Answer: a. Stomata open at Night
Explanation:
As a tactic to minimize photorespiration in warm regions, many water-storing plants such as cacti and pineapples modified its method of carbon fixation. This process is called Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM), following the plant family Crassulaceae, in which it was first identified. In these plants, the stomata (singular, stoma), specialized openings in the leaves of all plants through which CO2 enters and water vapor is lost, open during the night and close during the day. This model of stomatal opening and closing is the opposite of that in most plants.
Radiation is responsible for the greatest loss of energy.
Lets understand the given passage.
An ecologist <u>observes that the diet of a bird species consists primarily of large grass seeds</u> (as opposed to smaller grass seeds or the seeds of other herbaceous plants found in the area).
<u>He hypothesizes that the birds are choosing the larger seeds because they have a higher concentrations of nitrogen than do other types of seeds at the site</u><u>.</u>
<u>To test the hypothesis, the ecologist compares the large grass seeds with the other types of seeds, and the results clearly show that the large grass seeds do indeed have a much higher concentration of nitrogen.</u>
No, he cannot conclude that the birds select the larger grass seeds because of their higher concentrations of nitrogen. The hypothesis testing done by the ecologist is incomplete as he failed to set up a control in the experiment. The control would have been the birds feeding on large seeds that lack or are low on nitrogen content. This will establish a relation between the bird's diet and the size of the seeds and the nitrogen content of the seeds. It could be true that birds do not care about the nitrogen content but simply prefer larger seed sizes.
Another problem associated with his field experiment is the failure in noting the beak sizes of the birds. The beak size and shape enable a bird to break and eat seeds. Larger beaks fail at breaking open smaller seeds. This observation would add bird beak size as another variable of the experiment.
