2. a. What is pollination? How does it occur in plants? (5m)
Answers
Answer:
At the most basic level, pollination is the way plants achieve fertilization and genetic diversity. Pollination process occurs when pollen grains from the male part of one flower (anther) are transferred to the female part (stigma) of another flower. Once pollination occurs, the fertilized flowers produce seeds, which enable the associated plant to reproduce and/or form fruit.
You will notice that we didn't specifically mention bees. Pollination can occur through many mechanisms, including some without the assistance of another living thing. Pollination through wind is an example.
However, living pollinators such as bees play a huge and valuable role in pollination across the globe. Let's drill down on how.
Why is Pollination Important?
Benefits to Humans
Pollination provides many benefits to humans, with the most obvious being the abundance of food.
Corn is an example of a crop that needs wind pollination, which means it can thrive without the help of bees. By comparison, peppers and tomatoes are examples of plants that require pollination from insects.
In addition, the food farmers feed to their livestock requires pollination. A lack of pollination therefore even impacts, indirectly, the availability of meat and can result in a limited supply of vegetables, fruits, and nuts.Because pollination is so critical to the food supply, the insects involved have significant socio-economic value. Many commercial beekeepers rent bees to crop farmers to increase pollination. In the U.S., the almond and blueberry industries are among the biggest renters of bees.
Beyond the renting and profiting from bees, pollination management is a growing career field. Professionals in the industry develop and research technologies that can potentially replace the role of bees and other insects in the pollination process. Over time this may increase in importance due to the alarming decline in pollinator numbers.
This growing field is appealing to engineering and science students who are also invested in the health of the planet. MIT has conducted a study looking at the costs of pollen dusting and hand pollination. They found that it’s more cost-effective to spend money saving bees and other pollinators than it is to use these mechanical methods.
Benefits to Flowers/Plants
Flowers would be nowhere without pollination! No matter the type of pollination involved, plants require pollination to reproduce. Just like every other living thing on the planet, plants are driven to propagate their species and ensure their genetics live on for many generations. Pollination is how plants begin this process.
Pollination allows plants to improve genetic diversity within their species and, in some cases, plants will cross-pollinate with other flower varieties. This creates a heartier, more genetically diverse plant population and sometimes drives a mutation that results in a new species or hybrid.
Benefits to Bees
Bees don’t engage in the pollination process merely because they love flowers and plants! They reap huge benefits from participating in the process. As they fly from flower-to-flower, they move pollen from plant-to-plant on their legs, which is how pollination occurs.
hope this helps you mate xD
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What is pollination? How does it occur in plants?
Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma.
Pollination is a prerequisite for fertilization, the fusion of nuclei from the pollen grain with nuclei in the ovule.
Fertilization is where a sperm fuses with an egg to form a zygote.