2009 30 July Chemistry Chemical Changes Post TWO Sorry to say, this post will be EXTREMELY SHORT! >.< I'm really sorry. For the next two post, will be just a brief demostration on the different chemical reactions.
Okay, let's start. What can we understand from the term Synthesis? No, it is not photosynthesis! It is Synthesis! Well, Synthesis is actually a form of reaction, whereby an element combines with another element to form a compound, or in other cases, an element and another compound combine to make a new compound. Or sometimes, two compounds combine together to create a new compound. Synthesis is also called combination, construction or composition reactions. Remember this, we can represent Synthesis with this simple equation. A + B -> AB A very common example would be burning hydrogen gas and oxygen gas to produce water, which also can be represented by the equation. 2 H2 + O2 -> 2 H2O Or, another example would be that sulfur trioxide reacts with water to make sulfuric acid. Or in this case, is... H2O + SO3 -> H2SO4 So what you would see in a 'test tube' would be that two substance combine to make one new substance. And that sums up Synthesis. Decomposition, in order words, is also called, desynthesis, decombination or deconstruction. As we can very obviously see from the word Desynthesis, we can actually that it opposite of Synthesis, hence, it is the separation of a compound into other elements and/or compounds. We can simply repesent it in this form. XZ -> X + Z Now, we will look at some examples of decomposition. If we heat a bicarbonate soda of water, it will release water, carbon and sodium carbonate. We can represent it with this equation. 6 NaHCO3 -> 3 Na2CO3 + 3 H2O + 3 CO2 Next, and lastly, I'll move on to combustion. Combustion, as the name suggest, is basically the burning of organic material. In order for combustion to happen, there must be oxygen, this is so as the material will react with the oxygen in the air around it to burn. We can simplify combustion, and write it in this form. Hydrocarbon + Oxygen -> Carbon Dioxide and Water To further demostrate combustion, if one candle if left out in the open to burn and the other is covered with a beaker, the one left out to burn will obviously burn longer than the one in the beaker as in the beaker, there is limited amount of oxygen for the 'fire to eat'. Here are some examples of combustion. CH4 + 2 O2 -> 2 H2O + CO2 The next one... 2 C2H6 + 7 O2 -> 6 H20 + 4 CO2 And with this, I have come to the end of this Chem Journal post. Link One Link Two Link Three Glossary Element Anyone of the substance in the periodic table. Compound A substance formed by a union of two or more elements or compound with a definite propotion by weight. Organic A class of chemical compound having a carbon basis. Hydrocarbon A organic compound that only contains hydrogen and carbon. 2009 29 July Chemistry Chemical Changes Post ONE Hey! Long time no see! Okay, because of the deadline and me being down with flu this few days, bear with me, I might have to post two to three post in a day. Alright, I thought this year the Chemistry topics were hard to choose from. Now, let's start. Here's the rough skeleton I will be following, and it is not confirmed yet, will tell you guys when its confirmed.
