Desert Biology

10/14/2019

Desert Biology

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This week we will be exploring biology of the desert using the words that we have learned and learning some new words, we will create a model of the desert and the beings that live there.

VOcabulary

Biosphere: the regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth (or analogous parts of other planets) occupied by living organisms.
Atmosphere: air, Hydrosphere: water

Biome: a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, examples: desert, forest or tundra.

Biomes of the World - tundra biome, desert biome, marine biome, grassland biome, taiga biome, temperate grassland biomes, temperate deciduous forest biome, tropical rain forest biome, savanna biome, polar ice biome

Flora: plants

Fauna: animals

Habitat: a place where an organism or a community lives, more specific, examples: the grassland, coral reef, underground, a pond, a river

Environment: the environment is all of the natural materials and living things, including sunlight. If those things are natural, it is a natural environment. Environment includes the living and nonliving things that an organism interacts with, or has an effect on it. Includes rocks.

Community: an interacting group of various species in a common location. For example, a forest of trees and undergrowth plants, inhabited by animals and rooted in soil containing bacteria and fungi, constitutes a biological community.

Population: individuals of a certain species found in an area—all the squirrels that live in a park; all toads that live in a pond.

Ecological Hierarchy: Population, community, ecosystem, biome and biosphere

Relationships Between Organisms

Symbiosis: relationship between living organisms

Food Chain: organisms feed from lower trophic level.

Food Web: multiple food chains.

Trophic levels: producers, consumers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, detritivores, decomposers.

Decomposers: mushrooms, eukaryotes, break down dead things

Detritivores: consume decaying plant materials: earthworms and millipedes

Consumer: Any organism that eats

Producer: Organism that makes their own food using sunlight, or absorbs sunlight, plants absorb blue and red light and reflect back green light

Heterotrophs are Consumers

Autotrophs are Producers

Cyanobacteria: Cyanobacteria, also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum consisting of bacteria and the endosymbiotic plastids. They commonly obtain their energy through photosynthesis. They are the only photosynthetic prokaryotes able to produce oxygen.

Endosymbiotic Theory: the theory that chloroplasts and mitochondria used to be free living bacteria (prokaryotes) and now are part of eukaryotic cells

Prokaryotes: no cell nucleus, have plasmids

Eukaryotes: have nucleus and organelles

Primary consumer: eats the plants

Secondary Consumer: Eats the organism that eats the plants

Tertiary Consumer: Large predator

https://www.askiitians.com/forums/Zoology/write-a-short-note-on-various-trophic-levels-in-a_141741.htm

A species' place in the food web is their trophic level.

Physical aspects of the environment

Erosion: the process of scraping away the surface, or being eroded by wind, water, or other natural agents. Grasses slow down erosion and help water seep into the ground.

Groundwater: water in the soil and in crevices of rock, underground, on its way down, it trickles for years until it reaches an aquifer or gets absorbed by roots

Aquifer: underground water reservoir, water can be extracted using a water well.

Precipitation: water in the air, drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel and hail

https://www.epwater.org/our_water/water_resources/our_aquifers

Cycles

Nitrogen: Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen plays an important role in the health and growth of all plants, and it is responsible for the green leaves you see growing on them. Nitrogen helps plants photosynthesize, which is a process that involves using energy from the sun to break down water and carbon dioxide so that sugars are formed.

Nitrogen Cycle: Nitrogen from the air goes into soil and bacteria turn it into a type of nitrogen that plants can use. It involves nitrogen fixation, nitrogen fixing bacteria, assimilation, ammonification, nitrification, nitrifying bacteria, denitrification, denitrifying bacteria, atmospheric N2, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites.

Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria: bacteria's that are able to convert atmospheric nitrogen into essential compounds required by the plants. Plants cannot directly take in nitrogen from atmosphere. So there are certain bacteria's which helps the plant to do so.

Nitrogen Fixing Plants: plants don’t pull nitrogen from the air on their own. They actually need help from a common bacteria called Rhizobium. The bacteria infects legume plants such as peas and beans and uses the plant to help it draw nitrogen from the air.

https://biologydictionary.net/nitrogen-cycle/

Carbon Cycle: We breathe out carbon dioxide, CO2 and plants take it to make glucose (sugar) and release oxygen in the process. It includes: Atmospheric CO2, cellular respiration, photosynthesis, combustion, death and decomposition, fossil fuels, erosion from marine organisms.

https://scied.ucar.edu/carbon-cycle

Water/ Hydrogen Cycle: Water evaporates and rains back down. It included: ground water, percolation, run off, transpiration, precipitation, evaporation, water vapor.

https://pmm.nasa.gov/education/water-cycle

https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/water-cycle/

Phosphorous cycle: when it rains, water brings phosphorous down from rocks in mountains and it nourishes plants

