1.) How do plant scientists hope to improve plant processes? 2.) How could you find out which resources are the most important for a plant to grow?

Plant scientists long have known they can alter crops genetically to improve performance; they've been doing it thousands of years. ... "We changed the way the plant is expressing its genes, even though we didn't change the genes themselves," Mackenzie said. The process is called epigenetics

In particular, plants need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. When dissolved in water, these nutrients get absorbed by a plant's roots. If a plant can't get the nutrients it needs from the soil, fertilizer can help. Fertilizer provides plants with essential nutrients and helps them grow faster

While unproven, it uses facts to support part of a conclusion. it is still factual and has predictive power, however.