Fruits and Seed Dispersal

Fruits and Seed Dispersal Nicole Saylor Meiko M. Thompson BIO 115 11/25/12 In this essay I will be answering questions about fruit and as to the reason why things are the way they are†¦ First up is some fruits are sweet and some are not is because, â€Å"Actually, the taste of a fruit depends on the compounds  present in it. Normally a fruit contains the  materials  like cellulose, proteins, starch, vitamins, certain acids,  fructose  or sugar. All these  materials  are found in mixed form inside the fruit and they have different proportions in different fruits.Fruits of  sweet taste have more  fructose  in them  whereas  the  fruits of  sour taste have more acids in them. † (Gemini Geek) so this means that the more or less acid a fruit has then more sweeter or more sour it will taste, and that all means something with no taste really to is to say to have no acid , or sugars that would give it a particular taste. The next in line is that the ri pening of a fruit and the seed dispersal go hand in hand in such a way that when a fruit ripens it is a signal from production mode of a seed to the dispersal of a mature seed that is ready to become another plant to create the dame cycle over again.To help explain this for example, â€Å"n dry fruits (cereals, nuts, dandelions) ripening consists of desiccation and is considered maturation. Ripening in fleshy fruits is designed to make the fruit appealing to animals that eat the fruit as a means for seed dispersal. Ripening involves the softening, increased juiciness and sweetness, and color changes of the fruit. Fleshy fruits are either climacteric or non-climacteric. Climacteric fruits produce a reparative burst with a concomitant burst in ethylene synthesis, as the fruits ripen. These include fruits with high degrees of flesh softening, like tomato, banana, avocado, peach etc. (Lecture 17)So we see that in this process of ripening and seed dispersal are that it is the plants way of making sure that the seeds that it produced to carry on and make more fruit plants or trees happens by making the fruit itself more appealing to animals which will at and then later disperse the seeds. The next question to address is how do we play a role in all of this and how do we effect it basically. Well we humans affect this natural process when we take over the land and granted that plants were here long before we were and before animals were.So plants have been able to grow without our aid if fertilizing the soil and etc†¦ For example, â€Å"Unlike colonist plants, the deep forests of our planet are largely independent from us. They don’t need us to prepare the ground or disperse their seeds. Plants, after all, colonized dry land well before animals did, and were doing quite well, on their own, before we arrived. Some kinds of trees need little help from animals of any sort. Because they don’t need our help, these trees have little to gain by feeding us. This is why we often find that there is relatively little food to be had in mature forests.You can’t eat wood. †(Kyle Chamberlain) So see plants were reproducing before animals and us but granted when animals came along it did make the seed dispersal process a lot easier. As far as I can see that a seed does not use sugar or starch for its metabolism unless it developing then yes. Because when a seed is developing it needs these to grow into a mature seed that can be dispersed, but since this seed has become mature and is dispersed then it start growing and producing its own sugars and starches from the light and dark process of photosynthesis.References The Gemini Geek (2012). Why Are Some Fruits Sweet While Others Are Sour? [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www. thegeminigeek. com/why-are-some-fruits-sweet-while-others-are-sour/ Iowa State University (2012). Lecture 17 [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www. public. iastate. edu/~bot. 512/lectures/seed&frui t. htm Chamberlin, K. (2012). Disturbance Ecology – The Human Habitat Project [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://sites. google. com/site/humanhabitatproject/home/disturbance-ecology