Claire Parks Advances in International Science and Engineering Fair

Huntington junior Claire Parks has advanced to the second round of the International Science and Engineering Fair. Her research project focuses on “The Impact of Glyphosate on Plant and Microbial Health.” She engaged in research last summer at Stony Brook University with current college students and fellow high school students Maroska Ishak and Elizabeth Hsiao.

“Glyphosate functions by inhibiting an enzyme called 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSP synthase), which is essential for plant growth,” Ms. Parks explained. “This enzyme is found in bacteria and fungi. Glyphosate may have unintended effects on soil microbes, which play a key role in maintaining soil health. In fact, EPSP is found across all organisms and since glyphosate isn’t able to distinguish between weeds and non-weeds, anything exposed to it is at risk of stalled development. Nearly 300 million pounds of glyphosate are applied in agricultural settings each year. It’s so significant that its effects must be properly understood.”

Ms. Parks said her research team’s experiment aimed to assess how glyphosate exposure affects the growth of heirloom soybeans (a non-genetically modified variety of soybean) and the survival of Eisenia fetida (a species of earthworm commonly used to test soil toxicity).

“The hypothesis was that glyphosate will negatively affect heirloom soybean growth by reducing plant height and survival rates and that glyphosate will negatively affect Eisenia fetida mortality rates, meaning more worms will die when exposed to higher concentrations of glyphosate,” Ms. Parks said.

Soil samples were prepared with four different glyphosate concentrations: 0 mg (control group), 27.59 mg, 55.15 mg, and 110.35 mg per sample. Each soil sample contained one heirloom soybean seed and one Eisenia fetida earthworm. Samples were kept in a growth chamber set to 22°C (71.6°F) with a 12-hour light/12-hour dark cycle, mimicking natural conditions.

“After three weeks, we measured plant height and counted the number of surviving worms. The results were analyzed using ANOVA (Analysis of Variance, a statistical method that determines if there are significant differences between groups) and chi-square tests (used to analyze relationships between categorical variables, such as survival rates),” Ms. Parks said.

The researchers drew two key conclusions based on the findings of their study.

“Firstly, glyphosate impacts all organisms; however the extent to which can vary,” Ms. Parks said. “The same levels of glyphosate concentrations impacted plants more severely than their worm counterparts. This provides evidence that perhaps certain species of organisms within the soil community have a natural or gained resistance to glyphosate-use. Ultimately, perhaps the genetic makeup of plants and microorganisms, etc., can be altered to allow for this resistance to make glyphosate-use more feasible, and ensure it only targets weeds.”

The second key conclusion drawn from the study is “there might be a point at which glyphosate exposure turns particularly lethal for certain organisms,” Ms. Parks said. “As seen previously, some glyphosate concentrations provided similar results relating to plant d microbial health, while others provided vastly different results. This provides evidence that perhaps there is a certain concentration of glyphosate that is responsible for the extreme change, and further study is needed to determine this.”

Ms. Parks said that it might be interesting for a future study to examine the biological effects of glyphosate use by examining the genetic makeup of plants and microorganisms after exposure.

“Working in Stony Brook’s labs alongside university students was such a teaching experience,” Ms. Parks said. “It was great to work as a team to perform our procedure. While spending time in the lab I was able to grow a connection with such unique intelligent students who shared similar interests. I also enjoyed getting hands-on experience in a lab and being exposed to an ingenious environment, which my colleagues and I were able to create through our critical thinking skills.”

Learning how a research team functions in a college based lab was another worthwhile benefit of the project.

“The procedure of the experiment also highlights how crucial teamwork is in getting results,” Ms. Parks said. “Everyone was on a schedule of when they needed to come into the lab and work on maintaining treatments, environmental conditions and watering on a weekly basis throughout the whole summer and many of these jobs required a couple sets of hands in order to be executed properly. Whether it was transporting the mesocosm jars in and out of the growth chamber or watering the mesocosms, or spending hours counting the worm reproduction, or entering data into the spreadsheets, collaboration was a key part in the execution of this experiment.”

A very strong student academically, Ms. Parks is also very involved in volunteer work along with clubs and sports.

“In general, I love doing research, especially when it benefits the general population as a whole and spreads awareness of important and relevant topics,” Ms. Parks said.