Discussion

After a thorough study of pesticide affects towards non-target organisms we have come to the conclusion that the pesticide Triazicide generally does not have negative effects on most of the organisms tested. 

For the bacteria & pesticide test, the pesticide yielded a greater average number of colonies than the dish without pesticide.  Based on p value, we rejected our null hypothesis and said that Triazicide had an effect on the bacterial colonies being formed.

For the Drosophila (fruit flies) & Pesticide test, the pesticide negatively affected our fruit flies due to the strength of our solution. None of the flies survived any of our pesticide tests. Even the flies in our H20 solution had a low survival rate over the period of 4 days.  This shows that the pesticide was harmful to the Drosophila in its original form because it caused all of them to die.  Those that died in the H20 solution could have been sick already or could have been past their usual life span date.  However, because some survived in the H2O solution, it shows that Triazicide is harmful to the fruit fly Drosophila in comparison to the H2O solution.

For the Drosophila & the Diluted Pesticide  test, the pesticide negatively affected our fruit flies also due to the strength of our pesticide solution. All flies died over a period of 4 days, even in our solution measured at 1/64 of pesticide.  The only flies that survived were those in the pure H2O solution.  This shows that the pesticide, even in a highly diluted form, is harmful to the fruit fly Drosophila.  Because our dilution of 1/64 was not that low compared to other groups, we decided to do a retest with an even smaller amount of pesticide to water ratio. 

For the Drosophila Offspring & the Diluted Pesticide test, the pesticide had minimal affects to our fruit flies. The average survival rate (from the observation of the first week) with pesticide was 6.83, which is much higher than our previous test.  This shows that the 1/1000 dilution was minimal enough for the fruit flies to survive in the vials with the pesticide.  Thus, Triazicide is harmful in it's strongest form and must be used in a large dilution in order to not harm the fruit fly Drosophila.  Because of our p values, we found that Triazicide has no effect on Drosophila but has an effect on their offspring.

Further experimentation could include weighing and measuring the flies.   Also monitoring the life span of the flies would help us to determine if the flies were dying because of the pesticide or because of natural causes.  In addition, we could also monitor the behavior of the flies. These refinements to the experiment possibly would allow us to be more precise in our conclusion.

For the Bluelake Bean & Pesticide test, the pesticide made our seeds grow much faster than those seeds that were in the pure H20 solution.  The average root and shoot were much larger and the seeds themselves looked bigger if they were in the pesticide solution.  This shows that the pesticide actually helped the bean seeds to grow.  However, we did not do enough experimentation with the seeds to determine whether the beans grew abnormally in their further stages or if they had any kind of abnormalities in their final form. 

So, we would do more research to see how Triazicide affects the seeds in a later period of germination.  We would look for physical abnormalities like color, shape, size, etc.  If these characteristics were drastically different from the ones grown without pesticide, we could make further assumptions about Triazicide affecting the Beans.  However, from the p values, we see that Traizicide has no effect on the root but does on the shoot.

For the Corn & Pesticide test, the pesticide also made our seeds grow much faster than those seeds that were in the pure H20 solution.  The average root and shoot were much larger and the seeds themselves looked bigger if they were in the pesticide solution.  This shows that the pesticide actually helped the corn seeds to grow.  But since they didn't grow at all in the H20 solution, this process may have been too fast.  We assume this because we rejected the null hypothesis because of the p values.  Again, we did not do enough experimentation with the seeds to determine whether the corn grew abnormally in their further stages or if they had any kind of abnormalities in their final form.  So, further experimentation in the germination process would need to be done to determine if there are long-term affects on the corn.

From all of these experiments, we can determine that the pesticide, Triazicide, is harmful to the corn, bacteria, bean shoots and drosophila offspring that were tested, except the seeds. 

Throughout our experimentation, we were unable to reach a definite conclusion with the results we obtained.  In some cases, the pesticide had  affects on the non-target organisms and in other instances, we saw no affect.  In order to achieve a better understanding and more concrete information about the affects of Triazicide, more experimentation should be done.  Therefore, at this point in time, we would not place or suggest any restrictions on the pesticide Triazicide.