The Effect of Light Intensity on the Oxygen Production of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the photosynthetic activities of a single-celled green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (C. reinhardtii), under different light intensities. There were 9 replicates of C. reinhardtii exposed to each of the three different light intensity treatments: light (345 Lux), wrapped around cheesecloth (245 Lux), and dark (0 Lux). Controls were included for comparison purposes and contained media only. Oxygen production was measured daily from 3 replicates of each treatment for a total of 3 days. The results obtained in this experiment were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA test, which indicated an insignificant difference between the mean of the four results with a p-value of 0.1017. One of the possible explanations for the insignificant difference is that the temperature chosen in the study was not optimal for C. reinhardtii culture growth. Moreover, the experimental length and the short time frame for incubation resulted in less prominent and significant population differences among samples. In conclusion, we failed to reject the null hypothesis and we could not provide subsequent support for the alternative hypothesis.