 Every organism is an open system linked to its environment by a continuous exchange of

energy and materials.

o In ecosystems, plants and other photosynthetic autotrophs perform the crucial step
of transforming inorganic compounds into organic ones.
o Plants need sunlight as the energy source for photosynthesis.
o They also need inorganic raw materials such as water, CO2, and inorganic ions to
synthesize organic molecules.
o Plants obtain CO2 from the air. Most vascular plants obtain water and minerals from
the soil through their roots.
o The branching root and shoot systems of vascular plants allow them to draw from
soil and air reservoirs of inorganic nutrients.
 Roots, through fungal mycorrhizae and root hairs, absorb water and
minerals from the soil.
 CO2 diffuses into leaves from the surrounding air through stomata.
 Early ideas about plant nutrition were not entirely correct and included:
o Aristotle’s hypothesis that soil provided the substance for plant growth.
o van Helmont’s conclusion from his experiments that plants grow mainly from water.
o Hale’s postulate that plants are nourished mostly by air.
 In fact, soil, water, and air all contribute to plant growth.
 Plants extract mineral nutrients from the soil. Mineral nutrients are essential chemical
elements absorbed from soil in the form of inorganic ions.
o For example, many plants acquire nitrogen in the form of nitrate ions (NO3?).
o However, as van Helmont’s data suggested, mineral nutrients from the soil
contribute little to the overall mass of a plant.
 About 80–90% of a plant is water. Because water contributes most of the hydrogen ions and
some of the oxygen atoms that are incorporated into organic atoms, one can consider water a
nutrient.
o However, only a small fraction of the water entering a plant contributes to organic
molecules.
o More than 90% of the water absorbed by a field of corn is lost by transpiration.
o 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 dry weight of an organism can be determined by drying it to remove all water. About 95%
of the dry weight of a plant consists of organic molecules. The remaining 5% consists of inorganic
molecules.
o Most of the organic material is carbohydrate, including cellulose in cell walls.
 Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are the most abundant elements in the dry
weight of a plant.
  Because some organic molecules contain nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus,
these elements are also relatively abundant in plants.
 More than 50 chemical elements have been identified among the inorganic substances present
in plants.
o However, not all of these 50 are essential elements, required for the plant to
complete its life cycle and reproduce.
 Roots are able to absorb minerals somewhat selectively, enabling the plant to accumulate
essential elements that may be present in low concentrations in the soil.
o However, the minerals in a plant also reflect the composition of the soil in which the
plant is growing.
o Some elements are taken up by plant roots even though they do not have any
function in the plant.
Plants require nine macronutrients and at least eight micronutrients.
 Plants can be grown in hydroponic culture to determine which mineral elements are actually
essential nutrients.
o Plants are grown in solutions of various minerals in known concentrations.
o If the absence of a particular mineral, such as potassium, causes a plant to become
abnormal in appearance when compared to controls grown in a complete mineral medium, then
that element is essential.
o Such studies have identified 17 elements that are essential nutrients in all plants and
a few other elements that are essential to certain groups of plants.
 Elements required by plants in relatively large quantities are macronutrients.
o There are nine macronutrients in all, including the six major ingredients in organic
compounds: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus.
o The other three macronutrients are potassium, calcium, and magnesium.
 Elements that plants need in very small amounts are micronutrients.
o The eight micronutrients are iron, chlorine, copper, zinc, manganese, molybdenum,
boron, and nickel.
o Most of these function as cofactors, nonprotein helpers in enzymatic reactions.
o For example, iron is a metallic component in cytochromes, proteins that function in
the electron