Rebecca Dwyer
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“The Advantages of a Dominant Sporophyte over a Dominant Gametophyte”
It is commonly known by most people that the planet that humans call home is inhabited by many other diverse forms of life. Further than this, it is evident that a large percentage of these life forms are plants. This could be seen as a slight paradox- plants can be considered more primitive than animals, because they are incapable of movement in order to escape from predation, or to reach close contact distance with other organisms for the purpose of reproduction. How then, one could ask, has the survival of the plant kingdom been so successful?
The answer- plants have developed many important behavioural and physiological methods not shared
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Eukaryotes with haploid/gametophyte generation dominated life cycles for quite some time before the appearance of plants with a sporophyte/diploid dominant generation. Most eukaryotic plants today are sporophyte dominant, the gametophyte domination existing in fewer, simpler algal plant forms (Yin-Long QUI et al., 2012). This could indicate that the sporophyte dominant plants have an evolutionary advantage, at least in certain environments, over the gametophyte dominant plants
The purpose of a gametophyte is essentially one of mass reproduction- it is intended to produce many gametes in order to increase chances of fertilisation (Ingrouille and Eddie, 2006.) This gives it the ability to repopulate new areas much faster than the sporophyte alone. Whilst it is very successful at this, and is in most cases necessary to the plant, the very mechanism by which it reproduces (mitosis) does not result in much genetic variation. Should an environmental change come along for which the species is not adapted, it is likely that it will be wiped out entirely. This is because none of the individuals have developed any mutations or genetic adaptations that allow them to survive in that
An unknown author once said, “All the hard work, all the sacrifices, all the sleepless nights, struggles, downfalls, it all pays off.” When the author said this quote, they meant that if you have a goal in life and you are trying to catch your dream. Your hardwork will pay off if you work for it. Never give up even if you are struggling it will pay off. In the book Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, he shows that Billy is very hardworking.
As a result, plants have adapted ways to protect themselves against their natural predators by implementing “defense mechanisms”. Such adaptations may be structural or chemical, where structural mechanisms are simply parts of plant structural arrangement, such as thorns. Chemical defense mechanisms are more complex, and involve production of retarding chemical compounds and toxins. These volatile compounds are often released when the plant is damaged, and have physical effects on the predator.
There are cities, like Philadelphia, that as time passes they start to grow in size and population as a result they have to create recreational places. As years go by, people start to interact more in recreational places until they become a cosmopolitan canopy. According to the book “The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life” by Elijah Anderson, a cosmopolitan canopy is a place that provides opportunities for new relationships to develop and where people come together to socialize and practice getting along with others. In this reading, Anderson also explains that a cosmopolitan canopy is not just created by the place itself or by the diversity of ethnicity, gender, and social class in and around it but also by the “goodwill that is expressed and experienced by most who enter these premises” (Anderson 11). Personally, I agree with Anderson because in order for something to become a cosmopolitan canopy, there has to be difference on the people in it.
“How Flowers Changed the World” by Loren Eiseley Summary In “How Flowers Changed the World” by Loren Eiseley is described the Earth as a barren. Deserted planet hundred million years ago, just likes Mars. After millions of years, a new greener Earth presence appeared on the platforms of the continent and there were still no flowers at all. About one hundred million years ago, “just a short time before the close of the Age of Reptiles” (360) there occurred a “violent explosion” (360) a mystery happened.
Orchids give off a human body odor to attract mosquitoes and plants that cannot stay alive through photosynthesis live off other plants. They find ways to avoid incest through complex internal warning systems and desert plants have been known to gamble as humans do, even when it means they take on greater risk in the process. (Pennisi) Jahren states that the cholla cactus had an ‘idea’ to grow a spine, (Jahren 64) the process of evolution took millions of years in that case. They exhibit patience and foresight to make up for their rootedness. The fact that plants remain rooted to the ground causes the misconception that there is nothing going on within them.
Alien plants include flowers used only for the purpose of landscaping and plants that hail from other regions that are not from the desert. Humans are the ringmasters of furthering the spread of invasive species. 90% of the cause of tortoise decline is obtained from human activity. Nonnative seeds attach to our vehicles, clothes, and pets. Consequently, the seeds fall on native soil and occupy vacant space, preventing native plants to grow properly.
Fitting the pieces of corroboration on how the flowers changed the world, a critique The essay “How Flowers Changed the World” is a popular excerpt from The Immense Journey, written by American natural science writer, Loren Eiseley that discusses the significance of the rise of flowers on the evolution of living organisms. Eiseley implied that flowers carry many different significant attributes to the growth of living organisms may it be for animals, for other plants, and for humankind. Loren Eiseley discussed that during the first ages, plants were dependent on water for their growth that led many swamps and watercourses surrounding the earth with the vast and bare land. Moreover, as these plants may adapt these conditions, it can be deemed normal;
Predators then eat the animals who eat the plants and each
However, after investigation through gel electrophoresis, the three kinds of plants were not identical. This relates to the
Kudzu impacts the local flora with intense negative results. The vine has the ability to enclose stems and tree trunks, break branches and even uproot trees and shrubs through the mass vegetation that is being produced. This “invader” of ecosystems is able to spread by both vertical and horizontal means which smothers all the other plants in a thick covering of stems and leaves. This process blocks the light from reaching the plants, causing them to be unable to undergo photosynthesis. There is a very small percentage of plants that can be subjected to such low light conditions.
Perennials are plants that usually live longer than two years. The hypothesis being tested was whether or not perennial life forms can be treated as plant functional groups. The method to determine this was by taking a series of quadrant samples on the White Mountains in Northern California to uncover common species. Eight species were selected for the study to compare ecophysiological differences and maximum photosynthetic capacity between these eight species. Although these species chosen were supposed to illustrate four different ecological life forms and also portray putative plant functional groups, the results depicted no definitive patterns of difference between categories of life forms in the alpine fellfield community.
5. How do the processes of meiosis and fertilization produce genetic variety? During the meiosis stage of crossing over, the maternal and paternal homologous chromosome segments are being exchanged. During independent assortment, different genes independently separate from one another.
Notable plant scientist, Fred Sack, commented that plants cannot be capable of learning because “the word ‘learning’ should be reserved for animals” while this experiment portrayed their adaptation (Pollan). Because of the criticism about the language in Gagliano’s paper, the hypothesis seems to remain unconfirmed. It appears to me no premise substantially disconfirms the conclusion of “Animal-Like Learning in Mimosa Pudica”, only the disagreement among professionals over what constitutes learning, if anything, in sans-brain life forms. Internally coherent, the main flaw of “Animal-Like Learning in Mimosa Pudica” is in the language used to describe the phenomenons witnessed in the experiment, which would compromise it’s external consistency. Gagliano’s research and idea appears fruitful in many aspects.
Plastic pollution in the ocean Introduction Rachel L. Carson said in her book “Water, soil, and the earth´s green mantle of plants make up the world that supports the animal life of the earth” (63). In other words, our planet was always a place which was dominated by nature and it had essential relations between plants and other plants and between plants and other animals (Carson, 1962). Since the modern human started to conquer the world a lot of things have changed and technology has taken over. My essay is about a quite new but very big problem which affects our wonderful planet; it is about plastic in the ocean.
Introduction Plants are a major necessity in the balance of nature, people’s lives, and our terrain. We may not realize it, but plants are the ultimate source of food for almost 95% of the world population so says the National Group of Food. It’s a fact that over 7,000 species of plants are being consumed today. Plants are one of the reasons that we get clean water; as they help regulate the water cycle.