Introduction
Throughout this trimester we studied two types of trees, Acer platanoides, the Norway maple and Acer Saccharum, the sugar maple. The sugar maple and the Norway maple are trees that can both be found in the state of New Hampshire. For this experiment we collected leaves from the north and south facing sides of both of the species. We used a spectrophotometer to determine the levels of chlorophyll for each sample. During this experiment we wanted to determine what the difference was between the two maples when the chlorophyll absorbs light and what the difference in color is as we collected data throughout the trimester.This experiment would help clarify that when the leaves are facing different ways the color is different and has…show more content… The Norway Maple is an invasive species that was introduced as a landscape tree from Europe around 1750. The sugar maple is a native species that thrives in this area. When we began this experiment we already knew that the two species were very similar and that they had few differences. As a group we decided to conduct research to discover some of those differences. To assess the differences of the two species we studied the amount of light that was absorbed by the chlorophyll in each of the samples. Chlorophyll is the green pigment found in plants. Chlorophyll is responsible for the absorption of light that provides energy for photosynthesis, a process in which plants use energy from the sun, water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and life sustaining organic compounds. Through controlled experiments we concluded that the amount of chlorophyll contained in the leaf decreased as the trimester went on. During the Fall season the leaves on the tree change color to red, orange, or yellow. The chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, allowing the carotenoid pigments to become visible, giving the leaf…show more content… We first went outside to collect the leaves to prepare for the spectral analysis. I was in charge of collecting the leaves from the Sugar Maple that were facing the southern side. Everyone in our group was in charge of a different part of one of the treesWe then, using scissors, cut out small sections of the leaves, being sure not to cut through the main vein. The veins do not contain any chlorophyll, therefore it would not help with our experiment. We cut and measured 0.1g of the leaf using a digital balance and placed them into a centrifuge tube with 10 mL of denatured alcohol. The denatured alcohol helps bring out the chlorophyll cells and breaks down the leaf to release them. We labeled our centrifuge tube with the sample name and the bench number. We then placed the sample in the dark cabinet at room temperature for 24 hours. When we came back the next day we removed the sample from the storage and began to vortex it at a medium speed for 1 minute. After a minute we placed the sample into the centrifuge for 5 minutes. Next we used a pipette to fill 2 cuvettes about 80%. Then we took the cuvettes over to the spectrophotometer and ran a “blank” sample. We used the blank sample so that the machine can measure only what light the leaf absorbs, not what the cuvette and alcohol absorbs. After