Student-Led Restoration Projects for Local Ecosystems

Urbanization, pollution, deforestation, and climate change threaten local ecosystems worldwide. Student-led repair initiatives are a crucial and optimistic answer to these difficulties. These programs combine environmental rehabilitation with hands-on ecological education and community participation. These projects help revive and preserve biodiversity and teach students about environmental stewardship by involving them directly in ecosystem restoration.

The Role of Environmental Education in Creating Eco-conscious Students

In a rapidly changing international in which environmental challenges are getting extra suggested, the function of education in shaping eco-aware individuals has never been more vital. Environmental schooling, specifically, plays a pivotal position in fostering consciousness, knowledge, and a sense of obligation in the direction of the planet.

How Important Are Lessons about Nature Protection In School

Lessons about nature protection are pivotal for any student concerned about the environment's future and who wants to make this world a better place. Key aspects of nature protection will also help the teachers foster a generation of children who will later become conscious, responsible adults who value our planet's resources.

DIY Wind Turbine Guide: Finding the Perfect Motor

When it comes to building a DIY wind turbine, choosing the right motor is essential for optimal performance and efficiency. A suitable motor can make a significant difference in the power output and overall effectiveness of your homemade wind turbine. By carefully considering these factors and the type of motor, you can build a highly efficient and effective DIY wind turbine that meets your energy needs.

What Do Frogs Eat? Feeding Your Pet Frog

What do frogs eat Almost every kid in the world when given half a chance to bring a frog home as a pet will stuff it in their pocket and bring it home to surprise mom and dad. If you're going to keep a frog as a pet, it is important to know what kind of food it needs to stay healthy and grow into an adult frog. Whether you found yours at the local pond or from a pet store, it is important to create the right habitat and provide suitable food.

Mechanisms Of Sound Production

As Henry (Chapter 10) emphasises here, insects are preadapted to be noisy animals. With a hard and sclerotised exoskeleton, the segmented form of the body and jointed limbs will inevitably cause vibrations in the surrounding environment when an insect moves. It will be very difficult for insects to move silently without making a noise. It is not surprising that many groups have developed specialised systems of sound production and associated receptors which are used in communication within and...

Norway Spruce Growth Secrets: Proven Mineral Fertilizers

Norway spruce (Picea abies) is a popular evergreen tree commonly planted for its majestic appearance and fast growth. To ensure healthy and vigorous growth, it's crucial to provide your Norway spruce with the right fertilizer. By meeting the tree's nutritional needs, you'll encourage a lush and dense canopy, while maintaining the tree's overall health.

Energy Saving Tips for College Students Living Off Campus

Living off campus teaches you a certain level of responsibility and independence. While it can get overwhelming, it also comes with teachings you might not be taught in school or at home. You will be in charge of your lifestyle, and one of the responsibilities will be taking charge of your finances. Taking charge of your finances means identifying various ways to reduce your expenditures, and among the many ways to do that is by lowering utility bills.

What is mathematical ecology and why should we do it

Let's begin by looking again at the photograph in the Prologue and imagine yourself walking through this forest. What do you see Jot down a few things (this is your first exercise). They need not be profound - in fact, it is best not to try to make them profound. After all, Darwin constructed the most profound theory in biology by asking ordinary questions about barnacles, birds, and tortoises, amongst many other things. Perhaps you see big trees and little trees and think that big trees are...

Types of forest inventory

Forest inventory refers to the process of collecting information about the extent and condition of forest resources within a specified area. Traditionally, forest inventories were primarily carried out to determine the quantity of available timber, but increasingly the scope of such inventories has been expanded to include ecological variables such as measures of the quality of habitat provided for different species. A forest inventory may therefore be carried out to obtain a range of different...

What Do Arctic Wolves Eat?

Let us answer the question what do arctic wolves eat and discuss some interesting facts about this rare wolf species diet. The Arctic Wolf (Canis lupus arctos), referred to as the Polar Wolf or White Wolf, is a mammal of family Canidae and a subspecies of the Grey Wolf. They can usually be found in the Canadian Arctic and also the northern regions of Greenland.

B Factors Affecting Succession

Succession generally progresses toward the community type characteristic of the biome within which it occurs (e.g., toward deciduous forest within the deciduous forest biome or toward chaparral within the chaparral biome e.g.,Whittaker 1953, 1970). However, succession can progress along various alternative pathways and reach alternative endpoints (such as stands dominated by beech, Fagus, maple, Acer, or hemlock, Tsuga, within the eastern deciduous forest in North America), depending on a...

Effects of pollution

There is little doubt in anyone's mind that chemical pollution has been the cause of the dramatic, sharp, and in some places ultimate decline of Eurasian otter populations in England and several other countries in Europe. It started in the 1950s, and continued into the 1970s and 1980s (summaries by Jefferies 1989 Mason and Macdonald 1986). Only late in the 1980s and during the 1990s did the trend begin to be reversed, and at the turn of the millennium otters in Europe had recovered in many...

Emergent Properties

Emergent properties of ecosystems are a consequence of the synergistic effects of community composition on ecosystem function (flux of energy and materials through the ecosystem). The idea that the forest is more than the trees conveys the importance of the concept, but it can be applied broadly to every ecosystem. Species' impacts on turnover rates and productivity have profound effects. As a very simple example, Blair et al. (1990) found that while decomposition rates for mixed litter were...

Evenness or Equitability

Three measures of diversity that have been widely used in ecology are Simpson's index, Shannon's entropy, and the total number of species or species richness. Some species diversity indices are based on the concept of evenness or equitability. Simply put, the concept of evenness refers to the extent to which each species is represented among the sample. The extremes would range from one species being dominant and all other species being present in very low numbers (one individual for each...

