AP Bio Spring Break Assignment
Sydney Gates
Adaptation - Plant
This picture of a cactus shows the adapted "leaves" are the spines of the cactus. They adapted this way to conserve water in the harsh, waterless environment in which cacti grow. The smaller surface area decreases the number of stomata and therefore the amount of water loss of the plant. The spines are also used to protect the plant from predators that try to eat it.
Abscisic Acid
ABA (abscisic acid) controls the dormancy of a plant in the winter and it's budding in the spring. This picture of a budding plant shows the ABA in the plant working to help it grow. The ABA protects the plant during the winter from the cold weather.
Amniotic Egg
This chicken egg is an amniotic egg because it contains nutrients for the growing embryo (not in this case) but even though this egg is not fertilized, it shows how the egg has a protective outer layer, and a nutrient rich part for the embryo. Amniotic eggs also allow animals to lay their eggs in drier habitats than they could have before.
Cellulose
Cellulose is a part of what makes up plant cell walls. Cellulose fibers in wood are bound in lignin. Cellulose is also an important component in the structural integrity of wood and is found in paper.
Cuticle Layer of a Plant
The thick, waxy cuticle layer of a cactus protects its water supply from transpiration in the hot, dry conditions that it is found to grow in. The cuticle is waxy and therefore water resistant, so it doesn't allow the water to be lost from the plant. In some species of cacti, the cuticle also reflects some of the sunlight in order to decrease the intensity of the heat of the day in the desert.
Diploid
These pine cones are in the diploid stage of the plant because they are the sporophytes of the plant, which will grow and create seeds or pollen in order for the plant to reproduce. The female pine cones in the picture will grow to produce spores that will mature into ovules in the plant later on.
Ethylene
Ethylene is a gas plant hormone that promotes flowering or ripening of fruit. This flower is just starting to bloom, which means there must be ethylene present that is causing the flower to bloom. Newly growing plants produce more ethylene in order for them to be able to flower and reproduce.
K - Strategist
K-strategists are species that produce low numbers of offspring, but reproduce more often than R-strategists. They have a larger size and generally live longer than the R-strategists. Cats are K-strategists because they have a relatively low number of offspring and live longer than other, smaller R-strategist animals.
Multiple Alleles
The different colored chickens are controlled by multiple alleles which is why there are so many different colors of chickens.
Parasite
The mistletoe in this tree is a parasite that kills off the tree (palo verde tree). The tree is able to cut off the nutrients to the branches with the parasite to try to kill it, but once the mistletoe takes over the tree, it dies very soon after.