I am sad, and sorry to say, that this time, each post would not be very long, in fact, it would be quite short. About two to three paragraphs. Now, I will begin. Again, before we start, here's a nice and short clip for all of you to enjoy and will sure help you understand more about Physical and Chemical Changes. Do take some time to watch it. As you might have seen from the video already, there are differences between Physical and Chemical Changes. A physical change is whereby a matter or substance changes physically, meaning that it can change its state it is in (solid, liquid, gas, plasma) or it can change its size or shape, however, the substance that makes up the object, does not change. For example, you can take a piece of paper and cut it up into small squares, it will still remain as paper. Hence, that is physical change. Or, you can take a cube of ice and melt it, just because water changes from a solid form to a liquid form, it doesn't mean its a Chemical Change, because nothing in the substance is changed, as water still remains as water, except in a different form. Hence, that, is also Physical Change. One important thing about Physical Change is that it can be reversed. After melting ice to become water, you can then cool it to make it into an ice cube again! However, Chemical Changes are different. Firstly, a Chemical Change is where there is a Chemical Reaction. The substances in the matter is changed during Chemical Change. Chemical Change can form a new substance, and most importantly, during Chemical Change, energy is either given off or absorbed. If you would to take a piece of paper and burn it, it would be Chemical Change, as a new type of substance is produced, and of course, Chemical Changes cannot be reversed, even if it could, it would take extraordinary means to do it. For example, if you fry an egg, it would be very hard, or even impossible to "un-fry" it. During Chemical Changes, heat is either lost or gained. If heat is lost, we call it an exothermic reaction. If heat is gained, we call it an endothermic reaction. The temperature pressure and substance involved in the change (or reaction) will affect the speed which at the change (or reaction) takes place. Previously, I did mention that Chemical Changes is where there is a Chemical Reaction, so, I will be zooming on to the topic of Chemical Reaction now. Again, I would like you all to watch a few videos about Chemical Reactions. So what exactly is happening in the videos above? Well, Chemical Reaction! However, in Chemical Reactions, there are five major types of Chemical Reactions, namely Synthesis, Decomposition, Single Displacement, Double Displacement and finally we have Combustion. And I will talk more about these in the next few posts. With this, I will end this post. Link One Link Two Glossary Physical The outer surface of something, normally able to be able to observe. Substance Something which has mass and occupies space. Exothermic A compound formed with the liberation of heat. Endothermic A compound formed with a absorbtion of heat. 2009 14 July Biology Ecology and Nutrient Cycle of the Ecosystem Post FIVE Haha, hey guys. This WILL BE MY final and official post. =) I decided to merge the conclusion post with this post, and my last post about the Fun and Interesting Facts would NOT BE AN official post. Also, I decided to remove the Nutrient Cycle part, as I thought it was irrelevant.
And lastly, starting my final post. ;D Many people have a misconception that the transfer of energy starts with plants, however, that is wrong. It actually starts with the Sun. The Sun is the primary source of energy production, the plants need it to photosynthesize, and hence, creating food. The first and foremost step that energy is produced, would happen within the primary producers, or as we more commonly know it as, plants. Next, the herbivores, or primary consumers, would consume the plants, and hence, the energy that the primary producer has created is transferred to the herbivore. Next, carnivores eat herbivores, or other carnivores, and from there, the energy in the herbivore is transferred to the carnivore (secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and quaternary consumers). Lastly, the detritivores, as I have mentioned before, consume the carcasses of dead animals and also consume our droppings. Before I continue, here's a simple figure.  The diagram above basically summarizes what I have said. However, notice that the diagram flows of trophic level to trophic level, and at all levels, waste is produced. Also, as the trophic level descends, the energy that is being passed on to the next consumer is decreased gradually. For example, the primary producers would have 100% energy, while the primary consumers would only get 95% and the secondary consumers would get only 85%. Also, what I have shown above, can be considered a skeleton for a food chain, and that is what I am going to go on to next. As I mentioned above, food chains basically show how each consumer gets their food. However, you might ask, what is the diference between a food chain and a food web? A food web is basically a larger scale of the food chain, it is actually two or more interconnected food chains. Do you know that in a food chain, the amount of herbivores are more than the amount of carnivores? That happens because as I have mentioned earlier, when a consumer eats, not all of the energy is passed to it. Hence, to make sure that it balances, there has to be more herbivores for the carnivores to feed on, and of course, more primary producers. Normally, there are mainly most primary producers, followed by herbivores, followed by carnivores, forming a pyramid shape. As you can see below.  