Student 1 of 2

Practical 7.1 Measuring the rate of oxygen uptake

Purpose
To demonstrate the uptake of oxygen in respiration. To measure the rate at which an organism respires.

Safety
Wear eye protection when handling soda lime. Soda lime is corrosive. Do not handle directly: use a spatula.

Respirometers
Respirometers range from relatively simple pieces of equipment used in school science labs with seeds or invertebrates, to elaborate devices the size of a room used to measure respiration rates in humans living near-normal lives over a period of several days. In this practical you will be using a very simple respirometer, while considering the advantages of some of the slightly more complex ones.

Procedure
You will need: Respirometer (see diagram below) 5g of an actively respiring organism Soda lime Coloured liquid Dropping pipette Permanent OHT marker pen Solvent (to remove the marker) Cotton wool Stopclock Eye protection

1 Assemble the apparatus as shown in the diagram below.

syringe three-way tap glass tubing

scale

1 cm3 pipette or glass tube

coloured liquid

small organisms gauze soda lime A simple respirometer

2 Place 5g of maggots or peas into the test tube and replace the bung.

Edexcel practical materials created by Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology, University of York Science Education Group.

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2 of 2 Student

Practical 7.1 (cont.)

Measuring the rate of oxygen uptake

3 Introduce a drop of marker fluid into the pipette or glass tube using a dropping pipette. Open the connection (three-way tap) to the syringe and move the fluid to a convenient place on the pipette (i.e. towards the end of the scale that is furthest from the test tube). 4 Mark the starting position of the fluid on the pipette tube with a permanent OHT pen. 5 Isolate the respirometer by closing the connection to the syringe and the atmosphere and immediately start the stopclock. Mark the position of the fluid on the pipette at 1 minute intervals for 5 minutes. 6 At the end of 5 minutes open the connection to the outside air. 7 Measure the distance travelled by the liquid during each minute (the distance from one mark to the next on your pipette). If your tube does not have volumes marked onto it you will need to convert the distance moved into volume of oxygen used. (Remember the volume used 5 pr2 3 distance moved, where r 5 the radius of the hole in the pipette.)

9 Record your results in a suitable table. 10 Calculate the mean rate of oxygen uptake during the 5 minutes.

Questions
1 Why did the liquid move? Explain in detail what happens to the oxygen molecules, the carbon dioxide molecules and the pressure in the tube. 2 It would have been better to set up a second, control tube that did not contain living organisms but had everything else the same. a What could cause a movement of the liquid in the control tube towards the respirometer? b What could cause a movement of the liquid in the control tube away from the respirometer? c What could you do to correct your estimate of oxygen uptake if the liquid in the control had moved too?

Extension
3 The diagram below and Figure 7.24 on page 148 of A2 Biology show two other types of respirometer. What advantages and disadvantages do these have compared to the one you are using?
soda lime drop of liquid

wire mesh

organism to be studied A very simple respirometer

capillary tube

4 Design an experiment to investigate the effect of different temperatures on the rate of oxygen uptake in maggots. Remember that the maggots will need time to acclimatise to each new temperature.
Edexcel practical materials created by Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology, University of York Science Education Group.

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