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What is Natural History? • the study of the natural environment with an emphasis on identification, formation/origin of physical features, life-history, distribution, abundance, and inter-relationships. – It often and appropriately includes an aesthetic component. The Natural Environment=Ecosystems • An interacting unit of living and non-living components. – Living Things (biotic) • Plants, animals, fungi, microbes • All the living things of an area = community – Non-living things (abiotic)—the physical environment • Water, temperature/heat, sunlight, wind/air, soil/minerals, nutrients (found in air, water, & soil) etc… – Created by geological (sometime astronomical) factors Major Ecosystem Interactions • Energy production, transfer, and loss – Photosynthesis makes food, then one organisms eats another • Nutrient movement – uptake, transfer, and recycling of nutrients. • Tolerance, competition, predation – What can organism handle, how well does it obtain resources, what eats it and to what extent • Ecological Succession – Change in community over time • Symbiosis: very/unusually close relationships among organism Energy & Nutrients • Usable energy created by photosynthesis from energy of sun. • Energy and nutrients pass from one organism to the next through feeding • Energy is lost, but nutrients cycle sun Energy & Nutrients • nutrients pass from one organism to the next through feeding and are then cycled back through the ecosystem Major Ecosystem Interactions • Ecological Succession – Change in community over time Major Ecosystem Interactions • Symbiosis: very/unusually close relationships among organism Symbiosis • Particularly close relationships between two or more organisms – Often (but not always) refers to situation when one organism lives in or on another organism Host (bigger) • Mutualism • Commensalism • Parasitism xx Symbiot (smaller) Goal = biologically interpret/assess 1. Why is this place the way it is; why are the things that are here, here? 2. What can I tell about this place from what I see? Major Concepts • Tolerance: – The amount of a physical condition that an organism can tolerate/live with • Competition: – How good is it at getting resources compared to other individuals or organisms/species • Predation: – What eats/kills it and at what level • Adaptation: – A characteristic that makes an organism better suited to its environement • better able to tolerate, compete, be a predator or escape predation, and reproduce Tolerance Ranges • For every physical aspect of the environment and for every substance used by an organism : – (e.g., temperature, water, wind, minerals, nutrients, pH, etc): – There is a minimum amount needed and a maximum amount that can be tolerated. – Between the minimum needed and maximum tolerable is the “tolerance range) Tolerance range a simple schematic too dry Tolerance range for the grass to survive there is enough to meet the grasses needs, but not too much too wet for the grass to survive water wet dry Competition • Same species • Different species – Competitive exclusion • Influences where organisms are located Competitive Exclusion • Two species that compete for the same resources in the same way cannot coexist long term – The species that is the better competitor (in a given environment) will exclude the other specie at that location this is competitive exclusion The brownbarnacle competitively excludes the gray barnacle from the lower area even though the gray barnacle could tolerate that area Tolerance ranges Area found Distribution of Living Organisms across the landscape is determined by a combination of (things are where they are because): • Physical factors – specifically tolerance to physical factors and availability of abiotic resources • Competition • Predation • Dispersal – has the organism been able to get to an area from its existing range Common Factors Determining Distribution (where things are found) Found in this range • Intolerant (too little) • Predation • Out competed • Intolerant (too much) • Predation • Out competed The Rocky Shore TIDAL ZONES Highest Not generally covered by water; gets splashed and sprayed • Intertidal Zone Covered and exposed once daily • Lowest Covered and exposed twice daily Subtidal Exposed only at negative tides Never exposed PHYSICAL GRADIENTS OF TIDE ZONES 1. WAVE SURGE/SHOCK No wave surge/shock 2. WATER Dryer Significant wave shock subtidal Less wave shock Wetter OTHER VARIABLES • Temperature – increases with exposure and time • Salinity – Increases with exposure and time – Can decrease during exposure with rain • Oxygen – decreases with exposure time • Restricted Feeding – Ability to feed and availability of nutrients decreases with exposure. • Limited Space – Wet places and other refuges are in limited when tide is out ZONATION • Physical Zonation Biological Zonation • The existence of characteristic communities at the different tide zones • Based on: – Tolerance to physical factors (usually sets upper limit) – Competition (competitive exclusion) and Predation (usually sets lower limit) Biological Zonation Terrestrial Environments: it all begins with plants Terrestrial Environments: it all begins with plants THE CENTRAL IMPORTANCE OF PLANTS (and many producers) • They form the base of the food chain – Biologically available energy and nutrients originate from plants • Plants cannot move (animals can). – Thus they are reflective of the physical conditions at a particular area. • The type of plants in a location influences the type of animals at that same location – Via habitat structure and food availability (type and amount) • Terrestrial ecosystems/communities are usually identified by the plants groups they posses. HOW PLANTS WORK • Use Water, CO2, and sunlight energy to make food (photosynthesis) • This happens mostly in leaves (which collect sunlight and CO2) – WATER + CO2 SUGARS HOW PLANTS WORK • Plants loose water through leaves • Some of this is necessary to get water to leaves for photosynthesis – But too much water loss is bad Abiotic (non-living) factors affecting the distribution of organisms • Temperature • Water Large Scale • Sunlight • Wind • Soil Conditions – pH – salt content/salinity – sandy – tightly packed – organic content Small Scale HOW PLANTS WORK • Reproduction: plants do it with animals or the wind…or water How Plants Work • Seeds (with embryo) are dispersed Asexual Reproduction in Plants How plants obtain resources • Obtaining water: – from soil (except aquatic plants) by roots. – lose water through leaves, but some water loss is required to move it. – roots get it, leaves lose it. • Obtaining Sun: – Leaves • Obtaining carbon dioxide: – from leaves pores called stomata, but letting CO2 in allows water to exit. PLANT REPRODUCTION • Sexual Reproduction (flowers, cones, spores, etc) • Since plants can’t move: – their sperm needs to disperse to eggs • animal pollinators, wind, or water) – offspring (seeds and spores) need to disperse away from parents • by animals, wind, water, or “explosive propulsion” • Asexual (roots, stem base, runners, fragments) – Alternative reproduction includes self-fertilizing and vegetative propagation (cloning). Extra or Reference Slides Niche • The role an organism plays in its environment • How an organism “makes its living”. • All the ways a species uses its physical environment/resources and all its interactions with other living things. • Examples of what a niche contains: – – – – – – – What it eats When it eats How it gets food What eats it When is it active What wastes does it put back into the environment What resources it needs (nutrients, space, shelter, etc) ADAPTATIONS to Rocky Shore Env. • To Exposure/Drying – – – – “run and hide” “clam up” Tolerant of drying aggregation • To Temperature Increases – Physiology/morphology – color – “run and hide” • To Salinity Changes – Physiology – “clam up” • To Wave Shock – – – – – – “run and hide” Low profile Aggregation “hold on tight” Shells “go with the flow”--bending FORAGING MODES • Photosynthesis--make their own food with sunlight energy – Algae (free living and endosymbiots) • Filter-feeders – filter/strain food out of water – Made possible by movement of nutrient rich water—currents and tide – shell fish/mollusks, barnacles, sponges, tunicates, tube worms • Sessile predators – immobile, but actively capture prey – Made possible by movement of nutrient rich water—currents and tide – e.g., anemones, • Grazers – mobile algae eating organisms – snails, chitons, urchins, Sea hairs, some crabs • Active/Mobile predators – move and eat other animals – Sea Stars, some snails/molluscs, some crabs/lobsters, some fish, • Scavengers/Detrivores—eat non-living things and stuff that settles on bottom – Lobsters, Crabs, rock lice/sea roaches MARINE FOOD CHAINS • Photosynthetic Producers – Mostly phytoplankton, but some multicellular algae • • • • Zooplankton Primary Consumers Secondary Consumers Scavengers/decomposers Algae/Kelp • Photosynthetic, but not plants • Different groups based on colors • Because they are in the inaccessible subtidal zone, often they are best examined when washed up on shore