Mealworms: How Carbon Dioxide Released Measures the Metabolic Rates Compared To Size

Erin Slagell, Rachel Hamrock, Caitlyn Vogel, Jared Warburton

Abstract


Metabolism is the process by which an organism converts food into energy, which can be measured in several ways, including Carbon Dioxide production. This study is focused on the relationship between body size and metabolism in mealworms. To study this, we divided the mealworms into two groups, large and small, and measured their Carbon Dioxide production. Five trials were administered for each size group; over the ten total trials, we found that the larger mealworms had more CO2 released. We hypothesized that the metabolic rate would be higher in the smaller group of mealworms. We found that larger mealworms seemed to produce more Carbon Dioxide than the smaller mealworms that showed larger mealworms had a faster metabolic rate.

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