Monogamy polygamy and promiscuity

There are five basic types of animal mating systems (Table 6.1). Monogamy involves a pair-bond between one male and one female, whereas in polygamy, which includes polygyny, polyandry and polygynandry, social bonds involve multiple males and or females. Promiscuity refers to the practice of mating in the absence of any social ties. Note that many species will adopt two or more different mating systems, and the examples used throughout this text are not meant to imply that a particular species...

Water Distillation - Water Distillers and Distilled Water - Myths and Facts

Myths, false statements, consumer misleading and misinformation. Call them what you will, there is a lot of poor non-factual information out there when it is in reference to water distillation or water distillers. Most of them come from water filter sellers who do not sell, or do not understand water distillation. This is'nt anything new since many of the myths about water distillers have been around for 10 to 15 years.

What Do Sugar Gliders Eat: Feeding A Pet Sugar Glider

The sugar glider, named scientifically as Petaurus breviceps is a quite popular pet nowadays. Sugar gliders acquired their name because these cute and playful animals love sipping nectar and sweet tree sap in its natural habitat. Because of its minute size and cute appearance, sugar gliders make a popular exotic animal that has been sold and reared as pets.

Ecological niches

The term ecological niche is frequently misunderstood and misused. It is often used loosely to describe the sort of place in which an organism lives, as in the sentence 'Woodlands are the niche of woodpeckers'. Strictly, however, where an organism lives is its habitat. A niche is not a place but an idea a summary of the organism's tolerances and requirements. The habitat of a gut microorganism would be an animal's alimentary canal the habitat of an aphid might be a garden and the habitat of a...

Shape of Ecotones

Ecotone Ecology

The morphology of the borders is of great importance for the functioning of the ecotones and for the role that they can play in the dynamics of a mosaic. Several empirical studies have demonstrated that the more a border is convoluted, the more complex are the processes that can be observed Fig. 6.6 . Many species of animals Fig. 6.6 The border of a patch may be highly convoluted as in A or less convoluted as in B . Generally human activity tries to reduce border irregularity depressing the...

Courtship and Mating

Hypselosaurus

In animals living today, courtship and mating involve a whole range of visual, acoustic, tactile and chemical signals. Fossils, by their very nature, can only provide unequivocal evidence for the first of these. It is generally assumed, however, that many of the morphological structures and ornaments, such as horns, frills, crests, spikes, thickened skulls, bosses, large teeth, big eyes and so on Sect. 9.3.1 , were not only used in combat but also in eliciting behavioural responses Horner 1997...

Paleoecological Evidence

The geological record for Q-time and deep-time paleoe-cology can be rich in biological and environmental information. Biological information comes from fossils preserved in sediments. The most common types of fossils in Quaternary paleoecology have much original material preserved, such as 'hard parts' of shells, insect exoskele-tons, diatom frustules, leaf cuticles, bones, pollen, seeds, and wood. Other types of fossils include impressions and films, petrifications and replacements, molds and...

Autochthonous and allochthonous production

North American Photosynthesis

All biotic communities depend on a supply of energy for their activities. In most terrestrial systems this is contributed in situ by the photosynthesis of green plants - this is autochthonous production. Exceptions exist, however, particularly where colonial animals deposit feces derived from food consumed at a distance from the colony e.g. bat colonies in caves, seabirds on coastland - guano is an example of allochthonous organic matter dead organic material formed outside the ecosystem . In...

Optimal foraging approach to patch use

The advantages to a consumer of spending more time in higher profitability patches are easy to see. However, the detailed allocation of time to different patches is a subtle problem, since it depends on the precise differentials in profitability, the average profitability of the environment as a whole, the distance between the patches, and so on. The problem has been a particular focus of attention for optimal foraging theory. In particular, a great deal of interest has been directed at the...

Resourcebased competition theory

David Tilman (1976, 1987) and others pointed out that the Lotka-Volterra equations were phenomenological and not mechanistic. That is, competition coefficients were merely measures of the effect of one species on the growth rate of another. They are estimated from experiments in which two species are grown together. Therefore they are not an independently derived value that allows one to predict coexistence or competitive exclusion, or, in the latter case, which of two species should win....

Competition between diatoms

Asterionella Synedra Competition

The final example is from a laboratory investigation of two species of freshwater diatom Asterionella formosa and Synedra ulna (Tilman et al., 1981). Both these algal species require silicate in the construction of their cell walls. The investigation was Figure 8.4 (right) Percentage difference in feeding rates (mean SE) at orange-crowned warbler and virginia's warbler nests on plots where the other species had been experimentally removed. Feeding rates (visits per hour to the nest with food)...

The woodland ecosystem food chains food webs and the plant animal and decomposition subsystems

Food Web Tropical Rainforest

Trees dominate the woodland and forest communities in which they grow but hosts of other organisms - including fungi and bacteria - which evolved in parallel with them, live beside, beneath and in them in an interacting whole. The types of animals involved in such communities are illustrated in Fig. 1.8 in many other parts of the world the major differences from western European forests involve the presence of much larger herbivores and carnivores and of primates such as monkeys and gorillas....

What Do Bengal Tigers Eat?

Do you know the answer to the question what do Bengal tigers eat This article aims to discuss the Bengal tiger's diet and the way this species hunt its food in the wild. The Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the most common kind of tiger and is probably what most people refer to when they say tiger because they are the most populous of tigers. The Bengal tiger is generally characterized by a yellow to light orange coat with stripes of brown or black.

What Do Hedgehogs Eat?

The African pygmy hedgehog is the most often type of hedgehog to be domesticated and kept as a pet by many consumers. It is a hybrid of two African species. A Hedgehog kept as a pet requires dedication and patience. This may be more than some people are willing to provide. Providing the correct environment and diet will help to ensure that your hedgehog provides you and your family with a great deal of enjoyment.

