Assignment: Plant Biodiversity and Adaptation

Post your assignment to the Submissions Area for grading by the instructor by the due date assigned. The minimum length for this assignment is 1,200 words. Be sure to check your Turnitin report for your post and to make corrections before the deadline of 11:59 pm Mountain Time of the due date to avoid lack of originality problems in your work.

Discuss how adaptations allowed plants to move from an aquatic environment to the variety of habitats they inhabit today. You may wish to start out discussing single celled algae and include the transition from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. At the beginning or end of the essay, it may be helpful to write about plants that you have observed (using correct scientific nomenclature), and consider their traits and habitat. Then explain why those traits are adaptive, and how they arose. Don’t forget the role of natural selection in adaptation.