Next, would be food webs, as I promised in Post Three, I would put up the different food webs of the ecosystems that I have mentioned.    Above are the Marine, Aquatic and Desert Food Chains and/or Webs respectively. Lastly, there is one important point to note about food chains and food webs, is that the population change of one group can cause the population change in others. One example would be that if the herbivores start to increase, there would be less primary producers, as there are more herbivores to eat them. When there are less primary producers than herbivores, it means that the herbivores would not have enough food to eat, and will start dying. This would cause the carnivores to not get eonugh food too, and start decreasing. However, when the carnivores start decreasing, the herbivores increases, and the cycle continues. That is why it is important to make sure that in a food chain/web, the structure is kept as an pyramid shape. This also shows that the organisms in the food web are interdependent! With that, I end my Biology Journal! During the course of this journal, it made me learn a lot of things. Here's the reflection, it will be on the report too. Of course, during the course of my research, there is no such thing as what is the ‘most’ surprising/interesting information I came across. The topic I chose, Ecology and the Food Cycle in the Ecosystem, was totally unfamiliar to me. Hence, everything that I had found out, had either amazed me, or I have learnt something from it. However, there was a few things that amazed me greatly, one would be the big word which I found out on the course of my research, biogeochemistry. It is a form of science, and people who study it are called biogeochemist. I was surprised that biogeochemists actually had a way to find out which organism is more important than the other, by ways like nutrient cycling or mass balance. Secondly, it would have to be the vast amount of ecosystems that I came across. Before the course of my research, I only thought that there were a few ecosystems, and hardly even knew what ecosystem meant. Of course, after this research, there are still a lot of things that I would like to find out more about ecosystems, I would really like to go to places like the desert, and actually have a look at the ecosystems there, and compare it with other ecosystems. From that, I meant that I would like to know the differences and similarities of the different ecosystems. Also, I would like to find out more about the human ecosystem. This is so as in many ecosystems, there are carnivores and herbivores. However, I believe that in the human ecosystem, carnivores and herbivores do not exists, although we eat meat and vegetables, I believe that that only constitutes a small part of our ecosystem. Of course, difficulties faced during research are inevitable. One of the major difficulties that I faced was finding for information. Many websites I went to only gave a brief view about ecosystems, the different types of ecosystem, and many times, they were written in very sophisticated terms, so I had to search the dictionaries and find out the meaning of some words, before I can fully understand the text, so that I can rephrase it. I thought that I did not take the wrong path of researching on ecosystems, it taught me a lot of things that I didn’t know, and I believe, many of us did not know too. Of course, I learnt a great lesson, and that would be to save the Earth. Through the course of the research, I have found out, how Earth was like before, and now, and will be. Our ecosystems are slowly dying one by one, and as ecosystems die, not only will the beautiful scenes of nature be gone, but also the animals and plants in it. This is all causing habitat degradation or fragmentation, and slowly, the Earth will fall apart piece by piece. I think that we ought to spare a thought for our future generations, it would be unfair for them if we get to see Earth, in its beautiful state, and for them, destroyed in ruins. With that, I end my reflection. 520 words After this research, I hope that it has urged you to find out more about our Earth, and help to conserve it! Just to remind you guys, Post Six (Fun and Interesting Facts) will not be an official post. The official Biology Journal ends here. Looking foward to Chemistry Journal! ;D Link One Link Two Link Three Link Four Link Five Glossary Trophic Level A group of organisms that make living in the same way. Gradually Slowly Interconnected Linked to each other in a certain way/manner. Interdependent Needs one another to function properly 2009 13 July Biology Ecology and Nutrient Cycle of the Ecosystem Post FOUR Hi! ;D This post's going to be quite long, yup. Biogeochemistry's a big topic to talk about. Haha!
