Story of the seed Blog post #4

Story of the seed#4

There are a few abiotic factors that our plant depends on for surviving. Some of the factors include water, sunlight, temperature, oxygen, and soil. These factors were and are very important in the development of our plant. First off, water is the most important factor. Our plant needs a decent amount of water to stay and remain healthy and the soil needed to be good in order for it to keep growing well. Finally, sunlight and temperature were also crucial. Temperature and sunlight have a big effect on how much the plant grows. If there is more sunlight and a warmer temperature, than the plant will grow much more. Also with rain the plant should grow and the rain is good for the soil.

Our plant is definitely engaged in competition. The competitors are the other plants next to it in the garden. The plants are competing for water and nutrients, they try and get more water and nutrients than the surrounding plants. Wild animals in the garden are also definitely engaged in competition also. They are competing for certain foods and nutrients.

In life there are always “winners” and “losers”, same with in the garden. “Winners” would be the ones benefiting from something, and the “losers” are the ones with a disadvantage. Sometimes it can be hard to tell what plants and animals win or lose. For example if a plant rots and dies it would be considered a “loser” rather than if the plant were to grow a lot and it be very green. Then it would be a “winner”.  Another example of winners and losers would be aphids and plants. The winner would be aphid because they are getting sugars from the plants. The loser would be the plant because it is getting infected with viruses from the aphid.

There are many forms of interactions dealing with plants in the garden. Some forms of interactions are mutualism in which 2 organisms benefit from each other and parasitism. An example of mutualism in the garden is a bee and a flower/plant. The bee would get nectar from the flower, and the bee fertilizes the flower allowing it to reproduce. Another example of parasitism is with aphids and plants. The aphids are small insects who suck out fluids from plants and give plants very negative viruses. The aphids turn plant leaves yellow and they usually inject toxins into plants. Aphids benefit from getting sugars from the plants.

There is succession going on in the garden currently is secondary succession. There is proof of succession going on because our plant and most of the plants are growing, getting much bigger, and much greener. It isn’t primary succession because the garden isn’t lacking soil or hasn’t dealt with any natural disasters.