Question

To melt the ice during the winter season, road crews often put sand and salt solutions on the roadways to help melt the snow and ice. The plants that live close to the road often die or wilt after this procedure. Using your knowledge of osmosis and plant structures, which type of solution would cause this to happen to plant cells? Group of answer choices

Answer 1

The missing answer choices are:

a. hypotonic

b. isotonic

c. osmosis

d. hypertonic

The correct option is d. hypertonic

Step-by-step explanation:

A hypertonic solution has a higher concentration of solutes than the concentration of solutes present inside the plant. As there is a difference in concentration between the inside and the outside of the plant, the plant loses water in an attempt to balance the difference. As a result, there is an excessive loss of water that dehydrates the plant and kills it.