Ecosyste
ms
4.1 The Sonoran
Desert
A desert
in Arizona
• A habitat with extreme conditions
• Home to special plants and
animals
• DESERT?
• Deserts receive very little rainfall
• Conditions are hot and dry
• Water is limited for plants and
animals
• Only organisms with special
adaptations can survive
Saguaro Cactus – A
Desert Plant
• Tall plants in the desert are saguaro cacti
• They grow very slowly
• Some are over 100 years old’
• Store water inside their thick stems
• Roots of the Saguaro Cactus
• Roots spread widely near the soil
surface
• Roots quickly absorb rainwater
• Helps cactus survive long dry periods
Animals
Living Among
Cacti
• Many animals live near
desert plants
• Gila woodpeckers make
holes in cacti
• Holes are used as nests
• Other birds also use these
holes for shelter
Teddy Bear
Cholla &
Cactus Wren
• Cactus wrens build
nests in teddy bear
cholla
• This cactus is very
spiky
• Few predators can
get near it
• Keeps eggs and
young birds safe
Surviving the Hot • Lizards and tortoises:
• Rest in the shade
Day and Animals
• Burrow into the soil
Active at Night
• Underground is cooler than the
surface
• Helps prevent overheating
• At night, temperature becomes
cooler
• Kangaroo rats come out to feed
• They must watch out for:
• Rattlesnakes
• Coyotes
• Sonoran Desert usually has heavy rain at least once a
year
• When rain comes:
• The desert changes quickly
• Many plants produce flowers
• The desert looks alive and colorful
• Insects feed on:
• Nectar
• Pollen
• They help plants reproduce
• This process is called pollination
• At night, bats pollinate agave plants
• Seeds fall to the
ground
• Ants carry seeds into
their nests
• Seeds are stored as
food
• Some seeds are left
uneaten
Seeds and Ants
• After months or years,
seeds germinate
• New plants grow
Non-living things in the desert
• In the Arizona desert, plants and animals are affected also by
non-living (abiotic) factors such as light, temperature, soil,
water, and air.
• Sunlight provides energy for photosynthesis, while high
daytime temperatures and cooler nights affect animal
behavior, with some animals becoming nocturnal or hiding
underground.
• Soil supplies minerals and shelter, and water is essential
for survival and reproduction.
• Water: All organisms need water to keep their cells alive. Rain,
when it comes, allows them to become more active and to
reproduce.
• Air provides gases needed for respiration and
photosynthesis. Living organisms also change their
environment, for example through waste adding nutrients to
the soil and gases changing the air.
The desert
ecosystem
• Desert ecosystem is a complex network of
interactions between all living organisms and the
non-living things around them.
• Food Webs: Energy flows through the ecosystem as
plants (producers) make food using sunlight, and
animals eat plants and each other.
• Other Interactions: Non-food related interactions are
also vital, such as plants providing shelter (nests)
and stabilizing soil (roots), while animals help plants
reproduce by pollination or seed dispersal.
• Ecology: The study of these complex, often
complicated, interactions is called ecology. Scientists
are continually discovering new interactions even in
well-studied ecosystems.
Habitats in a desert ecosystem
• The place where an organism naturally lives is called its habitat.
• The habitat of a saguaro cactus is the open desert.
• The habitat of a Gila woodpecker is a saguaro cactus (where it
makes its nest) and the air and ground in the open desert (where it
collects food).
• The habitat of a desert ant is underneath the rocks and soil and on
the soil surface.
• Termites live at the base of the saguaro stems.
• Sap beetles live inside the saguaro flowers.
• Kangaroo rats live in burrows and come out to look for food at night.
Ecosystems
4.2 Different ecosystems
• Mangroves are trees that can grow with
their roots in sea water.
• They form forests along the coasts of many
tropical countries.
• Young fish live among the mangrove roots
and are protected from larger fish.
Mangrove
• Mudskippers climb out onto the mud during
low tide to feed on available food.
• Fallen mangrove leaves are decomposed by
forest
bacteria.
• Prawns and crabs feed on the partly
decomposed leaves.
• Crab-eating macaques climb through the
trees and catch crabs on the roots and
mud.
