Research methods in ecologyClements, Frederic E. (Frederic Edward)
Science
Research methods in ecology
Clements, Frederic E. (Frederic Edward)
Plant ecology; Plant ecology -- Methodology
cell to cell, though this is not invariably true. Since air passages are
necessarily absent where cell walls touch, it is possible that this
disposition of the plastids is likewise due to the lack of aeration.
Translocation is directly connected with the appearance of starch. As
long as all the sugar made by the chloroplasts is transferred, no starch
appears, but when assimilation begins to exceed translocation, the
increasing concentration of the sugar solution results in the production
of starch grains. The latter is normally the case in all flowering
plants, with the exception of those that form sugar or oil, but no
starch. The constant action of translocation is practically
indispensable to starch formation, since an over-accumulation of
carbohydrates decreases assimilation, and finally inhibits it
altogether. In consequence, translocation occurs throughout the day and
night, and by this means the accumulated carbohydrates of one day are
largely or entirely removed before the next.
[Illustration: Fig. 39. Position of chloroplasts in aerial leaf (1) and
submerged leaf (2) of _Callitriche bifida_. × 250.]
=176. The measurement of responses to light.= Responses, such as the
periodic opening and closing of stomata, which are practically the same
for all leaves, are naturally not susceptible of measurement. This is
also true of the transpiration produced by light, but the difficulty in
this case is due to the impossibility of distinguishing between the
water loss due to light and that caused by humidity and other factors.
If it were possible to determine the amount of chlorophyll or glucose
produced, these could be used as satisfactory measures of response. As
it is, they can only be determined approximately by counting the
chloroplasts or starch grains. The arrangement of the chloroplasts can
not furnish the measure sought, since it does not lend itself to
quantitative methods, and since the relation to light intensity is too
inconstant. Hesselmann (_l. c._, 400) has determined the amount of
carbon dioxide respired, by means of a eudiometer, and has based
comparisons of sun and shade plants upon the results. As he points out,
however, light has no direct connection with respiration. Although the
latter increases necessarily with increased nutrition, the relation
between them is so obscure, and so far from exact, that the amount of
respiration can in no wise serve as a measure of the response to light.
As a result of the foregoing, it is clear that no functional response is
able to furnish a satisfactory measure of adjustment to light, though
one or two have perhaps sufficient value to warrant their use. Indeed,
structural adaptations offer a much better basis for the quantitative
determination of the effects of light stimuli, as will be shown later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account