User:Cbussiere/sandbox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category%3APlants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Plant_stubs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Plant_articles_needing_attention

Article Evaluation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_perception_(physiology)

"Plant perception is the ability of plants to sense and respond to the environment to adjust their morphology, physiology, and phenotype accordingly. Other disciplines such as plant physiology, ecology and molecular biology are used to assess this ability."

Was this paragraph pieced together by multiple authors? The second sentence is abrupt - it makes no sense to say "other disciplines" when disciplines weren't mentioned previously. Also, oxford comma.

"volatile odour" - Odors are produced by volatile chemicals, they themselves are not a volatile entity. Is this wording accurate?

"Plants systematically use hormonal signalling pathways to coordinate their own development and morphology." - No example given. What did the author mean by this?

"They also use ATP, NO, and ROS like animals for signaling." - Examples and clarification? Do they only use the same chemicals animals do, or do they use them in a similar way to animals?

"plant cells are not neurons" - awkward wording. Human cells are also not neurons, as in all human cells are neurons. Neither are plant cells parenchyma cells.

"These action potentials can influence processes such as actin-based cytoplasmic streaming" The article for actin is linked, but the article for cytoplasmic streaming should be as well - I didn't know what that is, and it isn't exclusively related to actin enough for the actin article to cover it.

"but rapid movements can occur as well." The link leads to "Rapid plant movement", but in this context the specification "plant" would be redundant.

"For example, they can produce different toxins (phytoalexins) against invaders or they can induce rapid cell death in invading cells to hinder the pests from spreading out." Wording sounds strange, particularly "toxins against invaders" and "hinder the pests from spreading out." Author not native English speaker?

Other authors have noted where citation is needed or wording is vague. Occasional other statements need citations or are worded vaguely but not marked.

"roots usually grow away from light." - Root growth is in response to gravity, not light (this is even written later in the article), and the notion of root cells responding to light makes no sense as little to no light would reach them through the soil.

"plants are capable of adaptation" - I would refrain from using the word "adaptation," as it's usually used in the context of evolution, and here the article is speaking of individual plants and not populations. "Plasticity" or "response to stimuli" would be more appropriate.

"it should not be called intelligence, as plant neurobiologists are relying primarily on metaphors and analogies to argue that complex responses in plants can only be produced by intelligence. ''"A bacterium can monitor its environment and instigate developmental processes appropriate to the prevailing circumstances, but is that intelligence? Such simple adaptation behaviour might be bacterial intelligence but is clearly not animal intelligence."'' However, plant intelligence fits a definition of intelligence proposed by David Stenhouse in a book about evolution and animal intelligence where he described it as "adaptively variable behaviour during the lifetime of the individual"."

The first (italicized) quote seems out-of-place and unnecessary. Rather than directly quoting another work without explaining its relevance, it would be more appropriate to write an original sentence based on the information it conveys or at least introduce the quote. The second quote feels more appropriate because it's introduced and the statement in question is a definition, which often loses effectiveness when paraphrased.

Citation links seem to work and be relevant, but many statements are missing citations.

The article is part of WikiProject Plants. They've rated it as start-class quality, which is just above a stub - it has inadequate information and is missing citations. It's also rated as mid-importance, meaning it's only notable in a specific context. It's also part of WikiProject Cell Signaling, but they have not rated it in quality or importance.

The Talk page reveals that the article is a conglomeration of three articles - the original Plant Perception, as well as Plant Intelligence and Plant Neurobiology. That explains why the Plant Intelligence section of the article is so disproportionately long, whereas the Processes section is lacking detail.

In 2007 a user requested information on plant nociception, yet there's no mention of pain in the article. Was their request ignored, or was that information removed later?

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I added the sentence (with citation in article): In the Venus flytrap, touch is detected by cilia that generate an action potential that stimulates motor cells, by which movement occurs.

Article adoption candidates
Plant perception (physiology) - I would like to continue improving this article, as I feel a lot of work should be done on it and I feel it's an important topic that deserves the TLC. See above comments for prospective edits.

Leaf flushing I was surprised that this prominent phenological event is a stub article. There are no comments on the Talk page, but it's rated mid-importance by WikiProject Plants and low-importance by WikiProject Horticulture and Gardening. I particularly want to add information on how plants detect the spring season, the physiology of coming out of dormancy, the ecological effects of early flush in invasive exotic species, and how flush times change with climate.

Fern spike This paleoecological event is severely lacking in information. I'm curious about the topic, so I'd like to expand on the cause, clarify the conditions of fern reproduction that make the booms possible, and detail known fern spike events. The Talk page has no comments but the article is listed as stub-class and low-importance by WikiProject Plants and WikiProject Paleontology.

