LESSON 4-INTERACTIONS AMONG LIVING THINGS IN CORAL REEFS AND TROPICAL RAINFORESTS (GRADE 6).

Lesson Outcomes:

1. Discussed interactions among living things and non-living things in coral reefs and tropical rainforests
2. Explained the need to protect and conserve tropical rainforests and water ecosystems

Engage

The earth is our only home, take care of it!!! You see this campaign in some schools. Knowing
our environment therefore is very important. Let us look into some of the interesting interactions in
different ecosystems. We are familiar with habitats the places where organisms live such as water, land,
or air. But we will explore in the next activities the interactions of living things (biotic) and physical
environment (abiotic) components and find out how humans affect coral reefs and tropical rainforest
ecosystems. It would be wonderful if you can visit the beautiful ecosystems nearest your school and
commune with nature.

Explain

Coral reefs are the most beautiful underwater ecosystem in the sea. A reef is made by corals,
soft bodied cnidarians with tentacles that secrete chalk-like substances forming cups that serve as their
homes. These are the stony or hard corals. Soft corals do not form cups. Extensive colonies over the
years can form mounds of reefs. The Philippines is home to the Tubbataha Reef, a world heritage natural
formation. This is home to thousands of animal species like crabs, sea slugs, eels, soft corals, stony
corals, jellyfishes, shellfishes and different species of sea stars and fishes. A clown fish may hide on the
tentacles of sea anemones, a kind of interaction. An island can grow out of a coral reef. Gleaning of
shellfish is a favorite pastime of many fisher folks at low, low tide in shallow waters with coral reefs.

Coral reefs are trampled upon by beach goers. Coral reefs get blasted by dynamites. Resorts,
hotels, restaurants and even houses discharge untreated waste water into shore waters. Boracay was
closed for more than 6 months to rehabilitate the island due to water pollution, neglect of
environmental clean-up and dense coastal development. Solid wastes affect any ecosystem when not
disposed properly in sanitary landfills. Land and water pollution from man's activities destroy our
environment.

The tropical rain forest. The biotic community in a forest is the trees- hardwoods like narra,
lauan, molave and associated species like abaca, orchids, bamboo, vines, ferns and shrubs. Monkeys,
fruit bats, snakes, butterflies and other insects, spider, birds, tree frogs, monitor lizards and many more
are found in forest. The forest floor may be covered by thick mats of mosses and liverworts and crawling
millipedes and centipedes that find food. The country also has mossy forest where the common plants
are mosses in the forest floor or in masses in tree trunks and branches. Interactions in forests are those
between abiotic and biotic factors. Water, sunlight, soil, minerals, gases and elements of climate are
factors needed by biotic components. For example, a tree needs sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to
produce food. A woodpecker needs a tree trunk for shelter, build nests and capture food from
surroundings. A butterfly sucks nectar from orchid flowers and distributes pollen grains to other orchids.
A fruit bat feeds on ripe fruits and distributes undigested seeds. Mosquitoes bite human beings in the
forest. Ear fungi decompose dead trunks of trees. In these cases, plants are producers, animals are
consumers (herbivores that feed on plants, carnivores that feed on animals, and omnivores that feed on
both plants and animals) and fungi are decomposers. The relationships or interactions are varied in
ecosystems. Grasslands or meadows abound in our country and they are also ecosystems on land. In
other parts of the world, there are desert, temperate forests, and tundra, taiga and scrub forests.