Biology Organisms and Adaptations

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13
Plants Functioning
in Their Habitat
Chapter 13 details the role of plants in their habitats. The chapter begins with an overview of the niche
and habitat of the carnivorous pitcher plant, relating them to the generalized needs of plants. The
processes of photosynthesis and respiration, as well as the unique adaptations of plants to
environmental stresses, are explained. The importance of soils to terrestrial plants is also highlighted.

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Learning Objectives
13.1 Fly Soup for the Purple Pitcher Plant
Describe three ways in which the purple pitcher plant is adapted to acquire energy or resources.

13.2 Plants Are Adapted to Respond to Environmental Stress

Explain how plants have become adapted and respond to stresses posed by the environments they live in.
▪ Define and provide at least two examples of environmental stress and summarize ways that plants
might respond to these stresses.
▪ At the cellular level, describe a plant’s response to a lack of water.
▪ Summarize the ecological value of disturbances, such as fire.

13.3 Plants Produce Sugars by Photosynthesis

Summarize how plants transform light energy into the chemical energy of sugars.
▪ Using words, state the general chemical reaction of photosynthesis.
▪ Describe how solar energy drives photosynthesis.
▪ Describe how chloroplasts, chlorophyll, light, intermediate molecules, and water are linked together
during photosynthesis.
▪ In your own words, draw and summarize photosynthesis as depicted in Figure 13.12.
▪ State and explain each of the three major events that occur during the light reactions.
▪ Explain why droughts negatively impact photosynthesis even when solar energy is abundant.
▪ Explain why the enzyme rubisco is considered one of the most important enzymes on Earth.
▪ Trace the original environmental sources of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms that build
carbohydrate molecules.
▪ Describe the relationship between the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide and the abundance of
plant life.
▪ Describe how the inputs and outputs of the light reactions and Calvin cycle are directly linked.
▪ Use Figure 13.13 and account for the fate of each of the chemical substances that enter and leave
the photosynthetic process.
▪ Compare and contrast the two adaptive variations on the photosynthetic pathways of plants that
live in warm, dry environments.

13.4 Plants Use Sugars for Energy and as Building Blocks for Growth
Discuss how plants use sugars for energy and building blocks.
▪ Describe the four plant uses of the chemical energy stored in the chemical bonds of sugar
molecules.
▪ State which tissue type is involved in sugar transport.

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▪ Explain how sugar molecules are transported through the plant body using the following terms:
phloem, sources, sinks, and pressure flow.
▪ Compare and contrast aerobic and anaerobic metabolism in plants.
▪ State the overall goal of cellular respiration.
▪ List the three major steps of aerobic metabolism, including inputs and outputs of each step.

13.5 Soils Provide Plants with Water and Minerals

Discuss how plants obtain and move water and minerals from the soil into the plant body.
▪ Describe the three basic characteristics of soil.
▪ Create a table summarizing the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil and the
importance of each property.
▪ Trace the pathway of water from the soil and through the plant (Figure 13.27).
▪ Explain transpiration using the following terms: stomata, cohesion, tension, hydrogen bonds, xylem,
and leaves.
▪ Distinguish between macro- and micronutrients in plants, providing examples of each.

Key Concepts
Plants Are Adapted to Environmental Conditions and Resource Availability
Each plant species is adapted to survive within a range of environmental conditions such as light,
temperature, moisture, and nutrient availability. These important environmental conditions are
continually changing in daily, seasonal, and yearly patterns. Too little or too much of any resource
creates stress to which the plant must be able to respond or it will die. Plants are consumers of
resources, and each plant has a specific diet—a complex set of nutritional requirements, including
oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, minerals, and sunlight to meet its growth, development, and
reproductive needs.
Plants Use Photosynthesis to Produce Sugars
Life on Earth is solar powered. Using the sun’s energy, along with water, plants convert carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere to sugar molecules. The process of photosynthesis is divided into two broad
stages: the light reactions and the Calvin cycle. The light reactions transfom the sun’s energy into
chemical energy. In the process, oxygen is released into the atmosphere and intermediate energy
molecules are made. In the Calvin cycle, these intermediate molecules are used to convert carbon
dioxide to sugar molecules. Plants that live in warm, dry environments have photosynthetic adaptations
to minimize water loss.
Plants Use Sugars for Energy and as Building Blocks for Growth
When oxygen is present, plants engage in aerobic metabolism to completely break down simple sugars
into carbon dioxide and water. When oxygen is absent, plants use anaerobic metabolism and convert
simple sugars into alcohol in a process called fermentation. While aerobic metabolism produces greater
quantities of ATP, anaerobic metabolism can produce sufficient amounts to allow plants to survive for a
limited amount of time.

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Plants Rely on Minerals, Oxygen, and Water in Soils to Support Growth
Plants are rooted to a single location, growing in soils that have very specific characteristics, including
the mix of soil particle sizes, available mineral elements, decaying organic matter, and a range of
microbes and animals that live in the soils. Using their extensive root system, plants absorb water,
minerals, and oxygen from the pores between soil particles. If soil resources needed by the plant are not
available in the right amounts, plants limit their cellular metabolism, decreasing their growth,
development, and reproduction.

