Over-watering a plant can result in the soil around a plant's roots becoming saturated with water, reducing the amount of oxygen available to the roots. Using your knowledge of aerobic and anaerobic respiration, explain how over-watering can kill a plant.

When there is less oxygen available in the soil for uptake by plant roots, the root cells will be forced to increase their usage of anaerobic respiration over aerobic respiration. Anaerobic respiration produces ethanol, which is toxic to plant cells, and may result in the death of plant root cells. It is also less energy-efficient, producing less molecules of ATP per glucose molecule. This results in less ATP being available to the root cells, which means less active transport of mineral ions from the soil. This can result in less photosynthesis, if magnesium ions are not actively transported into the plant. This consequently can result in less chloroplast production, meaning less photosynthesis in plant leaves, meaning less available glucose for the plant, which means the plant may struggle to grow or respire. Without enough energy or minerals to grow, respire and reproduce, the plant is likely to dieKey points:-less oxygen causes plant to resort to anaerobic respiration--anaerobic respiration is less efficient in terms of ATP production, and toxic ---less ATP means less transport of essential mineral ions into plant----less mineral ions e.g. magnesium results in impaired ability of plant to perform basic functions of life such as growth, reproduction, respiration, photosynthesis