Glossary

Colonization

As an example: of Beach Ridges by Casuarina Trees:

Because of the small surface area of their leaves, Casuarina trees are well suited to growing in exposed positions. They are one of the few non-legume trees able to fix Nitrogen, and in well-drained conditions their roots are able to explore large volumes of soil enabling them to anchor themselves into poorly structured soil. Thus without competition, the trees grow fast in the sandy beach ridge soils. Because the leaves have a small surface area, when they drop they are not blown away and soon form a mat under the tree. This decomposes to form a very thin but humus-rich soil, hardly more than a scab on the sandy surface. Initially other Casuarina trees germinate beneath the first tree so that a clump of trees is formed. Together with the new soil, this creates a protective micro-climate for the development of Strand vegetation.

Competitor

Forms of life that complete for the same resource. They may be the same species – one individual or group of individuals – or different species.

Communities, Of Animals

Within a given Climate, vegetation and hydrology/water quality define animal Habitats which in turn determine animal communities. Thus a consideration of animal communities involves an understanding of their habitats, both aquatic and terrestrial (and many animals, it must be remembered, inhabit both)

Conservation

The wise use of resources and the management of the Environment so that all species, including Humankind, can survive in a viable Ecosystem.

Dependency

All living things depend on others to survive: to give them immediate sustenance and to create for them the right environment. For instance, among others, Humankind depends on Bacteria to break down his wastes and to maintain healthy Soils in which he can grow his food. Aphids often depend on ants to keep them clean. Many tropical rainforest trees depend upon bats to distribute their fruit and a wide range of plants depends upon insects for pollination.

DNA

See Genes

Ecology

Ecology is a young science which has developed out of natural history as a result of the need to understand, explain and solve the problems of humankind’s increasingly damaging impact on the environment. In essence, Ecology is the study of relationships between living phenomena in their environment.

Ecosystems

An ecosystem is an area, which can be given a physical boundary for convenient ecological study. Ecosystems can be defined in three ways:

1. As places which can be recognized within their general surroundings, such as “Sibuyan Island and its In-shore Waters;
2. As places which are defined by the predominance of one plant species, such as the Pine forests (Pinus merkusi) of the central Mindoro massif;
3. As places which are defined by the territory of one animal species, such as the Tamaraw grasslands of Mt. Iglit.

But ecosystems can be sub-divided again and again so that, for instance, within the Ecosystem of a forest, one can define a sub-Ecosystems according to soils and drainage, and so on to the sub-Ecosystems of individual trees or even of individual leaves.

As with the landscapes they describe, Ecosystems change. They are the dynamic workshops where plants and animal species co-evolve.

Ecotone

The transitional zone between one Ecosystem and another, such as the banks of a river.

Ecozone

An area, or areas within a Biome that have characteristics Ecosystems, such as the montane forests of the Cordillera.

Endangered Species

A species or sub-species whose populations are in danger of extinction and whose survival is unlikely if the causal factor/s continue operating. Included are species whose numbers have been reduced to a critical level or whose habitats have been drastically reduced to a critical level or destroyed that they are deemed to be in immediate danger of extinction. Also included are species that may not be in immediate danger of extinction but are under threat from severe adverse factors throughout their range. (Asian Development Bank)

Endemic

An organism which is unique to a Biome.

Energy

Energy is the power required for doing work. It enters the Ecosystems from the sun and is lost only as heat generated by the activities of all the animals and during decomposition of detritus (plant and animal wastes) by the decomposing plants (Fungi), animals and Bacteria.

Plants obtain energy by Photosynthesis; animals by eating plants and or each other. (See Bioactivity). See Soils.

Evapotranspiration

The process by which solutions are drawn upwards through plants to provide nourishment and turgidity. Water evaporates from the stomata on the surface of the leaves creating a vacuum within the plant tissues, ultimately enabling roots to take up soil nutrient solutions. (Just like sucking up water through a straw)

Evolution of Species

Evolution is the cumulative change in the characteristics of populations of organisms over succeeding generations, resulting in Species totally different from remote ancestors.

For instance, a rat, which can run faster than all the other rats, will live longer than her sisters who are caught and eaten by the cats. Thus, she will have more off-spring and the trait allowing for faster running will spread through the population. Of course this situation will also encourage the evolution of faster cats, because the slow cats will starve.

One theory about the extinction of egg laying dinosaurs is that egg-eating mammals evolved and spread faster than the dinosaurs could evolve to protect themselves against the egg-eaters.