Competition between Paramecium species

Caudatum And Bursaria

The fourth example comes from the classic work of the great Russian ecologist G. F. Gause, who studied competition in laboratory experiments using three species of the protozoan Paramecium (Gause, 1934, 1935). All three species grew well alone, reaching stable carrying capacities in tubes of liquid medium. There, Paramecium consumed bacteria or yeast cells, which themselves lived on regularly replenished oatmeal (Figure 8.3a). When Gause grew P. aurelia and P. caudatum together, P. caudatum...

What do Cougars Eat?

A cougar is a North American sandy colored puma. They are sometimes known as Mountain Lions. Cougars are mostly nocturnal animals, searching for food and hunting during the night, although they have been known to move around in the daytime too. They are solitary animals, that spend much of their lives on their own. What do cougars eat in the wild What do cougars eat are generally grazing creatures such as deer, elk, mountain goats, moose, and wild sheep.

Edge characteristics and effects

Edge Ecology

Forested habitats are often distributed as patches within a landscape. The characteristics of the edges of such patches, where they meet other habitat or land-cover types, often differ from those of patch interiors. Characterization of habitat edges has become a major theme in ecological research and, in response to the widespread concern about the impacts of forest fragmentation, has also become important for practical forest conservation and management. Most investigations of edges focus on...

The Problem of Black Tipped Tails

Ermine Weasel

One of the curious quirks of research, and the salvation of many a graduate student, is that it is possible to design a study to ask one question and then be led to a valid answer to a different question. Powell's convictions about the effect of raptor predation on the numbers of weasels in ecological time stimulated him to design a series of simple, elegant experiments with trained red-tailed hawks. They produced a legitimate answer to a long outstanding question in a different field...

Sprainting behaviour and other scent communication

An otter spraint is usually tiny, no more than a small dollop of faeces. Both river otters and Eurasian otters usually produce spraints that are grey or black and tarry, with fish bones, shapeless, sometimes very liquid but, if solid, generally less than 1-2 cm across. Even a human nose can smell the insignificant, fishy-reeking objects several metres away, at least during the first hour after an animal has been there. Spraints are incontrovertible evidence of the passage of an otter, and are...

Industrial Revolution Industrialization

Industrial Revolution Big Smoke

The transformation from an agricultural to an industrial society began only about 250 years ago, but its consequences for the natural world are almost unprecedented. The major innovation that marks the industrial era is the exploitation of the earth's vast stocks of fossil fuel. The availability of more energy per capita has led to undreamed of material wealth for a significant percentage of the world's population, but it has also put tremendous pressure on land and natural resources. The major...

The Pattern and Timing of the Molt

Weasel Seasonal Cycle

A complete molt cycle lasts from the beginning of the active phase of the follicles to the end of the shedding of the old fur. Since these are quite separate processes, even in one follicle, the cycles of growth and shedding can overlap. The biology of weasels offers two quite different methods of working out the timing and length of the cycle, depending on the species and location. In places where weasels reliably turn white in winter, the simplest technique is to arrange a set of skins...

Scent Communication

History Scent Impacting Communication

Weasels are solitary animals for most of the year, but that does not mean that they are totally nonsociable. Weasels must be well aware of their neighbors, even if only to avoid them. They keep in touch with each other by a well-developed system of scent communication an efficient mechanism for small animals living on large home ranges covered with thick vegetation. Even under snow, the conditions are good for scent communication cool, dark, humid, still, and quiet and odor signals last well,...

From Birth to the Opening of the Eyes

Body Part Upper Forearm Name

Infant weasels look rather alike in all species, both in their appearance at birth and in their early physical development. They are all born completely helpless, and all grow in the same way, but least and common weasels develop more rapidly than do stoats and longtails, and they reach the milestones of development at younger ages Table 9.3 . For example, although young stoats and longtails are born larger than young common weasels, they grow more slowly, and are 6 to 8 weeks old before they...

The Reproductive Anatomy Of Weasels

Anatomy Weasel

The testes of males are simple oval sacs within the furry scrotum. The coiled tube of the vas deferens leaves the epididymis, at the distal end of the testis, and ascends back into the body cavity again. The penis is stiffened by the baculum, a small rod-shaped bone attached to the pelvis by muscles at one end, which acts as a rigid support during copulation. The urethra fits within a groove on the underside of the baculum, shown in Figure 9.1. Normally the whole apparatus is hidden inside the...

Mating Behavior In Adults

Mating Behaviour Ecology

Mating is a very vigorous affair in all weasels. It has to be, because the stimulus of copulation is needed before ova can be released. All attempts to stimulate ovulation by injection of gonadotropins, the hormones that usually have this effect in other animals, have failed Rowlands 1972 Gulamhusein amp Thawley 1974 , and the ovaries of unmated females have no corpora lutea. Females are subordinate to males for most of the year, and normally avoid them, but a female is well able to reject...

The Skeleton

Ermine Anatomy

Everything about a weasel is attuned to the profession of hunting for small prey in dark, confined spaces. In motion, weasels appear almost boneless. We have seen weasels leap into a hole and then look out again in a single, fluid action so fast that the tail was not in before the nose came out again. A weasel can do this because the articulations between its vertebrae are so flexible that it can turn over and walk back over its own hindquarters. Living and working in tunnels are normal and...

The Evolutionary Origins Of The Weasels

Weasel Ancestor

Weasels belong to the canoid group of placental carnivores, which originated in the New World (Flynn & Wesley-Hunt 2005). The first predatory mammals with characteristics of the weasel family, and clearly different from their closest relatives the Procyonids (Bininda-Edmonds et al. 1999), appeared in North America in the early Miocene, some 28 to 30 million years ago (Figure 1.4). Throughout the Miocene period, these animals were forest-dwelling hunters, probably somewhat like martens. Some...

