Experimental Design Flaw in CO2 and Photosynthesis Study

Hard Research Summaries Experimental Design

In an experiment designed to analyze the influence of different carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels on the rate of photosynthesis in aquatic plants, researchers set up four separate tanks. Each tank contained identical aquatic plants but was exposed to varying concentrations of CO₂: Tank 1 had 200 ppm, Tank 2 had 400 ppm, Tank 3 had 600 ppm, and Tank 4 had 800 ppm. The researchers measured the rate of photosynthesis by assessing the oxygen output over a period of 24 hours.

Which of the following statements best describes a potential flaw in the experimental design?

Only one type of aquatic plant was used, limiting the generalizability of the results.

The oxygen output was not measured at the same time intervals across all tanks.

The experiment did not control for the temperature in each tank.

The researchers did not replicate the experiment to confirm their findings.

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