Key Terms
In order of occurrence:
environmental stress Calvin cycle sap
response light harvesting pressure flow
ecological niche electron transport chain texture
droughts rubisco compost
acclimation carbon fixation cohesion
disturbance physical separation transpiration
photosynthesis temporal separation macronutrients
chloroplasts bundle-sheath cells micronutrients
chlorophyll source
light reactions sink

Lecture Outline
13.1 Fly Soup for the Purple Pitcher Plant
A. Learning Objective—Students should be able to:
1. Describe three ways in which the purple pitcher plant is adapted to acquire energy or
resources.
B. Pitcher plants, along with 630 other species of carnivorous plants, obtain nutrients by
digesting insects or protozoans.
C. Evolution selected carnivory for these types of plants, which grow in nutrient-poor soils.
1. Soils where these plants live do not have enough nutrients for plants to obtain through
roots.
2. Instead of limiting growth or reproduction, carnivorous plants obtain their nutrients
through special traps or modified leaves.
D. The traps of pitcher plants often support well-developed food webs within them.
13.2 Plants Are Adapted to Respond to Environmental Stress
A. Learning Objectives—Students should be able to:
1. Explain how plants have become adapted and respond to stresses posed by the
environments they live in.
B. Environmental stresses are factors, which reduce the ability of an organism to function at its
optimum.
C. Responses of organisms vary by the particular stress.
D. Environmental stresses affect plant growth and survival
1. Plants can be affected by stress in terms of growth, development, and reproduction.

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 2. The ecological niche of a species is the range of resources and environmental conditions in
which an organism lives.
a. No niche can have an optimum level of all required conditions.
b. Resources are distributed unequally across the landscape.
3. Environmental stresses can include light, temperature, water, humidity, wind, and food.
4. Adaptations allow an organism to respond to its environmental stresses.
a. Plants are able to adjust which tissues receive resources under different conditions.
b. Lethal stresses depend on the stage of development, when the stress is taking place,
how severe the stress is, and the genome of the organism.
5. Environmental stresses may be due to abundance, like flooding.
E. Plants respond to many different stresses
1. Droughts are a common stress for plants.
a. Photosynthesis and respiration cannot take place without water.
2. Freezing temperatures can cause cellular damage.
a. Plants can adapt through acclimation by changing their cell chemistry.
3. Fires pose a seasonal stress on plants.
a. Fires are an ecological disturbance because they remove some or all of the individuals
within an area.
b. Some plants are well adapted to fire and can withstand burning.
13.3 Plants Produce Sugars by Photosynthesis
A. Learning Objective—Students should be able to:
1. Summarize how plants transform light energy into the chemical energy of sugars.
B. The chemical process of converting carbon dioxide into a sugar through the use of the sun’s
energy is known as photosynthesis.
C. The photosynthesis “machine” is the chloroplast
1. All green parts of a plant are full of chloroplasts, which do photosynthesis.
2. One inch of a typical leaf cell has an estimated 300 million chloroplasts.
a. Within chloroplasts are hundreds of membrane stacks filled with chlorophyll.
b. Chlorophyll, a pigment made with carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and a
magnesium center, is the core of photosynthesis.
3. Chlorophyll captures the sun’s energy and transfers the energy to another molecule.
a. Chlorophyll works best in violet–blue and orange–red light waves.
b. Other pigments use other wavelengths of light.
D. Photosynthesis requires raw materials obtained from the environment
1. Sugars are carbohydrates and are made from oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon.
a. The carbon and oxygen come from carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.
b. Hydrogen comes from water (H2O) molecules.
c. Enzymes are needed to assemble the sugars.
2. Light is captured by chlorophyll during the light reactions.
3. Energy from light is transferred to run the Calvin cycle.
4. Most plants do the bulk of photosynthesis during the day.
a. Plants must balance water loss through stomata with gaining enough CO2 to run the
Calvin cycle.
b. Water must be continually supplied through the root system.
E. The light reactions absorb light, split water, and produce hydrogen and ATP
1. Three processes compose the light reactions.
a. Chlorophyll harvests light energy from the sun.

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 b. Water is split by enzymes.
c. Light energy is transferred by enzymes to the electron transport chain.
2. The harvesting of light energy occurs in clusters of chlorophyll molecules.
a. Chlorophyll loses an electron due to the chemical excitement from a photon.
b. The lost electron is replaced with one from a water molecule.
3. Water is split into hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
a. Hydrogen donates its electrons to the chlorophyll.
b. Oxygen is released as a gas through the stomata into the atmosphere.
4. The electron transport chain is powered by the electron originally donated from
chlorophyll.
a. Hydrogen atoms (protons) are pumped from one side of the membrane to the inner
membrane of the chloroplast.
b. The gradient of the hydrogen atoms is used to produce ATP via enzymes.
c. The remaining hydrogen atoms are transferred to the Calvin cycle.
F. The Calvin cycle reactions convert carbon dioxide to sugars
1. The Calvin cycle does not require sunlight to function.
a. The products of the light reaction (ATP and hydrogen atoms) assist in the Calvin cycle.
b. Rubisco is one of the most important enzymes on Earth.
c. Rubisco grabs CO2 and helps to incorporate it into a larger molecule in a process
known as carbon fixation.
2. Intermediate molecules made by rubisco are rearranged into larger carbohydrates.
a. Simple sugars can be used to make even more complex carbohydrates like starch and
cellulose.
b. They can also be used to build amino acids, fatty acids, and nucleic acids.
3. Plants use the sugars they make for growth, development, and reproduction.
G. Adaptations allow plants to live in warm, dry habitats
1. Plants have structural as well as biochemical adaptations for photosynthesis in various
climates.
2. Some plants have evolved metabolic pathways to handle dry, hot climates.
a. Plants may physically run the Calvin cycle in a different area than the light reactions.
i. This occurs in many grassland plants such as corn and sugar cane.
b. Plants may change the time of day that they run the Calvin cycle versus the light
reactions.
i. The Calvin cycle takes place at night, while the light reactions take place during
the day.
ii. This occurs in many succulent plants such as cacti and pineapple.
13.4 Plants Use Sugars for Energy and as Building Blocks for Growth
A. Learning Objective—Students should be able to:
1. Discuss how plants use sugars for energy and building blocks.
B. Plants require sugar and oxygen to perform their functions.
1. Much of the sugars made in the plant leaves are transported back to the roots so that the
roots can function.
2. Transport of sugars is accomplished through phloem tissue to growing meristems.
3. Functions include growth, maintenance, reproduction, and storage.
4. Plant cellular respiration is very similar to animals.
C. Sugars are transported throughout the plant body
1. Sugars are made in the leaves or stems of plants through photosynthesis.

