Avocado Leaf Plasticity Essay

On September 17th, 2015 our group went on the Orange Trail of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, Georgia to collect data for our lab. The biome of this area that we explored fit a temperate deciduous forest type. We walked along the trail and picked random spots to start measuring our transects. We measured DBH size and canopy coverage at 10, 20, 30, and 40 meters respectively along each transect for a total of six transects. We used a densitometer to measure the percent of canopy coverage of the tree closest to the center of the sampling points along each of the transects. We used a measuring tape to measure out 10, 20, 30, and 40 meters respectively along each of the six

Photoperiodism is the effect of the relative lengths of light and dark periods on plant growth. This occurs when photoreceptor proteins e.g phytochromes are produced by plants in response to light intensity or the absence of light. This in effect affects the height of plants. [5]

Plants are found everywhere on earth, up high on the ridge and down low in caves and caverns. The types of plants that live in these places depends on many factors. These factors are separated into two different categories, the biotic factors and the abiotic factors. Some of the biotic factors include, predation, competition, and habitat destruction. Plants with limited competition and large amounts of resources will be in a higher abundance than plants with limited resources and higher competition rates will be confined to areas and either out competed or will be the dominant species. Certain plants adapt to these factors and thrive and others don’t do as well. Some of the abiotic factors include, sunlight, water, temperature, and wind. These

Phenotypic plasticity is when a genotype of an organism displays different phenotypes due to the conditions of the environment. It is important to understand why different organisms respond differently to changes in the environment and the ways they adapt to these changes. This paper focuses on whether these adaptations are due to either phenotypic plasticity or local adaptation. Since nothing is ever perfect, the paper also concentrates on the constraints of phenotypic plasticity which are divided into two; costs and limits. Costs of phenotypic plasticity would be that which would lead to reduced fitness. In contrast, the limit of plasticity is where the traits produced by plasticity is not at an optimal level. The effects of plasticity in a population is also discussed. Since phenotypic plasticity can be measured at different levels, this paper would focus mainly on the individual phenotypic plasticity.

might affect the fitness of each variant. In other words which factors might increase plant growth, survival,

Please record the address of the property where the samples were collected, or—even better—provide GPS coordinates). You will bring these leaves to the college and will identify the trees they came from using accepted scientific methodology. I will give you guidance in how to identify the tree species. (Note that this may involve meeting outside of class time). You will then write a paper, using the same format as your regular lab report, on the identity of the trees, whether they are native to our area or not, and discuss why they might be growing where you found them. Your paper will be reviewed and you will have the option to either accept the grade given, or correcting any problems found. If problems are corrected, your grade will be raised to the maximum and your paper submitted for possible publication online at www.saturnjournal.org. This will be worth 10 bonus points. 3. Extra exam credit. There will be four bonus points available on each of the two lab practicals, and five bonus points on the final lecture exam, for a total of thirteen bonus points. Total bonus points available = 30. When added to your lowest qualifying exam grade, this equates to a maximum of six (6) points added to your final course average. EXAM POLICY: A. Repeating exams. Please note that each exam may be taken once only. Exams may not be repeated because you are not happy

In my research paper, I will attempt to determine how the perception of light in phytochromes plays a role in the development of plants. Specifically, I will look at how phytochromes play a role in the growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana. The paper will also look at how light perception plays a role in phototropism and the immune systems of a plant. Finally, my paper will explore how changing light conditions impact perception in phytochromes.

Adaptations: It has dense leaves and can grow to 10-15 metres tall so it can capture the most amount of sunlight possible also enabling it to develop faster.

Evolution and natural selection drive biodiversity by introducing selection pressures to individuals and populations forcing organisms to adapt to survive. Individuals that possess a certain trait that allow them to survive and reproduce, create offspring that also possess the advantageous trait. The population begins to change as more and more individuals now have the adaptation. Those that do not may begin to disappear or may begin to change their habits. Our text uses the example of Hawaii's many varieties of honey creepers. Each adapted differently to the conditions in which they lived. More specifically, their bill sizes and shapes varied depending on the types of food they preferred Withgott & Brennan, 2011). As a result, many of the plants on the Hawaiian Islands adapted their flowers in order to take advantage of the help these birds gave to each plant species fertilization methods (Withgott & Brennan, 2011).

Identifying these adaptations has been a challenge for scientists in all fields, but using different approaches has helped to diminish the gap in knowledge.

The third tank is our phenotypic plasticity group. One thousand Periwinkles were added into this tank. The Periwinkles used for this tank had the same shell thickness and the total number of individuals as our control group. We added one Carcinus into this tank, but unlike the second tank, the claws were bound together using rubber bands. The Periwinkles were left to reproduce along with the Carcinus for five generations. We recorded the shell thickness of the fifth generation and number of Periwinkles. We repeated this experiment seven times until eight trials were

Organisms do not spontaneously evolve to these globally predicted changes rather they respond to their regional or local environment (Hoffman and Sgró 2011). The idea of behavioural plasticity, which is the evolutionary way to respond to change through behaviours, is the approach organisms use to adapt rapidly to change. A component of this behavioural plasticity is behavioural flexibility, which is the ability of phenotypes to show reversible switching. In this review I will first discuss unpredictability of climates and climatic events in the tropics. I will then explore how behavioural plasticity plays a major role in organisms coping with weather extremes. I will further demonstrate how climate change could alter the way we perceive the once stable tropics, with regards to human involvement in the changing landscape of the tropics. I suggest that behavioural plasticity

In this study, Plant A, which received twenty-four hours of artificial light every day, will reach the maximum height amongst all plants. Due to the maximum access of light, Plant A will therefore have the most access to energy, which is a vital source of food to the bean plant. With more energy available to the plant, photosynthesis can provide an abundance of food availability which will cause the plant to thrive more successfully.

We had 6 leaves to represent the all the leaves on these sub species. We also only tested 2 trees for each subspecies. Our sample size was not large enough to draw a definitive result. Also our LiCor 3100 leaf area meter had spots on it that were included in the surface area of the leaves so the area was not at zero when we first started. In future experiments a larger sample size should be used and a clean 3100 leaf area meter with no spots on it should be

Our lab investigated the morphological characteristics of leaves found in the sun and shade on various species of maple and oak trees around campus. Our null hypothesis was Acer and Quercus acclimate similarly with regards to SLW (specific leaf weight), size, and sinuosity. Our hypothesis was Quercus acclimation is greater than Acer SLW, size, and sinuosity. We tested these hypotheses by picking small sections of a branches from both maple and oak trees. A group was assigned either a maple or an oak tree, and needed a total of three different trees per group. Once three different trees were chosen, groups needed three shade leaves and three sun leaves of off each different tree. In total, each group should then end up with 18 leaves for testing. After collecting the leaves, we ran them through the LiCor 3100 leaf area meter to identify the area of each leaf. Major results found by the classes’ mutual data was each one of our p-values were greater than .05. This means that we failed to reject the null hypothesis. Thus, the lab results do not support our hypothesis that Quercus acclimation is greater than Acer SLW, size, and sinuosity.