The Nature of Things - Smarty Plants

SBI3U

Independent Study Week 8

1. What is Dr James Cahill Studying?

He is studying if plants behave like animals and plant behaviours.
Like growth, movement and looking for food (vines fly trap).
2. What are the main resources that a plant needs to survive?
Light (photosynthesis), nutrients and food
3. How much of the plant is found above the ground?
20% of the plant is found above ground. 80% of the plant is underground.
4. How are Grizzly bears and plant roots similar?
Both grizzly bears and plant roots move around looking for food or nutrients and
once they find a spot that has either of those things, they stop moving or
growing and intake as much of the nutrients or food that they can.
5. How does the daughter plant choose its host plant?
It chooses its host plant based on it sniffing out its victim on the chemical a
plant gives off when it breaths. It also chooses on a plant based on how easy it
is to attach to the stem of that plant.
6. What does the Tomato plant do in response to the daughter plant
attack?
The tomato plant releases a chemical equivalent to a scream. Many plants
release a SOS chemical when they are under attack. Humans can smell these
chemicals as well. An example is the smell is freshly cut grass or the smell of
flowers in a vase.
7. When plants call for help, who are they calling?
The plants are calling reinforcements, insects that eat the insects that eat the
plant.
8.
How does the Wild Tobacco plant defend itself? (There is more than 1)
Wild Tobacco defends themselves by releasing a chemical when a herbivore
attacks that can poison any organism that has muscle known as nicotine.
Another defence it has is it releases an SOS chemical messages that drift up into
the air that is picked up by the enemy of the organism that was not affected by
the first chemical released. This plant also has trichomes along its stem that
caterpillars love but when they eat these trichomes it gets a very bad case of
body odour which inform predators.
9. How does the Spotted Knap-weed compete for territory?
The Spotted Knap-weed compete for territory by releasing a chemical called
catechin in the roots of the plant which kills off a lot of native grasses which
allows this weed to capture and hold huge swaths of territory.
10.
What evidence supports the idea of Kin-recognition?
The relative roots of a plant restrained their root growth while strangers grew
more roots to compete for food.

11.
What is the cooperative trade-off between Fungi and tree roots?
The cooperative trade-off between fungi and tree roots because the fungi cannot
produce its own food so they tap into the roots of trees and other plants. The
trees roots provide the fungi with carbon-based sugar, and the fungi returns the
favour by providing the trees with nutrients. Many plant species depend on fungi
for survival. Fungi also depend on the roots of trees and plants in order to
survive as well.
12.
Describe the experiment that showed that mother trees were
sharing carbon with their offspring.
This experiment was done by injecting radioactive carbon 14 into an older
mother tree which is an element the tree naturally absorbs to produce its food.
A few days the amount of radioactive carbon that has gone is measured using a
Geiger counter. The carbon 14 has spread out to other trees but also to the
youngest trees ( its offspring) that need a lot of food to grow.