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Plant Biology
Shoot architecture enhances photosynthesis largely by maximizing the ability of the plant to get sunlight. Obviously light is the crucial resource in photosynthesis, but different plants obtain the resource in different ways. For example, the basic arrangement of leaves on the plant stem (known as "phyllotaxy") is different for every species of plant -- however, in all of these cases the plant has evolved so that the emergence of leaves does not block the available light for leaves above or below. The evolutionary reason for this should be obvious: as leaves exist purely to facilitate photosynthesis, the production of leaves that underperform due to inadequate access to sunlight would be a waste of the plant's resources. We can also see the evolutionary imperative expressed in leaf size: in cold or dry environments without much access to liquid water, the leaf size is drastically shrunken in an attempt to balance the necessity of photosynthesis with the risk of losing precious water resources via evaporation. Larger surface area of a leaf may mean more sunlight, but it also means more evaporative loss of water. Likewise plants have...
However other more complicated forms of shoot architecture are also geared toward the basic function of maximizing the plant's access to sunlight and thus enhancing the plant's photosynthetic productiveness. As a result, plants that have evolved for height (like a sunflower) or to spread out in branching structures (like a white oak) are essentially engaged in competitive strategies to increase access to sunlight: the sunflower will grow taller than its nearer competitors, whereas the white oak will spread wider to maximize its own photosynthetic capabilities. Overall the basic evolutionary rationale behind all shoot architecture is to maximize light absorption.
Question 2. (381 words)
Evolution does not occur in a vacuum -- as plants evolved, various other organisms have evolved alongside them. In many cases, this has resulted in symbiotic relationships, in which a mutually beneficial arrangement…
People without Plants Biology When a person goes into the rainforest or the ocean, that person can readily notice that the rainforest and the ocean are teeming with life. An observer of these places will also notice how every form of life works together to sustain the environment. Though human beings build artificial environments such as cities, humans are a part of the ecosystem on Earth, and they participate in this
Biology Strategic Defense in the Plant Kingdom The purpose of this literature review is to detail the different ways plants protect themselves from predators. Knowledge of plant defenses can help boost understanding of more effective means of minimizing pesticide and herbicide use in agriculture or alternatively, to help develop more effective and targeted chemical pesticides and herbicides. Understanding plant defenses requires knowledge of plant biology and their role in their respective ecosystems.
Biology Experiments Sex protein is as essential part of the female reproductive system. Vitellogenin is a protein found in the liver of female chickens (hen) which impacts the production of estrogen. Vitellogenin enters the hen's circulatory system and is then moved to the ovaries, where it is then converted to the egg yolk protein lipovitellin and phosvitin. As an experimenter the protein in male and female chickens can be compared through
There are about 6 billion nucleotide letters of a particular sequence in a human cell. The full set is known as the genome. DNA information is found in units called genes. One gene codes roughly for one protein. The proteins perform most of the functions of the body at the cellular level. Examples are digestion, the body's defense against disease, and transporting substances throughout the body. Thousands of proteins
Biology Questions & Posts (01) Biomes and Diversity - Extinction is a natural selection process. Should humans strive to preserve a representative sample of all biomes or aquatic zones? Why should humans be concerned with the extinction rate? Disregard for the conservation of the earth's biomes is an example of how human ignorance and hubris can result in irreversible environmental destruction. At any particular point in time, human beings cannot be certain
Biology Species Species D In evolutionary biology, parsimony is similar to the Ockham's razor hypothesis, or that nature will use the simplest method possible to effect change over time. Phylogenetic systematics is the manner in which biologists reconstruct the pattern of events that have led to evolution and the distribution of unique species. The statement "DNA is the genetic material for all prokaryotes and eukaryotes" implies that DNA is the locus material for evolutionary