Austin’s

Journal
Jane Austin Lynn N. Rebancos
WHOA!
This journal will help me boost
my critical and writing skillks.

 “Journal writing provokes more reflection and
encourages students to take charge of their learning
and their feelings. Journal helps students make
connection between what is really important to
How to them, the curriculum and the world”
assess
ic
authent —Kaye Burke
?
learning
 01
Ecology,
Ecosystems and Food
web

My takeaways
 Topic 1: Ecology,
Ecosystem and Food
web
Ecology
Ecology is the study of the
relationships between living
organisms, including humans, and
their physical environment
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a geographic area where
plants, animals, and other organisms, as well
as weather and landscape, work together to form
a bubble of life. Ecosystems contain biotic or
living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or
nonliving parts. ... Abiotic factors include rocks,
temperature, and humidity.
Topic #1 Exampl
e
Consider six food chains which
are interconnected to form a
food web. The food web begins
with plants and ends with the
top carnivore, the vulture.

Food web
A food web consists of all
the food chains in a
single ecosystem
 LET’s REFLECT!
This lesson tackles about the definition of Ecology, Ecosystem and
food webs. This also includes how organisms interact with its
surrounding, which helps me to picture out how food chain works as
well as how it transfer energy from one organism to another. this also
includes the ecosystem disturbances which merely affect the ecology.
my takeaway is that we humans had greatly impacted the ecosystem
which caused disturbances and ecological stressors that impacted the
ecosystem. so in order to keep the ecosystem balance and stable we
need to maintain a diversity of plants and animals in an ecosystem, we
have a tendency to simplify ecosystems to maximize one particular
output, perhaps a collaborative research is needed to conduct on how
to manage and prevent the stressors from becoming a more
destructive one.
 Topic 2:
The
Nutrient cycle
and Soil
 Nutrient
Cycle

Nutrient cycles restore
ecosystems to the
equilibrium state, and
therefore play an
important role in
keeping the ecosystem
functioning
 The p
rocess
. In the process of cycling e
includ s also
1)carb e s:
nutrients components such as on cyc
2)wa le
biotic and abiotic (air, water and 3)nitro ter cycle
gen
soil) are involved. 4) oxy cycle and
gen cy
cle.
 LET’s REFLECT!

What I've learned from this topic is that nutrient cycling has a vital role for life, from
environment into plants and animals and back again. This is very essential for ecology. In
the process of cycling nutrients components such as biotic and abiotic (air, water and soil)
are involved. The processes also includes 1) carbon cycle 2) water cycle 3) nitrogen cycle
and 4) oxygen cycle. Understanding the Nitrogen Cycle—how nitrogen moves from the
atmosphere to earth, through soils and back to the atmosphere in an endless Cycle—can
help us grow healthy crops and protect our environment. without these nutrients waste and
dead organism would pile up which may cause over-abundance of nutrients, water pollution
and soil depletion. Furthermore, agriculture also influences the nutrient cycle in another
way: agriculture accelerates land erosion — because ploughing and tilling disturb and
expose the soil — so more nutrients drains away with runoff and flood control contributes to
disrupting the natural nutrient cycle.
 03
Biodiversity, Species
Interaction and Population
control

My takeaways
Topic #3
Population control: causes
Species Interaction
Species interactions within
ecological webs include four
main types of two-way
interactions: mutualism,
commensalism, competition,
and predation (which includes
herbivory and parasitism).
and effect
• Falling Mortality Rate. The
primary (and perhaps most
obvious) cause of population
growth is an imbalance
between births and deaths. ...
• Underutilized
Contraception. ...
• Lack of Female Education. ...
• Ecological Degradation. ...
• Increased Conflicts. ...
• Higher Risk of Disasters and
Pandemics
 LET’s REFLECT!

