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Naturalist Perspectives Assignment 8

Location: Site Alpha
Date: 5/2/2017
Time: 2:00 PM
Weather: Sunny and windy. 57℉.


The plants at Site Alpha are growing more. Lots of little shoots of things are popping up. Some of the flowers are beginning to wilt.

Location: Site Beta
Date: 5/2/2017
Time: 6:00 PM
Weather: Sun getting low, 54℉

I don't have a picture of this one because my phone died. There are now some tulips there, though and the trees are covered in flowers. There is a strong floral scent in the air, but I am not sure that it is coming from the flowers in this particular flower bed.

1. Evolution - The flowers here have been artificially selected. This has been done mostly based on aesthetic, smell, and ability to withstand the weather conditions of Cambridge.
2. Cell Biology - The cell structures in different parts of the plants correspond to the role they play in the overall life of the plant. Because they are plant cells, they contain chloroplasts, which enable the plant to photosynthesize- get nutrients from sunlight. These nutrients are turned into energy, which is then used to direct the other processes necessary for the plant's life.
3. Central Dogma - The variations in plants, for instance different colors of the same species of flower, are examples of alleles, differing forms of the same gene due to a mutation in a the same place on a chromosome.
4. Genetic Modification - Many of these plants have likely been genetically modified. People interfere with the replication part of cell division and insert alternate DNA, which codes for particular traits in order to produce organisms with specific phenotypes. This works because genetic code is universal.
5. Ecology - At a glance, these areas both had minimal biodiversity. I suspect there is a high likelihood that chemicals were used to treat the soil and the plants, purposefully adding specific microbes that would interact with the plants in specific ways. Other natural members of the ecological system, such as insects and critters, were notably absent from these sites. In limited regions, this is not a threat to the larger ecosystem, but as these crucial members of the ecosystem continue to be removed, there is likely to be negative long term ramifications.


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