Help! Science Lab due tomorrow!!?

Question

Question #1 contains two questions:

a) In what ways may water loss by leaves help the plant?

b) In what ways may water loss by leaves harm the plant?

I hope someone out there knows a lot about botany. Please tell me your ideas or websites to go to. Thanks so much!!

Answer 1

a) because if they have too mucha water the plant can drown

b) if the leaves gives off too much water it will drie out and die

Answer 2

Hi Mango Luver,

a) Water loss helps the plant because water helps the plant to  bring nutrients from the ground to its leaves where food is produced and to bring the food made in its leaves to its other parts.  If the plant becomes too saturated with water, then there will not be enough of a difference in the water pressures between the bottom of the plant and the top of the plant to permit osmosis of the nutrients and food.  A simple demonstration of this effect is to hold a dry sponge by its top end and stick the bottom end in a bowl of water, you can see the water level of the bowl start to drop as the water will climb up the sponge (this is simple physics, which is NOT my forte).  However, if the sponge is saturated with water before placing the bottom end in the bowl, the water level of the bowl will not change because the water will not climb up the sponge.

b) Water loss may harm the plant because it will dehydrate and loose its ability to transport nutrients and food throughout the plant.

[NOTE: Plants have in their leaves a special organism called a stoma (plural = stomata), which act to regulate transpiration (release of water vapor) and the in/out flow of gasses.]

I hope this is of some help to you.  Sorry that I can't be more concise.

Hiking Tony