Plants in the Early Succession Stage
1. Plants usually have lower biomass and thus have smaller physical structures (lichens, moss, algae)
2. Plants absorb nutrients and water through their cell walls.
3. Plants contain seeds that can be dormant for a long time and can withstand environmental fluctuations.
4. High rate of reproduction, high amounts of offspring produced during birth.
5. Low life span and mature rapidly.
6. Plants and animals in the early succession stage are r-strategists.
(ScienceDaily, 2014)
Plants in the Early Succession Stage
7. Plants and animals that are in the early succession stage also are considered generalists.
Plants in the Late Succession Stage
1. Plants usually have higher biomass and thus have more
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Pioneers species (such as annuals), have short reproductive times, low biomass, and fast reproductive rates. Pioneer species are also known as generalists because they are able to grow in a variety of experiments and are more robust to environmental conditions.
After the pioneer plants, the later plants to emerge into the ecosystem are known as successional species. Successional species include plants such as perennials and grasses. Later successional plants also include shrubs and small pine trees. Successional plants also have longer life spans, more biomass, longer generational times, and take much longer time to mature than pioneer plants.
(Marietta College, 2013)
1. Allogenic Succession: Changes in the environmental conditions create conditions beneficial to new plant communities.
2. Primary Succession: The colonization and establishmenet of pioneer plant species on bare rocks and ground.
3. Progressive Succession: Communities become more complex over time by having a higher species diversity and greater biomass.
4. Retrograde Succession: The environment deteriorates and results in less biodiversity and less biomass.
5. Begins in an area where the natural community has been disturbed but topsoil remains intact and continues to supply nutrients and minerals.
(ScienceDaily, 2014)
Question
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In addition, there would not be a need for the primary succession because soil and organic matter are still being retained. The plants will have to undergo progressive succession as well as secondary succession. While the forest was clear cut, shrubs, grasses, and perennials still remain intact in the soil and as these plants continue to grow, they will add more biomass into the ecosystem. Eventually, these biomass will decay to form organic compounds that will be turned into humus. The presence of humus will provide enough nutrients for many of the trees' seeds to sprout. Even though the trees are cut down, many seeds still remain in dormancy while other seeds may have been already fallen onto the topsoil, waiting for growth. As for animals, the cutting down of trees will displace large birds such as eagles as well as animals such as raccoons and squirrels. In this tropics, more harm will be done as the ground layers and the canopies house hundreds of different species. In the case of the rain forest, only the forest floor ecosystem will remain intact but biodiversity will decrease
Many variations and species of plants can be found all around the world and in different habitats. These variations and characteristics are due to their adaptations to the natural habitat surrounding them. In three of many climatic zones, the arid, tropical and temperate zone, plants that vary greatly from each other are found in these locations. In this experiment, we’ll be observing the connection between the adaptations of the plants to their environment at the Fullerton Arboretum. The arboretum is a space containing numerous plants from different environments. The plants are carefully looked after and organized into their specific habitat. Therefore, we’ll be able to take a look at the plants within multiple
It is hypothesized that as plants in small spaces compete for space, the plants compensate by reducing individual stem weight and frequency of bud formation as density increases. This would be intraspecific competition. A factor is density-dependent when it kills more of a population at higher densities and less at lower densities (Stilling 2002). The factor of competition between individual plants of the same species would be considered density dependent.
Mills, Scott L., Daniel F. Doak, and Michael E. Soule. "The Keystone-species Concept in Ecology and Conservation." BioScience 43.4 (1993): 219-25. Apr. 1993. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
The next topic for discussion in this paper is ecology. This will include, preferred habitats and interactions with abiotic and biotic elements of the environment.
UXL Encyclopedia of Science (2002), stated that seeds are a part of plant. It can be the cause for a new plant. When plants grow they will produce another set of seeds until the plants spread through the given space to them.
Native plants in any given area have adapted to all the other organisms in a given area and genetically diverse ecosystems are generally maintained.
As a result of these factors, the flora has adapted to these conditions in a variety of ways including their shape, leaf type, root system, and color. One of the most prominent adapt...
For a species to survive and flourish within a given environment, it not only needs to replace itself but also all the other species around it exclusively. Hence, if one species completely replaces another species, the result is a single dominant species, a monoculture (source 2). According to Gause’s law, every species in a given environment occupies different niches for survival. Therefore, two separate species competing for similar resources cannot fundamentally coexist (source Gause). This is known as the competitive exclusion principle. When comparing animal niche’s to that of different autotrophic plants, one can rather easily differentiate adequate ecological niches for the animal species merely based on food-requirements (P.J. Grubb). On the contrary, many autotrophic plants contradict the competitive exclusion principle by sharing similar ecological niches such as sunlight, carbon dioxide, water, and alike mineral nutrients (p.j. grubb).
Global change is taking place every day; therefore, it is important to understand how human activities and behavior alters the biodiversity and functions of ecosystems. Alien species is a stimulator of major changes in ecosystems (Vila et al. 2011). An invasive species, is a non-native plant, animal, or fungus that moves to a new ecosystem in a foreign environment. Invasive ecology explores how the invasive species affect the economic, environmental, and human health on the new environment. For example, invasive ecology studies how an invasive species tends to crowd out and sometimes replace a native species (Richardson and Pysek 2008).
The communities of various native plants have been significantly minimized as a result of ...
own roots (not just the plant kind), this meant they needed a structure that was different than
Thesis: Forests provide the earth with a regulated climate, strong biodiversity, and good nutrient rich soil for plants to strive on.
...t of an invasive species is when it starts to displace or even eliminate native species. This can quickly snowball into a much greater negative ecological effect. A hierarchy is a useful way to demonstrate the impacts of an invasive species on an ecosystem as it progresses and becomes dominant (Meinesz, 2003).
The plants that we know today as terrestrial organisms were not always on land. The land plants of today can be linked back to aquatic organisms that existed millions of years ago. In fact, early fossil evidence shows that the earliest land plants could have arisen some 450 million years ago (Weng & Chappie 2010). Plants that used to reside strictly in water were able to adapt in ways that allowed them to move onto land. It is speculated the need for plants to move onto land was created by water drying up, causing plants to have less room and pushing them to move onto land. Although the exact cause of plant’s need to move to a terrestrial environment is unclear, it is known that plants had to undergo several adaptations to be able to live on land. These adaptations include: lignin, cellulose, suberin, and changes to plant’s surface, including the formation of a waxy cuticle.
That is, the conservation of selected plants and animals in se¬lected areas outside their natural habitat is known as ex-situ con¬servation. The stresses on living organisms due to competition for food, water, space etc. can be avoided by ex-situ conservation there by providing conditions necessary for a secure life and breeding. Such strategies include establishment of botanical gardens, zoos, conservation strands and gene, pollen seed, seedling, tissue culture and DNA