✅ Plant Physiology
How this section is organized
Where Plant Anatomy covers structure — tissue types, organ arrangement, monocot/dicot contrasts — Plant Physiology covers mechanism: what actually pulls water to the top of a tree, what happens biochemically inside a chloroplast, what tells a seed to germinate or a flower to form on schedule. This section runs in four tiers:
- Water & Nutrient Transport (4 pages) — the transport mechanisms Plant Anatomy’s vascular, root, and leaf pages explicitly deferred: water movement, stomatal control, phloem translocation, and mineral/symbiotic nutrient uptake.
- Photosynthesis (2 pages) — the light-reaction and carbon-fixation biochemistry behind the Kranz and CAM anatomy already covered structurally in Plant Anatomy.
- Growth Regulation & Development (4 pages) — the hormonal signals and their downstream effects on directional growth, flowering timing, and germination.
- Whole-Plant & Stress Physiology (1 page) — abiotic and biotic stress responses, integrating mechanisms from every earlier tier.
Start with Water Transport & Transpiration — its water potential framework is assumed throughout the rest of the section.
Water & Nutrient Transport
Water potential, cohesion-tension theory, apoplast/symplast pathways, root pressure
Intermediate
Guard cell turgor mechanism, ABA-triggered closure, photosynthesis-transpiration trade-off
Intermediate
Pressure-flow (Munch) hypothesis, source-sink dynamics, phloem loading/unloading
Intermediate
Essential elements, active uptake, Rhizobium and mycorrhizal symbioses
Intermediate
Photosynthesis
Photosystems I/II, the Z-scheme, water-splitting, chemiosmotic ATP synthesis
Advanced
RuBP carboxylation, photorespiration cost, C4/CAM biochemical fixes
Advanced
Growth Regulation & Development
Auxin, gibberellin, cytokinin, ABA, ethylene, brassinosteroids and their classic experiments
Intermediate
Phototropism, gravitropism, thigmotropism, and turgor-driven nastic movements
Intermediate
Phytochrome, critical night length, vernalization, florigen (FT protein)
Advanced
Imbibition, GA/ABA dormancy balance, epigeal vs. hypogeal germination
Intermediate