What Do Emperor Penguins Eat?

This article will answer the question what do emperor penguins eat both in the wild and in captivity. It will also show you some remarkable facts about this wonderful bird species. sc name adsense The Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and biggest of all known species of penguins and is native to Antarctica. Emperor penguins are amazing creatures. They have a white stomach, a black head and black tail, backs and wings.

Arthropods Marine

Arthropods are the most numerous animals on earth in terms of described species, with approximately 1.25 million taxa. However, that probably represents only a portion of the total number of arthropod species in the world, with estimates of diversity (including unde-scribed species) starting at 2 million. People are perhaps most familiar with members of the Insecta, and indeed they constitute the bulk of arthropod species whose successful colonization of land led to their rapid radiation in...

What Do Polar Bears Eat? Learn About The Arctic Bear Feeding Habits

Polar bears are among the largest carnivores in the world. They live in the Arctic usually on sea ice at the edge of pack ice. This is the best location for the bears to hunt and capture seals. Many scientists consider polar bears to be marine mammals since they spend so much time in or around the water. They spend so much time in the water and are comfortable in the ice cold arctic oceans. Polar bears can swim up to 100 km although this takes a great deal of energy.

PH of soil and water

The pH of soil in terrestrial environments or of water in aquatic ones is a condition that can exert a powerful influence on the distribution and abundance of organisms. The protoplasm of the root cells of most vascular plants is damaged as a direct result of toxic concentrations of H+ or OH- ions in soils below pH 3 or above pH 9, respectively. Further, indirect effects occur because soil pH influences the availability of nutrients and or the concentration of toxins (Figure 2.17). Increased...

Management of overabundant populations

The most contentious issue relating to the conservation of African elephants during the 1960s and 1970s was the management of locally overabundant populations. A heated debate raged over the issue of whether such populations should be managed through culling of elephants (fig. 9.5). The spate of ivory poaching that swept through Africa during the 1970s and 1980s put an end to this controversy in many countries. However, it is likely that, with the decline of poaching and better protection in...

Age span of reproduction and birth rates

Elephant Reproductive Rate

Puberty is generally taken as the onset of the first estrous cycle in the female and the production of viable sperm in the male. Sexual maturity is the age at first ovulation in the female and the presence of a dense mass of motile sperm in the male. In both sexes, there may be a difference of 2-4 years between puberty and sexual maturity among elephants. Although there is tremendous variation across elephant populations in the age of sexual maturity, the early East African studies showed that...

Causes of death and mortality rates

Survivirship Curve Southern Sea Otter

The causes of death and the mortality rates are notoriously difficult to estimate for most wild mammalian species, including the elephant. Carcasses in the field are usually putrefied, making it difficult to identify the cause of death, especially if a pathogen is involved. Juveniles in the population are usually under-represented in a collection of remains discovered thus, estimation of age-specific mortality rates for the younger age classes, vital for understanding population dynamics,...

Physiology of the female reproductive cycle

Periods Male Elephand Fertility

As in other mammals, the reproductive tract in female elephants is composed of a pair of ovaries (located near the kidneys), the Fallopian tubes, a uterus with two cornua or horns, and a chamber that leads into the urogenital passage that opens externally at the vulva. A striking feature of the reproductive system in elephants is the long (nearly 1 m) urogenital canal, a common passage for both the genital and urinary tracts that opens at a position anterior to the hind legs. The clitoris is...

Behavioral characteristics of musth

Qualities Elephant

The elephant's temporal glands are a pair of modified sweat glands located on each side of the head between the eye and the ear. The onset of musth can be seen from swelling of the temporal glands and the secretion of fluid (the musth fluid), which streams down the cheeks of the animal (fig. 3.4). There are different stages in the manifestation of musth. Toke Gale describes four stages of musth based on his observations of Burmese timber elephants. Based on this description and other...

Pelagic Food Chains

Pelagic Food Chain

Most production in pelagic systems is generated in the 'photic zone' where phytoplankton photosynthe-sise and produce the sugars necessary for life. About 70 of all carbon fixed by primary producers on the GBR originates from phytoplankton production and two thirds of this originates from organisms Connectivity - eggs and larvae Figure 14.5 Tropical pelagic food chain showing plankton as an important source of food for pelagic nekton and reef associated species such as planktivorous...

Future Research Needs

While many of the linkages involving zooplankton in the Hudson food web are known, uncertainty remains concerning their importance to populations. Are predator-prey interactions tightly coupled to the respective dynamics of individual populations or are these associations loose in the sense that specific trophic interactions have little affect on dynamics Loose linkages could be the case if populations are highly omnivorous. In this view the estuary represents a dynamic feeding tableau with...

Food chains and food webs

Populations within a community are bound by a network of interactions. The most important interactions are of a trophic nature eat or be eaten . In diagrams predator-prey interactions are usually portrayed vertically and competition relationships horizontally. The simplest presentation of the vertical connections within a community is the food chain. Plants are eaten by herbivorous animals (primary consumers or secondary producers). These animals are in turn eaten by carnivorous animals...

Suspension Feeders

Suspension Feeders Animals

B T Hentschel, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA J Shimeta, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. What Is Suspension Feeding Organisms That Suspension Feed Mechanisms of Particle Contact Retaining Contacted Particles Suspension Feeding in More Complicated Flow Regimes Ecological Interactions Related to Suspension Feeding Further Reading Suspension feeding is the capture and ingestion of food particles that are suspended in water....

The Noosphere Concept

The noosphere concept is best developed before the background of the related concept of ecosphere. The ecosphere is usually understood to be the space inhabited by living beings. It comprises the living organisms (biosphere), the lower atmosphere, the hydrosphere (oceans, lakes, glaciers, etc.), and the highest layer of the lithosphere (topsoil as well as various kinds of rocky ground). The word biosphere was invented by the Austrian geologist Eduard S , who used it more or less in passing, in...

