Module 3

GEE 108 - ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Learning Outcomes: At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. define community
2. describe the major terrestrial biomes and the types of plants and animals occurring there
3. relate the effect of increasing altitude as one goes up in a mountain to biome changes seen as one
moves north of the equator toward the polar regions
4. distinguish the different regions within the marine ecosystems
5. differentiate species, latitudinal, environmental and community with each other

LESSON 1
INTRODUCTION
A community is the set of all that inhabit a certain area. Communities can have different sizes and
boundaries. These are often identified with some difficulty.
An ecosystem is a higher level of organization the community plus it’s physical environment.
Ecosystems include both the biological and physical components affecting the community ecosystem.
Ecosystems can be studied from a structural view of population distribution ofr from a functional view of
energy flow and other processes.

Community Structure
Ecologists find that within a community many populations are not randomly distributed. This
recognition that there was a pattern and process of spatial distribution of species was a major
accomplishment of ecology. Two of the most important patterns are open community structure and the
relative rarity of species within a community.
Do species within a community have similar geographic range and density peaks? If they do, the
community is said to be closed community, a discrete unit with sharp boundaries known as ecotones. An
open community, however, has its populations without ecotones and distributed more or less randomly.
In a forest, where we find an open community structure, there is a gradient of soil moisture.
Plants have different tolerances to this gradient and occur at different places along the continuum. Where
the physical environment has abrupt transitions, sharp boundaries developed between populations are
found. For example, an ecotone develops at a beach separating water and land.
Open structure provides some protection for the community. Lacking boundaries, it is harder for
a community to be destroyed in an all or nothing fashion. Species can come and go within communities
over time, yet the community as a whole persists. In general, communities are less fragile and more
flexible than some earlier concepts would suggest.
 Most species in a community are far less abundant than the dominant species that provide a
community its name: for example oak-hickory, pine, etc. Populations of just a few species are dominant
within a community, no matter what community are examined. Resource partitioning is thought to be the
main cause for this distribution.

Classification of Communities
There are two basic categories of communities: terrestrial (land) and aquatic (water). These two basic
types of community contain eight smaller units known as biomes. A biome is a large –scale category
containing many communities of a similar nature, whose distribution is largely controlled by climate.
 Terrestrial Biomes: tundra, grassland, desert, taiga, temperate forest, tropical forest
 Aquatic Biomes: marine, freshwater
Terrestrial Biomes
The tundra and desert biomes occupy the most extreme environments, with little or no moisture
and extremes of temperature acting as harsh selective agents on organisms that occupy these areas. These
two biomes have the fewest numbers of species due to the stringent environmental conditions. In other
words, not everyone can live there due to the specialized adaptations required by the environment.
Tundra biome is the harsh region of flatlands, bogs and marshes. It has harsh climate and low
rainfall with low average temperature. There are two kinds of tundra: the arctic tundra and the alpine. The
arctic tundra occurs at high latitudes. The alpine tundra occurs at high elevations. The vegetation of
these tundras is similar but they differ in the kinds of animals they harbor. The arctic tundra has large
mammals and small important mammals like bird and insects. The dominant animals in the alpine tundra
are small rodents and insects.

Tundra Biome
Source: askabiologist.asu.com
 The subsoil of this biome is permanently frozen, it is called permafrost. Tundra is located at the
northern regions of North America, Europe and Asia. It receives very little rainfall usually in the form of
snow. Water is not available in this biome which made it appear like desert. It has very short growing
season which occurs only when the temperature falls to melt the snow. During this very short time,
mosses, lichens, flowering dwarf shrubs, mat-forming plants and grasses grow. Very few trees can be
seen in the tundra, if ever, it grows near ponds, lakes and streams. The kind of vegetation in this biome
supports reindeer, caribou and hares.
A desert is a region of descending warm air in rain shadows of mountain ranges. It is
characterized by little rainfall, high daytime temperature and cold nighttime temperature. Topsoil is not
retained because it is being blown by heavy wind. The plants and animals in desert biomes have adapted
to minimal water loss. They also have developed ways for protection against extremes of temperature.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains in California is an example of a desert. Its flora consists of succulents like
cactus. Cactus have adapted to the climatic conditions of the desert by having leaves in form of spines.
Most of the desert plants have reduced leaf forms. Photosynthesis among these kinds of plants occurs in
booth stem and leaves. Some plants do not even have leaves. It is their stem that undergoes
photosynthesis. Animals like kangaroo, rat and small mammals are found living in desert. Most of the
animals here are nocturnal animals. They burrow in the ground or hide in caves during daytime and hunt
food at night.

