CELL TRANSPORT

DATE: Tuesday, November 10, 2015

TIME: 12:00 PM

WEATHER CONDITIONS: At the time of observation, it was approximately 70˚F outside. There was no precipitation during the time of observation, and it was sunny throughout the entire day. There was 29.98 in. of atmospheric pressure. The average humidity was 52%. There was 9 mph wind throughout the day.

CHANGES: The most noticeable change is that the tree pretty much has no leaves left, and the reaming few are orange/brown and dead. The fallen leaves have been left scattered around the trunk. Looking back at the entry from two weeks ago, it's amazing and very interesting to see such a dramatic shift in that short period of time. 

1. Molecules diffuse due to the movement of particles in liquids and gases. This is affected by temperature, as the particles move faster and diffuse at a quicker rate in a warmer environment, and slower in a cold environment. This idea is called thermal motion. 





BEFORE: this diagram shows a normal plant cell

ISOTONIC: this diagram shows that there is equal water concentration inside and outside of the cell. This solution will also reach dynamic equilibrium, meaning that water is moving in and out of the cell at equal rates. Therefore, this diagram resembles the normal plant cell picture almost exactly, because not much changes between the two. 


HYPOTONIC: this diagram shows that there is a higher water concentration outside of the cell, because as the arrows show, water is moving from outside the cell (the higher concentration) to inside of the cell (the lower concentration). This pattern of diffusion causes the vacuole to expand, the turgor pressure to increase, and therefore the cell wall to eventually burst.


HYPERTONIC: this diagram shows that there is a higher concentration of water inside the cell, because as the arrows show, water is moving from inside the cell (the higher concentration) to outside the cell (the lower concentration). This pattern of diffusion causes the vacuole and cytoplasm to shrink, which shrivels up the overall plant and eventually causes it to die. 

2. See diagrams above.
3. The water will move out of the plant cell. Because water naturally flows from a high to low concentration, water will leave the highly-concentrated cell and move into the surrounding area, since it has a lower concentration.
4. The water will diffuse up into the roots, and then throughout the rest of the plant. This is because water naturally diffuses from a high to low concentration, and 0 bars (the distilled water) is greater than -2, -6, -15, and -1000. Therefore, the more highly concentrated distilled water will move to the lower-concentrated areas, such as the leaves and the roots. 
5. If a farmer applied salt to their plant's roots on a regular basis, the plant would quickly shrivel up and die. This is because salt creates a hypertonic solution, and it decreases the turgor pressure. This means that inside the cell, the vacuole and cytoplasm are shrinking. And in terms of the overall tree, the farmer would notice its begin to shrivel up, die, and fall off the branches. This is also due to the fact that osmosis and the net diffusion of water causes the majority of the water supply to diffuse out of the cell, therefore drying out the plant cells in the tree to the point where they shrivel up. The water diffuses in a patter of high to low water potential. 

REFERENCES

• http://www.mun.ca/biology/Osmosis_Diffusion/tutor2.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turgor_pressure (used only for pictures!!)
• http://freecoloringpages.co.uk/?r=unlabeled%20plant%20cell
• http://alevelnotes.com/Osmosis/143?tree=