Alright, no more delay, let's just start. As we all can see, the big word, Biogeochemistry, involves and is made up of mainly three words, biology, geology, and chemistry. So, we can roughly infer, that biogeochemistry is the study of biology, geology and chemistry. More specifically, it is the study living systems, us, and other living animals, are affected, influenced and controlled by the geology and chemistry around us. Hence, it includes the study of many biotic and abiotic world around us. One important use of biogeochemistry, would be to anazlyse, in the food web, which of the linkages are more important than the others. One obvious way would be to study the cycling of elements, like how each organism are controlling or changing the elements. Biogeochesmists do this in 3 major ways, and they are also the principle and tools of biogeochemistry. They are mainly element ratios, mass balance and element cycling. Alright, I will start with element ratios. Here's a quote from the site. In biological systems, we refer to important elements as "conservative". These elements are often nutrients. By "conservative" we mean that an organism can change only slightly the amount of these elements in their tissues if they are to remain in good health. It is easiest to think of these conservative elements in relation to other important elements in the organism. For example, in healthy algae the elements C, N, P, and Fe have the following ratio, called the Redfield ratio after the oceanographer who discovered it: Let me break down, what this paragraph is talking about. As stated above, important elements (nutrients) are called "conservative". So, as we know, they are not only important to the organisms around us, but also us. Hence, if an organism would to use or convert less conservatives in order for it to stay in its healthy condition, it would be more important for us, as they take up less conservatives. Next, I will talk about mass balance. Here is the quote from the site. Another important tool that biogeochemists use is a simple mass balance equation to describe the state of a system. The system could be a snake, a tree, a lake, or the entire globe. Using a mass balance approach we can determine whether the system is changing and how fast it is changing. The equation is: In this equation the net change in the system from one time period to another is determined by what the inputs are, what the outputs are, and what the internal change in the system was. The example given in class is of the acidification of a lake, considering the inputs and outputs and internal change of acid in the lake. Basically, this method is to find out what is the change of a certain system, and the rate of it changing. Net change basically means the original change of a certain system, without other factors disturbing it. The example above given was a lake, hence, the input could be what humans are doing to the lake such that it is becoming more acidic. The output could be what humans are doing to help the lake, such that its acidity level decreases. Lastly, the internal change would what is happening inside the lake, that causes its acidity level to increase or decrease, or fluctuate. Lastly, element cycling. It is basically to find out how fast nutrients or elements are moving in a system, and as I have explained before, there are two types of system, an open system, and a closed system. A recap, a closed system is where inputs and outputs are minor compared to the internal change. An open system is when inputs and outputs play a major role together with the internal change. To measure the element cycling in a closed system, we take a look at two things. The rate at which is going, which is basically the amount of cycles divided by the time needed to make all the cycles. Secondly, we can at the pathways where the elements are going, this is important as different pathways can cause different chemical reactions to the elements. To measure the element cycling in a open system, we use both rate and pathways, with a new factor included, with is the residence time. As in an open system, the inputs and outputs are considered, residence time would measure how long a element is staying inside a particular system. So with these three principles and tools, we can measure and determine which organism in the food web is more important. (I will be talking more about the Food Web in my next post) With that, I end my post. Link One Glossary Biology The science that involves studying living organisms. Geology The science that involves the history of the Earth. Chemistry The science that involves studying the propeties of organisms. Acidification The process whereby something becomes more acidic. Principle A common rule or standard is accepted and used. 2009 12 July Biology Ecology and Nutrient Cycle of the Ecosystem Post THREE Hi guys! I'm in school now, feel lazy to go home. Haha. Okay, this post's gonna be short, cause theres nothing much to write about. So, do bear with it. ;D
