LESSON-6 NATURAL ECOSYSTEM

TERMINAL ANSWERS
1. What do you understand by natural ecosystem? Give examples.
A natural ecosystem is an assemblage of plants and animals which functions as a unit and is capable of maintaining its identity
such as forest, grassland, an estuary, human intervention is an example of a natural ecosystem. A natural ecosystem is totally
dependent on solar energy. There are two main categories of ecosystems.
(1)Terrestrial ecosystem: Ecosystems found on land e.g. forest, grasslands, deserts, tundra.
(2) Aquatic ecosystem: Plants and animal community found in water bodies. These can be further classified into two sub groups.
(i) Fresh water ecosystems, such as rivers, lakes and ponds.
(ii) Marine ecosystems, such as oceans, estuary.

2. Give difference between the following

A. Alpine and arctic tundra.
Alpine Arctic tundra.
Alpine tundra occurs at high Arctic tundra extends as a continuous
mountains above the tree line. Since belt below the polar ice cap and
mountains are found at all latitudes above the tree line in the northern
therefore alpine tundra shows day and hemisphere. It occupies the northern
night temperature variations. fringe of Canada, Alaska, European
Russia, Siberia and island group of
arctic ocean. On the south pole
Anatarctica tundra in the south pole is
very small since most of it is covered
by ocean

B. Savanna and prairie

Feature Prairies Savannas
Climate Temperate; hot Tropical; consistently
 summers and cold warm to hot, with
winters distinct wet and dry
seasons
Tree Cover Less than 10% tree Less than 30% tree
cover cover, with scattered
trees
Rainfall Moderate and Higher annual rainfall
steady throughout (about 20-40 inches),
the year, with some but concentrated in
falling in the the wet season
summer and fall
Location Found in temperate Found in tropical
zones, such as regions closer to the
North America equator, such as
Africa, Australia, and
South America

C. Tropical and temperate forests

Feature Tropical rain forest Temperate forest
Distribution This forests are found in They occur mostly in
the western coast of northwest, central and
India, scattered in south eastern Europe, eastern
east Asia, some north America, north
parts of Africa and south China, Korea, Japan, far
America eastern Russia and
Australia.
Climate It is found in the high It is found in moderate
rain fall areas on either climatic conditions.
side of the equator. It has temperature
It has high temperature ranging but 10 to 20oC
and with rainfall
 high humidity and between 75 to 150 cm.
receives above 200 cm
of rainfall per year. S
Flora and These forests also Common trees are oak,
support epiphytes, like beach, heath, chest nut,
vines, creepers, birch, pine.
woody creepers and
orchid etc.
fauna Animals such as Black bear, raccoons,
monkeys, flying wild cat, wolves, fox
squirrels, snails, and skunks are the
centipedes, millipedes, omnivores found in
and many insect species these forests.
are
common on the forest
floor.

3. What is an ecotone? Explain its significance for the edge species.

Ecotone is a zone of junction between two or more diverse ecosystems e.g. the mangrove forests. They represent an ecotone
between marine and terrestrial [Link] more examples of ecotone are – grassland, estuary and river bank.
Characteristics of ecotone:
(1) It may be very narrow or quite wide.
(2) It has the conditions intermediate to the adjacent ecosystems. Hence ecotone is a zone of tension.
(3) It is linear as shows progressive increase in species composition of one in coming community and a simultaneous decrease in
species of the other out going adjoining community.
(4) A well developed ecotones contain some organisms which are entirely different from that of the adjoining communities.
(5) Sometimes the number of species and the population density of some of the species is much greater in this zone than either
community. This is called edge effect. For example the density of song birds is greater in the mixed habitat of the ecotone between
the forest and the desert.
4. Give the methods of protecting natural ecosystem.
*Humans should reduce their needs.
• Introduction of the species from the other parts of the world and the human interference should be reduced to minimum into
natural ecosystems.
• Some of the areas should be earmarked as protected or reserve zones. This can be achieved by making buffer or transitional
zones around the protected area. (Buffer zone and transitional zones are where only a few humans are permitted to enter)
• Species in the detrimental habitats should be shifted to their unexploited natural habitat. Delhi Development Authority along
with Delhi University has jointly established a Yamuna Biodiversity park in Delhi to protect and restore natural biodiversity lost
from the Yamuna river bank.
*International and national level efforts should be made for conserving natural ecosystems e.g. Earth Summit held in June 1992 at
Rio di Janerio , Brazil, it was resolved to make efforts to protect and conserve biodiversity.
• Sacred forests and sacred lakes are protected by the tribal communities due to the religious sanctity accorded to these forests.
They are most undisturbed by human activity and are known as pristine forests.

5. What is meant by mangroves and give its characteisitics.

Mangroves represent a characteristic littoral (near the sea shore) forest ecosystem.
These forests grow in sheltered low lying coasts, estuaries, mudflats, tidal creeks backwaters (current less, coastal waters held
back on land), marshes and lagoons of tropical and subtropical regions.
They are distributed over the east and west coast and island of Andaman and Nicobar.
Characteristics of mangrove ecosystem:
(1) The mangrove forests include a diverse composition of trees and shrubs.
(2) Plants are well adapted to high salinity(halophytic).
(3) Resistant to tidal effect.
(4) Tolerant to high temperature.
(5) Roots bear pneumatophore ( or aerial roots ), which is an aerating system.

6. Define natural ecosystem

Natural disasters are sudden natural accidents or events that cause a lot of damage to natural ecosystems and human life

7. Explain the Estuaries and delta

 Estuaries are very dynamic and productive ecosystems since the river flow, tidal range and sediment distribution is
continuously changing in them. Examples of estuaries are river mouths, coastal bays, tidal marshes, lagoons and deltas.
Deltas are triangular areas bordering the river valley towards the mouth. They are associated with the land projecting into the sea
in the form of protuberances.

8. Explain the island and its types.

Islands are land masses surrounded by sea water from all sides They may be far away
from the continent (oceanic island )or may be very close to it (continental island).
India has two main island groups:
1) Andaman and Nicobar islands in Bay of Bengal and
2) Lakshadweep in Arabian sea.
These ecosystems are threatened mainly due to habitat destruction for resources and tourism. Although industrial pollution is
much less on these islands, oil spills in oceans have greatly affected their fauna and flora.
Many endemic species of turtles and birds have been threatened to extinction. The Government is taking
special measures to protect them

9. Describe the various forest found in india.