Chapter 4 Ecosystems

4.1 The Sonoran Desert

 Deserts are not easy places for animals and plants to live.
 Deserts do not get much rainfall, so the organisms (plants and animals) that live there have
adaptations that help them to survive with little water.
 Adaptations: Changes in physical structure, function, or behavior that allow an organism or
species to survive and reproduce in a given environment.

 Environmental conditions: Hot and dry, Competition for water, Windy, and sandstorms, Long
distances between food and water supplies, Burning hot during the day and freezing at night.

Plants (Cactus) Animals

Saguaro Cacti  During the hot days, lizards, tortoises,
 They grow slowly and other animals rest in the shade of
 Their roots spread out widely just the plants or burrow into the soil where
underneath the soil, ready to absorb any it is cooler.
rain that falls.
 Gila woodpeckers make holes in the  At night, when the temperature falls,
cacti, to make their nests. kangaroo rats come out to feed, wary of
 Other birds also visit these holes. their predators such as rattlesnakes and
coyotes
Teddy Bear Cholla
 Cactus wrens (a type of bird) often use a
teddy bear cholla to make their nests.
 They are spiky and very few other
animals will get close to them.
 Cactus wren’s eggs and young ones are
protected from predators

 In the Sonoran Desert, it usually rains heavily at least once a year.

 When the rains come, the desert is transformed.
 Many plants quickly produce flowers.
 Insects feed on the nectar and pollen in the flowers, helping the plants to reproduce by
pollinating them.
 Nectar: a sugary fluid secreted by plants, especially within flowers to encourage pollination by
insects and other animals. It is collected by bees to make into honey.

Pollen: A fine dust that contains the sperm of seed-producing plants

Pollinating: to give (a plant) pollen from another plant of the same kind so that seeds will be
produced

 At night, bats feed on nectar from the flowers of agave plants.

 Seeds fall to the ground and are collected by ants, to take into their nests to provide a food
store.
 Many months or years later, some of the uneaten seeds may germinate to produce new plants.
Interactions in the Sonoran Desert
 All the different animals and plants depend on each other. They interact with each other. The
actions of one organism affect another.
- A bat feeding on agave nectar
- Ants collecting seeds
Non-Living Things in The Desert

There are interactions between the organisms and the non-living parts of the environment.

Light  The bright sunlight helps the plants to photosynthesize, producing food
that other organisms can eat.
Temperature  The temperature is often very high during the day, but much lower at night.
 Some animals are nocturnal (active at night, eg: owl), which helps them to
avoid overheating or drying out.
 It is cooler underneath the soil, tarantula (an animal) will dig burrows for
shelter during the day.
Soil  Rocks and soil provide minerals for the plants to grow
 Building material for ground-nesting birds.
Water  All organisms need water to keep their cells alive.
 Rain, when it comes, allows them to become more active and to reproduce.
Air  The desert air provides carbon dioxide for the plants to use in
photosynthesis, and oxygen for all the organisms to use in respiration.
 The organisms also affect their environment.
 Eg: droppings from the kangaroo rats become part of the soil. The gases
that they take in and give out affect the composition of the air.

The Desert Ecosystem

 Everything in the desert interacts with everything else.

 All of these interactions make up the desert ecosystem.
 Ecosystem- a network of interactions between all the living organisms and the living things
around them
  Some of the interactions in an ecosystem involve food webs.
 Plants are the producers in a food web. They use energy in sunlight to make food.
 As animals eat the desert plants and each other, the energy is passed through the desert food
web.
 Food webs are a very important part of the interactions in an ecosystem, but they are not the
only interactions.
 For example:
- plants may provide places for some of the animals to make nests.
- Plant roots help to hold the soil together so that it does not wash away when it rains.
- Animals help plants to reproduce by pollinating their flowers or spreading their seeds.
 The study of ecosystems is called ecology.

Habitats In a Desert Ecosystem

 The place where an organism naturally lives is called its habitat.