Ecology, as we all know, is the scientific study of how one organism interact with another, or how organisms of one kind interact with another kind, or how organisms interact with the nature around them, in this case, the physical and chemical enviroment. Many people have a wrong concept that Ecologist mainly study of pollution problems in the Earth, like water pollution (oil leaks) or air pollution, etc, however, although it does include that, but it is a very small part. Ecology mainly involves the study of the natural world, Earth, in this case, in many different viewpoints. For example, let's talk about population distribution. Why does Singapore, as compared to New Zealand, so densely populated? Maybe it is because of the level of technology? Or is it the natural habitat? That is what ecologist study. Before I start, I would like you all to watch a video. This video is about habitat degradation. What is habitat degradation? Well, it is actually the lost of habitat. You may ask, we can lose fossil fuels, we can lose animals, but how do we lose habitat? Habitat is defined as the place we live in, the world around us, the enviroment, hence, when we change the natural habitat for our own use, we are actually losing habitat. An common example would be replacing near-natural vegetation to permenant croplands. As habitat degradation occur, many things can happen to Earth. One big thing would be global warming, as humans cut down forests to build factories, there would be less and less trees in the Earth, and as we all know, less trees would mean that there would be more carbon dioxide (not enough trees to produce oxygen), and hence, causing the greenhouse effect, which also, in this case, costs forests fire, and the chain continue. Also, the cutting of trees can also cause soil erosion, and if the trees that are cut are near a river, the water temperature will rise as there is not enough shading, causing harm to aquatic wildlife. However, many people are confused with habitat degradation, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. Habitat degradation is the loss of natural habitat. Habitat loss is the outright destruction of the natural habitat, example like channelizing a section of a stream. Lastly, habitat fragmentation is the destruction of the habitat piece, by piece. And with that, I will end my post here. ;D Link One Link Two Glossary Degradation The reduction of a certain material. Vegetation All the plants in a certain area. Croplands A place suitable for growing crops. Channelizing To narrow a grove made in the ground. Fragmentation Piece by piece. 2009 6 July Biology Ecology and Nutrient Cycle of the Ecosystem Post TWO All right. Hi guys, and girls (haha). Sorry for the informal starting, but, I need to voice out something. Since I relooked the whole thing, and thought that some processes of the Ecosystem like energy transfer didn't really have much things to talk about, I've decided to regroup Posts Two, Three, Four and Five (which is everything). So after careful thinking, and I hope I'm correct, this SHOULD be the final skeleton. Should be.
Well I thought if I rearranged it like that it would make more sense, since Biogeochemistry alone takes up quite a big post, and energy transfer has something to do with the Food Web and Nutrient Cycle... Well, I should be starting. ;D Alright. As mentioned in my last post, I will zoom inside the parts and components of an Ecosystem, which mainly are, the biotic and abiotic parts. However, before I start, I need to define one word, functional group. A funtional group is biological category, that comprises of organisms that perform mainly the same tasks. The species being in a certain functional group does not matter, what matters is that the processes they perform. I'll give an analogy, rice cooker, oven and bread toaster all belong to the same functional group, because they cook food for us, or a closet, bookshelf and a cupboard all belong to the same functional group because they store things for us. So similarly, in an Ecosystem, photosynthesic plants or primary producers, be it any type of plant (e.g. a tree, grass), they belong in the same functional group, as they perform the same function, which, in this case, is producing food. Here is a picture of a brief summarized view of a few functional groups in an Ecosystem.  In the picture, high, medium and low diversities are all under Biodiversity (which I might be talking about in Post Seven, under interesting facts). Now that you have understood what is a functional group, I will name some of the biotic and abiotic components of the Ecosystem. Biotic Primary Producers Herbivores Carnivores Omnivores Detritivores Etc. Abiotic Sunlight Temperature Precipitation Water/Moisture Soil/Water Chemistry Etc. The components mentioned above, are mainly seen in almost all Ecosystem, of course, they are not only limited to Ecosystems, it can be seen almost everywhere in the enviroment around us. However, one main thing to note would be that all these factors will change over time, none of the above factor will remain constant. There are two main different types of Ecosystems, mainly the Terrestrail and Aquatic Ecosystems. Terrestrail Ecosystem includes grasslands, rainforests, forests, deserts, while Aquatic Ecosystem includes ponds, rivers, marines or aquariums. Below, there are several pictures of different types of Ecosystem, after which, I will start to explain the characteristics of some of them.    