Angelina Post 3

This week, we went go check on our plants in the garden and noticed some changes. They grew about three inches taller. Also, more leaves grew and became wider. The plants look very healthy. They all have green leaves, with none dead or dying.


Our plants participate in the movement of water in the biosphere through transpiration. Moisture is carried through the plants from the roots to pores, where it changes to vapor and is released to the atmosphere. This means that the water from the plants evaporate into the air. Transpiration is very important for the growth of our plants, because our plants need it to be healthy. It helped them to grow by cooling it down and moving water and minerals into their leaves so photosynthesis could happen.

Our plants participate in the movement of carbon the biosphere through photosynthesis. They do this by absorbing carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight to make their own food, grow, and release oxygen. The plants gather more carbon as they grow. The carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when they decay, where it is consumed by plants in the continuing cycle. When plants die and are buried, they may turn into fossil fuels made of carbon such as coal and oil over a million years. As humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The carbon cycle gives our plants carbon dioxide. It helped them perform photosynthesis so they could grow healthily.

Our plants participate in the movement of nitrogen in the biosphere through the nitrogen cycle. During nitrogen fixation, special bacteria convert nitrogen gas into ammonia, which our plants use. Then, the ammonia is converted into nitrate ions in which our plants can take in as nutrients during nitrification. After the nitrogen is used by our plants and all the living organisms, decomposed bacteria convert the nitrogen-rich waste compounds into simpler ones during ammonification. Finally, during denitrification, other bacteria convert the simple nitrogen compounds back into nitrogen gas, which is released back into the atmosphere. Then the cycle starts again. Our plants grew healthily by using the ammonia that was converted from the nitrogen gas by the special bacteria. Also, they used the nitrate ions from the ammonia as nutrients.