Question

What are the specific problems and charateristics of different types of plants on Verdugo Mountain ( i.e Black Sage, California Bush, Chamise)?

Answer the following for research question above

3.Identify two other ecological concepts that will also affect your research question.

4. find a peer-reviewed, research journal article whose topic addresses the same question. You will then need to provide the following information:

Name the concept

Researcher, year, organism

Question they researched

Conclusion they found

Answer 1

Problems faced by the plants on Verdugo mountain:

The plants flourishing on Verdugo mountain are known as belonging to Chaparral plant community. These plants face the problems due to draught, fires and presence of less nitrogen in soil.

Characteristics:

• They have potential to regrow after fires in their habitat.
• They can tolerate draught by curling their leaves.
• They can survive in almost every kind of soil like granite or sandstone.
• They have symbiotic associations to cope up with decrease or no nitrogen in the soil they grow.

3. Ecological concepts involved:

1. Draught tolerance 2. Mycorrhizal Symbiosis

4. Research article

Name of the concept : Draught Tolerance

Researcher: Kolb K J and Davis S D

Year: 1994

Organism: Salvia mellifera (Black sage) and Ceanothus megacarpus (California bush)

Question they researched: Draught tolerance in both these species by comparing changes in water potential in xylem tissue due to season change and also extent of loss of hydraulic conductivity of xylem due to entry of air bubbles in them.

Conclusion they found: Draught tolerance ability is higher in black sage and is linked to its capability of leaf curling (to tolerate draught) in summers and high growth rate in spring to allow fast formation of new xylem tissues.