A Desert
Source: britannica.com

Tropical Rain Forest

Tropical rain forests occur in regions near the equator. The climate is always warm (between
200 and 250 C) with plenty of rainfall (at least 190 cm/year). The rain forest is probably the richest biome,
both in diversity and in total biomass. The tropical rain forest has a complex structure, with many levels
of life. More than half of all terrestrial species live in this biome. While diversity is high, dominance by a
particular species is low.

While some animals live on the ground, most rain forest animals live in the trees. Many of these
animals spend their entire life in the forest canopy, Insects are so abundant in tropical rain forests that the
majority have not yet been identified. Charles Darwin noted the number of species found on a single tree,
and suggested the richness of the rain forest would stagger the future systematist with the size of the
catalogue of animal species found there. Termites are critical in the decomposition and nutrient cycling of
wood. Birds tend to be brightly colored, often making them sought after as exotic pets. Amphibians and
reptiles are well represented. Monkeys feed on fruits in tropical rain forest trees. Encroachment and
destruction of habitat put all these animals and plants at risk.

Amazon Rain Forest

Source: forbes.com

Epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants. These epiphytes have their own roots to absorb
moisture and minerals, and use the other plant more as an aid to grow taller. Some tropical forests are
seasonal and have trees that shed leaves in dry season. The warm, moist climate supports high
productivity as well as rapid decomposition of detritus.

Epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants but usually have roots of their own that

An Epiphyte plant
Source: differencebetween.com
 absorb moisture and minerals leached from the canopy; others catch rain and debris in hollows
produced by overlapping leaf bases. The most common epiphytes are related to pineapples, orchids, and
ferns.
With its yearlong growing season, tropical forests have a rapid cycling of nutrients. Soils
in tropical rain forests tend to have very little organic matter since most of the organic carbon is tied up in
the standing biomass of the plants. These tropical soils, termed laterites, make poor agricultural soils after
the forest has been cleared.
About 17 million hectares of rain forest are destroyed each year. Estimates indicate the forests
will be destroyed (along with a great part of the Earth’s diversity) within 100 years. Rainfall and climate
patterns could change as a result.

Shrubland
The shrubland biome is dominated by shrubs with small but thick evergreen leaves that are often
coated with a thick, waxy cuticle, and with thick underground stems that survive the dry summers and
frequent fires.
Shrubland is also called chaparral. The climate in the shrubland is characterized by wet, cool
winter which is followed by long, hot summer. The rainfall during winter promotes plant growth at the
end of the season. Some plants that live in shrubland are similar to the plants found in the desert. This is
because of the little rain it receives during dry season. Most scrublands are found along the Pacific coast
of the USA and in Chile, South Africa, Mediterranean and South Australia. The plants found in scrubland
are the small trees with spiny-thick leaves (shrubs). Fox, birds, snakes, lizards, rabbit, mice, mule, deer
and coyotes are found in shrubland.

Chaparral
Source: californiachaparral.org

Grasslands
 Grasslands occur in temperate and tropical areas with reduced rainfall (10-30 inches per year) or
prolonged dry seasons. Soils in this region are deep and rich and are excellent for agriculture. Grasslands
are almost entirely devoid of trees, and can support large herds of grazing animals. Natural grasslands
once covered over 40 percent of the earth’s land surface. In temperate areas where rainfall is between 10
and 30 inches a year, grassland is the climax community because it is too wet for desert and too dry for
forests.
Most grasslands have now been utilized to grow crops, especially wheat and corn. Grasses are the
dominant plants, while grazing and burrowing species are the dominant animals. The extensive root
systems of grasses allows them to recover quickly from grazing, flooding, drought, and sometimes fire.
Grasslands are generally open and continuous, fairly flat areas of grass. They are often located
between temperate forests at high latitudes and deserts at subtropical latitudes. Grasses vary in size from
2.1 m (7 ft) tall with roots extending down into the soil 1.8 m (6 ft), to the short grasses growing to a
height of only 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 in) tall. These short grasses can have roots that extend 1 m (about 3 ft)
deep.
The height of grass correlates with the amount of rainfall it receives. Grasslands receive about
500 to 950 mm of rain per year compared to deserts, which receive less than 300 mm and tropical forests,
which receive more than 2,000 mm. While temperatures are often extreme in some grasslands, the
average temperatures are about -20°C to 30°C. Tropical grasslands have dry and wet seasons that remain
warm all the time.
Grassland is also called prairie. There are two types of grasslands. These are the temperate and
tropical grasslands. Temperate grassland is characterized by alternating wet and dry seasons. This is a
typical biome for sod-forming grasses and legumes. Big trees are scarcely found in grassland because the
amount of rainfall is not enough to support their growth. The total rainfall in temperate grassland is from
10-30 inches per annum. This promotes the growth of a variety of grasses. Grasses forms a dense mass of
roots with shady leaves which is ideal for many insects. Anteaters are abundant in such places.
Herbivores like bison and wild beasts are plenty in such biome because they are assured of a abundant
supply of food. Since there are many herbivores, the carnivores are also found in grasslands.

Tropical Grassland
Source: environment11.pbworks.com
 Tropical grassland is referred to as savanna. It occurs in regions where a relatively cool
dry season followed by a hot rainy season. The largest savannas are in central and southern Africa. Other
savannas exist in Australia, Southeast Asia, and South America. The savanna is characterized by large
expanses of grasses with sparse population of trees. The plants of the savanna have extensive and deep
root systems that enable them to survive drought and fire. One tree that can survive the severe dry season
is the thorny-topped acacia, which sheds its leaves during drought. In the savannas of Africa, the common
predators are lions and cheetahs. In South America, there are many hawks and foxes. In the United States
of America, foxes, coyotes and wolves are dominant.

Temperate grassland
Source: https://www.sciencephoto.com

Temperate grasslands have cold winters and warm summers with some rain. The grasses die back to
their roots annually and the soil and the sod protect the roots and the new buds from the cold of winter or
dry conditions. A few trees may be found in this biome along the streams, but not many due to the lack of
rainfall ( https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/biome/biograssland.php#).

Deserts

Deserts are characterized by dry conditions and a wide temperature range. The dry air leads to
wide daily temperature fluctuations from freezing at night to over 120 degrees during the day. Most
deserts occur at latitudes of 30° N or S where descending air masses are dry. Some deserts occur in the
rain shadow of tall mountain ranges or in coastal areas near cold offshore currents. Plants in this biome
have developed a series of adaptations (such as succulent stems, and small, spiny or absent leaves) to
conserve water and deal with these temperature extremes.

The Sahara and a few other deserts have almost no vegetation. Most deserts, however, are home to a
variety of plants all adapted to heat and lack of abundant water (succulents and cacti).
 Desert
Source: stockphoto.com/photo

Aquatic Biomes

Conditions in water are generally less harsh than those on land. Aquatic organisms are buoyed by
water support, and do not usually have to deal with drought. Despite covering 71% of the Earth’s surface,
areas of the open ocean are a vast aquatic desert containing few nutrients and very little life. Clear-cut
biome distinctions in water, like those on land, are difficult to make. Dissolved nutrients controls many
local aquatic distributions. Aquatic communities are classified into: freshwater (inland) communities and
marine or (saltwater) communities.

The Marine Biome

The marine biome contains more dissolved minerals than the freshwater biome. Over 70% of the
Earth’s surface is covered in water, by far the vast majority of that being saltwater. There are two basic
categories to this biome: benthic and pelagic. Benthic communities (bottom dwellers) are subdivided by
depth: the shore/shelf and deep sea. Pelagic communities (swimmers or floaters suspended in the water
column) include planktonic (floating) and nektonic (swimming) organisms. The upper 200 meters of the
water column is the euphotic zone to which light can penetrate.
Coastal Communities
Estuaries are bays where rivers empty into the sea. Erosion brings down nutrients and tides wash
in salt water; forms nutrient trap. Estuaries have high production for organisms that can tolerate changing
salinity. Estuaries are called”nurseries of the sea” because many young marine fish develop in this
protected environment before moving as adults into the wide open seas.

Estuaries
Source: https://www.marlimillerphoto.com/estuaries.html

Seashores
Rocky shorelines offer anchorage for sessile organisms. Seaweeds are main photosynthesizers
and use holdfasts to anchor. Barnacles glue themselves to stone. Oysters and mussels attach themselves
by threads. Limpets and periwinkles either hide in crevices or fasten flat to rocks.
Sandy beaches and shores are shifting strata. Permanent residents therefore burrow underground.
Worms live permanently in tubes. Amphipods and ghost crabs burrow above high tide and feed at night.

Seashore
Source: https://www.istockphoto.com
Coral Reefs
Areas of biological abundance in shallow, warm tropical waters. Stony corals have calcium
carbonate exoskeleton and may include algae. Most form colonies; may associate with zooxanthellae
dinoflagellates. Reef is densely populated with animal life. The Great Barrier Reef of Australia suffers
from heavy predation by cron-of thorns sea star, perhaps because humans have harvested its predator, the
giant triton.

Coral reefs
Source: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/why-are-coral-reefs-important.html

Oceans
Oceans cover about three-quarters of the Earth’s surface. Oceanic organisms are placed in either
pelagic (open water) or benthic (ocean water) categories. Pelagic division is divided into neritic and three
levels of pelagic provinces. Neritic province has greater concentration of organisms because sunlight
penetrates; nutrients are found here. Epipelagic zone is brightly lit, has much photosynthetic
phytoplankton, that support zooplankton that are food for fish, squid, dolphins, and whales. Mesopelagic
zone is semi-dark and contains carnivores; adapted organisms tend to be translucent, red colored, or
luminescent; for example: shrimps, squids, lantern and hatchet fishes. The bathypelagic zone is
completely dark and largest in size; it has strange-looking fish. Benthic division includes organisms on
continental shelf (sublittoral), continental slope (bathyal), and abyssal plain.

Layers of the ocean

Source: https://www.marinespecies.org/introduced/wiki/Deep_sea_habitat
The Freshwater Biome
The freshwater biome is subdivided into two zones: running waters and standing waters. Larger
bodies of freshwater are less prone to stratification (where oxygen decreases with depth). The upper
layers have abundant oxygen, the lowermost layers are oxygen-poor. Mixing between upper and lower
layers in a pond or lake occurs during seasonal changes known as spring and fall overturn.

Lakes are larger than ponds, and are stratified in summer and winter. The epilimnion is the upper
surface layer. It is warm in summer. The hypolimnion is the cold lower layer. A sudden drop in
temperature occurs at the middle of the thermocline. Layering prevents mixing between the lower
hypolimnion (rich in nutrients0 and the upper epilimnion (which has oxygen absorbed from its surface).
The epilimnion warms in spring and cools in fall, causing a temporary mixing. As a consequence,
phytoplankton become more abundant due to the increased amounts of nutrients.

Stratifications in a Lake
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

Stratification in a lake, found typically in the summer. Solid line indicates temperature trend
while dashed line represents DO. The red region is considered the epilimnion, green
thermocline/metalimnion, and blue the hypolimnion defined by the sharp temperature changes/differences
between the regions.

Life zones also exist in lakes and ponds. The littoral zone is closest to shore. The limnetic zone is
the sunlit body of the lake. Below the level of sunlight penetration is the dark profundal zone. At the soil-
water interface we find the benthic zone. The term benthos is applied to animals and other organisms that
live on or in the benthic zone.
 Layers of a Lake
Source: lakeaccess.org

Rapidly flowing, bubbling streams have insects and fish adapted to oxygen-rich water. Slow
moving streams have aquatic life more similar to lake and pond life.

LESSON 2
COMMUNITY DENSITY AND STABILITY
Learning Outcomes: At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. differentiated species, latitudinal, environmental and community stability from each other
2. described the processes involved in community, primary, secondary succession as well climax
communities

Communities are made up of species adapted to the conditions of that community. Diversity and
stability help define a community and are important in environmental studies. Species diversity decreases
as we move away from the tropics.
Species diversity is a measure of the different types of organisms in a community (also referred to
as species richness). Latitudinal diversity gradient refers to species richness decreasing steadily going
away from the equator. A hectare of tropical rain forest contains 40-100 tree species, while a hectare of
temperate zone forest contains 10-30 species. In marked contrast, a hectare of taiga contains only a paltry
1-5 species. Habitat destruction in tropical countries will cause many more extinctions than it would in
higher latitudes.
 Environmental stability is greater in tropical areas, where a relatively stable/constant environment
allows more different kinds of species to thrive. Equatorial communities are older because they have been
less disturbed by glaciers and other climate changes, allowing time for species to evolve. Equatorial areas
also have a longer growing season.
The depth diversity gradient is found in aquatic communities. Increasing species richness with
increasing water depth. This gradient is established by environmental stability and the increasing
availability of nutrients.
Community diversity refers to the ability of communities to remain unchanged over time. During
the 1950s and 1960s, stability was equated to diversity: diverse communities were also stable
communities. Mathematical modelling during the 1970s showed that increased diversity can actually
increase interdependence among species and lead to a cascade effect when a keystone species is removed.
Thus, relation is more complex than previously thought.

Change in Communities over Time

Biological communities, like the organisms that comprise them, can and do change over time.
Ecological time focuses on community events that occur over decades or centuries. Geological time
focuses on events lasting thousands of years or more.
Community succession is the sequential replacement of species by immigration of new species and
local extinction of older ones following a disturbance that creates unoccupied habitats for colonization.
The initial rapid colonizer species are the pioneer community. Eventually a climax community of more or
less stable but slower growing species eventually develops.
During succession productivity declines and diversity increases. These trends tend to increase the
biomass (total weight of living tissue) in a community. Succession occurs because each community stage
prepares the environment for the stage following it.
Primary succession begins with bare rock and takes a very long time to occur. Weathering by wind
and rain plus the actions of pioneer species such as lichens and mosses begin the buildup of soil.
Herbaceous plants, including the grasses, grow on deeper soil and shade out shorter pioneer species. Pine
trees or deciduous trees eventually take root and in most biomes will form a climax community of plants
that are stable in the environment. The young produced by climax species can live in that environment,
unlike the young produced for successional species.
Secondary succession occurs when an environment has been disturbed, such as by the geological
activity, or human intervention (farming or deforestation in most cases). This form of succession often
begins in an abandoned field with soil layers already in place. Compared to primary succession, which
must take long periods of time to build or accumulate soil, secondary succession occurs rapidly. The
herbaceous pioneering plants give way to pines, which in turn may give way to a hardwood deciduous
forest (in the classical old field succession models developed in the eastern deciduous forest biome).
Early researchers assumed climax communities were determined for each environment. Today we
recognize the outcome of competition among whatever species are present as establishing the climax
community.
 Climax communities tend to be more stable than successional communities. Early stages of
succession show the most growth and are most productive. Pioneer communities lack diversity, make
poor use of inputs, and lose heat and nutrients. As succession proceeds, species variety increases and
nutrients are recycled more. Climax communities make fuller use of inputs and maintain themselves, thus,
they are more stable. Human activity (such as clearing a climax forest community to establish a farm field
consisting of a cultivated pioneering species, say corn or wheat) replaces climax communities with
simpler communities.
Communities are composed of species that evolve, so the community must also evolve.
Comparing marine communities of 500 million years ago with modern communities shows modern
communities composed of quite different organisms. Modern communities also tend to be more complex,
although this may be a reflection on the nature of the fossil record as well as differences between
biological and fossil species.

Ecological Succession
Source: britannica.com

Disturbance of a Community
The basic effect of human activity on communities is community simplification, an overall
reduction of species diversity. Agriculture is a purposeful human intervention in which we create a
monoculture of a single favored (crop) species such as corn. Most of the agricultural species are derived
from pioneering communities.
Inadvertent human intervention can simplify communities and produce stressed communities that
have fewer species as well as a superabundance of some species. Disturbances favor early successional
(pioneer) species that can grow and reproduce rapidly.
 Disturbance events can also be human caused: clear cuts when logging, fires to clear forests
for cattle grazing or the building of new housing developments are all common disturbances.

Ecosystems and Communities

Ecosystems include both living and nonliving components. These living, or biotic, components include
habitats and niches occupied by organisms. Non-living, or abiotic components include soil, water, light,
inorganic nutrients, and weather. An organism’s place of residence, where it can be found, is its habitat. A
niche is often viewed as the role of that organism in the community, factors limiting its life, and how it
acquires food.
Producers, a major niche in all ecosystems, are autotrophic, usually photosynthetic, organisms. In
terrestrial ecosystems, producers are usually green plants. Freshwater and marine ecosystems frequently
have algae as the dominant producers.
Consumers are heterotrophic organisms that eat food produced by another organism. Herbivores
are a type of consumer that feeds directly on green plants (or another type of autotroph). Since herbivores
take their food directly from the producer level, we refer to them as primary consumers. Carnivores feed
on other animals (or another type of consumer) and are secondary or tertiary consumers. Omnivores, the
feeding method used by humans, feed on both plants and animals. Decomposers are organisms, mostly
bacteria and fungi that recycle nutrients from decaying organic material. Decomposers break down
detritus, nonliving organic matter, into inorganic matter. Small soil organisms are critical in helping
bacteria and fungi shred leaf litter and form rich soil.
Even if communities do differ in structure, they have some common uniting processes such as
energy flow and matter cycling. Energy flows move through feeding relationships. The term ecological
niche refers to how an organism functions in an ecosystem. Food webs, food chains, and food pyramids
are three ways of representing energy flow.
Producers absorb solar energy and convert it to chemical bonds from inorganic nutrients taken
from environment. Energy content of organic food passes up food chain; eventually all energy is lost as
heat, therefore requiring continual input. Original inorganic elements are mostly returned to soil and
producers; can be used again by producers and no new input is required.