Discussion Board 5
Part 1
Various plants have unique adaptations that help them in surviving in their environments and carrying out various biological activities such as flowering and reproduction. These modifications are either present on the leaves, stems and roots. An example of a plant with such a modification is the potato plant. The potato plant, has an underground stem (stem-tuber) which is a swollen part of the stem that is used to store food, mainly starch, for the purposes of reproduction when the stem is detached or removed from the rest of the plant (Lakhotia et al., 2014). While this is an adaptation intended to provide sufficient food and hence energy during the reproduction stage of the potato, humans dig up these root-tubers and use them as a high source of starch in food.
This adaptation is pretty different from a standard stem since unlike the standard stem, this stem (stem-tuber) is swollen for the purposes of food storage. When food reaches this section of the potato plant, it swells, storing food for reproduction. On the other hand, this stem-tuber has buds from which gives rise to a new plant when the aerial part of the plant is detached (Lakhotia et al., 2014).
Part 2
Animals play a vital role in sustaining human life. Apart from relying on animal for food, humans also rely on other animal products such as manure to sustain their life. Human survival requires animal and plant food. As such, manure from animal such as chicken, cows and goats act as a vital source of nitrogen for plants to synthesize proteins which is pretty essential for plant growth, development and production. By adding manure to soils, plants absorb and assimilate these nutrients to synthesize food for human consumption.
Nonetheless, I believe that food is the most important benefit of animals. Animals provide an enormous amount of food to human in the form of meat, eggs and milk-which are pretty essential in providing proteins and fats required for normal growth and development as well as survival (Purves et al., 2003).
Unlike plants, animals have locomotive and mobility capabilities in order to move from one place to another in search of food. For instance, animals have different locomotive and mobility structures such as legs, fins and wings (Purves et al., 2003).
The excretion process in plants is pretty simple and majorly occurs through the stomata. Nonetheless, by the virtue of being not able to produce their own food, animals consume complex food substances that require specialized excretory structures for different waster products. For instance, unlike plants, animals have specialized excretory structures such as lungs, skin and the kidneys to eliminate huge and different types of excretory products (Nosrati & Nosrati, 2013).
Animals have unique behavioral adaptations to better survive in their environment-something that lacks in plants. Examples of behavioral adaptations include; hibernation, estivation and mimicking among others (Purves et al., 2003).
References
Lakhotia, N., Joshi, G., Bhardwaj, A. R., Katiyar-Agarwal, S., Agarwal, M., Jagannath, A., & Kumar, A. (2014). Identification and characterization of miRNAome in root, stem, leaf and tuber developmental stages of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) by high-throughput sequencing. BMC plant biology,14(1), 1.
Nosrati, H., & Nosrati, M. (2013). The Generalities about the Kingdom Animalia.
Purves, W. K., Orians, G. H., Sadava, D., & Heller, H. C. (2003). Life: The Science of Biology: Volume III: Plants and Animals (Vol. 3). Macmillan.
