Ecology

Attributes of Community Quantitative characters of plant community – A collection of organisms interacting directly or indirectly is a community. Within the community some species carry out similar functions or exploit the same resources. These groups are called guilds. For example, birds feeding mostly on insects make up an insect-feeding guild. A community may be autotrophic when it includes photosynthetic ...

Reproduction and Reproductive Strategies in Plants Reproductive Strategies – Reproduction is the major drive of all living things. The role of the reproductive drive is to transmit genetic characteristics from one generation to another. The ability of organism to leave behind reproducing offspring is it fitness. Achieving fitness involves among other things, fecundity and survivorship, physiological adaptations, modes of reproduction, ...

Seed Bank Seed bank – Dispersal can occur through time. Plant seeds can lie dormant for many years. When a seed does not germinate after a period of dormancy, many of the plants which were alive when the seed was produced may have died. Plants can disperse in time if the seeds join the dormant seed bank. The store of seed, ...

Population Dynamics – Population dynamics are always changing. They fluctuate considerably depending on the season. There are four ways in which changes take place in the numbers of individuals in populations. These changes make the population dynamics. Populations gain individuals when young are born in the area (Birth, B) or new members join the group from other populations (immigration, I). Immigration ...

Properties of Population Properties of population ecology Populations have many unique features. They have an ago structure, density, and distribution in time and space. They exhibit a birth rate, a death rate (mortality), and a growth rate. They respond in their own ways to competition, to predation, and to other pressures. Individuals make up a population affect one another in various ...

Organisms and their Environment Organisms and their Environment – All organisms live in a varying physical environment of temperature, moisture, light and nutrients. These factors differ from location to location like in latitude, region and locality. In addition, at any location, the physical environment varies with time to time, yearly seasonally and daily. One important example of environmental variation is ...

Wind Affect on Plants Air in motion is called wind. Wind affect plants directly by increasing transpiration, by delivering heat to relatively cool leaves or dissipating the heat load of isolated leaves, by causing various kinds of mechanical damage and by scattering pollen’s and dispersal of seeds and fruits. Wind plays important role as an ecological factor especially on flat plains, along seacoasts ...

Physiological Responses and Adaptations of Plant to Temperature The adaptation of plants to temperature have greatly succeeded in development with the passage of time. They have developed a number of morphological and physiological characteristics during the course of evolution in order to meet extremes of temperature conditions. Formation of dormant bulbs, tubers; leaf fall and associated dormancy during winter or dry season ...

Drought Resistance Mechanism Drought can be defined as an extreme fluctuation from the rainfall (usually than 75% of the normal) at a certain place in a particular area. In water stress areas the plants (xerophytes and succulents) are adapted to shortage of water and dry season normally does not affect their growth. However, if the rainfall drops far enough below ...

Water exhibits cyclic flow between atmosphere, land and sea, and between living organisms and their environment. This is referred to as Hydrologic cycle or water cycle. Without cycling of water nutrients could not flow through the ecosystem, ecosystem could not function and life could not be maintained. Hydrologic Cycle Steps Water cycle is characterized by precipitation, interception, infiltration, and evaporation. ...