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 a. The leaves act as a source of energy.
b. Organs or tissues of the plant that require energy inputs are known as sinks.
2. Sap is a sugary fluid within the phloem.
a. Osmosis brings water into the sap.
b. Simple sugars produced during photosynthesis are converted into sucrose.
c. Active transport pushes the sucrose from the leaf tissues into the phloem.
3. The pressure flow hypothesis summarizes the movement of sap from source to sink.
a. As sugars are used in a tissue, the pressure imbalance moves sap into that area from a
source.
b. The greater the concentration difference, the faster the sap flows.
D. Sugars are used to produce ATP by aerobic metabolism and anaerobic metabolism
1. Plants, like animals, use aerobic respiration for utilizing sugars.
2. Mitochondria power the process.
3. Aerobic respiration can happen both day and night.
4. Plants have different energy needs in different environments.
a. Not all sugars may be used, so excess sugars are stored for a later time in some plants.
5. Plants may use carbohydrates, fats, or proteins for aerobic respiration.
a. Oxygen is a requirement.
b. Limits on oxygen or sugar limit ATP production.
6. Glucose and oxygen are most often used to produce ATP molecules.
a. Carbon dioxide and water are by-products.
b. Glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and the electron transport chain are all parts of the
process.
7. The rate of respiration depends on the environmental conditions.
a. Rates double for every 10oF rise in temperature.
8. Other forms of respiration (anaerobic) may be used when oxygen is absent or limited.
a. Anaerobic respiration is inefficient but can maintain a plant’s life for a limited time.
13.5 Soils Provide Plants with Water and Minerals
A. Learning Objective—Students should be able to:
1. Discuss how plants obtain and move water and minerals from the soil into the plant body.
B. The minerals plants need are chemically bound to soil particles.
1. Important plant minerals include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
2. Water is also critical for replacing what is lost through the leaves, especially on hot days.
C. Soils vary in physical, chemical, and biological properties
1. Soils are derived from rocks and minerals broken down over time.
a. As much as 50 percent of soil is actually pockets of air.
b. The mix of particle sizes is known as soil texture.
c. Soil texture determines water capacity and oxygen levels.
i. Sandy soils do not hold much water.
ii. Clay soils can become saturated.
d. The pH level of soils determines nutrient availability.
2. Soils contain a great deal of live and dead organic matter.
a. On average, soils are 5 percent organic matter.
b. Decayed organic matter is known as compost.
c. Many organisms, such as fungi, protists, and microbes, live in the soil.
D. Water transport is powered by transpiration from leaves
1. To obtain the required CO2 for photosynthesis, a plant must open its stomata.

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 2. When the stomata are open, the leaf loses water to evaporation.
3. Water from the roots moves up through the plant from the roots to replace the water
lost.
a. Water moves into the root via osmosis from the soil.
b. The xylem tissue transports water passively through cohesion.
c. Transpiration pulls water up through the xylem like a straw.
E. Plants require mineral resources to grow
1. Each of the molecules that make up a plant is important and is based on a wide variety of
elements.
2. Carbon is obtained through the atmosphere, while many minerals are obtained through
soil.
3. Nitrogen is crucial to building chlorophyll, amino acids, and enzymes.
a. Nitrogen is considered a critical nutrient, and plants spend a great deal of effort to
obtain it.
4. Minerals obtained passively or actively are transported through the plant to various
tissues by water in the xylem.
5. Each plant type requires a unique amount of each mineral.
a. Those that are needed in great quantities are macronutrients.
b. Those that are needed in minute quantities are micronutrients.

Ideas for Further Inquiry

▪ Use the following article for further discussion or to accompany the Data Analysis section of the
chapter:
❖ Pavlovic, A., et al. (2009) Feeding enhances photosynthetic efficiency in the carnivorous
pitcher plant Nepenthes talangensis. Annals of Botany, 104(2): 307–314. Available from
http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/104/2/307.short.

▪ Have students research the following questions:

❖ What types of other organisms do plants rely on for water and mineral absorption?
❖ What hormones do plants use to monitor length of days or temperature?
❖ Chlorophyll is an energetically expensive pigment for plants to make. What happens to the
chlorophyll in leaves of deciduous trees in the fall?
❖ What are the particular environmental stressors in the area in which the students live?
What are some adaptations of native plants in that area?

