To complete the task you needed to understand the principles of nutrient cycling in trees from the introduction. This task gave a rough overview about processes that taken place during nutrient cycling in trees. The processes described are simplified. During the course you will get to know the involved mechanism in more details. Thus the answers given in the task are at a low level and multiple choice is also untypical.
The aim of the course will be that you are able to describe the involved processes and that you can work out key steps. For an example the process of phloem or xylem transport, nutrient uptake or the processes of light and dark reaction of photosynthesis. A further main field of the course will be aspects of environmental influences on these processes that will be completed by ecological aspects. At the end of the course students should be able to estimate consequences of environmental changes in climatic/meteorological conditions on trees on tree biomass production and on ecological consequences for forest ecosystems.
Aim of the task
This task gives you a brief overview on nutrient cycling in trees that covers nutrient uptake by roots, transport in the xylem to the shoot, nutrient assimilation in leaves, assimilate and nutrient transport in the phloem to different sink tissues, the storage of nutrients along the stem during active growth and, the mobilisation of stored assimilates and nutrients during spring.