The above three images are the Marine, Aquatic and Desert Ecosystems respectively. I will start with the Desert Ecosystem. In the desert, as we all know, not only that the temperatures are extreme, water is also scarce. That would mean that not many people can actually live and survive there. The main abiotic components of a Desert Ecosystem would be sand (in replacement of soil), a lot of sand. Secondly, sunlight. In the day, a lot more amount of sunlight is given out compared to other Ecosystems. Thirdly, water. As I have mentioned, in the desert, very little water can be found. Fourthly, air. The air differs from the time, it can go from not dense at all to very dense. Lastly, temperature. In the day, temperature in the desert is very high, while at night, it falls drastically. Few examples of biotic components would be cacti (primary producer), insects and/or small animals (herbivores), followed by snakes, eagles or vultres (carnivores). Next is the Aquatic Ecosystem. It comprises of mainly three types of abiotic components, temperature, which may differ from place to place. The flow of the water, whether it is fast-moving, slow-moving or whether the soil is saturated within the water. Lastly, would be the salinity, how much salt are there in the water, which may also differ from places to places. The phytoplanktons act as a primary source of food, followed by the zooplankton, then the filterers like the latern fish. After which, it goes on to the predators like squid or mackeral, and ends up with the top predators like sharks. Lastly, the Marine Ecosystem. It is about the same as the Aquatic Ecosystem. The abiotic components are mainly salinity, water, temperature, minerals in the water and dissolved oxygen. All of these can differ. Biotic components of the Marine Ecosystem are almost alike to the Aquatic Ecosystem, it starts from planktons and algaes that lead up to predators, which in turn, lead up to the top predators. With that, it ends my post. The next time I post, I will be talking about the topic of Ecology, and will come back to biotic and abiotic components of an Ecosystem when in Post Five, where I will be discussing the Food Web and Nutrient Cycle. Bye! =) Link One Link Two Link Three Link Four Link Five Link Six Link Seven Link Eight Link Nine Glossary Biodiversity How healthy an Ecosystem is. High Diversity Ecosystems normally have more species and population in it. Precipitation Quantity of rain in a certain area for a certain period of time. Detritivores Organisms that obtain nutrients by consuming other decomposing organisms. Aquatic Relating or consisting of water. Terrestrail Relating or consisting of the land. Phytoplanktons Normally the primary source of food in an Aquatic Ecosystem. Zooplankton A heterotrophic type of plankton. Heterotrophic A organism that requires carbon and nitrogen for nourishment. This IS NOT a Bio-Chem Journal Post Hi people! ;D Yesterday I was walking around Causeway Point, when I went to Metro, and saw this thingy on promotion.  Its a knife, made of ceramic. According to the promoter, she says the knife can absorb some smell (like the 'spicy' smell of onions) and keep flavours inside food you cut. Also, she cut a ginger and let me smell the knife, which I did, and I didn't smell anything, nor see any stains on the knife, and the ginger was still as nice and fragrant. It was so nice too, the design, white blade, and it seems like its blunt, but actual fact, it can cut raw carrot without using any energy (YES! I've tried it). So I was convinced that I wanted to buy, until I saw the price, $100 for a knife, I thought it was too expensive, so I decided not to. However, I did take a broucher home and take a look at it, and I saw this.  It reads... All Kyocera ceramic products are warranted to be free from defects in material and workmanship for (5) years after the original purchase date. Please refer to the Kyocera packaging insert for details. Made from zirconium oxide, a material close in hardness to diamond, our ceramic blades actually require diamond wheels to be re-sharpened. Depending on use, ceramic knives will require sharpening about 1/10th as often as steel knives. So I saw that, zirconium oxide, a material close in hardness to diamond, and was wondering, that's cool. A material that is so hard, it will not roll, or slide like steel blades, has better edge retention, will not rust, not change colour, impervious to acids, juices, oils, salts or other elements, and lighter then steel blades. So I decided to do a little research on the material, and here's what I got. So zirconium oxide can whistand temperature up to 2400°C and it has a high density. It has a high hardness, and high fracture toughness. It does not conduct heat, nor electricity (unless above 600°C). Also, it is immune to chemicals, which makes it immune to molten metal and it wears resistance. Pure zirconium oxide exists in 3 different structures at different temperature. It