After a family picnic, Ella dumped the ice and rock salt from the ice cream maker in the back yard. That area of yard now contains dead, brown grass. Explain why this happened, and use the words hypotonic, hypertonic, and plasmolysis in your explanation
The brown grass in the area where Ella dumped the ice and rock salt from the ice cream maker is likely a result of a process called plasmolysis. Plasmolysis refers to the shrinkage or contraction of the plant cells' protoplast (the living part of the cell) due to the loss of water.
When Ella dumped the ice and rock salt, it created a hypertonic environment in the vicinity. A hypertonic solution has a higher solute concentration compared to the fluid (in this case, water) inside the plant cells. As a result, water moves out of the plant cells by osmosis, from an area of low solute concentration (inside the plant cells) to an area of high solute concentration (the hypertonic environment).
In this case, the high concentration of salt in the ice cream maker's residue caused a hypertonic environment around the dumped ice and rock salt. As a result, water from the plant cells in the grass absorbed the excess salt concentration, leading to water loss from the cells. The loss of water caused the plant cells to shrink or undergo plasmolysis, resulting in the brown and dead appearance of the grass.
Overall, the hypertonic nature of the ice cream maker's residue caused water to move out of the plant cells via osmosis, leading to plasmolysis and the subsequent browning of the grass in the affected area.