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Staying Dry Insects in the Rain the Cover Image Shows a Mosquito in an Artificial Rain Shower Secondary Science Review Volume 23 Number 3 February 2013 Staying dry Insects in the rain The cover image shows a mosquito in an artificial rain shower. High-speed photography has revealed the strategies used by mosquitoes and other insects to survive when they are caught in a shower. See the article on pages 9-12. (Image courtesy of Tim Nowack.) Volume 23 Number 3 February 2013 Contents Fieldwork, labwork On pages 1-3 of this issue of CATALYST, a group of students 1 Speak to me, lichen from La Sainte Union Catholic School in north London Students of LSU School, London describe how they investigated the correlation between the lichen species growing on trees near their school and 4 Fracking: an energy revolution the level of atmospheric pollution. This study was part of Thomas Lewton the Silver Crest Award scheme, run by the British Science Association (http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/ 6 Memory myths crest), and their work drew on the OPAL project (http:// Lawrence Patihis, Ian W. Tingen, Elizabeth F. Loftus www.opalexplorenature.org). 9 Flying dry Laura Plant, an older student, had the chance to botanical David Sang fieldwork in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. She describes her work and shares some of her photographs on pages 13 Thermometry – a hot topic 20-22. Mike Follows While Biology provides plenty of opportunities for 16 Try this: Eating chocolate fieldwork, other secrets of nature have to be uncovered in the lab. On pages 9-12, we look at the work of a group Vicky Wong of scientists and engineers who wanted to know just how 17 Uncovering the magical world of signalling mosquitoes manage to survive outside in the rain. Suzy Moody 20 Adventures in the Amazon Laura Plant 22 Forest fieldwork Laura Plant Students: We have now created a website specially for you where you can browse hundreds of articles from past issues of Catalyst and find out how to subscribe. www.catalyststudent.org.uk Editorial team David Sang Vicky Wong Gary Skinner Physics Chemistry Biology Brighton Didcot Halifax Published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme Gatsby Technical Education Projects Editorial contact: The Peak 01273 562139 or [email protected] 5 Wilton Road London SW1V 1AP Subscription information CATALYST is published four times each academic year, in October, December, February and April. A free copy of each issue is available by request to © 2013 Gatsby Technical Education Projects individuals who are professionally involved in 14-19 science teaching in the ISSN 0958-3629 (print) UK and who are registered with the National STEM Centre. Teachers should ISSN 2047-7430 (electronic) visit www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk to find out how to register. Design and Artwork: Pluma Design Individual annual subscriptions (4 issues) are available from Mindsets for £12.00. Bulk subscriptions are also available from Mindsets, ranging from The Catalyst archive £7.00 to £12.00 per subscription, depending on the number ordered. Over 300 articles from past issues of Catalyst are freely Visit www.mindsetsonline.co.uk/catalyst for further details, or email available in pdf format from the National STEM Centre [email protected]. (www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/catalyst). Students of LSU School London OSU Lichen Group. Speak to me, lichen How clean is the air? e are students at La Sainte Union Catholic School in north London. Key words W For our Silver CREST Project, air pollution we explored the relationship between levels of lichen the pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and the quadrat distribution of indicator lichens in the vicinity of identification our school. Lichens are indicators of changes in air quality; tolerant species replace those sensitive to a given pollutant. This effect is observed across urban and rural Britain, especially in regions where oxidised and reduced forms of nitrogen are present. NO2 is the dominant air pollutant in urban areas, due to pollution from road traffic. Therefore, measuring levels of NO2 can indicate the quality of our town air. What lichens can tell us Lichens are composed of two different organisms living symbiotically; fungus and alga. They absorb atmospheric moisture, rain water and minerals over their entire surface area. This makes them extremely sensitive to atmospheric pollution (such as NO2) and therefore very good biological indicators of levels of atmospheric pollution. Lichens can be placed into three categories: Two lichen species: Parmelia sulcata is nitrogen- • Nitrogen-sensitive; found in clean, non-polluted sensitive, while Xanthoria parietina is nitrogen-tolerant. conditions We monitored NO2 pollution by placing NO2- • Intermediate; found in clean AND polluted diffusion tubes at different sites (see below) conditions and mapped the