Cengage Video—Purple Pitcher Plants

Discussion Questions
1. Purple pitcher plants are specialists that can grow in soils with very low levels of nitrogen and
phosphorus. Describe what mechanism they have evolved to obtain these limiting nutrients?
Talking Points: Purple pitcher plants live in nutrient poor, acidic, wet, and sandy soils. Acidic soils do
not favor decomposing bacteria, so dead material does not decay and the nutrients stay locked up.

8
Therefore, purple pitcher plants must get most of their nutrients from somewhere other than the soil.
They have evolved a way to survive in soil too poor for most plants. They get their nutrients with leaves
that are modified to trap small arthropods, especially insects.

2. Describe the process by which pitcher plants obtain these nutrients.

Talking Points: Pitcher plants have pitfall traps. The trap is one leaf that is fused into a cylinder. It has
slippery inner walls covered with downward pointing hairs. At its base is a pool of water filled with
digestive enzymes where it drowns and digests its prey. Insects are attracted to pitcher plants by sweet-
smelling nectar. If they fall into the pitcher, they become trapped by the downward pointing hairs and
end up in the liquid at the bottom. The dead insects are torn apart by fly larva, mosquito larva, and
mites that have evolved to live in the pitcher’s digestive fluid. Their fecal material enriches the pitcher
plant. The enzymes in the pitcher’s liquid digest an insect over a period of several days and release its
nutrients, which the plant absorbs.

3. Describe some similarities and differences between purple pitcher plants and other plant species.
Talking Points: Pitcher plants and other carnivorous plants still rely on photosynthesis, using the sun’s
energy, just like other plants. They still have roots to absorb nutrients, but theirs are not as extensively
developed as in most plants. In short, pitcher plants still have to obtain nutrients, make food, and
transport it around their bodies. In that sense, they aren’t so different from other plants. They exploit
their nutrient-poor environment, usually abundant in sunshine and water, by doing what other plants
cannot, importing nutrients.

Websites, Animations, and Additional Videos

13.1 Fly Soup for the Purple Pitcher Plant
Website: http://www.botany.org/carnivorous_plants/
Information on carnivorous plants
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya2ndp1OrPQ
Video of pitcher plant anatomy and strategies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trWzDlRvv1M
Clip from The Private Life of Plants on pitcher plants

13.2 Plants Are Adapted to Respond to Environmental Stress

Websites: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/weather/tempeffect-plants.html
Temperature Effect on Plants
http://www.desertmuseum.org/programs/succulents_adaptation.php
Drought tolerance
http://www.plantstress.com/
Coping with plant environmental stress

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13.3 Plants Produce Sugars by Photosynthesis
Website: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss3/pigments.html
Photosynthetic Pigments
Animation: http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/Bio231/calvin.html
Calvin cycle
Videos: http://vcell.ndsu.nodak.edu/animations/photosynthesis/movie-flash.htm
Photosynthesis (light reactions)
http://vcell.ndsu.nodak.edu/animations/photosystemII/movie-flash.htm
Photosystem II

13.4 Plants Use Sugars for Energy and as Building Blocks for Growth
Websites: http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Phloem.html
The pressure flow hypothesis
http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/hydro/require.html
Requirements for Plant Growth
http://plantsinmotion.bio.indiana.edu/plantmotion/vegetative/veg.html
Plant growth
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF49ZIj1LJo
Plant Physiology

13.5 Soils Provide Plants with Water and Minerals

Websites: http://www.forces.si.edu/soils/
Smithsonian—Dig It! The Secrets of Soil
http://www.nacdnet.org/education/resources/soils/
Soil Education Resources
http://www.agriinfo.in/default.aspx?page=topic&superid=1&topicid=11
Factors Affecting Absorption of Water
http://www.ncagr.gov/cyber/kidswrld/plant/nutrient.htm
Plant Nutrients
http://courses.soil.ncsu.edu/resources/soil_classification_genesis/soil_formation/soil_tr
ansform.swf
Animation on the development of soils over 100,000 years
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aC-WTAWgOg
Plant Nutrition: Mineral Absorption (Part One)

Alternative Organism
Website: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/acer/saccharum.htm
Sugar maple (Acer saccharum)

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Suggestions for Lecture Enrichment
▪ Use videos or pictures of the pitcher plant (specifically the segment from the second episode of the
BBC documentary The Private Life of Plants entitled “Growing” that includes footage of pitcher
plants in the wild) to engage students from the beginning of the chapter.
❖ Sundew or Venus flytraps may be used as a proxy to highlight characteristics of plants as
well as their adaptations, nutrient needs, and the processes of photosynthesis and
respiration.

▪ Use the following alternative organisms to supplement the materials:

❖ Sugar maple
❖ Lady fern
❖ Baobab tree
❖ Cattail
❖ Mangrove
❖ Water lily

Suggested Activities
▪ Bring in various soil samples for students to examine. If soil chemistry kits are available, have
students measure the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as the pH levels, in
the soil samples. Students should then discuss the results as they relate to plant needs.
▪ Obtain a number of various houseplants. Have students look at the variations in leaf size and shape,
root system type, growth form, and so on, and evaluate the adaptations that each plant possesses.
▪ Have students investigate the various nutrients a plant needs and why each is important.
▪ If available, use gas probes like those available from Vernier to measure the CO2 and O2 levels of
plants in various environmental conditions.