What Do Panthers Eat?

A black panther is not a species in its own right the name black panther is an umbrella term that refers to any big cat with a black coat. When a big cat is completely black, it is called melanism'. Melanism is the opposite of albinism. Black Panthers in Asia and Africa are actually leopards, whilst black panthers in the Americas are, in fact, Jaguars.

What Do Elephants Eat? See The Foods Of An Elephant

Elephants are the largest terrestrial animals that exist in the world. Only whales are larger however as we all know they live in the ocean. There are two types of elephants. They are the African elephant and the Asian elephant. Elephants can live up to 65 years in the wild but only an average of 33 years in captivity. They can stand 13 feet high and weigh as much as 15,500 pounds. These are very large animals who are intelligent, live in family units and are lead by the oldest in the unit.

Distribution and Abundance of Oaks in North America

Ecology Burr Oak

O'BRIEN, GORDON C. REESE, AND KAREN L. WADDELL It is common to hear oak (Quercus L.) referred to as the most important tree genus in North America. The significance of oaks results from their commercial value for timber and as food and cover for wildlife. The classic finding of Van Dersal (1940) that 186 different kinds of birds and mammals feed on oaks and that the distribution of a number of animals coincides with or is dependent on the range of oaks...

Otter dens or holts

Even in otter societies where several adults share a home range, it rarely, if ever, happens that adult individuals simultaneously use a 'holt' (den), unless they are moving around together in a group. They clearly avoid having to share a bed, even if the holt is a sizeable one, and their scent marking behaviour helps in this (see Chapter 6). In group ranges, holts are used on a time-share basis. There are large differences between the resting sites of otters of various species. They vary from...

Time lags and limit cycles

Time Lag For Logistic Growth

Assumption 4 of the logistic equation, in which populations are assumed to respond immediately to carrying capacity, is highly unlikely for populations with great reproductive potential. In order to explore this possibility, we can introduce a lag time effect into the logistic equation. Using the discrete time form of the logistic (Eqn. 2.1), substituting X for R, and remembering that X er, Equation 2.12 is an equivalent to Equations 2.1 and 2.10c. To introduce time lags, Equation 2.14 is...

Survivorship

Population Growth Centre Bhopal

The construction of a life table begins by gathering information on survivorship by age class. This sounds simple, but is easier described than actually done. For example, one method is to study a cohort of individuals all born at the same time, and follow the survivorship of these individuals until the last member of the cohort dies. At the beginning of such a study, it would be necessary to locate and mark all newborn individuals. Subsequently, one would need to verify when each individual...

The Stream Channel

Meandering Channel Cross View

The shape of the cross section of a stream channel is a function of the interaction between discharge and sediment, the erodibility of its bed and banks, the stabilizing influence of vegetation, and any large structure (boulders, large wood LW ) that can influence local channel conditions. A cross-sectional survey maps the shape of the channel and measures depth at multiple points, effectively creating a series of cells of known width and depth, whose product is summed to determine the area...

Patterns of Succession

Insect Succession

Two types of succession can be recognized. Primary succession occurs on newly exposed substrates (e.g., lava flows, uplifted marine deposits, dunes, newly deposited beaches, etc.). Primary succession usually involves a long period of soil formation and colonization by species requiring little substrate modification. Secondary succession occurs on sites where the previous community was disturbed and is influenced by remnant substrate and surviving individuals. Although most studies of succession...

The Grime general model for three evolutionary strategies in plants

Grime Competitive Strategy

Grime (1977) developed a life-history model specifically for plants. In this model Grime categorized factors that limit plant biomass or productivity into 1 Stress. Stress is any condition that restricts plant production. Examples would be shortage of light, water, or nutrients, or low temperatures. 2 Disturbance. A disturbance is partial or total loss of plant biomass arising from the activities of herbivores, pathogens, man, or from environmental factors such as wind, frost, desiccation, soil...

Dispersal

Dispersal is the movement of individuals away from their source and includes spread, the local movement of individuals, and migration, the cyclic mass movement of individuals among areas (L. Clark et al. 1967, Nathan et al. 2003). As discussed in Chapter 2, long-distance dispersal maximizes the probability that habitat or food resources created by environmental changes or disturbances are colonized before the source population depletes its resources or is destroyed by disturbance. However,...

The Levins or classical metapopulation

Populatio Growth

According to the Levins model, metapopulation persistence is due to a stochastic balance between local extinction and re-colonization of empty habitat patches. The rate of change in occupied habitat patches is a function of colonization rates (c) and extinction rates (e) as shown in Equation 5.2 (Levins 1969). P is the proportion of patches occupied by the population under consideration. As described by Hanski (2001), if we define P' as the number of habitat fragments occupied by the species...

Modeling Occupancy And Occurrence Probability

In this chapter, we consider models for the occurrence of species. Occurrence is a binary state variable, indexed by space (or space and time), so that z 1 if a patch 'i' is occupied, and z 0 if a patch is not occupied by the species of interest. (i is the index to a finite collection of spatial units, patches, or sites.) Occurrence probability is the parameter 0 Pr(z 1). The distinction between the binary state variable, occurrence or occupancy, which is the outcome of a stochastic process...

Implications of Population Dynamic and Metapopulation Theory for Restoration

Levins Metapopulation

For many who have tried to restore viable self-sustaining populations to the wild, there has come a great sense of humility and wonder at the complexity of systems that have a deceiving appearance of simplicity. Many early attempts at restoring populations met with low success, because of this naive perception that it would be simple and quick (examples in Falk et al. 1996). But experience has taught us otherwise. Understanding how populations change in the face of spatial and temporal...

