1“Describe how climate affects your selected ecosystem?”

The tropical rainforest is extremely important to the earth's climate. It affects temperatures worldwide, since as the name suggests, there is a lot of rainfall as a result of the forest's existence. The tropical rainforest aids in maintaining a somewhat stable weather habit and reduced global warming effects. This is why the clearing out of the rainforest has been extremely detrimental to the earth's climate the forest's rainfall helps reduce global warming, and without it, temperatures will continue to increase. The climate of the tropical rainforest itself is typically humid, warm, and the temperature rarely changes from daytime to nighttime. The extreme humidity causes the average rainfall each year to be around 200 cm. This type of warm temperature that ranges anywhere from 70 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for lush growth and is very supportive of life and growth. The fact that the tropical rainforest supports great growth and life is an extremely important reason for humans to not destroy it. Species continue to become endangered and even extinct, so it is our responsibility to protect their habitat and growth as much as possible, not only for their sake, but for our own too.

2 “Explain, based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, how energy flows through your selected ecosystem?” The Tropical Rain Forest, nowhere on earth, or ecosystem for that matter, has a richer and more blossoming biome, both in diversity and in total biomass. The tropical rain forest has a complex structure, with many levels of life. More than half of all terrestrial species live in this biome. With all this life there is a certain energy that flow that needs to be understood and how the dynamics of it operates. So first we need to understand what the “First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics” is. The First Law of Thermodynamics states that “an organism may absorb energy from its surroundings, or it may give up some energy into its surroundings, but the total energy content of the organism and its surroundings is always the same. An organism can't create the energy it requires to live. Instead, it must capture energy from the environment to use for biological work, a process that involves the transformation of energy from one form to another.” (Wiley 2009) Such example can be seen when all the trees and plant life absorbs energy from the sun through photosynthesis where the plants then convert this chemical energy contained in the bonds of a sugar molecule. Now we need to understand the second law of thermodynamics and it states that “the amount of usable energy available to do work in the universe decreases over time.” (Wiley 2009) in other words anything that gives off energy is never at one hundred percent there is always some form of entropy involved which causes it to loose twenty to thirty percent of its original energy. These two laws of Thermodynamics can be applied on a daily basis in an ecosystem such as the Tropical Rainforest. Such as when Herbivorous animals, such as the capybara, tend to feed on these plants, and derive energy from them. Eventually, primary carnivores, such as the ocelot feed on herbivores and get the required amount of energy from them. Similarly, secondary carnivores, such as the jaguar feed on herbivores as well as primary carnivores, and derive energy from them. When any of these animals die, they get decomposed by bacterial activity and get mixed into the soil. When new plants grow, they derive nutrients from this very soil and the entire tropical rainforest food web cycle starts all over again. 3 “Examine how matter is transported through your selected ecosystem due to biogeochemical cycles (e.g., carbon, hydrologic, nitrogen, phosphorus).” The selected ecosystem, the Rain Forest for team A utilizes the Hydrologic Cycle. This cycling of matter process is continuously recirculating water from the ocean to the land to the atmosphere and back again to the ocean. It provides the necessary renewable supply of purified water for terrestrial organisms. How have human activities altered these matter/nutrient cycles.
Depletion of the Rain Forest, trees are constantly being cut down and harvested without any means of replanting. This will impact the Rain Forest ability to create the necessary oxygen to purify the moisture in the atmosphere. 4 “Describe some of the survival characteristics of the plants and animals in your selected ecosystem. Discuss how these adaptations developed in response to biotic and abiotic factors and through the process of natural selection?” The general diversity of the rainforest ecosystems vary across the world, but one of the most common characteristics is seen in the wide variety of both plant and animal species. The main concept of interdependence in which the species of an ecosystem depend on each other to a certain degree is vital to the survival of species in the rainforest. The biological interdependency can be seen in different ways such as processes of pollination or seed dispersion for plants to the relationship between predator and prey to symbiotic relationships which are beneficial to at least one of the species. With such relationships including millions of years to develop to form the foundation of the rainforest, some species are likely to disappear, thus weakening survival rates because of broken relationship links sometimes causing major disruptions in the structure and function. For instance, the Brazilian nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa) depends on the agouti to scatter seeds because it is the single animal species with teeth strength to open the seed pods as well as Euglossine orchid bees for pollination (Butler, 2010).
