Phenotypic Plasticity in Light Induced Plants

1505 Words7 Pages
Phenotypic Plasticity in Light Induced Plants Abstract: An object has plasticity when it is flexible and has the ability to change. For example water has plasticity because it can take the shape of its container. Similarly, plants can change their structure and/or physiological features in order to adapt to its surroundings. In this lab Pothos aureus were separated into two different chambers for ten weeks. One chamber was at high light intensity and one at low light intensity. This was done in order to prove that petiole lengths will be longer when exposed to low light intensities compared to high light intensities due to the low availability of light. If petiole lengths increase then light intensities do have an effect on photosynthetic abilities thus the climbing vine effect. Through testing and calculations this was proved to be wrong. Surprisingly, the low light intensity has no effect on the plants and according to our data plasticity was not present. Introduction: The purpose of this lab is to examine differences in the characteristics of plants and their environmental responses; specifically speaking, phenotypic plasticity in Pothos aureus petiole lengths to high light and low light treatment. Phenotypic plasticity can be defined as “the ability of an organism to change its morphological and/or physiological features after exposure to different environmental conditions” (Bradshaw, 1965; Schlichting, 1986; Thompson, 1991). The fact that plant are immobile, forces them to adapt to their surrounding and change the structures accordingly. “Phenotypic plasticity is an important adaptation that can optimize plant survival and therefore extend the geographical range over which they grow.”(Ryerson & Dengler, 1994). In this case the petiole lengths may change depending on the light

More about Phenotypic Plasticity in Light Induced Plants

Open Document