The concepts I've learned in this session is based on limiting population and how
species interact with one another. So, species interact in a form of competition-
invading one another which affects the mortality rate: Parasitism, interspecific
competition, predation, mutualism and commensalism. The gradual change in species
composition is referred as ecological succession. Ecological succession occurs when
biodiversity has lost its balance in maintaining sustainable resources to support life.
This topic includes 2 types of ecological succession which are 1) primary succession-
a lifeless community, 2) secondary succession- an abandoned community. This
happens because of ecological disturbances and stressors that disrupts population
growth of the variety of species which may lead to extinction if no action will be taken
 04
Community processes:
Species interaction and
Succession

My takeaways
Topic #4
Community processes
Community, also called
biological community, in
biology, an interacting group
of various species in a
common location. ... For
example, a forest of trees and
undergrowth plants, inhabited
by animals and rooted in soil
containing bacteria and fungi,
constitutes a biological
community.
Succession
Succession is the change in
either species composition,
structure, or architecture of
vegetation through time. ...
The total number of
individuals of each species, or
the rank order of abundance
of the different species are
examples of vegetation
structure.
 LET’s REFLECT!

Interaction between species happen when one organism competes with another. This session helped
me to connect the concepts from the last topic: Biodiversity, Species Interactions, and Population
Control. Human activities as well as uncontrollable stressors such as climate change, fire and ocean
acidification can influence species interaction. Examples of this includes dynamite fishing and
agricultural activities which affects species in a form that they lose their habitats- decreasing the
population sizes, also wild caught animals can affect human from getting diseases such as ebola and
HIV viruses. Furthermore, this session elaborates the types of ecological succession: primary
succession- is a lifeless community. Erosion is the process called when rocks are broken down by
microorganism to form soil, 2) secondary succession-a disturbed community. All the resources here
have been wiped out so animals and plants recolonize habitat after a major disturbance-flood,
earthquake, kava flow etc, 3) cyclic succession- s when a community is changed by recurring events
or changing interactions with species of plants or animals 4) seral succession- this type of
community has a low degree of diversity with less nutrients.
 05
Human population: Carrying
Capacity

My takeaways
Topic #5
Human Capacity
Community, also called
biological community, in
biology, an interacting group
of various species in a
common location. ... For
example, a forest of trees and
undergrowth plants, inhabited
by animals and rooted in soil
containing bacteria and fungi,
constitutes a biological
community.
Carrying capacity
Carrying capacity can be
defined as a species' average
population size in a
particular habitat. The
species population size is
limited by environmental
factors like adequate food,
shelter, water, and mates. If
these needs are not met, the
population will decrease until
the resource rebounds.
 LET’s REFLECT!

This topic focuses on the causes and effect of overpopulation. It also includes the ways
to slow population growth: 1. Promoting economic development, 2) empowering
women and 3) promoting family planning. The primary (and perhaps most obvious)
cause of population growth is an imbalance between births and deaths. It is important to
study how population grows overtime to control the negative effects in the community
because we all know that population growth will eventually reduce the amount of
resources that each individual consumes, ultimately resulting in disease, starvation, and
war. Hence that, more people means more food to consume which increases the demand
for agricultural land as well as increasing the intensity of having degraded land over
time.
 06
Climate and Terrestrial
Biodiversity

My takeaways
Topic #6

Climate Terrestrial Biodiversity

Climate is the average terrestrial biodiversity

weather in a given area refers to animals, plants
over a longer period of and micro-organisms
time. that live on land, and
also land habitats, such
as forests, deserts and
wetlands.
 LET’s REFLECT!

My takeaway for this session is that climate affects terrestrial biodiversity.

Climate means the average weather conditions in an area over a long period of
time—usually 30 years or longer. A region's climate includes systems in the
air, water, land and living organisms. Ecosystems and biodiversity will be
forced to fluctuate along with the regional climate, and that could harm many
species, hence that, a rapid climate change affects ecosystems and species
ability to adapt and so biodiversity loss increases
 06
Aquatic Biodiversity

My takeaways
Topic #6

Climate Terrestrial Biodiversity

Climate is the average terrestrial biodiversity

weather in a given area refers to animals, plants
over a longer period of and micro-organisms
time. that live on land, and
also land habitats, such
as forests, deserts and
wetlands.