Lavoisières' law

From: Jose Gengler (jose.gengler@usa.net)
Date: Mon Apr 13 1998 - 14:37:12 PDT


Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 21:37:12 +0000
From: "Jose Gengler" <jose.gengler@usa.net>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg1243$foo@default>
Subject: Lavoisières' law

Hi!

1.- I recently read an article about a Sarracenia eating a whole mouse;
it took 2 months to reduce the mouse to bones.

2.-After this I read another article that says that CP's can survive
without feeding for very long.

Now, if statement (2) is correct, then matery to form elemental
organic molecules comes from CO2 plus light. Only nitrogen would have
to be aded.

If statement (1) is correct, then these plants should need a lot of
exogenously contributed organic matter.

To confuse things more, most CPs go dormant, so the whole organic
matter of leaves and flowers vanishes, and only tubers remain.

Now for the question. Where did the mouse go? Do CPs realy need that
enormous amount of aminoacids, normaly coming from lots of insects?
Does the digested mouse enrich the ground arround the plant with
organic matter that comes from an infrequent overload? Or maybe the
plant will have more tubers and leaves this year or next year.

Aniway, I am clear that according to literature, CPs don't realy need
enormous quantities of insects. I also understand the mechanism by
which the mouse was digested. But I am not realy sure where did the
mouse go...

This is a question from someone who once liked to work with metabolic
cages...

Take care,
()()()()()
()* || () Jose Gengler
()= []=() osito@cmet.net
() || () jose.gengler@usa.net
()()()()()



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