Plant Phy. Review Questions for Chapter 12


1 Is Nitrogen a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

2 Is Sulfur a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

3 Is Manganese a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

4 Is Bromide a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

5 Is Zinc a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

6 Is Phosphorus a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

7 Is Boron a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

8 Is Iron a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

9 Is Calcium a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

10 Is Potassium a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

11 Is Copper a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

12 Is Molybdenum a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

13 Is Potash a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

14 Is Chlorine a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

15 Is Magnesium a macronutrient or a micronutrient?

16  Which plant nutrient is most often in short supply (N or K)?
17. Identify the one micronutrient among the following. (Ca or Mg or Mn or S)
18. Identify the one plant nutrient that plays the predominant role in water balance. (K or Cl or Zn or Na)
19 If a nutrient is highly mobile, will a deficiency in that nutrient appear first (in the older tissue or in the younger tissue)?
20 Identify the nutrient that is NOT found in proteins. (C, or P or S or N or O)
21 Soils that drain too fast, tend to be dry and nutrient poor usually have too much (sand or silt or clay).
22. All things considered, on a world wide view, which limits plant growth the most (mineral deficiencies or availability of water)?
23 Which form of nitrogen is the easiest for most plants to assimilate NO3- or NH4+?
24. Which population of bacteria oxidize the NH4+ ion to NO3- (ammonifying or nitrifying or denitrifying or nitrogen fixing bacteria)?
25. Which of these functions do mycorrhizae probably NOT do (enhance mineral nutrition or enhance salt tolerance or enhance water absorption or increase pathogen resistance)?

 

26 Phosphate uptake by roots involves

  A) a PO4 channel in the endoderm of the root.

  B) soil bacteria to make the phosphate bioaccessable.

  C) symbiotic fungal hyphae to increase the effective surface area of the root.

  D) root nodules fixing phosphate from the air.

27 In an attempt to create a nitrogen-fixing bioreactor, you set out to culture Rhizobium a) from the root nodules of pea plants. After months of work, you are still having trouble getting the Rhizobium to grow, let alone fix nitrogen. What might explain this failure?

  A) Rhizobium only grows in association with plant root hairs.

  B) Rhizobium from root nodules lacks a cell wall, so it will not grow in culture.

  C) You accidentally put a fungicide in your growth medium that kills all of the Rhizobium.

  D) Rhizobium from root nodules lacks chromosomal DNA, so it will not grow in culture.

28 You are performing an experiment to determine the nutrient requirements for a newly discovered plant and find that for some reason your plants die if you leave boron out of the growth medium but do fine with as low as 5 parts per million in solution. This suggests that boron is

  A) an essential macronutrient.

  B) a nonessential micronutrient.

  C) an essential micronutrient.

  D) a nonessential macronutrient.

 

 29 You are setting up some planters to grow flowers in your apartment and discover that you bought sand rather than potting soil. You decide to go ahead and plant the flowers in the sand to save yourself a trip back to the store. Much to your dismay, all of your plants die! How can you explain this failure?

  A) Sand does not pack tightly enough around the roots to hold the plants upright, so they fall over and die.

  B) Sand does not hold enough water to sustain plant metabolism, so all of the plants die from dessication.

  C) Sand does not contain enough nutrient material to sustain plant growth, so the plants die from starvation.

  D) Sand is too abrasive and damages the roots as they grow through it, so the plants die.

30 If you discover a purely white plant growing on the forest floor, you can safely assume that it is a

  A) mutant plant that uses a colorless pigment to carry out photosynthesis.

  B) parasitic plant that acquires its macronutrients from other plants.

  C) plant that only carries out the dark reactions of photosynthesis and therefore doesn't need green pigments.

  D) plant that does not require macronutrients and therefore does not need photopigments.

31 Growing peas that are defective in flavonoid production would

  A) prevent bioaccumulation of potassium in the roots.

  B) prevent bioaccumulation of nitrogen in the roots.

  C) prevent bioaccumulation of phosphorous in the roots.

  D) prevent the production of flavor molecules in the seeds so that they would be unpalatable.

32 Feeding your Venus flytrap a common brand of all-purpose plant fertilizer would likely cause

  A) it to die from nitrogen overload.

  B) its traps to become large enough to capture small mammals.

  C) no change, because these plants can only use nitrogen from insects.

  D) its traps to fall off, because it would not need to acquire nitrogen from insects.