 There are many different places to live in a desert.
 The habitat of a saguaro cactus is the open desert.
 The habitat of a Gila woodpecker is a saguaro cactus (where it makes its nest) and the air and
ground in the open desert (where it collects food).
 The habitat of a desert ant is underneath the rocks and soil and on the soil surface.
 Termites live at the base of the saguaro stems.
 Sap beetles live inside the saguaro flowers.
 Kangaroo rats live in burrows and come out to look for food at night.

4.2 Different Ecosystems

Three more examples of ecosystems

Mangrove forest  Mangroves are trees that can grow with their roots in seawater.
 They form forests along the coasts of many tropical countries
 Young fish live among the mangrove roots, safe from larger fish that
might eat them.
 Mud skippers climb out onto the mud when the tide is out, feeding on
whatever they can find.
 As the mangrove leaves fall onto the mud, they are decomposed by
bacteria. Prawns and crabs eat the partly decomposed leaves.
 Crab-eating macaques, a type of monkey, climb through the trees and
catch crabs on tree roots and mud.
 Sea ice in the Arctic  During the winter in the Arctic Ocean, it is so cold that some of the
Ocean seawater freezes.
 Seals hunt for fish in the water but have to come to the surface to
breathe air.
 Polar bears patrol the ice, looking for seals to kill and eat. Polar bears
are good swimmers and can move from one ice floe to another.
 Arctic foxes also look for food on the ice.
 Enough light passes through the ice to allow tiny algae (single-celled
plants) to grow on the underside of the ice floes.
 Tiny shrimp-like organisms eat the algae.
 Fish eat the shrimp.
Rice paddy  Rice paddies in Malaysia are farmed by people
 At some times of the year, the paddy fields are flooded with water.
 Algae grow in this shallow water and on the mud at the sides of the
flooded areas.
 Fish swim into the flooded paddies from their irrigation canals.
 Frogs and dragonflies breed the water.
 The water is shallow, it heats up quickly during the day and cools
down quickly at night.
 Farmers often add fertilizer to the paddy fields, making not only the
rice but also the algae grow faster, providing more food for the
animals.
 Many birds feed in and around the paddy fields.

4.3 Intruders in An Ecosystem

New species in an ecosystemIn your studies of ecosystems, you have seen how all the
differentorganisms interact with each other and their environment. In this topic,you will find out what
happens if a new species suddenly arrives. Howdoes the new species fit into the network of
interactions? How does thisaffect the species already there?Introduced species in New ZealandNew
Zealand is a country in the Pacific Ocean. New Zealandbecame separated from all the other areas of land
in the worldabout 66 million years ago. Because of this separation, thespecies that developed in New
Zealand were different fromthose elsewhere on Earth.Before humans arrived in New Zealand, there
were no predatorymammals there. Many of thenative species of birds nest on theground. There were
no predators to eat their eggs, so the eggs andyoung birds were safe. Even the adults of several species
of nativebird – such as the kiwi – cannot fly.Nobody knows exactly when humans first arrived in New
Zealand,but it was probably about 700 years ago. Humans brought species ofanimals with them that did
not belong in New Zealand. For example,rats stowed away on their boats. Rats now live in most of the
country.The rats eat birds’ eggs and defenceless young birds.Since then, other species have been
introduced to New Zealand.Farmers brought sheep, to farm for their wool and meat.Rabbits were
brought on sailing ships, to use as food. But therabbits escaped and began to eat grass in the sheep
pastures.So people brought stoats from Europe to control the rabbits.Now stoats have spread all over
New Zealand. They arefierce hunters and breed rapidly. They can kill and eat birdsmuch larger than
themselves. Stoats have made several speciesof native birdextinct, including the laughing owl and
theNew Zealand thrush. Stoats eat almost 60% of kiwi chicks.People in New Zealand are now trying
toeradicate (completelyget rid of) stoats, but this is very difficult to do. The best that canbe done is to
control their numbers.Scientists think that 53 species of native bird in New Zealandhave become extinct
since humans arrived. The extinctions havebeen partly caused by people hunting and killing the birds,
butmostly because of introducedinvasive species.

4.4 Bioaccumulation

Exercise