The Peggy Protozoa Story

By: FYI-Jessica PupkinHaley Venick

Caroline Chriss&

Allyson Luray

The Beginning Meet Peggy Protozoa she lives on RPCS grounds. She is hiding from the evil herbicide (which contains prodiamine)

This is Barry Bacteria he is what Peggy protozoa consumes.

Meet Harry Herbicide. This is what's sprayed on both Barry and Peggy’s home.

This is Nitrogen Nicole. A form of her is released during the nitrogen cycle (this helps to regulate our environment)

It all started one day when Peggy began eating her lunch. The usual bacteria with a side of mossy green grass and other nutrients found in the RPCS grounds soil. Then all of a sudden Peggy protozoa felt something like rain and decided to slowly move away.

Luckily Barry Bacteria, who will eventually become one of Peggy’s delectable meals, tells Peggy Protozoa that what she felt was Harry the Herbicide spraying away and not rain. Barry told Peggy to hide and find food because the herbicide will kill the bacteria she eats.

We interrupt this presentation:

Barry Bacteria was killed today in a prodiamine storm. Yet another member of the bacteria family has died. Hope those protozoa’s find enough to eat these days!

Peggy and her family realize that if Harry Herbicide keeps spraying all their food will be killed off and eventually they will be too. If this happens then their cycle will be destroyed!!!!!!Dad

protozoa

Mother Protozoa

Peggy protozoa

Luckily for Peggy and her gang, Harry was put in soil jail for illegal practices! There will be no more spraying of him anytime soon……or so they thought!

Harry the herbicide has just escaped from soil jail!

…………………………………………………………………………

RUN!

When Peggy and her family heard about the escape they decided that there had to be another way other than leaving RPCS. Peggy had heard about a nitrogen who could defeat this evil herbicide.

I am very wise and

can help !

I have heard you know how to defeat the

herbicide

Nitrogen Nicole tells Peggy that herbicides don’t really hurt her kind and that someone is being untrue to them! Peggy then remembered that the real microorganism that gets impacted by this would be bacteria!

Peggy and gang along with Nitrogen Nicole decide to investigate the bacteria’s. They immediately deny it!

Nitrogen Nicole, being the knowledgeable one, knew that something was not right and called the bacteria out on it. Nicole asked the bacteria why they weren’t rushing out of here if Harry the Herbicide escaped jail.

Then something hit Peggy! What if the herbicide helped the bacteria. Peggy thought what if this scheme was all in favor to them. They let Harry out of soil Jail and told people that he was dangerous. Peggy then told Nicole what she remembered and they both recalled that in soil school they were taught that bacteria ate prodiamine and that made them reproduce Which means more food for the protozoa and less bacteria!

So...It turns out that the herbicide makes

the bacteria grow meaning that protozoa have more food and can also reproduce!

The story ends. Nicole, Peggy and Gang become awarded for their efforts and the bacteria were eaten by the Protozoa as a celebratory meal! EVERYBODY WINS!

Oh and the environment is saved!

How this is Relevant

- We wanted to know if the application of herbicide either decreased the amount of protozoa in the soil or increased it!

- We found out that bacteria eat the herbicide and eventually this will lead to more bacteria. Therefore, more protozoa will reproduce. This is actually positive because they regulate the environment

Soil Ecology Project

How does an Herbicide with prodiamine

change the number of protozoa in a soil?

We thought…

When adding herbicide to soil, the number of protozoa will decrease

What is Prodiamine?• Prodiamine is a particular type of herbicide that could be

potentially spreading the protozoa on RPCS grounds • Herbicides limit the bacteria growth on a specific

location of land. When an herbicide kills a plant, the bacteria that eat-off of the weeds lose a food source, reducing the number of bacteria. When there is fewer bacteria, there is fewer protozoa because they can no longer have their regular food source

To test our Question..

1. We marked two plots on unfertilized ground

To test our question…

2. We sprayed one plot with weed be gone (a product that contains the same ingredients as the herbicide that the school uses) and the other plot with water.

To test our question..

3. After waiting 48 hours we took soil samples from each

To test our question..

4. After letting our soil samples dry, sifting the soil, and filtering our samples, we used the microscope and digital blue to count the number of protozoa in each

What we Found…

• We found that our hypothesis was incorrect • The number of protozoa in both plots A (the plot

that had the herbicide sprayed on it) and B (the plot that had the water sprayed on it) increased

• Plot A’s protozoa more than tripled, going from 4,352, 866 to13,040,643

• Plot B’s protozoa increased about 5 million, going from 19,564,790 to 24,433,134

What do our results tell us?

• Although our hypothesis was wrong, our results tell us that an herbicide helps increase the number of protozoa much quicker then water does

Bibliography• GreenShare University of Rhode Island Landscape Horticulture Program. (1999) How

Herbicides Work. http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/herbicides.html • Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin. ( No Date ) Herbicides for Weed and

Brush Control in Natural Areas. http://www.ipaw.org/herbicides.htm• Visionlearning. (2003-2008) The Nitrogen Cycle.

http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=98• Natural Resources Conservation Service. (2008) Soil Biology.

http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/concepts/soil_biology/protozoa.html • Integrative and Comparative Biology. (2008) Population Dynamics of Soil and

Vegetation Protozoa. http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/13/1/171• • The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. (2008 ) Ortho Weed B Gon MAX Plus Crabgrass

Control Ready-to-Use. http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?bodyCssClass=scotts+blade+product+detailusage+en&tabs=usage&navAction=jump&bodyId=product_detail_usage&proId=prod70146&title=p_product_general_usage_title&itemId=cat50064&id

• National Science & Technology Center. (2001) Soil Protozoa. http://www.blm.gov/nstc/soil/protozoa/index.html