Strawberries are a popular fruit sold around the
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A study was conducted which looked at the factors behind two common conditions in strawberries, water soaking and shrivelling, both of which can have severe impacts on the quality of fruits.
The graphs below show the result of an experiment which investigated the rate of water uptake by strawberries before harvest and the rate of transpiration after harvest in relation to the surface area of the fruit.
1.1.Compare and contrast the rates of water uptake and transpiration in strawberries.
1.2.Suggest a reason for the discrepancy between the rate of water uptake and the rate of transpiration.
2.Calculate the surface area (cm$^2$) which would result in the uptake of 500 mg of water in two hours.
Surface area=
cm$^2$
3.State the tissue through which water is transported in plants.
In plants, water is transported in the
.
In an attempt to reduce the volume of water uptake in strawberries, scientists tested the effect of incubating them in different isotonic solutions, which contained solutes of varying molecular weights. The results of the experiment are shown below.
4.State the term used to describe the movement of water molecules into and out of plant cells.
5.1.Identify the incubation solution which resulted in the lowest uptake of water in strawberries.
5.2.Describe the relationship between water uptake and the molecular mass of solutes in the incubation solution.
5.3.Predict the uptake for strawberries incubated in a solution containing PEG6000 if they were incubated for 2 hours.
The uptake at two hours would be around
mg.
Despite the influence of environmental factors on the quality of strawberries before and after harvest, genetic factors were also attributed to important retail characteristics, such as the colour of strawberries.
In the experiment below, 40 Redlands Joy strawberry plants were pollinated in the following four ways:
Autogamy (natural pollination with pollen from the same flower)
Self (hand pollinated with pollen from the same plant)
Sugarbaby (hand pollinated with pollen from the sugarbaby variety)
Rubygem (hand pollinated with pollen from the Rubygem variety)
The brightness, redness and yellowness of the fruits produced from each plant was recorded.
6.Calculate as a percentage, to the nearest whole number, how much brighter the brightest strawberries were, compared to the dullest strawberries. the percentage=
%
7.Describe the effect of different pollination treatments on the colour of strawberries.
8.Discuss whether the data provided supports the hypothesis that cross-pollinated strawberry flowers produce strawberries with a higher retail value than self-pollinated strawberry flowers.