Assumptions and evidence for the existence of metapopulations in nature

The different types of metapopulations described above (mainland-island, classical, source-sink, patchy, and non-equilibrium) are all variations on the same themes. Local extinctions are commonplace, there is an equilibrium involving colonization and extinction rates, and so on. They differ in the levels of detail, whether they allow for patches to be of different quality, whether they allow for differing levels of connectivity between patches, and whether they include local population...

Mac Arthur and Wilson and the equilibrium theory

Species Area Curve

Spatial ecology has its roots in the MacArthur and Wilson equilibrium (or dynamic) theory of island biogeography. MacArthur and Wilson (1963, 1967) brought a quantitative theoretical framework to the study of biogeography. Even before Darwin carried out his pioneering work on the Galapagos, islands and island examples have been of great importance in biology, and islands have been analyzed as natural laboratories and experimental systems. They are small, contained ecosystems in which certain...

Biome and Landscape Patterns

Patterns in species richness, food web structure, and functional organization have been observed among biomes and across landscapes. To some extent, patterns may reflect variation in occurrence or dominance of certain taxa in different biomes. Regional species pools may obscure effects of local habitat conditions on species richness (Kozar 1992a), especially in temperate ecosystems (Basset 1996), but few ecologists have addressed the extent to which the regional species pool may influence local...

The Fluvial Ecosystem

The fluvial ecosystem integrates the biota and biological interactions with all of the interacting physical and chemical processes that collectively determine how systems function. Certain properties can be recognized that characterize the whole system its overall production and metabolism, how efficiently nutrients are used, the diversity of energy supplies, and the number of species and feeding roles represented. All ecosystems have some flux across their boundaries, but fluvial ecosystems...

Community Composition and Ecosystem Function

Community Structure Ecology

Intact biological assemblages with a diverse mix of species are expected to carry out various ecosystem functions including primary production, organic matter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and secondary production of harvestable species at their natural and presumably optimal levels. As species are lost from ecosystems due to the relentless pace of human activities (Chapter 13), the extent to which system function and resilience depend on the number and characteristics of species present...

Stages in the breakdown and decay of CPOM

Tree Leaf Decomposition Chart

The sequence in the breakdown of CPOM, well documented for autumn-shed leaves in temperate streams (see reviews by Barlocher 1985, Webster and Benfield 1986), is illustrated in Figure 7.3. Leaves fall directly or are windblown into streams, become wetted, and commence to leach soluble organic and inorganic constituents. Most of the leaching occurs within a few days and is followed by a period of microbial colonization and growth, causing numerous changes in leaf condition. The next stage,...

Types And Patterns Of Detritivory And Burrowing A Detritivore and Burrower Functional Groups

Western Oregon Wood Eating Larvae

Functional groups of detritivorous and burrowing arthropods have been distinguished on the basis of principal food source, mode of feeding, and microhabitat preferences (e.g., J. Moore et al. 1988, J. Wallace et al. 1992). For example, functional groups can be distinguished on the basis of seasonal occurrence, habitats, and substrates (e.g., terrestrial vs. aquatic, animal vs. plant, foliage vs. wood, arboreal vs. fossorial) or particular stages in the decomposition process (N. Anderson et al....

Nematode Extraction Techniques

Soil Fecal Pellets Fauna

Nematodes may be extracted by a variety of techniques, either active or passive in nature. The principal advantage of the oldest, active method, namely the Baermann funnel method, is that it is simple, requiring no sophisticated equipment or electricity. It is based on the animal's movement and gravity. Samples are placed on coarse tissue paper, on a coarse mesh screen, and then placed in the cone of a funnel and immersed in water. After crawling through the moist soil and filter paper, the...

Graphical Means to Understanding the Global Atmospheric Budget Robin Hood Diagrams

Here I provide a step-by step description of each vector in a Robin Hood diagram of the global atmospheric carbon budget Fig. 13.2 . The budget and figure is constructed arbitrarily for the year 1990. This vector approach is referred to as a Robin Hood diagram because of the abundance of arrows Inez Fung, personal communication, 2000 and the overall process of solving for land and ocean carbon sinks using 13C02 and 12C02 is known as a 'double deconvolution' Heimann and Keeling, 1989 . In the...

Patterns in the distribution of soil mites

The dominant factors contributing to the distribution of Oribatida, the predominant soil mites, across successional time and spatial stratification were reviewed recently (Maraum, 2000). This review identifies species fecundity, longevity, sexual and asexual reproduction, microhabitat preferences and food preferences as essential to understanding species dynamics.

Constructing the Ecosystem Carbon Balance NEP

We combined our isotopic measurements with the more standard inventory measurements of above- and belowground net primary production to estimate NEP rhizodeposition was added to NPP, and decomposition was subtracted (Eq. 11.6). Bulk soil carbon content was not significantly different among treatments in 1999, but S13 C values were (Fig. 11.2).

What controls the rate of decomposition

Forest Litter Decomposition

Three major factors control decomposition climate, quality of the litter, and the soil microbial and faunal communities, as shown in Fig. 7.3. Other factors Figure 7.3 Factors that affect how quickly litter decomposes. (Reprinted from Prescott et al. 2000. Forest Ecology and Management 133 with permission from Elsevier.) Figure 7.3 Factors that affect how quickly litter decomposes. (Reprinted from Prescott et al. 2000. Forest Ecology and Management 133 with permission from Elsevier.) can be...

Pauropus Silvaticus

Soil Ecology

Vertical distribution of astigmatic mites in conventional and no-tillage agroecosystems. Arrows indicate autumn and spring dates for mowing, tillage, and planting. Numbers increased under conventional tillage following autumn tillage, but not following spring tillage (from Perdue and Crossley, 1990). described a buildup of astigmatic mites following pipeline construction in Ontario, Canada. The mites were associated with accumulations of residue under moist conditions. Philips...