Plants need: NPK, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium

https://biologydictionary.net/phosphorus-cycle/

Some of the Populations in the
Chihuahuan Desert Biome Community:

Environment:

The mean annual precipitation for the Chihuahuan Desert is 235 mm (9.3 in) with a range of approximately 150–400 mm (6–16 in)

Environment includes nonliving things that affect living things: mountains, slope, valleys, soil, sand, rocks, river, ponds, arroyos, driftwood…

Producers: Opuntia Cactus, Barrel Cactus, Yucca, Ocotillo, Mesquite, grasses, annual wildflowers, sage, cyanobacteria, lichen (Algae and Fungi)

Primary consumers: insects, beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, rabbits, mice (both primary and secondary consumers, they eat seeds and also insects), termites, bees, wasps, butterflies, Quail, deer

Secondary Consumers: most rodents, scorpions, tarantulas, centipede, birds that eat insects, water bugs, assassin bugs, ladybugs, parasitic wasps, armadillo, skink lizard, ants

Tertiary Consumers: coyote, hawk, eagle, owl, rattlesnake, roadrunner, mountain lions

Decomposers: earthworms, mushrooms, nematodes

Activity

Let's build a model of the desert that represents mountains, valleys, rivers, the food chain, and the many cycles involved in a biome.

Photo by: Richter MachThunder

Producers: Opuntia Cactus, Barrel Cactus, Yucca, Ocotillo, Mesquite, grasses, annual wildflowers, sage, cyanobacteria, lichen (Algae and Fungi)

Lichen

Prickly Pear, Opuntia

http://purelifeherbs.com/product/tuna-opuntia-ficus-powder-4oz/

Barrel Cactus

http://museum2.utep.edu/chih/gardens/plants/DtoF/ferrocac.htm

Yucca

http://museum2.utep.edu/chih/gardens/plants/TtoZ/yuccatreculeana.htm

Ocotillo

https://jornada.nmsu.edu/blog/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-ocotillo

Mesquite

https://www.azfirescape.org/galiuro/ecosystem-description/apacherian-chihuahuan-mesquite-upland-scrub

Creosote

https://www.desertusa.com/flowers/Creosote-Bush.html

Desert Grasses

https://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/research/livestock_range/BL793/welcome.html

Grassland

https://www.nps.gov/articles/southwest-grasslands.htm

Shrubland

https://www.desertusa.com/desert-food-chain/food-chain-10.html

Less grasses means more erosion

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-regime-shift-observed-in-the-Chihuahuan-Desert-of-New-Mexico-based-on-observations-at_fig1_272480464

Desert Wildflowers

https://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/FieldGuide/fieldguide.html

Primary COnsumers

Primary consumers: insects, beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, rabbits, mice (both primary and secondary consumers, they eat seeds and also insects), termites, bees, wasps, millipede, butterflies, Quail, deer

Fairy Beetle

https://bugguide.net/node/view/292409

Grasshoppers

https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/nature/lubbers.htm

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1095978

Caterpillars and moths

https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2016/05/22/sphinx-moths-coming-soon/

Rabbits

https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/nature/desert-cottontail.htm

Quail

https://trepanddoc.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/why-do-the-quail-cross-the-road/

Detritivores consume decaying plant matter

http://scienceviews.com/indian/millipede.html

Secondary Consumers

Secondary Consumers: most rodents, scorpions, tarantulas, centipede, birds that eat insects, water bugs, assassin bugs, ladybugs, parasitic wasps, armadillo, skink lizard, ants

Sopulgid Sun Spiders

https://www.desertusa.com/insects/solpugids.html

http://www.desert-scorpions.com/

https://www.livescience.com/60240-north-american-desert-tarantulas-photos.html

Crissal Thrasher, eats bugs, spiders, seeds, fruits

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/crissal-thrasher

Armadillo

https://www.desertusa.com/animals/armadillo.html

Tertiary Consumers

Tertiary Consumers: coyote, hawk, eagle, owl, rattlesnake, roadrunner, mountain lions

Coyote

https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/nature/coyote.htm

Hawk

https://www.desertmuseum.org/visit/rff_redtail.php

Owl

http://museum2.utep.edu/educate/learninglinks/burrowingowl.htm

http://old.wildsonora.com/image-content/cactus-ferruginous-pygmy-owl-saguaro

https://www.nps.gov/im/chdn/bibe.htm

Rattlesnake

http://chihuahuandesert.weebly.com/heterotrophs.html

Roadrunner

https://www.desertusa.com/birds/roadrunner-bird.html

Decomposers

Desert Food Web Concept Map

Types of research

Botany: study of plants

Entomology: study of insects

Arachnology: study of arachnids such as spiders and scorpions

Ornithology: study of birds

Herpetology: study of amphibians and reptiles

Mammalogy: study of mammals