Slide 13 in our week 3 powerpoint discusses briefly the three different photosynthesis methods that exist in plants. The three pathways are referred to as C3, C4, and CAM. This Khan Academy module  (Links to an external site.)discusses these three pathways in more depth. In our daily lives we come across a variety of different plants and they each use one of these pathways for photorespiration — this is determined by where these plants evolved to survive. For example, CAM plants open their stomata at night because they have adapted to survive in very hot, very dry environments. An example of this is the Crassulaceae spp. pictured below.

For this discussion board your assignment is to find a plant living outside your home, take a picture of this plant and submit it to iNaturalist (Links to an external site.) and get an ID of your plant. Once you know the genus or genus and species of your plant (for example, the genus for the plant below is Cassulaceae and it is an unknown species so spp.) figure out which of the pathways the plant uses for photorespiration. Using your knowledge of the pathways discuss whether this result is surprising or, if not, why it makes sense. Here is where you would include a peer-reviewed article. (Ex: https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/71/16/4629/5837361?login=true (Links to an external site.)) If you are having difficulties finding a peer-reviewed article please contact me or join my office hours.

Compose an original post following the guidelines laid out in the discussion board rubric. Remember to complete your original post earlier in the week so that others my contribute to a discussion of your post (part of your grading criteria). Please include a link to your iNaturalist upload.

After writing your original post, respond to 2 of your classmates’ discussion board posts on this topic. In your responses to this discussion board focus on the similarities or differences in your plants. If you are from the same geographic region are your plants similar? Why do you think that is? What if they’re different? (Hint: Think about native vs. non-native plants)

Remember that you should be including at least one citation to a peer-reviewed research article that I did not provide to you in your original post. The video that explains peer review is on our intro to class page if you would like a refresher. If you cannot figure out if a source is peer-reviewed feel free to send it to me and I will provide feedback.

You should also be proofreading your original posts and responses. I recommend going to the writing center early in the week if your posts have included a lot of writing errors up to this point. You can also use resources such as natural readers (Links to an external site.) or turn on the speak feature (Links to an external site.) in Microsoft word.