Barley Botany
A Thought
Hypothesis
A barley plant growing in a vertical inverted environment will have a higher yield than those that grow in a normal environment because it will use less energy transporting material throughout the plant due to gravity helping this occur.
ABOUT BARLEY
Hordeum vulgare L., known by its common name as Barley, is a member of the grass family and includes over 150 cultivars being grown throughout the world. This specific type is a six-row, as opposed to the closely related two-row. The plant has influenced early human movement patterns and has been domesticated for about 10,000 years.
RATIONALE
Barley is the fourth most largely produed cereal grain on the planet. About 219,000 square miles are used to produce about 136,000,000 tons per year. The problem occurs with the land use, large scale farming has never been environmentally friendly. Many places struggle to keep the soil worthy of future use by using harmful amounts of fertilizer on it as well as depleting areas of water when they use too much to water their fields. Improving the yield of each individual plant would cut the environmental impact of growing barley and the methods could possibly be used on other similiar grains to have a similiar impact.
WATER TRANSPORT
Water moves through the xylem through the process of capillary action. Capillary action is the process by which water molecules, which are polar, are attracted to the molecules of the tubes and moves through the tube. This is caused by three forces:
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Cohesion- the water molecules want to stick together
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Adhesion- water molecules are attracted to other surfaces
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Surface Tension
There are two other causes of xylem sap flow:
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Transpirational Pull- evaporating water from the surface of the mesophyll cells, millions of meniscs form creating negative pressure
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Root Pressure- A concentraiton gradient forms and pulls water into the roots and forces water up the xylem by the creation of positive pressure
LIGHT AQUISITION
Plants do not use all of the light that is released by the sun. Photosynthesis works best with light in the visible light spectrum. Ultraviolet light is not used because the energy is too high and drives electrons from molecules, breaking weak bonds. On the other extreme, infrared light is too weak for biological systems to use and is converted to heat.
Sunlight contains about 4% ultraviolet light, 52% infrared light, and 44% visible light.
Chlorphyll is the light absorbing pigment found in plants. Chlorophyl A is the main light absorbing pigment while chlorophyll B acts as an accessory pigment. Accessory pigments allow for the expansion of viable wavelengths and help to increase photosynthesis.