Sometimes mutant (damaged) genes create a trait which is beneficial in a given environment and is thus passed on to succeeding generations. For instance, a rat that is able to tolerate rat poison. The survival of that gene through succeeding generations of rats perhaps to create a new race of poison-resistant rats has led to the idea of the “selfish gene”.

See Genes.

Feces

Feces are the residue of foods, bacteria and secretions expelled from the digestive system of animals.

Food Chains

A series of organisms connected by the fact that each forms food for the next higher organism in the series. A good example is the mangrove ecosystems. Although they have a Biomass of about 150 tons of dry matter per hectare, their productivity of organic matter is high – up to 15 tons/ha/year under favorable conditions. Half of this falls as leaves and dead wood, to be decomposed by Fungi and Bacteria. The chemical compounds and Detritus products of this decomposition provide nutrients for the plants and animals within the mangrove forest. However, via tidal inundation they also provide the nutrients to start food chains in associated rivers, and in-share waters.

Detritus-consuming animals include species of Nematodes, Polycharete worms, Mollusks and Arthropod Crustaceans. They feed on the Detritus itself and produce Feces; these are in turn consumed by microorganisms, which are themselves another source of food for the larger species. This is the only the beginning of a complex but wonderfully productive aquatic system of interrelationships, including the following examples;

Small fin-fish feed both directly on the detritus and upon the Polychaete worms. Their feces are in turn a substrate for more micro-organisms.

These small fin-fish are food for larger Carnivorous and Omnivorous fish, which are in turn food for even larger fish and for birds.

Large Zooplankton feed on the Larvae of Crabs and other Arthropods.

These Zooplankton themselves support fish and prawns.

Fossilization

The conservation of living (organic) things into organic material through geological processes.

For example, The Geology of Oil (from the ERA Guide to the Niger Delta by Nick Ashton-Jones)

Oil (and other hydrocarbons associated with it) is formed in the earth when decayed fish, other animals and plants are subjected, over millions of years to pressure and heating caused by the subsequent deposition of sediments (sedimentation) on seabeds from neighboring landmasses. Temperatures of between 100 and 150 degrees centigrade are required. At temperatures above 150 degrees, any oil previously formed is “overcooked” (Cracked) to become Gas.

Fungi

Fungi (singular = fungus) are a plant group (but sometimes classified as a Classification of Life in their own right) being either single celled (mould and yeast) or multi-celled (mushrooms). They can cause diseases (plant blights and athletes foot) or be useful (antibiotics)

Fungi absorbs their nutrients from dead matter (saprophytic fungi) or living organisms (the parasitic fungi).

Genes – Gene Information

Genes are the sub-units of Chromosomes which carry hereditary (genetic) information from one generation of a life form to another.

See Evolution and Chromosomes.

Global Warming

See Greenhouse Effect

Greenhouse Effect

The warming up of the earth’s surface due to the trapping of the long-wave radiation by Carbon-Dioxide (produced by the burning of fossil fuels), chlorofluorocarbons, natural methane emissions and other greenhouse gases.

The moon is very cold because it is a long way from the sun, and yet, the Earth, which is the same distance, is warm. This is largely because of the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the earth’s atmosphere. Heat from the sun passes through the CO2 to the surface of the earth, But, when the earth radiates this heat back out into the atmosphere, it is absorbed by the CO2 that then radiates it in all directions: some goes out into space but some goes back to the earth. As a result, the earth is 30-40°C warmer than it would be if there was no CO2 in the atmosphere.

This process is called the Greenhouse Effect because it works just like a greenhouse in cold climates. The glass panes of the greenhouse allow the short waves of the sun’s heat to pass into the building but the long-wave heat radiating from the warmed surfaces inside cannot pass out again. Thus the inside of the building becomes a lot warmer than the outside, so that plants can be grown in the cold weather.

It follows, therefore that if the CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing, more heat will be trapped inside the Biosphere and the earth’s average temperature will increase. As a result of burning coal and oil, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing and global temperatures have risen by about 0.45°C since 1990, and mostly since 1940. This may seem insignificant, but it is enough to have caused the shrinking of the Alpine and Polar ice caps causing a sea level rise of about 1.5 mm per year over the same period. These processes are complex and not fully understood but they appear to be accelerating. Moreover, these increases in temperature and the reduction of the polar ice caps are changing global climate patterns so that it seems that while the Philippines (and especially the densely populated island of Luzon) will have less rain and suffer more droughts, paradoxically it will also experience more typhoons and short periods of intense and heavy rain.

Habitat

The Ecosystem in which an Organism, population, or Species live.