Question

A chef chops vegetables into a bowl of water. Would you expect the vegetable slices to gain or lose water? Explain your answer in terms of water potential.
Imagine that you are an agri-science consultant to a large corporate farm that raises 7000 acres of wheat on a desert land adjoining the Mediterranean Sea. Just before the wheat matures, all the wells used for irrigation water run dry. The farm manager wants to irrigate the fields with water drawn from the Mediterranean. From previous tests, you know that the average solute potential of root tissue taken from the wheat fields is -11.13 bars. You test the seawater and determine its solute potential to be -24.26 bars. What will you advise the farm manager and why?

A marine clam is mistakenly added to a freshwater aquarium. What will happen to the clam and why?

Answer 1

A chef chops vegetables into a bowl of water. I would expect that the chopped vegetables will gain water since the solute concentration inside the vegetable is low causing more water to go inside the pores of the vegetable. This process is known as osmosis.