Possible Answers to Check + Apply Your Understanding

13.2 Plants Are Adapted to Respond to Environmental Stress
1. How is a response different from an adaptation?
Answer: Adaptations happen over many generations as a function of natural selection and result in
a change in the types of certain genes within the DNA. The changes to the DNA occur because plants
with these genes have higher levels of survival and reproduction—thus passing along this new
collection of DNA to future generations. A response is a short-term redirection of resources or
alternation of cell chemistry to survive changing environmental conditions—like seasonal changes.
2. Why does a houseplant die when left unwatered for an extended period?
Answer: A lack of water creates a severe metabolic stress that the plant attempts to adjust to by
using all internal water available, causing it to wilt at first and then finally to die from its inability to
photosynthesize, conduct normal metabolic chemical reactions, and support plant structures
dependent upon water.

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3. Explain how plants respond to resource limitations.
Answer: Plants will respond to resource limitations by slowing growth, development, or reproductive
activities that rely on the availability of that resource. In severe cases, like a prolonged drought, the
limitation can exceed a plant’s ability to respond and the plant dies.
4. Describe why a late spring frost might be deadly to a plant.
Answer: A late spring frost would create problems for a plant because the new, young tissues have
not had time to acclimate to cold weather. A late spring frost would likely kill a plant.
5. The resurrection plant is a type of spike moss that is descended from the earliest plants, which lived
in highly unpredictable habitats with dramatic swings in moisture availability. During a drought, the
plant loses moisture and shrivels up into a compact ball (Fig. 13.7). When the rains return, the plant
tissues rehydrate, and the plant resumes normal activities. Describe the reasons this represents
either an adaptation or a response activity or both.
Answer: This change in the plant as a function of water stress is both a response and an adaptation.
The plant responds to the change in moisture conditions by drying out its aboveground tissues. The
plant’s ability to respond to and survive this dramatic change in moisture is a function of past natural
selection—yielding a highly adaptive plant.

13.3 Plants Produce Sugars by Photosynthesis

1. What are the two stages of photosynthesis, and how do they interact?
Answer: The two stages are the light stage and the Calvin cycle. The products of the light reactions
(ATP and a hydrogen carrier molecule) are used in the Calvin cycle, and the altered ADP and
hydrogen carriers cycle back for reuse in the light stage.
2. Explain how a plant absorbs light energy from the sun. To what type of light are plant
photosynthesis pigments sensitive?
Answer: The wavelengths of light we can see with our eyes approximate the light that chlorophyll
molecules are also sensitive to. Light energy raises the electron energy level in chlorophyll molecules,
which is concentrated, resulting in one electron being stripped away to be used during the light
stage.
3. What are the three products produced when a water molecule is split during the light reaction stage
of photosynthesis? Where do they end up?
Answer: The three products are an electron, a hydrogen, and oxygen. The electron enters an
electron transport chain, and the hydrogen is first used to create a chemiosmotic concentration
difference, which ultimately powers the production of ATP and the creation of a hydrogen carrier
molecule. Oxygen diffuses out of the cells as a waste product.
4. You are able to observe a plant growing in the hot, dry climate of central Arizona. Using a gas
detection meter, you determine it is taking in carbon dioxide during the night and releasing oxygen
during the day. Speculate about the photosynthetic pathway employed by this plant.
Answer: The evidence would indicate that this plant has one of the two photosynthetic adaptations
evolved to help plants survive in hot, dry climates. In this case, the light stage and the Calvin cycle
are separated in time.
5. Foresters are conducting experiments using elevated carbon dioxide levels in various forested
regions of the country. These experiments mimic the potential projected increases in carbon dioxide
from humans burning fossil fuels. Speculate about the impact on tree growth in these experiments.

12
 Answer: Enhanced CO2 concentrations will likely improve growth in these trees, assisting the carbon
fixation process.

13.4 Plants Use Sugars for Energy and as Building Blocks for Growth
1. Which two molecules must be present at the mitochondria in order for aerobic metabolism to take
place?
Answer: Both sugars and oxygen must be present for aerobic metabolism to occur.
2. What is meant by loading and unloading in the process of sugar transport?
Answer: Sugar loading at the source refers to the active transport of sugars where they were
produced, and the unloading at the sink refers to the active transport out of phloem tissues into cells
where it can be used in aerobic metabolism, stored, or converted to other types of organic molecules.
3. Why is the presence of both water and oxygen in the soil important to supporting rapid plant
growth in the spring?
Answer: Water is vital to many plant metabolic processes, and oxygen is required to support aerobic
metabolism in rapidly growing root tissues. When these two resources are present in insufficient
amounts, plant growth must slow down or stop. Too much water displaces oxygen and shuts down
the aerobic metabolism.
4. How is aerobic metabolism related to environmental temperature, metabolic rate, and activity level
of the tissues?
Answer: There is a direct relationship between higher temperatures, high metabolic rate, and tissues
that have a high level of activity: when each increases, the rate of metabolism also increases.
5. Houseplants sold in stores are usually grown inside commercial greenhouses where the soils and
environmental conditions are tightly controlled to maximize plant growth and health. What might
happen to these greenhouse plants if you were to use soil dug from your neighborhood yards and
grow the plants outside, where environmental conditions are not controlled?
Answer: It is likely the plants would be less healthy, grow less, and not be as desirable to purchase as
those grown in the greenhouse. The soils in your neighborhood likely contain adequate amounts of
many mineral elements, but not all that would be needed to support the full growth and
development of the plant. Similarly, the environmental conditions would be less than optimal—also
interfering with plant growth and health.

