The Effect of Zinc on Worms

The purpose of this lab is to determine if earthworms are capable of detecting high levels of zinc in their environment. In order to test this, worms were placed in the middle of four quadrants, each containing a different concentration of zinc.The worms were then observed for twenty minutes to see which quadrants they decided to burrow in. Our results show that the worms would burrow into a quadrant at random and would remain inside that quadrant for the full time period. These results support the theory that worms cannot initially detect harmful substances within the soil, which furthermore can have harmful ramifications on our environment as well as the food chain. Introduction Environmentalists have made the argument that insects and other animals that reside in the soil are not able to avoid chemicals used by farmers and manufacturers. Two experimental labs were conducted at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School to test this argument; a simple sensorimotor reaction lab and a preference avoidance behavior lab. With the first lab, worms were placed in low, medium, and high concentrations of zinc and data was recorded on what types of reactions the worms had. Zinc is a natural substance found in the environment and is necessary for life and our environment. However, zinc in the environment has been rising unnaturally due to human activities such as mining and steel processing. (Lenntech, 2016) Zinc is beneficial for the human body to function in reasonable doses; however, high levels of zinc in the human body are incredibly toxic and can lead to many health risks. Symptoms of zinc poisoning include: chills, convulsions, fever, low blood pressure, vomiting, shock, and yellowing of skin or eyes (National Library of Medicine, 2016). Therefore, because of this build up in the environment and its health risk factors, zinc was used in this experiment. What was concluded after the experiment is that when the worms were placed in low concentrations of zinc, they had