The Effects of the Pesticides Imidacloprid, Atrazine, and Roundup on \u3cem\u3eDaphnia Magna\u3c/em\u3e Heart Rate

The purpose of this study was to see the effect of pesticides on aquatic organisms. It was hypothesized that the pesticide that would have the largest effect on Daphnia magna heart rate was atrazine and the pesticide that would have the least effect was imidacloprid. When conducting this experiment, there were three different pesticides (imidacloprid, atrazine, and roundup) that were each used twice in different dilutions of the recommended solution. For each pesticide, there were 15 Daphnia that were tested for each dilution. These Daphnia were all fed everyday. Once the solution was made and the Daphnia were put in their petri dishes, for 4 days straight, the Daphnia’s heart rates were observed through a microscope and recorded, mortality was also recorded. It was found that for both dilutions of the Roundup treatment, most Daphnia died by the second or third day. Daphnia died the most in both dilutions of the Roundup treatment due to its toxicity. The Roundup had the largest affect (F(6, 48)=69.92 , p\u3c0.001) on Daphnia heart rates and atrazine had the least effect on Daphnia heart rates. As each treatment got less diluted, more Daphnia died. Based on the one way ANOVA (figure 6), the treatments in order of lowest to highest heart rates are roundup (1/10 of the solution recommended by the manufacturer), imidacloprid (1/10), atrazine (1/10), atrazine (1/100), imidacloprid (1/100), and lastly roundup (1/100)