13.5 Soils Provide Plants with Water and Minerals

1. In your own words, describe why organic matter in soils might be important to plant growth.
Answer: Organic matter is the decaying remains of plants, animals, and other organisms; it contains
nutrients that are made available to growing plants through the decomposition process. Organic
matter also provides pore space for oxygen to permeate into soils where active root tissues grow. It
also acts as a sponge, holding water and helping soils to keep from drying out too quickly.
2. What is the relationship between soil pore space, soil oxygen, and aerobic metabolism in roots?
Answer: Spaces between soil particles permit water to percolate between them and dissolve mineral
nutrients—thus making both available for plants to absorb. Pore space also provides a location for
oxygen to permeate the soil and support aerobic metabolism by the metabolically active tissues.
3. Why is the amount of available phosphorus in the soil important to plants?
Answer: Phosphorus is an important mineral element in meristems, leaves, and other metabolically

13
 active sites in the plant. It is used in many critical molecules, such as ATP, phospholipids in cell
membranes, sugars, and DNA.
4. Specialty gardeners have perfected the art of growing miniature versions of plants called bonsai.
They regularly trim away parts of the root system to assist in dwarfing the plant (Fig. 13.29). Can you
suggest why trimming the roots causes a plant to dwarf rather than reach full size?
Answer: Trimming roots removes the active site on plants for water and mineral uptake. These
components are critical to photosynthesis and growth. By reducing the amount of roots, you reduce
the ability of the plant to get larger.
5. Figure 13.30 shows a plant with a nutrient deficiency that causes the older mature leaves to change
from their characteristic green color to a much paler green. As the deficiency progresses these older
leaves become uniformly yellow. Using your knowledge of plant nutrient requirements and Table
13.1, propose at least two minerals that may be lacking in the soil of this plant. Explain your
reasoning.
Answer: The two missing mineral elements would be nitrogen and magnesium, used in the
production of the green pigment chlorophyll.

Answers to Self-Quiz on Key Concepts

1. ecological niche (b), stress (c), disturbance (a)
2. b. adaptation.
3. b. aerobic metabolism in roots.
4. a. redirecting resources.
5. chloroplast (c), chlorophyll (a), light reaction (b), Calvin cycle (d)
6. c. takes place within the inner membrane of the chloroplast.
7. b. warm, dry habitats.
8. d. bulk flow.
9. a. root apical meristem.
10. b. sugars are not fully broken down.
11. soil texture (f), mineral availability (c), compost (d), macronutrient (a), micronutrient (b),
transpiration (e)
12. b. nitrogen.
13. a. sandy soils.
14. c. Both support a complex electron transport chain set of reactions.
15. a. is passive.

Possible Answers to Applying the Concepts

16. Based on your knowledge of plant structure, what impact would low phosphorus availability have on
the growth of your lawn?
Answer: Phosphorus is a critical macronutrient used to construct the plasma membrane for every
cell in the plant. If you eliminate this nutrient from fertilizer you can limit new cell construction since
phosphorus is a key component of membranes, thus decreasing overall grass growth in the lawn.
Phosphorus is also critical to the building of ATP—the energy currency of the cells.

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17. Rhizobium is a beneficial species of bacteria that forms a mutualistic relationship with plant roots,
helping the plant to acquire nitrogen. Which of these soybean plants (Fig. 13.31) is successfully
“infected” with rhizobium and why?
Answer: The plant on the left is successfully infected with the mutualistic rhizobium: the leaves are
green, indicating the development of healthy chlorophyll molecules, which requires the presence of
nitrogen. The leaves at right are not green; they lack chlorophyll.
18. Coal-fired power plants are a common site in many communities. Over the past century, decades of
pollution contributed to a phenomenon called acid rain. Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce
acids. Eventually, the acids fall as rain, altering the pH of soils. How would the nutrient status of
downwind plant communities be affected?
Answer: Acid rain over a number of decades will ultimately impact the pH of soils in plant
communities downwind from the power plant. A change in pH alters the molecular structure of
mineral nutrients in solution—altering a plants ability to gain access to these resources. The change
in resource availability will change the mix of plants growing there, favoring new groups of plants
better able to compete in the new resource availability environment.
19. Imagine you are standing next to the leaves of a rose bush (Fig. 13.32). In your hands is a digital gas
analyzer used to measure changes in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels at the surface of the leaf,
right at the stomata. Describe what the meter might tell you about gases moving into/out of the leaf
related to photosynthesis during the day. Predict what the meter would read at nighttime.
Answer: During the daylight when the plant is photosynthesizing, your meter would tell you that
carbon dioxide was moving from the air into the leaf—different from at night, when the meter would
show no movement of carbon dioxide into the leaf. During the day, oxygen diffuses out of the leaf
and into the atmosphere; at night there is no light reaction, so no oxygen is diffusing out.
20. The century plant, or agave, is an evergreen plant commonly used as an ornamental in the dry, hot
regions of the southwestern United States. Its leaves have a thick, waxy covering, which gives the
leaves a bluish-gray color. Agaves lose very little water through transpiration, and if you were to
look at their stomata with a magnifying glass, you would see they were closed during daylight hours.
How does this provide a competitive advantage to the agave? How does it limit water loss?
Answer: The century plant used a warm, dry climate—adapted photosynthetic pathway—indicated
by its adaptation to desert regions of the southwest United States—and the clue that the stomata
are closed during daylight hours. The light reaction occurs in the same way as in all other plants,
inside the chloroplast at the thylakoid membrane, as the lead-in set of reactions to the Calvin cycle,
which occur during the nighttime hours. The agave has a competitive advantage in that this
adaptation minimizes water loss and allows it to maintain higher levels of metabolism.

