction works have incorporated sustainable development and there are more eco-friendly buildings being built. Having learnt biology, I began wondering to what extent does the construction of these various types of buildings affect the ecology of the original land.

Variables: Type of Variable Independent

Variable Location of quadrat sampling: 1) Near eco-friendly buildings 2) Near standard buildings 3) No buildings

Dependent

Biomass of Axonopus Poaceae

Method of control The location of quadrat sampling is identified and made sure that there is no recent drastic change of the ecology of the respective locations considered. The biomass is obtained by heating the Axonopus Poaceae in an oven to remove moisture, calculated by dividing the dry mass over the size of the quadrat.

Constant





Type of grass



The characteristic of

considered (Axonopus

Axonopus Poaceae is

Poaceae)

studied to ensure no

Size of quadrat

other

grass

are

considered to make the comparison fair 

The size of quadrat used is 100cm X 100cm

List of Apparatus & Materials 

100cm X 100cm quadrat



Sieving apparatus



Laboratory oven



Weighing balance



Gardening Gloves



Plastic Tupperware



Plastic bags



Aluminium tray

Methodology 1. Identify an area of land where there are completely no buildings and make sure the land has Axonopus Poaceae present. 2. Place the quadrat on the ground and collect the Axonopus Poaceae bounded by the quadrat by pulling it using a glove. 3. Place the collected grass in a plastic tupperware and sieve the grass using a sieving apparatus to remove excess soil. Sieve the grass thoroughly until no soil clumps are present. 4. Put the sieved grass in another plastic tupperware and label it “control”. 5. Repeat process 1 to 4 at areas of land where there are eco-friendly building and non-ecofriendly buildings. Label the sieved grass tupperwares labelled “environmental building” and “non-environmental” respectively. 6. In the laboratory, put the respective grasses in separate aluminium trays. 7. Put the trays into the laboratory oven at 45°𝐶 for 1 hour until all the moisture from the grass has been removed. 8. Take out the aluminium trays and weigh the mass of the dried Axonopus Poaceae using a weighing balance. 9. Calculate the biomass of Axonopus Poaceae taken from separate locations by using the formula: 𝐵𝑖𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 =

𝑑𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓𝐴𝑥𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑠 𝑃𝑜𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑒 (𝑔) 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑡 (𝑚2 )