Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Work Cited

Sayre, April Pulley. Temperate Deciduous Forest. New York: Twenty-First Century, 
         1994. Print.

Röhrig, Ernst, and B. Ulrich. Temperate Deciduous Forests. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1991. Print.

Col, , Jeananda. "Temperate Deciduous Forest Animal Printouts - EnchantedLearning.com."                                   
         Temperate Deciduous Forest Animal Printouts - EnchantedLearning.com. Enchanted Learning,                                              
         2001. Mon. 17 Jun. 2014.

"temperate forest." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2014. Mon. 7 Jun. 2014. <http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/117271>.

"forest." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2014. Mon. 7 Jun. 2014. <http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/34863>.


"biome." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2014. Mon. 8 Jun. 2014. <http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/79266>.

Food Web

Definition: the interlocking of many food chains that are linked together in order to show the different  feeding relationships between organisms present in an ecosystem. The arrows show the transfer of energy from the prey to the predator. Energy transfer is not 100% efficient, only 10% of the energy is passed onto the next energy level. 
https://biomesfourth09.wikispaces.com/file/view/alec_and_julia's_food_web.JPG
/112532155/alec_and_julia's_food_web.JPG


1) Primary Producers (organism that make their own food): Green & Dark Orange Color
2) Primary Consumers (organisms that eat primary producers): Purple Color
3) Secondary Consumers (eat primary consumers): Blue/Orange Color, 
4) Tertiary Consumers (eat secondary consumers): Orange/Yellow Color

These colors are just a rough representation of each feeding level, the organisms present in each trophic level also feed on other trophic levels. The colors just help to give an idea on what is happening at each one. 


Population Growth

Exponential Growth
Definition: is a type of growth curve when a population is constantly increasing with no factors that limits its growth. The graph of this line is in a J curve that rises from the left to right. This type of curve when there is an infinite amount of  resources are available in an environment. The rate of growth will be increasing each year because resources keep on being available. 
Example: The temperate deciduous forest contains bacteria which grow at an exponential rate. In particular the forest contains paramecium, bacterium and amoeba. Bacteria grows exponentially in the temperate deciduous forest because bacteria grows high in a fresh medium when a given number of cells are present. This forest is rich with fresh medium, it consist of one of the most richest soils and bacteria loves to inhabit itself in it. This forest is always growing due to constant rain during summer and spring times. 


Logistic Growth & Carrying Capacity
Definition: is a type of growth curve that will start slow and then keeps increasing until it finally tappers of at its carrying capacity. The carrying capacity is the amount of organisms an ecosystem can sustain without becoming overpopulated and loosing resources. Logistic growth is in the form of a S-Curve. This is the most common type that is found in biological populations. 
Example: The White Tailed Squirrel is an example of an r-selected species. If this population of white tailed squirrels started of with just a few members but then found a steady source of food. This population of squirrels would then start to grow rapidly and reproduce at a steady rate. Then if a natural disaster such as a hurricane comes by, it would diminish the food source which would lead to the population tapering of at the carrying capacity. 


Age Structure Pyramids
Definition: shows the chance of living in a population through each age group. In the temperate deciduous forest there weren't any depictions of animals for age structure diagrams. This is why a survivorship curve is a much accurate representation of what organisms live and survive in this biome. A survivorship curve is a graph that measures the number of organisms that  will be alive a different age groups. There are three types which are type 1, 2, and 3

Example: In the temperate deciduous forest type 2 organisms are commonly present. These type of organisms have an even chance of dying throughout their life span. There chance of dying is independent of age so the mortality rate is constant throughout there entire life. In the deciduous forest species that display this behavior is the White Tailed Squirrel and the Red-Tailed Hawk.

K & R Selected Species

K-Selected Species in Temperate Deciduous Forest

Characteristics: density-dependent: fewer offspring for better chance of survival, high energy investment in offspring, large young

Examples: American Black Bear, Red Fox, White Tailed Deer

http://www.bear.org/website/images/stories/images/
images-new/black_bear_w_5_cubs_nh_june_2007.jpg

http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/
Pennsylvania/white_tailed_deer_buck2.jpg 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia
/commons/a/a0/Red_fox.jpg















R-Selected Species in Temperate Deciduous Forest

Characteristics: density-independent: many offspring for better chance of survival, low energy investment in offspring, small young

Examples: White Tailed Squirrel, Eastern Chipmunk, Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa)

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7200/6991374107_02ba86485a_z.jpg 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/c/c5/Tamias_striatus2.jpg
 
http://www.masscertifiedhomein
spections.com/files/carpenter_bee.gif




Primary / Secondary Succession

Definition: Succession is the development of plant and animal life as an ecosystem changes overtime. 

Primary Succession:  is the growth of an ecosystem that starts from bare rock. In this area there are no plant or animals that previously occupied it. This process occurs very slowly because there are organic compounds present in order to allow growth.

Lichen: example of a pioneer organism in the temperate deciduous forest. Pioneer organisms are basically the first organism to occupy an area.  

1) Lichens have the ability to give off acid which will then degrade the rock to form soil. 

2) Once the soil is present in the biome, moss can now start to grow in the area. As this moss decays, it leads to nutrients being added to the soil such as organic matter. 

3) As time goes on and more rock starts to decay, the soil become thicker which leads to the formation of weeds and grasses

4) When the grass and weeds decompose, those nutrients are added to the soil also. When this soil is thick enough, bushes and small trees can finally start to grow

5) Then the first type of trees can start to grow which are pine trees (gymosperms). They are the first ones to grow because when compared to other trees it requires the least amount of nutrients.  

6) When this soil has finally reached an optimal richness, the deciduous trees now have the chance to finally start growing in the soil. 


7) After a while, these trees will be the most dominant ones in the area because they can grow tall and capture the suns energy
8) In the end, these deciduous trees will become mature and smaller plants such as wild flowers have to adapt to the minimal sunlight they have available. This is the climax of forest developing. 



Secondary Succession: the growth of an ecosystem in a biome that already has vegetation. These areas have been damaged by some sort of natural disaster and in these areas there is now organic matter present. 

1) Soil is present in this area so weeds will be the first thing that will grow
2) After this all of the steps that happen in primary succession will occur again

Keystone Species

Definitionspecies whose extinction in an ecosystem would lead to the death of other forms of life. If this specie was removed from an ecosystem, it would lead to the end of other organisms within a biome

Examples in Temperate Deciduous Forest


1) Gopher Tortoise
Purpose: it digs burrows/holes in the soil. These burrows provide shelter for not only itself but over 300 other different organisms


2) White-Tailed Deer
Purpose: it eats different plants such as mosses, shrubs, and ferns. By eating these different plants it keeps all of their populations in check and prevents overgrowth from happening in the forest. 

Symbiotic Relationships

1. Mutualism: both organisms benefit from the relationship
Example: Flower Dogwood & Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa) : flowers in the forest give insects food by giving nectar to the bee. While the bee provides for the pollination of the flower to help it reproduce
Carpenter Bee
http://sites.psu.edu/kganspropagationadventures
/wp-content/uploads/sites/9833/2014/04/dogwood.jpg
 
Flower Dogwood
http://www.knockoutpest.com/images/carpenter_bee_hole.jpg

2. Commensalism: one organism benefits while the other is neither harmed nor hurt
Example: Northern Cardinal & Oak Tree: Birds nest in the tree and  neither harmed nor hurt it in the process
Northern Cardinal
Oak Tree

















3. Parasitism: one organism preys on another
Example: Tapeworm & American Blackbear: the tapeworm lodges itself in the intestines of the mammal and it feeds on it until the bear eventually dies
Tapeworm
http://www.psmicrographs.co.uk/_assets/
uploads/tapeworm-80013853-l.jpg

Black Bear
http://beartrust-dev1.org/wp-content/
uploads/2011/05/black-bear-cub.jpg