Plant nutrition is about how a plant gets what it needs to grow: carbon and energy through photosynthesis, and mineral ions through the roots. It is a steady source of questions because it joins a chemical equation, a graph, a diagram and an experiment in one topic.
Check the current Cambridge IGCSE Biology 0610 syllabus page (linked under Sources) for the wording in your syllabus year. This page gives you a study route through our lessons. The wider subject is mapped in the Biology learning guide.
What should I know before starting?
You need the basic plant cell, including chloroplasts and the cell wall, from cells and microscopy, and the idea of diffusion and active transport from movement across membranes. Enzymes from biological molecules and enzymes explain why temperature affects the rate.
One orienting example
Here is the whole topic in one question. A plant is given extra carbon dioxide in bright light and its growth does not change. Why? The answer uses several lessons at once.
Carbon dioxide is an input of photosynthesis, so adding more could raise the rate. But the rate is set by the factor in shortest supply.
If temperature is low, or the plant has too little magnesium to make chlorophyll, extra carbon dioxide changes nothing because something else is limiting. A good answer names the possible limit and says what evidence would identify it.
In what order should I study the lessons?
- Identify inputs and products of photosynthesis: this is the base, so begin here.
- Interpret a limiting-factor graph: it uses the inputs to decide what holds the rate back.
- Explain leaf adaptations for exchange: it shows how the leaf supplies those inputs.
- Use supplied evidence to test a photosynthesis claim: it puts the first three to work on data.
- Distinguish mineral uptake from carbon acquisition: it finishes the picture of what roots do versus what leaves do.
- Plant nutrition practice set: it tests the whole chain with original questions.
What are the common traps?
- Listing instead of explaining. “Thin, has stomata” earns little. Give feature, function, consequence.
- Treating light as used up on a flat graph. A flat line means another factor limits.
- Calling minerals “food”. Glucose is the food. Minerals are building blocks.
- Mixing photosynthesis with respiration. Plants do both in the day.
How do I use the practice set?
Work through the practice set after two or three lessons, then again after all five. Write each answer before opening the worked one. Sort mistakes by type and go back to the lesson the set names.
Students who want someone to check their written explanations can find out what online one-to-one Biology tuition looks like.