Jennifer Pickles When we talk about Earth and it’s plants and creatures we organise it into smaller areas such as dessert, mountain, forest or ice. This helps us to understand this area by itself so we can find out how it works with the other areas. For example to learn about flowers you need to know about the insects that pollinate them and the soil in which the flowering plants grow in. An ecosystem can sustain itself, this means that all the creatures can eat and survive in harmony. The Earth is a biosphere, this biosphere is made up of lots of different ecosystems, in these ecosystems are communities of different creatures. In these communities of creatures there are different populations of species and in these populations of species there are individual plants, animals or insects.
It is easier to learn about separate ecosystems because they are so different to each other. The type of plants and animals that live in the rain forest will not necessarily be able to survive on a mountain side. This is the same in reverse because the plants and animals from the mountain may not be able to live in the forest.
When certain species live in certain areas they adapt to live there. It’s just like the arctic fox who has a snow white coat in the winter for camouflage and a grey coat in the summer. In colder countries the trees drop their leaves in the winter to stop them losing water whereas in the hotter countries they keep them all year round to soak up the sun.
The Earth separates into lots of different ecosystems this varies with the distance it is from the equator. At the equator the Sun is closest to the Earth so there is more heat. At the north and south poles the Sun is furthest away from the Earth so it is colder and the water freezes. So at the equator a lot more different life can live because it is hot all year round. This means that at the poles less life can live because it gets too cold.
In the rain forest it is warm and humid with lots of sunshine and rainfall. This is amazing conditions for plants to grow. You would think that the rain forests have really good soil but this is not the case. The reason why so much life is there is because creatures and plants are always dying. These nutrients and minerals feed the forest and keep it healthy.
Ecosystems have ecosystems within themselves. A forest is an ecosystem but in that forest there is an ecosystem in the tree canopy and in the soil below. Did you know that there is more creatures in a handful of soil than there is in the rain forest?
Bio-diversity
Picture of Bacteria Biodiversity is the variation of life that lives in the biosphere or ecosystem. For example in the ocean there is plankton, fish, crustaceans, sharks, whales and much more. They are all different but live in the same environment. This shows how rich the area is for living creatures. Biodiversity is very important as we need to understand it to know why animals and plants live where they do.
It covers all forms of life from viruses, bacteria, plants, amphibians to mammals. Some places in the world have rich biodiversity such as Costa Rica and Madagascar.
There are 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world that need protecting to keep them that way. Click here to see a map of the biodiversity hotspots- click on the interarractive map option.
When we talk about Earth and it’s plants and creatures we organise it into smaller areas such as dessert, mountain, forest or ice. This helps us to understand this area by itself so we can find out how it works with the other areas. For example to learn about flowers you need to know about the insects that pollinate them and the soil in which the flowering plants grow in. An ecosystem can sustain itself, this means that all the creatures can eat and survive in harmony.