Possible Answers to Data Analysis

Data Interpretation
21. In which month of the year did Yucca glauca have the highest photosynthetic rate?
Answer: The most growth occurred in May, early in the growing season for temperate climates.
22. What were the temperature and moisture conditions when this high growth rate occurred? How do
these numbers compare to those in the rest of the growing season?
Answer: In May, peak growth occurs at peak rainfall, which was over 100 mm. Temperatures were 8

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 to 20ºC, with an average of 12ºC, approximately 10ºC below the peak temperatures experienced
during the summer months.
23. Were the angled surfaces of the yucca leaves receiving more light than the flat surfaces in the spring
and fall?
Answer: Yes, there are spikes in light reception on the angled leaves that occur in both March and
November.
24. In general terms, did a significant amount of growth occur between November and April (outside of
the frost-free period of the year, indicated by the arrows in the air temperature plot)? Is the yucca’s
adaptation to photosynthesize during these periods an important characteristic?
Answer: Yes, the plant’s adaptation to cooler weather accounted for a significant portion of its total
yearly photosynthesis as indicated by Fig. 13.36. The yucca’s cold tolerance allows it to
photosynthesize during the times of the year when other plants are likely to be dormant.

Critical Thinking
25. As a cool weather–adapted plant, is the yucca well adapted to avoid problems associated with high
temperatures and transpiration?
Answer: Yes, most of the growth occurs during a time of the year when temperatures are milder;
less growth occurs during the hotter summer months.
26. What is the relationship between the higher growth periods and the light intercepted by the angled
leaves?
Answer: The peak interception of light by the angled leaves corresponds with the highest periods of
growth for the yucca.
27. Plant biologists working on climate change in prairie ecosystems are concerned about how
increased temperatures may influence plant diversity. How might increased temperatures affect the
yucca in this scenario?
Answer: Yucca’s cold tolerant photosynthetic advantage over the warm weather photosynthetic
adapted plants will be limited. Those plants with the warm, dry weather adapted photosynthetic
pathways will potentially be favored and potentially exclude the yucca.
28. If yucca were a warm, dry photosynthesis-metabolism–adapted plant, would there be the same
need for its cool-weather growth adaptation? How would you expect the growth patterns to change
if yucca used this adaptive pathway?
Answer: Since yucca plants possess photosynthetic pathways adapted to warm, dry climates, there
would be no need for yucca to have a cool-weather adaptation. If yucca possessed the alternate
photosynthetic pathway, I would expect growth to shift away from spring and fall and occur during
the warmer summer months of June to September.

Possible Answers to Question Generator

This section of the text is a good launching point for class discussions after students have prepared their
own answers to the questions.

Potential Student-Generated Questions

1. As C3 plants, how are seagrass communities potentially affected by increased water temperatures?
2. Seagrasses often grow in sandy soils. Would you expect these to contain many available nutrients?

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3. How does government planning that closely controls land use close to the coastline have on potential
seagrass growth?
4. What effect would land conversion to crop farming in coastal areas potentially have on seagrasses?
5. As cool weather adapted–plants, would you expect seagrasses to have a high level of water loss from
transpiration?

If additional class discussion is warranted, please use the following questions to

generate further discussion.
1. Microorganisms are important partners for land plants. Would you expect similar partnerships in
seagrasses?
2. What limits are there on seagrass growth?
3. What organisms might use seagrass beds as habitat?

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Lesson Plan
by Robert K. Noyd

13
Plants Functioning in Their Habitat
Learner Readiness
How strong is your students’ conceptual foundation?
This chapter strongly connects to and builds on concepts in:
▪ Chapter 1: characteristics of life—organisms sense and respond to change; organisms must
constantly acquire energy (producers and consumers); elements, water molecules, macromolecules,
bonds, atomic structure, and ions
▪ Chapter 4: habitat and environment; Table 4.2—resources; niche; response to change
▪ Chapter 6: macromolecules: carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins; osmosis; active transport
▪ Chapter 9: enzymes; metabolic reactions; aerobic metabolism
▪ Chapter 12: plant structure and organization: cells, tissues, and organs; plastids, chloroplasts, and
chlorophyll

Learning Goal
Students will explain how a plant’s evolutionary adaptations allow it to perform its life activities in its
constantly changing habitat.

Note: The verb explain means that the student will show how the plant structural and functional
adaptations allow it to perform life activities (photosynthesis, gas exchange, support, absorption,
transport, storage, growth, self-defense, responding to information, and reproduction) when the
environmental factors (water, light, oxygen, and humidity) are constantly changing.

Core Concepts
Note that each section and subsection title in the textbook is a concept statement.
▪ Plant response to environmental stresses
▪ Photosynthesis and production of sugars
❖ Light harvesting: chloroplast and chlorophyll structure

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 ❖ Light reactions
❖ Calvin cycle
▪ Plant utilization of sugars
❖ Starch storage
❖ Sugar transport
❖ Aerobic metabolism—ATP
▪ Water transport
▪ Soils and plant mineral nutrition

Student Preparation: Out-of-Class Learning Experiences

▪ Read section(s) in the textbook and complete the Check + Apply Your Understanding questions.
▪ Complete the online quizzes presented through Aplia®.

