Agriculture is by far the biggest user of water in arid western s...

Question

Agriculture is by far the biggest user of water in arid western states, including Colorado, Arizona, and California. The populations of these states are growing, and there is an ongoing conflict between cities and farm regions over water. To ensure water supplies for urban growth, cities are purchasing water rights from farmers. This is often the least expensive way for a city to obtain more water, and some farmers can make more money selling water than growing crops. Discuss the possible consequences of this trend. Is this the best way to allocate water for all concerned? Why or why not?

Accepted Answer

Hello, everyone here's our next question. Water and minerals are transported from roots to leaves, mostly via transpiration. Most of the water that reaches the leaves is discharged by the leaves, which of the following statements about the water content of soil for plants is false. So let's think about the process of transpiration to think about um what different water contents in the soil means. Transpiration is that process of water movement through a plant and its evaporation from its aerial parts. That movement occurs by capillary action. So as water evaporates through this tomato at the plant, um water molecules move up to take the place of the evaporating molecules and are pulled up by capillary action from the roots up to the leaves. So we've got the water initially coming from the soil. So with that in mind, let's look at our answer choices. Also noticing that we've got choice D here as all statements are incorrect. So we're looking for one false answer. But if they're all false then our answer would be choice D. So let's just keep that straight. So let's look at choice A choice A says high water content in the soil is healthy for plant roots. Well this is actually false. We might be fooled for a minute thinking if well needs to be have some water. High water is better. Um But this is for two reasons it can cause the roots to rot in such a wet environment and it means the roots can't absorb oxygen and we might stop and think wait a second. Plants use carbon dioxide what they need to absorb oxygen. But let's recall that. It's only the green parts of the plants that can photosynthesize and get energy from the sun. But all the parts of the plant need to have respiration taking place just like us. They need to break down sugar for energy and for that they need oxygen. Photo synthesizing cells get plenty of oxygen as a waste product of photosynthesis. But those root cells need to absorb it from the soil and they do that from little air pockets in the soil when the soil is too wet there are no air pockets and they can't absorb the water and the oxygen they need. So high water content in the soil is actually not healthy for the roots. So we're going to mark that as a possibility. It's false. But just in case all of them are false, we're not going to choose it just yet. Now let's move onto Choice B. Choice B says increasing water availability can increase the rate of transpiration. Well, this is a true statement. Um Transporation will occur at a greater rate. The more water is available because of more water molecules available quickly to move up through the roots up into the plant. So since this is a true statement, we eliminate choice B We can also eliminate choice D since we know that not all of them are incorrect. That means we can go back. If we wanna test we go ahead and pick Choice A and move on, but we'll just look at our last choice here to be thorough choice. C says dehydration of cells is caused by a decrease in soil water availability. This is true. Um If there's not enough water in the soil, there's not enough water that can move up to replace the water being lost by transpiration and the cells will become dehydrated. Since this is true, it's not our answer choice. So again, most of the water that reaches the leaves is discharged by the leaves, which of the following statements about the water content of the soil for plants is false and that's choice. A high water content in the soil is healthy for plant roots. See you in the next video.

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