PLANT LIFESTYLE, CONTINUED...

Plants exhibit INDETERMINATE GROWTH.
  Like the battery bunny, they keep going, and going, and going.....
   How does that differ from animals?

 Plants regenerate much better than animals.
  They’re TOTIPOTENT.
   What does that mean viz. anatomy, physiology, etc? What about ‘practical’ implications, e.g. for propagation?

 Plants don’t segregate their germline early, as animals do. Why not???

Plants respond to the environment differently.
  Animal responses are often BEHAVIORAL.
  Plants aren’t sentient in the way Data of Star Trek wanted to be sentient, in a behavioral or concious sense, with emotions. But they
      DO respond to the environment.

Plant responses are based on growth and development. Again, physiology and anatomy come into play
 WHAT DOES THE PLANT ON YOUR WINDOW SILL DO?
    THEY DON’T JUST SIT THERE!

Lastly, plants do ‘IT’ differently too.   I.e., sex
  Both plants and animals do sexual reproduction, which probably originated before the split between animal and plant lineages.
   But, think about it....how do two individuals, often separated by great distances, and UNABLE TO MOVE, and without a reliable
        supply of water to carry sex cells, reproduce sexually? How do they get their sperm and eggs together?
  And, how do they take care of their kids? With plants, mama tosses away her sleeping kids, willy nilly. I.e. seeds.

We leave footprints in the environment wherever we go, whatever we do.

Think of some examples....

Forest fires out west
Vehicle tracks in the permafrost
The ungreening of Hotlanta
    What are the natural and practical ramifications and fallout from what we do, e.g. in these examples?

What is TRANSPIRATION and why is it important for the plant, and for the environment?
How does transpiration work?

Some definitions:
What is an ecosystem? All the organisms in a given area as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact. A communty and its physical environment

What is a community? All the organisms that inhabit a particular area. An assemblage of populations of different species living close enough together for potential interaction.

What are the two keywords in these definitions?

CHARACTERISTICS OF ECOSYSTEMS

1. Components of ecosystems
 Non-living Components:
  Inorganic substances.
   water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, other minerals.
  Organic substances.
   Dead.
    Logs, leaf litter, humus, dead bodies.
  Climate.
   Light, temperature, moisture.
   Temporal and spatial variations.
    Think of some....

 Living Components
   Producers (collectors) - autotrophs.
     Plants, algae, lichens.
     Fix carbon dioxide, nitrogen.
      Create organic cpds, useful energy sources.
   Consumers (scatterers) - heterotrophs.
     Macroconsumers.
      Animals - deer, wolves, elephants, squirrels, insects, etc.
      They consume food in bulk, digest it, leave behind organic waste products.
     Microconsumers - the wee things.
      Bacteria, fungi, protozoa.
      Digest organic material on ‘small’ scale, absorb nutrients.
       Decomposition.
      Major roles in nutrient cycles.

 In ecosystems, these relationships constitute FOOD WEBS.
  Why are they no longer called food chains?
 These relationships are usually visualized as pyramids relative to energy, biomass and number.    
        E.g. Figs. 25.2, 25.3

   Question: are macroconsumers or microconsumers indispensible?     Why (not)?
   Question: What ISN’T recycled in ecosystems?

2. The environment isn’t uniform.
 Spatial variations.
   Temperature, light, water, nutrients, etc.
  Spatial variations in organisms.
   species not  equally distributed in space.
   organisms live where conditions are right.
    ‘Right’ includes the total environment, living and non living.
    I.e., a balance of all factors.
     e.g. interactions with herbivores, predators, climate etc.
  Right usually does NOT mean BEST.
   A tree growing in a swamp may actually grow better under dryer conditions, but the swamp may be inhospitable to a pathogen or herbivore that would attacks young tree where it’s dryer.
  Right equals compromise.

If ecosystems involve compromise, do humans compromise?

  For humans, the short term is paramount.
  For ecosystems, in the long run, and ultimately for us, this is bad.

 Temporal variations in ecosystems.
  Daily and seasonal changes in climate, weather
  Disturbances such as fire, flood.
   Can you name some examples?
 All add up to COMPLEXITY in ecosystems.
3. Ecosystems are a complex series of interactions between components.
    Figs. 25.2, 25.7

4. The more complex the system (i.e., the more and different species, and more   diverse the environment), the more interactions.
 The greater the number of factors, the greater the interactions.

A---------->B               What about A,B, AND C?    Add factor D?  What happens to the number of interactions?
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