A particular sessile (stationary) aquatic organism named Ciona has the interesti

Question

A particular sessile (stationary) aquatic organism named Ciona has the interesting property of producing a chemical that is useful in transplant operations as an anti-rejection treatment. Ciona a "carpet" on rocks the intertidal zone with a density 1.0 times 10^3 organisms/cm^2 and the chemical is produced at a level of 1.0 times 10^12 pg/1.0 times 10^2 kg of organism. If there are 100 organisms in each g of biomass (gram of the "carpet" of organisms) and if harvesting of the organism takes approximately 1 hr per 1000 cm^2, how long would it take to produce 1.0 times 10^12 g of chemical? How many organisms would have been harvested during this collection procedure? Conversion factors: 1.0 times 10^3 org #/cm^2 area 1.0 times 10^12pg chem/1.0 times 10^2 kg org 1.0 times 10^2 org #/g org biomass 1 hr/1.0 times 10^3 cm^2 area 1.0 times 10^12 g chemical How much time? How many organisms? Conversion Sequence: g chem.. pg chem/g chem times kg org/pg chem. Times g org/kg org times org #/g org times cm^2 area/org # times hrs time/cm^2 area Conversion sequence with numbers added:

Explanation / Answer

Answer:

Based on the information given:

Ciona grows with a density of 1.0 x 103 organisms/cm2

Level of chemical produced = 1.0 x 1012 pg/ 1.0 x 102 kg of organism OR 1g of chemical / 1.0 x 102 kg of organism

Number of organisms in each g of biomass = 100

Time taken for harvesting = 1 hr / 1000 cm2

Time required to produce 1.0 x 1012 g of chemical can be calculated as below:

Amount of organism required to produced 1.0 x 1012 g of chemical

= (1.0 x 102 kg x1.0 x 1012 g ) / (1.0 g) = 1.0 x 1014 Kg of organism

Number of organisms in each g of biomass = 100 organisms/g biomass or 100 organisms / 0.001Kg biomass

Number of organisms in 1.0 x 1014 Kg of biomass = (100 * 1.0 x 1014) / (0.001) = 1.0 x 1019 organisms

Area covered by 1000 organisms = 1 cm2

Therefore area covered by 1.0 x 1019 organisms = (1.0 x 1019 /1000) = 1016 cm2

Time required to harvest organisms in carpet area of 1000cm2 = 1hr

Therefore Time required to harvest organisms in carpet area of 1016cm2 = (1 x 1016) / (1000) = 1.0 x 1013 hrs

Number of organisms harvested during this collection procedure = 1.0 x 1019 organisms

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