植物营养物质 plant nutrition.pptVIP

Chapter 37 Lecture Plant nutrition Introduction Every organism is an open system connected to its environment by a continuous exchange of energy and materials. In the energy flow and chemical cycling that keep an ecosystem alive, plants and other photosynthetic autotrophs perform the key step of transforming inorganic compounds into organic ones. At the same time, a plant needs sunlight as its energy source for photosynthesis and raw materials, such as CO2 and inorganic ions, to synthesize organic molecules. The root and shoot systems extensively network a plant with its environment. 1. The chemical composition of plants provides clues to their nutritional requirements Early ideas about plant nutrition were not entirely correct and included: Aristotle’s hypothesis that soil provided the substance for plant growth van Helmont’s conclusion from his experiments that plants grow mainly from water Hale’s postulate that plants are nourished mostly by air. Plants do extract minerals from the soil. Mineral nutrients are essential chemical elements absorbed from soil in the form of inorganic ions. For example, plants acquire nitrogen mainly in the form of nitrate ions (NO3-). Yet, as indicated by van Helmont’s data, mineral nutrients from the soil make only a small contribution to the overall mass of a plant. About 80 - 85% of a herbaceous plant is water. Because water contributes most of the hydrogen ions and some of the oxygen atoms incorporated into organic atoms, one can consider water a nutrient too. However, only a small fraction of the water entering a plant contributes to organic molecules. Over 90% is lost by transpiration. Most of the water retained by a plant functions as a solvent, provides most of the mass for cell elongation, and helps maintain the form of soft tissues by keeping cells turgid. By weight, the bulk of the organic material of a plant is derived not from water or soil minerals, but from the CO2 assimilated from the atmosphere. The uptake of nut