The rainforest ecosystem is a competitive environment in which species develop such symbiotic relationships to survive by benefiting one another. An example of this type of relationship exists between a particular species of ants and caterpillars in which the factor of feeding and protection are taken into account of the life cycle for both species (Butler, 2010). The chance of survival relies on the adaptation ability of animals to eat particular plants or animals, which others do not depend on. On the other hand, the risk of extinction such as the case of the dodo bird that digested the seeds of the calvaria tree, which almost caused that species extinction until human intervention, saved the trees. In the process of evolution for each species, the developments of distinctive adaptations that help with protection ensure another day of survival. Camouflage is beneficial for insects like the walking stick to hide whereas animals like boa constrictors use it to sneak up on its prey. Dangers lie in some creatures’ defense mechanisms such as the coral snake of the Amazon whose colors are beautiful but poison is deadly or the poison arrow frog, which has natural skin poison, has also been helpful to indigenous people in hunting. The problems of deforestation and pollution by humans are problems that will continue to contribute to the extinction of species in this intricate ecosystem thus not allowing the cycle to continue on its path (Save the Rainforest, 2011).
5 “Discuss how rainforest ecological succession can change the biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem and how that might influence a species’ survival adaptations?” Ecological succession or the changes that occurs over time happen when balance to the tropical rainforest ecological system becomes un-stable. Perhaps this event might have come about of a disturbance to the system. Fortunately, two types of ecological succession, secondary succession is the re-growth of an area after a large disturbance but leaves some living material behind and primary follows the complete killing of the organisms within areas with plant life like a Rainforest. The ecosystem of the Rainforest consists of many types of organisms and animals that depend on stable environment to thrive in, although adaptation is necessary for survival. Animals within an ecosystem develop new survival features to survive, such as learning to eat different diets, congregating together as a mini-tribe so that it is harder for larger animals to kill them. To survive, parrots grow larger beaks to crack open nuts also ants develop cut up huge leaves, up to 50 times its weight, they bury the leaves to creates a fungus, it is this that the ants dine on. It is common for plant life and animals to benefit from one another. The animals work by eating and speeding seeds and the plant life continues to thrive in the habitat, should there be a disturbance to either the plant life or the animals they learn to keep their habitat moving by adapting their behavior and even sometimes themselves to appear like the environment to avoid attraction of predators. Although change to the Rainforest environment happens by damage from overuse, manmade, or nature animals and plants have the innate ability to survive, animals and plant alike have been prewired to adapt to situational experiences that are every changing and evolving
6 “Explain how human population change has affected your selected ecosystem?” As the human population grows, so does its need for more living space and food. Humanity has been increasingly clearing out tropical rainforests in the name of development and even urbanization. The land is getting cleared out at unimaginable rates for farming and housing. Although it may seem like a right and necessary step to take in the direction of human development, the clearing out of rainforests are extremely detrimental both too many plant and animal species, but also to human health. This has sped up global warming and the extinction of certain species has caused a terrible ripple effect in many ecosystems. Not only does the clearing out of the lands cause a rise in temperature across the world, but the process of clearing out, whether it is deforestation of the trees or burning of fields, also harms the planet. Although the increase of the human population is to some extent in inevitable, if we want to create sustainability we must figure out more environmentally friendly ways because something is obviously no working correctly when more than 2 billion of the world’s population lives under extreme poverty.

References Butler, R. A. (2010). Rainforest Ecology. Mongabay. Retrieved from http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/rainforest_ecology.html
Save the Rainforest, (2011). About Rainforest Animals. Save the Rainforest. Retrieved from http://www.savetherainforest.org/savetherainforest_005.htm WILEY PLUS: Berg, L.R., & Hager, M.C. (2009). Visualizing Environmental Science (2nd. ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Planet Earth. (2010, May). Tropical Rainforest: Animals. Retrieved from http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/biomerainfor4.htm