Rain forests climate soils and variation

Hopea Parviflora

2.5.1 Tropical rain forests the changing archetype Corner 1964 considered tropical rain forest to be the cradle of flowering plant angiosperm evolution and that all other forest types were derived from it - it is the archetype, the earliest common ancestor. Early trees such as those of the Coal Measure forests see Section 9.1 and Fig. 1.1 , as well as the first seed plants and the first flowering plants, do indeed appear to have evolved under conditions of high temperature and constant...

Energy flow through contrasting communities

Galapagos Islands Yearly Rainfall

Given accurate values for net primary productivity NPP in an ecosystem, and CE, AE and PE for the various trophic groupings shown in the model in Figure 17.22, it should be possible to predict and understand the relative importance of the different possible energy pathways. Perhaps not surprisingly, no study has incorporated all ecosystem compartments and all transfer efficiencies of the component species. However, some generalizations are possible when the gross features of contrasting systems...

Lyell Charles

Charles Lyell Theory Evolution

A child of privilege as the eldest son of a welloff Scottish laird, Charles Lyell was born at the family estate Kinnordy, in the mountain country of eastern Scotland. While he was still a toddler, the family moved to New Forest, near Southampton, England, and he grew up collecting butterflies and aquatic insects in the woods near his home. His father, an amateur naturalist and literary man, had opened up the world of nature to him, although he pushed him to become a lawyer. At nineteen, Lyell...

Assumptions of the logistic equation

Gause Barnacles

How much trust can we put in either the traditional logistic equation or the Beverton-Holt equations Is the typical logistic growth curve actually found in biological populations Laboratory studies on growth of protozoan populations such as Paramecium caudatum, yeast, Drosophila, grain beetles and diatoms (Gause 1932, 1934, Vandermeer 1969, Pearl 1927, Crombie 1945, Park et al. 1964, Tilman 1977), do consistently show a logistic growth Figure 2.8 Population growth as a function of N based on...

How Can Future Oil Spills Be Prevented

Over the last several decades, there have been a number of headline making oil spills that have left the world with shocking images. We have seen the results of drilling in the ocean floors to find oil. We know that our dependency on fossil fuels drives an industry that requires destroying some of our most precious resources.

Zooplankton and the Zebra Mussel Invasion

The invasion of the zebra mussel had important impacts on the Hudson ecosystem. Zebra mussel grazing resulted in an 80-90 percent decline inphytoplanktonbiomass and primary production (Caraco et al., 1997). Zebra mussels also caused a reduction in populations of native benthic bivalves and other benthic animals that feed on plankton (Strayer and Smith, 2001). Some zooplankton populations as well as zooplankton community biomass also declined (Pace et al., 1998). The general effect of zebra...

Fire in Grasslands

Fire Ecology Diagram

It is generally recognized that climate, fire, and grazing are three primary factors that are responsible for the origin, maintenance, and structure of the most extensive natural grasslands. These factors are not always independent (i.e., grazing reduces standing crop biomass which can be viewed simply as a fuel for fire, and biomass is also highly dependent upon the amount of precipitation). Historically, fires were a frequent occurrence in most large grasslands. Most grasslands are not harmed...

Inbreeding depression

Inbred Deer

Inbreeding is more likely to occur in small populations simply because there is a greater chance that an individual will mate with a relative. In a diploid species, inbreeding increases the likelihood that an individual will have two alleles that are identical by descent at any given locus, and it therefore has the effect of increasing homozygosity at all loci. For this reason, the inbreeding coefficient F is based on heterozygosity deficits (Equation 3.15). This relationship between inbreeding...

Genetic drift

Genetic drift is a process that causes a population's allele frequencies to change from one generation to the next simply as a result of chance. This happens because reproductive success within a population is variable, with some individuals producing more offspring than others. As a result, not all alleles will be reproduced to the same extent, and therefore allele frequencies will fluctuate from one generation to the next. Because genetic drift alters allele frequencies in a purely random...

Population bottlenecks

We have noted already that a population bottleneck will reduce the effective size of a population and hence its overall level of genetic diversity. We are now returning to bottlenecks for a more in-depth discussion because, as mentioned previously, they are one of the most important determinants of a population's genetic diversity and therefore merit further discussion. The methods outlined previously for quantifying the effect of bottlenecks on Ne, and hence genetic diversity, required...

What Do Dingoes Eat? Prey Animals That Dingoes Eat

The dingo, known by its scientific name of Canis lupus dingo, is a wild feral dog that only lives in Australia. Dingo fur can be colored either ginger tan, black, or cream. Ginger tan-colored dingoes account for 74 of the dingo population. Dingoes hunt alone and in packs. Dingoes' food is similar to other pack-canines such as wolves. What Do Dingoes Eat Dingoes are mainly carnivorous and they eat a large range of mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects.

Energy Storage and Expenditure

Agrp Satiety Center

The snow creaks under our winter boots as we walk along the snow scooter track to our study site. The cold is overwhelming, and though we have been walking for an hour, we do not feel warm. The air is perfectly still, and the heavy snow on the branches of the surrounding conifers absorbs all sounds. When we arrive at the bait station, we spill some seeds onto the feeding tray and retire to the nearby trees. The seeds soon attract the attention of some willow tits. It is astonishing that these...

Provisioning

A honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony contains thousands of foragers that collect large amounts ofnectar, pollen, propolis, and water and deliver them to the hive. The colony's activities and, ultimately, reproduction depend on these resources. Millions ofyears ofhoneybee evolution and thousands of years of domestication have selected for proficient resource provisioning. Bees divide the labor ofresource acquisition and provisioning. Scout bees specialize in finding ephemeral resources and...

