Exam 29: Plant Diversity I: How Plants Colonized Land

Which of the following characteristics helped seedless plants better adapt to life on land?

Refer to the following information to answer the next few questions. Researchers decided to test the hypothesis that if the 2-m tall Polytrichum gametophyte- sporophyte plants had acted as a physical buffer, then they would have reduced water's ability to erode the soil and carry away its nitrogen. They began with four equal-sized areas where Polytrichum mosses grew to a height of 2 m above the soil surface. One of the four areas was not modified. In the second area, the mosses were trimmed to a height of 1 m above the soil surface. In the third area, the mosses were trimmed to a height of 0.5 m above the soil surface. In the fourth area, the mosses were trimmed all the way to the ground, leaving only the rhizoids. Water, simulating rainfall, was then added in a controlled fashion to all plots over the course of one year. The figure below presents four graphs that depict potential results of this experiment. -Why should we expect the soil's nitrogen not to be contained solely within the rhizoids of the Polytrichum mosses?

Evidence indicates that plants increase the number of stomata in their leaves as atmospheric CO₂ levels decline. Increasing the number of stomata per unit surface area should have the effect of doing which of the following? 1. increase dehydration of leaf tissues 2. decrease dehydration of leaf tissues 3. counter the effect of declining CO₂ on photosynthesis 4. reinforce the effect of declining CO₂ on photosynthesis 5. decrease the O₂ content of air next to the leaves to a level lower than it would otherwise be 6. increase the O₂ content of air next to the leaves to a level higher than it would otherwise be

If humans had been present to build log structures during the Carboniferous period (they weren't), which plant types would have been suitable sources of logs?

Sporophylls can be found in which of the following?

Use the following figure to answer the questions below. -Which of the following should be most helpful in distinguishing the clades depicted on the tree in the above figure from each other?

Use the information that follows to answer the questions below. Big Bend National Park in Texas is mostly Chihuahuan desert, where rainfall averages about 10 inches per year. Yet, it is not uncommon when hiking in this bone-dry desert to encounter mosses and ferns. One such plant is called "flower of stone." It is not a flowering plant, nor does it produce seeds. Under arid conditions, its leaflike structures curl up. However, when it rains, it unfurls its leaves, which form a bright green rosette on the desert floor. Consequently, it is sometimes called the "resurrection plant." At first glance, it could be a fern, a true moss, or a spike moss. -What feature of both true mosses and ferns makes it most surprising that they can survive for many generations in dry deserts?

All of the following are common to both charophytes and land plants except

Use the information that follows to answer the questions below. Big Bend National Park in Texas is mostly Chihuahuan desert, where rainfall averages about 10 inches per year. Yet, it is not uncommon when hiking in this bone-dry desert to encounter mosses and ferns. One such plant is called "flower of stone." It is not a flowering plant, nor does it produce seeds. Under arid conditions, its leaflike structures curl up. However, when it rains, it unfurls its leaves, which form a bright green rosette on the desert floor. Consequently, it is sometimes called the "resurrection plant." At first glance, it could be a fern, a true moss, or a spike moss. -Which of the following characteristics is (are)possessed in common by true mosses, ferns, and spike mosses, and therefore becomes useless at helping to determine to which of these groups flower of stone belongs? 1. a sporophyte generation that is dominant 2. true leaves and roots 3. flagellated sperm 4. strobili 5. alternation of generations

If you are looking for structures that transfer water and nutrients from a bryophyte gametophyte to a bryophyte sporophyte, then on which part of the sporophyte should you focus your attention?

Which of the following statements correctly describes the alternation of generation cycle of a fern?

You are hiking in a forest and come upon a mysterious plant, which you determine is either a lycophyte sporophyte or a pterophyte sporophyte. Which of the following would be most helpful in determining the correct classification of the plant?

Which taxon is essentially equivalent to the "embryophytes"?

Refer to the following information to answer the next few questions. Researchers decided to test the hypothesis that if the 2-m tall Polytrichum gametophyte- sporophyte plants had acted as a physical buffer, then they would have reduced water's ability to erode the soil and carry away its nitrogen. They began with four equal-sized areas where Polytrichum mosses grew to a height of 2 m above the soil surface. One of the four areas was not modified. In the second area, the mosses were trimmed to a height of 1 m above the soil surface. In the third area, the mosses were trimmed to a height of 0.5 m above the soil surface. In the fourth area, the mosses were trimmed all the way to the ground, leaving only the rhizoids. Water, simulating rainfall, was then added in a controlled fashion to all plots over the course of one year. The figure below presents four graphs that depict potential results of this experiment. -Which of these potential results of applying a metabolic poison to the rhizoids of Polytrichum should interfere the least with the ability to draw valid conclusions from this experiment?

In animal cells and in the meristem cells of land plants, the nuclear envelope disintegrates during mitosis. This disintegration does not occur in the cells of most protists and fungi. According to our current knowledge of plant evolution, which group of organisms should feature mitosis most similar to that of land plants?

Use the following figure to answer the questions below. -What is true of the phylogenetic tree in the figure above? 1. It depicts uncertainty about whether the bryophytes or the vascular plants evolved first. 2. It is hypothetical. 3. It includes polytomies. 4. It shows that ferns (phylum Pterophyta)are the closest living relatives to the seed plants. 5. It indicates that seeds are a shared ancestral character of all vascular plants.

Which of the following are land plants that use the same means of getting sperm to egg that algae use?

In terms of evolutionary time, which phyla are the oldest and which are the most recent (respectively)?

In plants, which of the following are produced by meiosis?

Use the following figure to answer the questions below. -The resolution of the relationships indicated by dashed lines in the figure above will most probably come from