During winter in the Arctic Ocean, the
temperature is so low that some sea water
freezes.
Seals hunt for fish in the water but must
Sea ice in the
return to the surface to breathe air.
Arctic Ocean
Polar bears patrol the ice searching for seals
to hunt and eat.
Polar bears are good swimmers and can
move from one ice floe to another.
Arctic foxes also search for food on the ice.
Enough light passes through the ice to allow
tiny algae to grow on the underside of the ice
floes.
Tiny shrimp-like organisms feed on the
algae.
Fish eat the shrimp-like organisms.
• Not all ecosystems are natural; rice paddies in
Malaysia are man-made ecosystems.
• At certain times of the year, the paddy fields are
flooded with water.
Rice • Algae grow in the shallow water and on the mud at
paddy the edges of the flooded fields.
• Fish enter the flooded paddies from irrigation canals.
• Frogs and dragonflies breed in the water.
• Shallow water heats up quickly during the day and
cools down quickly at night.
• Farmers often add fertiliser, which helps both rice
and algae grow faster.
• Increased algae growth provides more food for
animals in the ecosystem.
• Many birds feed in and around the paddy fields.
4.3 Intruders in an
ecosystem
Introduced species in New
Zealand
• New Zealand became isolated about 66 million
years ago, allowing unique (different from those
elsewhere on Earth) species to evolve, including
many ground-nesting and flightless birds
• Before humans arrived in New Zealand, there were
no predatory mammals there
• Many of the native species of birds nest on the
ground. There were no predators to eat their eggs,
so the eggs and young birds were safe
• Even the adults of several species of native bird -
such as the kiwi - cannot fly
Rats
• Humans brought species of
animals with them that did
not belong in New Zealand
700 years ago
• For example, rats stowed
away on their boats. Rats now
live in most of the country
• The rats eat birds' eggs and
defenceless young birds.
• Farmers brought
sheep, to farm for
their wool and meat
• Rabbits were
brought on sailing
ships, to use as food.
But the rabbits
escaped and began
to eat grass in the
sheep pastures
• So people brought
stoats from Europe
to control the
rabbits.
Stoat alert!
• Stoats have spread throughout
New Zealand and are
aggressive hunters that
reproduce quickly
• They can kill birds larger than
themselves and have caused
the extinction of several native
species, such as the laughing
owl and New Zealand thrush
• Today, stoats kill nearly 60% of
kiwi chicks.
Stoat alert!
• Eradicate! but this is very
difficult to do. The best that can
be done is to control their
numbers
• Scientists think that 53 species
of native bird in New Zealand
have become extinct since
humans arrived
• The extinctions have been
partly caused by people hunting
and killing the birds, but mostly
because of introduced invasive
species.
Bioaccumulation
• Insecticide (Define)
• It was used for killing mosquitoes (malaria) and fleas
(typhus)
DDT • DDT was also used to kill insects that eat crops.
• But started to harm other animals
• Silent Spring. She described how DDT was killing not only
mosquitoes, but also birds.
• Scientists now understand how it causes harm to ecosystems.
DDT in
food
chains
• Does not break down
(persistent). It is not broken
down by decomposers.
• DDT gets into an animal's body,
it stays there for the whole life
of the organism -it never breaks
down
• lt is toxic (poisonous). For
example, it makes the shells of
birds' eggs very thin and easy to
break
Bioaccumulation and
biomagnification
• DDT sprayed on water. Tiny
algae take up some of the DDT.
Shrimps eat the algae, and fish
eat the shrimps. Cormorants
(fish-eating birds) eat the fish.
• All the DDT in all of algae that a
shrimp eats over its lifetime
accumulates, or builds up, in
its body
• The longer the organism lives,
and the more DDT it takes in, the
more DDT it gets in its body. This
process is called
bioaccumulation.
Biomagnification
• All of the DDT in all of the shrimps that a fish eats
accumulates in the fish's body. Eventually, all the DDT
in all of the fish that a cormorant eats in its lifetime
accumulates in the cormorant's body
• This means that the concentration of DDT in an animal's
body increases as you go up the food chain. This is
called biomagnification
• The concentration of DDT is measured in parts per
million (ppm). This is the number of grams of DDT in
one million grams of the organisms.