Haplochromine Cichlids of Lake Victoria

The haplochromine cichlid fish of Lake Victoria demonstrate both the exuberance of species radiation and the tragedy of mass extinction, the first to occur during historical times. These tiny, colorful fish, which constituted 80 percent of the fish biomass in Lake Victoria prior to 1978, now account for less than 2 percent (Kaufman, 1992). This decline has been caused by a combination of human influences. The cichlids are a very large and diverse family of freshwater, perchlike fish...

Nematode Feeding Habits

Feeding Habits Nematodes

Nematodes feed on a wide range of foods. A general trophic grouping is bacterial feeders, fungal feeders, plant feeders, and predators and omnivores. For the purposes of our overview, one can use anterior (stomal or mouth) structures to differentiate feeding, or trophic, groups (Fig. 7.5) (Yeates and Coleman, 1982 Yeates et al., 1993). Plant-feeding nematodes have a hollow stylet that pierces cell walls of higher plants. Some species are facultative, feeding occasionally on plant roots or root...

Monocrop Farming: Green Revolution or environmental blunder of historic proportions?

While writing about Colony Collapse Disorder (the disappearance of the world's honeybee population) I came across an article by Canadian investigative journalist Alex Roslin about monocrops and their detrimental effects on world hunger, biodiversity, nutrition, food supplies, water toxicity and soil quality.

Range Of Habitats

Cockroaches are found in a continuum of dark, humid, poorly ventilated, and often cramped spaces either continuously or when sheltering during their non-active period. Although certain species may be associated with a particular crevice type like the voids beneath rocks or the space beneath loose bark, others are commonly found in more than one of these habitat subdivisions. Many species exploit the interconnectivity of dark, enclosed spaces wherever there is suitable food and moisture, and a...

Case Study Panesthiinae

Those members of the Panesthiinae for which we have ecological information are known to burrow in soil (Geoscapheini) or rotted wood (the remainder). They therefore illustrate the range of wing variation possible within an ecologically similar, closely related taxon (Table 2.4). Many species in the subfamily have fully developed tegmina and wings, and are heavy bodied but able flyers (Fig. 2.12A). Male Panesthia australis, for example, have been collected at lights in Australia (Roth, 1977 CAN,...

Effects of Gypsy Moths on Acorn Production

The interactions described above have one missing piece. Defoliation by gypsy moths has a major impact on acorn production. in oak forests in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, acorn production was reduced by 50 to 100 during years of defoliation, and acorn production was essentially eliminated in years of heavy defoliation (Figure 7.2, Gottschalk 1989, Drake 1991). The short-term reduction in acorn production is caused by the elimination of carbohydrate reserves in defoliated trees.

Litter return nutrient cycling and ecosystem stability

In the previous chapter, we have seen that the mass balance of inputs and the outputs from an inorganic resource (typically a nutrient) at the base of a community or food web replaces the need for a phenomenologically defined carrying capacity to stabilize a system. But the mass balances of the Tilman and Armstrong and McGehee models considered in the previous chapter are incomplete. In particular, once the plant dies, its biomass and nutrient content are removed from the system and not...

What Do Lizards Eat? Interesting Facts About The Lizards Diet

Before we can answer the question of what do lizards eat, we need to spend a few minutes talking about the different kinds of lizards. There are many different types and some consumers definitely would not want to have as a pet. For example, crocodiles, Caymans and alligators are lizards These are not typical pets and definitely not something you want in your home. They can grow to a very large size and actually be quite dangerous.

Measuring canopy closure

Canopy Scope

Canopy closure is the proportion of the sky hemisphere obscured by vegetation when viewed from a single point (Jennings et al. 1999). Note the difference between this term and canopy cover, which refers to the proportion of the forest floor covered by the vertical projection of the tree crowns (Figure 4.7) (Jennings et al. 1999). Methods for estimating the latter are presented in section 3.6.4. Canopy closure can be measured by using hemispherical photography, or by a number of other techniques...

Diseases Caused by Air Pollution

Air pollution has become a public health concern all over the world. Large scale industrial activities and vehicular emissions are the major causes of environmental air pollution, especially in developing countries like India. However, in recent years, indoor air pollution has emerged as one of the leading reasons for health issues in Indian metro cities.

Plant Nutrient Synchory

The great number of different means of transport for propagules requires a structured overview of the vectors and mechanisms. Three large groups are distinguished autochory, where the plant itself carries out the dispersal of its propagules, allochory, where the plant exploits different means of transport (vectors), atelochory, where dispersal is inhibited Plants have evolved many mechanisms which ensure distribution in different ways. In the simplest form of autochory, barochory, propagules...

Root System

The root system of Norway spruce lacks a taproot, develops laterally, and is relatively shallow, averaging 40 cm in depth. Most roots are concentrated in the upper 10 cm soil depth in pure stands, but may extend to 35 cm depth in mixed species stands. Consequently, Norway spruce is sensitive to soil moisture conditions and generally occurs on cool, moist sites. The total length of roots per m2 ground area was estimated at approximately 100 m at a stand age of 10 years, and 45 m in the age of...

Counting animals

13.1 Introduction The trick in obtaining a usable estimate of abundance is to choose the right method. What works in some circumstances is useless in others. Hence, we provide a broad range of methods and indicate the conditions under which each is most effective. 13.2 Estimates Knowledge of the size or density of a population is often a vital prerequisite to man aging it effectively. Is the population too small Is it too large Is the size changing and if so in what direction To answer these...

Protection For Weasels

After centuries of killing predators to protect human interests, concern for predatory animals as individuals and for their own sake is a very recent idea in Europe (Reynolds & Tapper 1996). European settlers carried their cultural attitudes to North America, including the selective destruction of predators to favor game, although that policy was on its way out in the national parks of the United States by the 1930s (Dunlap 1999). Weasels are small and subject to little rancorous debate...