distribution of lichens on trees • Nitrogen-loving; found in conditions where levels at different locations along and either side of of nitrogen dioxide are particularly high. Highgate Road. Catalyst February 2013 1 For a guide to Our hypotheses were: identifying lichens, • The concentration of pollutants would be see Identification highest along the main road (Highgate Road). on the OPAL • There would be a correlation between data from website: www. the NO2 diffusion tubes and lichen distribution. OPALexplorenature. • Information from the Camden Air Monitoring org. website showed us that air quality is poor in our borough, Camden: in 90% of locations, NO2 levels exceed the Air Quality Standard. Method Learning to identify lichens: We started identifying Monitoring NO2 using diffusion tubes: NO2-diffusionlichens tubes on twigs (Gradko using International) keys. We then were surveyed placed intothe position with the open end at the bottom to prevent rainwatertrees on collection. the Heath NO with2 in the airhelp diffuses of lichen along experts the tube and is absorbed by a fluid on a grid in the lid. The concentration of NO2 was determined by Spectrophotometry. The tubes were replaced Patevery Wolseley three weeks and andHolger sent Thüsoff to beof analysed.the Natural History Museum. We kept lichen samples that were authenticated by Holger as our ‘reference herbarium’. Location of NO tubes and trees surveyed Surveying lichens in Hampstead Heath Making a ladder quadrat: We cut out a strip of 2 five 10 cm by 10 cm squares from thick plastic of a Monitoring NO2: NO2-diffusion tubes (Gradko bin-liner (see photograph). International) were placed into position with the open end at the bottom to prevent rainwater collection. NO2 in the air diffuses along the tube and is absorbed by a fluid on a grid in the lid. The tubes were replaced every three weeks and sent off to be analysed. The concentration of NO2 was determined by spectrophotometry. What we found This graph shows the relationship of NO2 concentrations and the locations. Perhaps we should have used a bar chart because our independent variable is categoric, but line graphs made it easier to see trends. The values for the front of the school (the main road) were highest. The first set of data (10 March – 31 March 11) showed higher values than the rest. More people may have driven to work due to the cold weather, and there is less movement of air so the local concentrations of the NO2 would remain high. Surveying lichens in Hampstead Heath – note the ladder quadrats Then, for each tree: • We recorded tree species and girth at 1.50 m above ground. • We placed our plastic ladder quadrat on the north aspect of the trunk. • We recorded the presence of species of foliose and/or fruticose lichens (‘Macrolichens’) in each square. • We repeated on all compass points (N, E, S, W). In this way, the presence of lichen species in 20 squares was recorded for each trunk. To check reliability we moved to a new tree every 15 minutes. Each group surveyed the same three trees and This graph shows the nitrogen dioxide concentrations we then compared our results. When there was a at different locations from 10 March – 21 July 2011 discrepancy, we went back to the tree and rechecked. (corrected for blank readings); ppb = parts per billion 2 2 Catalyst February 2013 Macrolichen diversity The bar chart shows the correlation between the NO concentration and the pollution score (derived The table shows what we found when we looked for 2 from the lichen data). The pollution score was a correlation between the NO and lichen diversity. 2 minus 5 at the front of the school (on Highgate Nitrogen-loving lichens were found on all the trees Road) where the NO levels were highest, while the sampled, but a greater diversity of macrolichens 2 pollution score was minus 3 on Hampstead Heath including more ‘intermediate’ lichens, were found where the NO levels were the lowest. on the Heath. We might have expected a wider 2 Given more time, we could have measured NO diversity of lichens on the fruit trees in the Orchard 2 levels and surveyed trees on the back roads and as they are set back from the road. also deeper in Hampstead Heath away from the NO Average number traffic. We could also have looked at lichens on 2 twigs because this would have provided more recent concentration of different history of lichen growth and air pollution. (ppb) lichens per tree Hampstead Heath 11.1 9.7 Orchard 14.1 4.0 Highgate Road 22.0 4.5 However several factors may have affected lichen results, e.g: • bark pH (related to tree species) • age of tree • proximity to sources of nitrogen (e.g. fertiliser) • immediate surroundings of tree (e.g. hedge) • shading of the orchard by the surrounding buildings. We then calculated a pollution score based on the Madeleine A., Mary D., Maureen L., Connie M., Isabel S., frequency of nitrogen-loving and nitrogen-sensitive Linnet M., Hannah R., and Siobhan P.
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