Question

1. For animals, tradeoffs may exist between foraging and predator avoidance, because time spent being vigilant against predators is time lost from feeding. Based on the principle of allocation, and considering ways that plants avoid herbivores, describe a tradeoff for plants.

2. From the perspective of hypothesis-testing, what is the advantage of class data over data collected by a single team?

Answer 1

Plants are sessile organisms,ao cannot disperse as quickly as animals do.But to avoid herbivore interaction they have evolved a wide range of defense strategies.For example plant releases certain chemicals such as secondary metabolites or physical defense that limit plant palatability to herbivores.

Plant possess a growth defense trade-off,which says that plant possess a limited pool of resources that can be invested either in growth or in defense.

For example,plant hormone jasmine(JA) is synthesised in response to perceived danger which leads to a variety of defense compounds,but at the same time inhibit the growth of the plant.

Therefore plants possess a balance between growth and defense.