Note: The goal of preparation is to expose and prime students to the vocabulary and basic concepts of the
chapter. Without this, you, the instructor, are doing most of the work of encoding the information for the
students, rather than helping them to actively encode, construct, and remember the material.

The Lesson: In-Class Learning Experiences

As I play my learning facilitator role, it is essential for me to break the belief that “if I don’t tell them,
they will not learn it.” I structure the lesson to gain interest, link new knowledge to their experiences,
probe their thinking, and lecture on concepts that are especially difficult or need a deeper level of
development (providing numerous examples, analogies, and explanations). A successful lesson is one
where students made learning gains; a successful lesson is not based on how well I lectured. The success
of the lesson can only be crowned if you have evidence that students learned the core concepts…like a
scientist, this comes in your assessment.

Part 1. Establishing Context and Interest

Cengage Video—Purple Pitcher Plants
▪ Show the short video clip of the lead organism.

Part 2. Linking the Organism to the Topic

Post-Video Activity
▪ Use the video to introduce concepts in the chapter.
▪ Ask students what they observed about the purple pitcher plant in the video, which follows the
chapter opener story (Section 13.1). For example:
❖ Describe the habitat in which the purple pitcher plants lives.

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 ❖ What prevents the fly from ingesting nectar and flying away?
❖ Which plant organ develops and curls to form the vase-like pitcher?
❖ Epidermal cells produce nectar, hairs, and wax crystals. Describe how these three products
contribute to the capture of insects.
❖ Why are insects and microbes a good source of nitrogen?
❖ List three macromolecules that require nitrogen to synthesize and build.
❖ Do pitcher plants have root systems to absorb minerals, or do they rely exclusively on their
leaves for mineral absorption?
❖ Describe how the microbial food web in the pitcher supplies the plant with mineral
nutrients.
❖ Which organism in the pitcher plant water is the top consumer?
❖ Is a purple pitcher plant a producer or a consumer in the food chain?
▪ Connection Question: Why don’t pitcher plants have a geographic range that includes drier
habitats?

Knowledge Probe—“What Are Students Thinking?”

▪ What is the relationship between (1) photosynthesis, (2) mitochondria, (3) sugar, (4) CO2, (5) O2, and
(6) chloroplasts?
▪ Use Figure 13.4 and ask students: What is the relationship between (1) flooding, (2) aerobic
metabolism, (3) soil O2, (4) root growth, and (5) energy?
▪ Use questions in the Self-Quiz on Key Concepts in the End of Chapter Review.
▪ Show students the “approved solutions,” so they can learn how to think more clearly and
completely.
▪ You may also want to go over the specific Check + Apply Your Understanding questions that students
found challenging, vague, or confusing.

Part 3. Explaining and Linking the Core Concepts: Mini-Lecture Presentation

“Students Follow Your Thinking”
▪ Now that you have established context, zoom in on plant processes.
▪ Section 13.3: Photosynthesis. We present an ecological context to photosynthesis. The key point is
to link environmental resources to reactants (light, water, CO2) to products (carbohydrates, O2). This
will connect to climate change—drought and greenhouse gases. Trace the path of carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen through the process. In Chapter 16, the cycling of carbon will use this concept. Students
will need help to understand how the stages interact.
▪ Section 13.4: Plant use of sugar. Students often have a strong misconception that plants do not use
aerobic metabolism because they produce ATP from the light reactions. Point out or ask them what
would be the consequences if this were true. How would a plant live through the night or periods of
darkness if no light generated ATP? How would plants in northern latitudes live through winter?

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 Plants use the ATP from the light reactions to build sugars, and then they store the energy as starch
for later use.
▪ Section 13.5: Soils and plant mineral nutrition. This pulls together the elements from Chapter 1,
resources from Chapter 4, macromolecules from Chapter 6, and the material in this chapter. It is an
excellent application, or cognitive building, section. Have students look at a fertilizer or plant food
label and point out how the plant uses the mineral nutrients.

Other Learning Activities—“You Follow Their Thinking”

▪ List-Building Activity: Recast this activity from Chapter 12. Ask students to describe how plant life
activities are related to photosynthesis. One student can start the list and pass the paper around a
group, with each student adding to it.
▪ Student Made Teaching Videos: Have students pair up so that one student uses their camera or
smartphone to make a three-minute video of their partner explaining to a classmate how the
process of the light reactions and Calvin cycle work. (Instruct them to make their own Khan
Academy–type teaching video.) My students really enjoy this activity! They rehearse several times
first with feedback from me and other students.

Part 4. Finding Out How Much Students Have Learned

▪ Use the Check + Apply Your Understanding questions as clicker questions.
▪ Use questions from the End of Chapter Review, Self-Quiz on Key Concepts, and Data Analysis
features.
▪ Pose several of the Applying the Concepts questions from the end of the chapter.
▪ Have students use the Question Generator feature to see if they can formulate testable questions.

Think–Pair–Share
▪ Source or Sink? (a) A developing leaf in early spring, (b) a mature leaf in summer, and (c) a root cell.
▪ You may want to pose a mineral deficiency problem, such as: Which minerals are deficient in a plant
with yellow leaves? (Nitrogen or magnesium?)
▪ How does light drive water absorption? Is water pushed up the plant from the roots or pulled up the
plant from the leaves?
▪ Name three fates of the sugars produced by photosynthesis. How does this relate to the maple
syrup and pancakes in a typical breakfast?
▪ The light reactions of photosynthesis produce ATP. How is this energy source used?
▪ Which type of soil provides the most water—a sandy or clay soil?

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