has a cubic structure when above 2370°C. At 1170°C to 2370°C, it has a tetragonal structure. At low temperature, below 1170°C, it has a monoclinic structure. It can transform from a tetragonal structure to a monoclinic structure rapidly, however, it has a 3% to 5% volume change, causing it to crack extensively, making it useless for any mechanical or physical use. Hence, chemicals are added when cooling or heating zirconium oxide, chemicals like MgO (Magnesium oxide), CaO (Calcium oxide) Y2O3 (Yttrium oxide). With the correct amount of chemicals added, it can retain its cubic form when in room temperature, making it extremely sturdy and good for uses, as it does not go through the destructive phase of heating and cooling. Okay. That's the summarized version. And I found out something, my initials, TZP, is a name of a microstructure called, tetragonal zirconia polycrystal! ;D Link One Fracture toughness The ability for a material to whistand a fracture with a crack in it. Molten metal Metals that are in a liquid form after high temperatures of melting. Cubic Resembling the shape of a cube. Tetragonal Resembling the shape of the 'selecting' arrow in Sims 3. Monoclinic A slanted cube. ;D Okay. End of report. 2009 4th July Biology Ecology and Nutrient Cycle of the Ecosystem Post ONE This is the first, and foremost post for the Biology Journal. Firstly, allow me to summarize what is going to happen in the next few post over these two weeks. In this first post, I will be talking about the Ecosystem, the history of the word and how ecologists study the Ecosystems and what they do during their course of study. Of course, researching the topic of Ecosystem, some things cannot be missed, things like the Food Web, the Nutrient Cycle, and last but not least, the Ecology of an Ecosystem. All of these will be covered in my next few posts. A summarized view. (Highlighted represents what I'm covering today)
This is not the final and confirmed skeleton that I will be following. You may, or may not have heard of the word, Ecosystem, and I believe, before I start my researching for my topic, it is crucial to know what the word, Ecosystem, means, and where does it come from. To understand the word, we would have to date back all the way to the 1930s. That is when Botanist Arthur Roy Clapham coined the word, Ecosystem. He used it to describe the combined physical and biological components of an environment, or in short, how they interact with each other. Also, at that same year, Ecologist Arthur Tansley redefined the term Ecosystem as not only the interaction between the physical and biological components, but also the different parts of phychical factors, forming what we know as the environment. Later, Transley also defined Ecosystems and "mental isolates", a place where the physical and biological components can live co-independently. He also used the word, ecotope, to describe the Ecosystem. The Ecosystems around the world contributes a great part to the study of ecology. When other people study Ecosystems, they basically study two main things, processes or any links between the biotic and abiotic in a certain Ecosystem. Main processes that people study would be energy transformation and biogeochemical cycling, which I will talk about in later posts. Other than studying what I have mentioned above, people also study Ecosystems in three different ways. They study the individuals (single plants and animals) that exists in a particular Ecosystem, they study the populations (different species of plants and animals) that exists in a particular Ecosystem, and last but not least, they study the communities (how different species interact with each other) that exists in the Ecosystem. When ecologists study individuals presence in the Ecosystem, they normally study on the psysiology, how they reproduce, their development, behaviour, best condition to live in, etc. When ecologists study populations presence in the Ecosystem, they would focus on the population growth, group behaviours, where do they live in (or their habitat), their rescource needs and lastly, what could cause them to go extinct. When ecologists study communities presence in the Ecosystem, they would examine how different populations and/or species interact with each other, which type of species are competiting for the same needs and rescource, or the predators and prey (the Food Web). I will zoom in more to the parts and components of the Ecosystem and the processes that happens in an Ecosystem in the next post. Meanwhile, do check for any updates! Bye! =) Link One Link Two Physical Parts of the Ecosystem that does not include living things, examples like soil, temperature or light. Biological Parts of the Ecosystem that are made up of living things, examples like plants and animals. Enviroment The place we live in that is around us. Ecotope The spacial extent of a certain species' relationship to the enviroment around it. Biotic Same definition as Biological. Abiotic Same definition as Physical. Physiology The study of life. Extinct Completely wiped out. |
By Zhan Peng from 2-6 Catholic High School Class 2-6 One Golden Rule NOTHING |