Paleophycology A subdivision of paleoecology that is lacking in information. I would expand on its use in paleolimnology and the significance of what diatoms can indicate about an environment. The page is rated start-class by WikiProject Articles for creation, WikiProject Science, WikiProject Paleontology, and WikiProject Algae, and mid-importance by the latter two.

Sporormiella Surprisingly, it's a stub! I would focus on their paleoecological role as a megafaunal proxy and their observed decline with megafaunal decline, but detail their biology too if such information is available. The article is rated stub-class and low-importance by WikiProject Fungi.

Fern Spike
In paleontology, a fern spike is the occurrence of unusually high fern spore abundance in the fossil record, usually immediately (in a geological sense) after an extinction event. The spikes are believed to represent a large, temporary increase in the number of ferns relative to other terrestrial plants after the extinction or thinning of the latter. Fern spikes are strongly associated with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, although they have been found in other points of time and space such as at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Outside the fossil record, fern spikes have been observed to occur in response to local extinction events, such as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

Causes
Extinction events have historically been caused by massive environmental disturbances, such as meteor strikes. Volcanic eruptions can also wipe out local ecosystems through pyroclastic flows and landslides, leaving the ground bare for new colonization. For a population to recover and thrive after such an event, it must be able to tolerate the conditions of the disturbed environment. Ferns have multiple characteristics which predispose them to grow in those environments.

Spore Characteristics
Plants generally reproduce with spores or seeds, meaning those will be what germinates in a disaster's aftermath. But spores have advantages over seeds in the environmental conditions produced by a disaster. They're generally produced in higher numbers than seeds, and are smaller, aiding wind dispersal. While many wind-dispersed pollens of seed plants are smaller and farther dispersed than spores, pollen cannot germinate into a plant and must land in a receptive flower. Some seed plants also require animals to disperse their seeds, which may not be present after a disaster. These characteristics allow ferns to rapidly colonize an area with their spores.

Fern spores require light to germinate. Following major disturbances that clear or reduce plant life, the ground would receive ample sunlight that may promote spore germination. Some species' spores contain chlorophyll, which hastens germination and may aid rapid colonization of clear ground.

Environmental tolerance
After the eruption of El Chichón, the fern Pityrogramma calomelanos was observed to regenerate from rhizomes buried by ash, even though the plants' leaves were destroyed. The rhizomes tolerated exposure to heat and sulfur from the volcanic matter. Their survival suggests resilience of ferns to the harsh environmental conditions imposed by certain kinds of disasters, and rhizome regeneration may have been a factor in fern recovery after other events.

Ecology
Fern spikes follow the pattern of ecological succession. In the past and in modern times, ferns have been observed to act as pioneer species. Eventually, their abundance at a site decreases as other plants such as gymnosperms begin to grow.

Spore availability
Fern spikes cannot not occur without ferns already existing in the area, so spikes occur primarily in regions where ferns are already a prominent part of the ecosystem. At the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, a fern spike occurred in the New Zealand area, where ferns made up 25% of plant abundance pre-extinction. After the event, fern abundance increased to 90%.

Detection
Prehistoric fern spikes can be detected by sampling sediment. Sources include sediment that has been accumulating in a lake since the event of interest and sedimentary rocks such as sandstone. Because sediment accumulates over time and thus shows superposition, layers can be assigned to certain times. Spore concentration in a layer can be compared to the concentration at different times, and concentration of other particles such a pollen grains. A fern spike is characterized by a suddenly higher abundance of fern spores following a disaster, generally accompanied by a decrease in other plant species as indicated by their pollen. Eventually fern abundance will decrease, hence the term "spike" describing the pattern.

Modern fern spikes can simply be directly observed, and allow for observation of factors contributing to the spike that may not be detectable otherwise, such as rhizomes persisting in ash.

Significance
Because fern spikes generally coincide with certain disasters such as meteorite strikes and volcanic eruptions, their presence in the fossil record can indicate those events. A fern spike is believed to support a meteorite impact as cause of the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, similar to the one later causing extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period.

Known Events
A fern spike followed a fungal spike after the Permian-Triassic extinction event. It has been observed in Australia.

After the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, ferns drastically increased in abundance while seed plants became scarce. The spike has been detected in eastern North America and Europe.

A very widespread fern spike occurred after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The spike has been predominantly observed in North America, with just one observance outside the continent in Japan.

Fern spikes today are often observed after volcanic eruptions. The areas affected by the eruptions of Mount St. Helens and El Chichón exhibited such a pattern.