BIO SCI 94 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Carbon Cycle, Selective Breeding, Non-Vascular Plant

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIO SCI 94
• Professor: Robin Bush

Document Summary

Ecosystem consists of all organisms in an area, including atmosphere, water, soil. Green algae and land plants provide ecosystem services because they enhance life-supporting attributes of the ecosystem. Green plants alter the environment in ways that benefit many other organisms. Land plants are the dominant primary producers in terrestrial ecosystems. Land plants are key to the carbon cycle on the continents- they take co2 from atmosphere to make sugars. Plants provide humans with food, fuel, fiber, building materials, and medicines. Food: we use artificial selection to plant the best crops like maize. Pharmaceuticals: plants make 25% of prescriptions in us and also use these compounds to repel predators/herbivores. Similarities between green algae and land plants. The green algae have long been hypothesized to be closely related to land plants bc key traits are similar in the two groups. Their chloroplasts contain chlorophyll a and b and pigment beta-carotene. Cell walls, sperm, and peroxisomes are similar in structure and composition.