PLANTS FORM AND FUNCTION

• The behavior of plants compared to

animals
• Role of plants in an ecosystem
• Your contribution to plants and our
Environment
 PLANTS FORM AND FUNCTION
As time passes by, the earth goes
into never-ending change. It was
because of fact that natural processes
are constantly happening in our
ecosystem. Apart from this is because
of the behavior of plants and animals,
including humans. In
particular, animals and plants are the
lifeforms that are essential for the
earth’s ecological process to keep
going. They are interconnected as
they rely on each other to survive in
our environment. But before we dig
deeper into this topic, first, let’s
analyze the behavior of plants
compared to animals.
Animals and plants are both
multicellular organisms. They share
some similarities such as one and the
other can live, reproduce, and will
eventually die but in some aspects,
they’re still a difference between
them. If we look into the basics, Cook
(2018), states that animals
naturally move around in order to feed
themselves, while plants are fixed in
one place and create their food
through a process
called photosynthesis. Additionally,
even though their cells similarly
contained DNA, the structure of their
cells is different. Animal cells absorb
nutrients from food such as plants and
other organisms, while plant cells use
plastids to create energy from
sunlight.
Furthermore, according to
Divanshi (2018), the growth of plants
is limited to the regions where the
meristematic tissues lie but can
constantly grow until they die and are
not restricted with time (some plants
can even live up to 10,000 years). In
comparison, the growth of animals is
not restricted to particular regions
only. Instead, all the body parts and
organs grow equally but unlike in
plants, animal growth is paused with
time and maturity. On the other
side, Divanshi (2018), also notes that
the plant body lacks responsive sense
organs thus they respond to external
stimuli like light and touch while
animals have a highly efficient
nervous system that produces
a response to the stimulus. Aside from
the things mentioned above, plants
and animals have different ways on
how they behave toward danger. The
differences in movement,
modularity, and tolerance of animals
and plants shape their behavior toward
risk. Rooted plants cannot flee an
attacker so their behavioral responses
to risk necessarily involve changing
defensive morphology or chemistry or
translocating valuable molecules to
unattacked tissues. For
mobile animals, movement is often the
most important line of defense as they
avoid places with high risk and flee
from predators that they encounter
(Karban et al, 2016, p.4).
Mimicry also enables an
organism to be identified as inedible
or dangerous. (Brower, 1988, as cited
in Rubinstein, 1992, p. 476). Pough
(1988) gives an example that certain
beetles, flies, and moths, which
have no sting for defense, have
evolved the colors and color pattern of
the very dangerous yellow jacket wasp
(as cited in Rubinstein, 1988, p. 476).
In contrast, some plants also mimic
themselves but as certain plants
to avoid being used as food. For
example, It appears that 36 mistletoe
species have evolved the leaf forms of
their hosts. Because the host leaves are
unpalatable to the browsers, the
mimicry allows these mistletoe
species to escape detection, and they
are less likely to be eaten (Barlow
& Wiens, 1977, as cited in Rubinstein,
1992, p. 476 ). Now that we know the
comparison between plants’ and
animals’ behavior, let us focus on the
role of plants in an ecosystem.
 PLANTS FORM AND FUNCTION
Imagine Earth without oxygen,
surely, animals and humans would not
be able to survive. There will be no
food and all lifeforms will cease to
exist as oxygen helps to get the energy
we need to survive. This is why the
role of plants is vital to an ecosystem.
In addition to releasing oxygen, plants
use carbon dioxide to complete
the carbon cycle and recycle the CO2
released by humans and other
heterotrophs. CO2 uptake can also help
mitigate the greenhouse effect and
climate change. Therefore plants are
very important to maintain the balance
in an ecosystem and drive most of
the important biological processes
(Fernando, 2012).
We also can’t forget the fact that
Plants (Autotrophs) form the base of
food chains and food webs, and the
energy they capture from light or
chemicals sustains all
the other organisms in the
community. (Khan Academy, n.d.).
Plants manufacture much more food
than they can readily utilize and they
store up this excess as a reserve
in leaves, stems, roots, fruits, or seeds,
for future use. It is this supply of
reserves that are used by humans and
animals. People depend upon plants to
satisfy their basic human needs such
as food, clothing, shelter, and
medicine. (Fernando, 2012).
Besides, Plants are important because
they provide habitats for wildlife and
humans. Greentumble (2016) made an
example where many species of birds
rely on trees and shrubs for habitat,
whether they live in the crevices of
trees or build nests on branches.
Certainly, plants had a big
impact on the ecosystem, even on
humans. In a related matter, it’s not
only animals and humans that make
the most of this
symbiotic relationship but plants and
the ecosystem gains something from
us, humans as well.
Humans produced carbon
dioxide during respiration, on the
other hand, plants take this carbon
dioxide, to use it to produce their
energy. In a way, they are a
cycle, plants help humans breathe by
providing us with oxygen, and
humans help plants by providing them
with carbon dioxide (Pressconnects,
2015). Moreover, by using chemicals
and organic ways, people also try to
stop animals and pests from eating
plants (UCSB, 2013).
Apart from this, the
Environmental Protections Laws have
a positive impact on the ecosystems
as it was created to protect and
preserve specific ecosystems
containing threatened plants and
wildlife. Local communities also
created laws that set asides green,
open spaces of land to allow animals
to migrate to developed
areas (Brenner, 2018).
The ecosystem serves as a
foundation for all of the organisms
to mutually support each other. Now
that climate change is very relevant,
we can help by simply recycling,
planting in our homes, and following
the law that helps the environment so
that at the end of the day, we can
prevent the destruction of our
biodiversity and ecosystems.
Remember:
“A nation that destroys its soils destroys
itself. Forests are the lungs of our land,
purifying the air and giving fresh strength
to our people.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
 PLANTS FORM AND FUNCTION

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 PLANTS FORM AND FUNCTION

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