Question Video: Recalling How Ions Move into Plant Roots from High Concentrations in the Soil | Nagwa Question Video: Recalling How Ions Move into Plant Roots from High Concentrations in the Soil | Nagwa

Question Video: Recalling How Ions Move into Plant Roots from High Concentrations in the Soil Biology • Second Year of Secondary School

If there is a high concentration of potassium ions in the soil, they move to an area of low concentration in the roots. What term is given to this process? [A] Diffusion [B] Synthesis [C] Osmosis [D] Digestion [E] Active transport

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Video Transcript

If there is a high concentration of potassium ions in the soil, they move to an area of low concentration in the roots. What term is given to this process? (A) Diffusion, (B) synthesis, (C) osmosis, (D) digestion, or (E) active transport.

Much like humans, plants need to obtain a certain amount of different nutrients to stay alive and healthy. Potassium is a crucial nutrient in plants as it plays an important role in biological processes like protein synthesis and photosynthesis. When particles or molecules are found in large concentrations in a particular area, they tend to spread out and move into areas where there’s a lower concentration of these particles or molecules. If this process is occurring over the surface of a membrane such as that in the root, the potassium ions will continue to move across this membrane from an area of high concentration to low concentration until eventually the concentration of molecules either side of the membrane evens out. This process is known as diffusion.

Diffusion is described as a passive process as it does not require energy to move the particles from an area of their high concentration to an area of their low concentration. In the question, we’re told that potassium is in a high concentration in the soil and moves to an area of lower concentration in the roots. So we know that the potassium ions will be moving into the roots where it’s in a lower concentration by diffusion.

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