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      Cindy Ong (Leader)

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      Choo Wan Yueh (Wiki Writer) 

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      Charmaine Chew (Researcher)

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      Chew Jing Yu  (Researcher) 

 

Overview

In this section, include a brief description of the allocated ecosystem. You should include the following information:

 

• Location of the ecosystem 
• Description of the ecosystem
• Biodiversity of ecosystem (richness of life in ecosystem)

 

Temperate forest found in Australia 

Humid temperate forest found in Gilan Province , northern Iran 

Temperate forest found in the Mount Hood Wilderness , Oregon , USA 

Temperate forest are found in temperate regions of the world , between the Tropics and the poles . They make up 26% of the forested area of the world . The largest area of temperate forest are found in the Northen half of the world , or Northen hemisphere , south of the taiga ( northern coniferuos forests ) . These large areas include western and central Europe , eastern North America , eastern China , Korea , and Japan . Smaller areas of forest grow in Mexico and Central America . In southern half of the world , or Southern Hemisphere , smaller areas of temperate forest grow in parts of South America , southern Africa , southern Australia and New Zealand . Most temperate forest have been cleared for timber and farmland .The temperate forest is a part of the ecosystem . It is made up of living plants and animals and non-living environment of air , water , energy , and nutrients . Temperate forests are different from an ordinary forest that can be found everywhere in the world ,  they are also more than just forests with beautiful reds and golds in the fall . These temperate forests there are named after the main trees found there . There are different kind of temperate forests , example of temperate forests are temperate deciduous forests have deciduous trees such as oak , ash , lime , birch and more which are bare in winter . Other than temperate deciduous forest , there are temperate coniferous forests which  have conifers like spruce and the trees there are evergreen which means the trees retains it's green foliage all year round . Thus , they do not lose their needle-like leaves in one season . In some countries like Australia , some forests have evergreen eucalyptus trees such as blue gum , gully gum and brown mallet . Temperate forests also have evergreen trees such as southern beech as well as conifers such as the Huon pine . 

 

• Biodiversity of ecosystem (richness of life in ecosystem)
• Temperate forest is important because of its biodiversity. It is a home to many species of trees and plants. It is also a home to animals.
 There area lot of large mammals in the forests, but there are a lot of smaller animals like squirrels and chipmunks. There are many reptiles in the temperate forests, especially the salamander too. Even though many birds wmigrate south during the winter, there are still lots of species of birds in the forest during the summer. 

Streams rely on trees to keep dirt from entering into the streams. If too much dirt gets into the stream it could kill fish and water plants living in the streams. The streams also rely on trees to provide a good ecosystem for fishes. When the leaves of the trees falls into the stream, bacteria and fungi feed off the leaves. Then insects, is called “shredders,” eat the leaves and the fungi. These insects are favorite foods of fish. Lastly, fishermen can catch the healthy fish for consume.

 

Physical Factors

Search the Internet for information on the following physical factors in the allocated ecosystem. 

 

• Light (availability of sunlight in the ecosystem), >>
• Light, which primarily comes from the sun, is important to life in two ways - photosynthesis and vision . Light levels are highest at the ocean surface , and decrease logarithmically with depth down to about 150 meters . The amount of light passing through the ocean surface is affected by cloud cover , waves which reflect sunlight away ( increases the ocean surface albedo ) , and angle of sunlight which depends on latitude , season , and time of day . Within the water, how fast it attenuates depends on the amount of particles that scatter and absorb light. Water close to shore carries a lot more particles than water in the open ocean .

 

• Temperature 
• Temperate forests grow in moderate climates with four different seasons . The temperature varies widely from season to season . Summers are warm , so the temperature during summer would be around 18 degrees Celsius , during the cold winter , the temperature would be around 3 degree Celsius . Since winter last between two to six months , the average yearly temperature is about 10 degree Celsius . 

 

• Water (water quality in the ecosystem),>>
• The water conditions inevitably have an effect on life in the ecosystem . 
• A still body of water will inevitably be disturbed by various factors , which will affect the distribution of organisms in the water . Wind is considered to be the prime factor responsible for disturbing water , though changes in temperature can create convection currents where temperature is evened out across the body of water via this movement .
• Naturally, a river will have water movement as water succumbs to gravity and moves downstream . These are relatively constant factors that affect water movement though , for example , human intervention can also cause water movement . The surface tension of the water will also affect the organisms that occupy the area, depending on the cohesion of water at the surface, it can affect the amount of oxygen that reaches organisms living below the water surface .

 

• Salinity (freshwater or seawater found in the ecosystem).
• Salinity is a lmeasure of the total dissolved solids in water y salt), with an ocean global average of 35 parts salt per thousand parts water. Salts come from land via rivers, where it concentrates as ocean water evaporates.
• Ocean salinity confers an average pH of 8.1 which buffers well ( that is , maintains itself ) and which favors precipitation of calcium carbonate ( used to make shells ) . It decreases the freezing point of water, so that in natural environments on Earth , it doesn't exactly freeze , it becomes more like slush . Salinity also affects water density ; saltier water is more dense . 

