Aquatic or Terrestrial Plant and its Interaction with Another Organism

Choose a Plant and Find an Interaction

This discussion post has two parts. First is your response to the questions about an animal you picked. Second is your response to another student’s thread. If you have any questions, please contact me or our TA, Jack. This discussion post will have a total of 7 points, one for answering each question adequately, and one for citation count and format. Partial credit may be given for each question. Overall, this exercise accounts for ~3.33% of your overall grade. Your discussion post: Choose an aquatic or terrestrial plant that has a common or scientific name starting with the same letter as your first name.

A good place to look could be at this site Next, find an organism that has one of the following types of interactions with this organism: exploitative interaction, competition, mutualism, commensalism, amensalism. You will find a primary literature source (scientific journal article) that documents this interaction and include this source in your response (APA format). A good place to search for articles is Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). Then, with a minimum of 100 words, answer the following prompts: Name the plant including its scientific name, and if it has one, its common name. Identify which biome this plant lives in. Name the other organism in the interaction including its scientific name, and if it has one, its common name. Name the interaction, describe it with some detail, and state whether the interaction is positive or negative or neither for the plant.

Your response to another student’s post: Respond to another student’s post that has no responses. If all posts have responses, find one with only one response. Respond to that post with an answer to the following question. Your response should be a minimum of 50 words and include at least one primary literature source. Find another organism that has a different type of interaction with the plant species than the interaction described by the original poster. Then, answer the following prompts. Name the other organism in the interaction including its scientific name, and if it has one, its common name. Name the interaction, describe it with some detail, and state whether the interaction is positive or negative or neither for the plant. Example Discussion Post (I knew nothing of this plant before coming up with this example, so I learned some things with this exercise): Jacaratia mexicana has no English common name but has been called Bonete or Ch'iich'puut by indigenous peoples in the Yucatan Penninsula.

It is a tree species in the family Caricaceae—papaya producing plants—and is found in tropical dry forests in Mexico down into Central America. Jacaratia mexicana has a mutualism with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which includes a number of species such as Acaulospora morrowiae. The mycorrhizal fungi assist the plant in nutritional uptake from the soil and the tree provides the fungi with some food and/or nutrients that the fungi cannot acquire as easily without the interaction with the tree.

Overall, this  Example Discussion Response Post: The papaya fruit fly, Toxotrypana curvicauda, has an exploitative interaction with Jacaratia mexicana. The fruit fly eats the papaya and does not assist the plant in distributing its seeds. Because the fly is lessening the value of the fruit for larger potential dispersers, this has a negative impact on the plant. Additionally, where the papaya plant is cultivated, the fruit fly decreases the commercial value of the fruit. Reference: Jiménez-Pérez, A., & Villa-Ayala, P. (2009). Fecundity and mating propensity of Toxotrypana curvicauda (Diptera: Tephritidae) on an alternative host, Jacaratia mexicana (Caricaceae). Florida Entomologist, 92(2), 350-354.