 

• Air (quality of air in the ecosystem), 
• The impacts on the animals can result from impacts on the ecosystem . The changes and pollution can reduce the prey animals , breeding spots , hiding spots , water pH and water temperature . In addition if the pollution has impacted the normal prey of other predators they may switch to other prey as an alternative food source .
• pH of the environment (how acidic or alkaline the ecosystem is), 
• pH is chemical measure of the soil reflecting the hydrogen ( acid forming ) ion activity . It expresses the degree of acidity or alkalinity in terms of pH values . The scale of measuring acidity or alkalinity contains 14 divisions known as pH units . It is centered around pH 7 which is neutral . Values below 7 constitute the acid range of the scale and values above 7 make up the alkaline range . PH scale is logarithmic , not linear. That is , a soil with a pH of 8.5 is ten times more alkaline than a soil with a pH of 7.5 , and a soil with a pH of 4.5 is ten times more acidic than a soil with a pH of 5.5 . The pH condition of soil is one of several environmental conditions that affect the quality of plant growth . While many plants grow in a 3.5 to 10.0 range and some plants have a rather specific pH requirement, a near neutral or slightly acidic soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0 is generally considered ideal for the majority of plants. The major impact that pH extremes have on plant growth is in the availability of plant nutrients and concentration of the plant toxic minerals . In highly acidic soils , calcium , phosphorous, and magnesium become tied up and unavailable , and manganese can be concentrated in toxic levels . At pH values of 7 and above , phosphorus , iron , copper , zinc , boron , and manganese become less available .
  Acidity can be reduced by applying some form of lime ; ground agricultural limestone is the most frequently used . The finer the grind the more rapidly it becomes effective , but the amount needed depends on the extent of pH change needed for the plants to be grown as affected by the soil texture and OM content . The surest method of knowing what action is needed is to have the soil tested .
• mineral salts (availability of nutrients and mineral salts in the ecosystem.)
•  In nutrition, simple inorganic chemicals that are required, as nutrients, by living organisms. Plants usually obtain their mineral salts from the soil, while animals get theirs from their food. Important mineral salts include iron salts which is needed by both plants and animals, magnesium salts which is needed mainly by plants, to make chlorophyll and calcium salts which is needed by animals to make bone or shell.   

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Classification of Living Organisms

Classify at least eight of the living organisms found in the allocated ecosystem into the categories below:

 

1. Producers : Berries , Seeds , Green plants , Nuts , Fungi , Lichen , Fern , Acorn 
2. Primary Consumers : Birds , Mice , Squirrels , Deer , Elks , Panda , Hare , Rabbit
3. Secondary Consumers : Owls , Coyote , Red fox , Gray wolf, Brown bear , Ringtail , Black tipped jacked rabbit , Pine marten
4. Tertiary Consumers : Mountain lion , Gray wolf , Coyote , Bobcat , Cougar , Spotted owl , Bear , Lynx
5. Decomposer: Fungi , Bacteria , Moss , Earth worm , Beetles , Fly maggot , Wasps , Cockroach

For each of the living organism, find a picture and write a short description on the organism. You may wish to include feeding habits, region in the ecosystem where it is normally found etc. 

Panda is black and white color. It likes to feed on bamboo shoot, fruits and bamboo leaves. They live in China mainly in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu. Panda is very easy to recognize as it is large and has a black patch around its eyes. It diet is about 99% of the bamboo. It eats grass, a form of birds, honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges and bananas too.

 

 

 

Coyote is found throughout Center and North America. Coyote is also name as American jackal or prairie wolf. Its throat and belly are white in color. Its forelegs, the sides of its legs and paws are reddish brown. Its length is about 76cm to 86 cm without adding the tail in. The length of its tail is about 30cm to 41 cm. It weights about 6.8kg to 21kg.

 

Black tipped jackrabbit has long ears and a pair of powerful rear legs. Its length is about 2 feet and weights about 3 to 6 pounds. It is the third largest hare in North American. Its ear is black tipped on the outer surface.

Bacteria have much different kind of shapes. Bacteria almost live everywhere even living on our body. It is so small that we are unable to see through our naked eye. As the result, we will need to use a microscope to look at the bacteria.

Acorn is a nut of the oaks. It usually contains only one seed and looks like a shape of the cup. It is 1cm to 6cm long and 0.8cm to 4cm broad. It takes 6 to 24 months to mature. Wildlife animals like to consume on acorns. Examples are mice and squirrels. Acorn is attractive to wildlife animals.

 

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Food Web  

Create a food web using at least eight of the living organisms listed above. You may wish to use Microsoft PowerPoint to create your food web. Save your food web as a picture. Finally copy and paste your picture in this section of your wiki. 

 

 

 

 

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Interrelationship in Ecosystem

Give at least one example for each of the following relationships in the ecosystem:

1. Predator-prey relationship : spotted owl <- red tree vole, venus flytrap<- flies
2. Parasitism : fleas and black-taiiled deer, mosquito and monkey, plant and aphids
3. Mutualism : flowers and bees

 

 

 

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Useful Links

Plagarism is a strongly discouraged.

Include the links of all websites you obtained information from to complete your ecology wiki. 

For example:

Wild World @ nationalgeographic.com ( http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/terrestrial.html ) 

 

• Evergreen trees and shrubs @ buzzle.com ( http://www.buzzle.com/articles/evergreen-trees-and-shrubs.html )
• Evergreen forest @ wikipedia.org ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_forest )
• Deciduous forest biomes @ blueplanetbiomes.org ( http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/deciduous_forest.htm  ) 
• Abiotic and biotic factors ( http://www.biology-online.org/6/3_abiotic_factors.htm )   
• Biodiversity of ecosystem (

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