Basic Ecology: Professional English Coursebook

Министерство образования Республики Беларусь
учреждение образования
Международный государственный экологический
институт имени А. Д. Сахарова
Белорусского государственного университета
Беляева Т.В.
Basic Ecology
Professional English
Учебно-методическое пособие
2020
1
УДК: 811.111(075.8)
ББК: 81.2 Англ - 923
Рекомендовано к изданию НМС МГЭИ им. А.Д.Сахарова БГУ
Рецензенты:
Копиця В.Н., кандидат биологических наук, доцент кафедры экологического мониторинга
и менеджмента МГЭИ им. А.Д.Сахарова, БГУ
Ковалёва Т.Г., кандидат филологических наук, профессор кафедры современных языков
ГУО «Универститет гражданской защиты Министерства по чрезвычайным ситуациям
Республики Беларусь»
Беляева Т.В.
Basic Ecology. Учебно-методическое пособие по профессионально
ориентированному английскому языку для учащихся специальностей
экологического профиля, основанное на концепции предметно-языкового
интегрированного обучения. – Минск: МГЭИ им. А.Д.Сахарова, БГУ, 2020. – 137с.
ISBN …………………
Целью работы с пособием «Basic Ecology» является овладение
специализированной лексикой; формирование и развитие навыков и умений
чтения, восприятия речи на слух и анализа профессиональных текстов;
формирование и совершенствование умений и навыков профессиональноориентированного общения; а так же совершенствование знаний по дисциплине
«Экология» посредством иностранного языка.
УДК: 811.111(075.8)
ББК: 81.2 Англ - 923
ISBN …………………
Международный государственный
экологический институт им. А.Д.Сахарова БГУ, 2020
2
Предисловие
Учебно-методическое пособие предназначено для студентов 2 курса специальности
«Природоохранная деятельность» факультета мониторинга окружающей среды.
Актуальность данного пособия, выбор тем и последовательность их изучения
обусловлены концепцией предметно-языкового интегрированного обучения. Целью
работы с пособием «Basic Ecology» является овладение специализированной лексикой;
формирование и развитие навыков и умений чтения, восприятия речи на слух и анализа
профессиональных текстов; формирование и совершенствование умений и навыков
профессионально-ориентированного общения; а так же совершенствование знаний по
дисциплине «Экология» посредством иностранного языка.
Достижению данной цели служат задания на восприятие информации, ее
обобщение, анализ и компрессию, а также упражнения на формирование и
аргументированное формулирование мысли на английском языке в рамках
профессиональных интересов.
Пособие состоит из основной части и приложения. Основная часть содержит 7
разделов, включающих задания и упражнения. Каждый раздел имеет четкую структуру:
упражнения на развитие рецептивных и продуктивных лексических навыков, упражнения
на чтение и понимание текста, упражнения на формирование и совершенствование
навыков говорения, упражнения на восприятия речи на слух с опорой на визуальный ряд и
без оного.
Приложение 1 содержит интернет-ссылки на статьи, соответствующие тематике
каждого раздела, предоставленные для самостоятельного изучения и реферирования, а
также список экологических on-line журналов.
Приложения 2-11 включают список опорных фраз и выражений, способствующих
анализу научной статьи; дополнительные материалы, необходимые на практических
занятиях и расшифровку видеоматериалов, на основе которых построены задания на
восприятие речи на слух.
Конечный этап работы с разделом – устное сообщение на заданную тему с
использованием пройденного лексического материала, а также дискуссия по проблемным
вопросам.
Пособие может быть также использовано на занятиях студентов других
экологических специальностей.
3
CONTENTS
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
Unit 7
Appendix 1:
Appendix 2
Appendix 3.1
Appendix 3.2
Appendix 4
Appendix 5
Appendix 6
Appendix 7
Appendix 8
Appendix 9.1
Appendix 9.2
Appendix 10
Appendix 11
References
Video resources
Предисловие
Contents
What is ecology?
Ecological Hierarchy
Trophic Pyramid
Species Interactions
Biodiversity
Ecosystem services
Threats to Biodiversity
Additional reading
Transcripts
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
Unit 7
3
4
5
12
26
40
56
69
81
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
99
100
101
102
103
105
106
110
114
122
126
130
135
136
4
Unit 1
What is ecology?
1. Study the following words.
1
affect (v.)
ə'fekt
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
assess (v.)
abundance (n.)
(bio)diversity (n.)
consequence (n.)
conservation (n.)
consider (v.)
decline (v.)
ə'ses
ə'bʌndəns
'baɪəʊ‚daɪ'vɜːsətɪ
'kɒnsɪkwəns
,kɒnsə'veıʃ(ə)n
kən'sıdə
dı'klaın
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
distribution (n.)
effect (n.)
environment (n.)
extinct (adj.)
habitat (n.)
influence (v.)
interconnection (n.)
‚dɪstrɪ'bjuːʃn
ı'fekt
ın'vaı(ə)rənmənt
ɪk'stɪŋkt
'hæbıtæt
'ınflʋəns
,ıntəkə'nekʃ(ə)n
16 interaction (n.)
‚ɪntər'ækʃn
17
18
18
20
21
22
23
'lıvıŋ θıŋ
'nju:trıənt
prə'vaıd
'pɜ:pəs
rɪ'leɪʃnʃɪp
'spɪːʃɪːz / 'spɪːsɪːz
sək'seʃn
living thing (n.)
nutrient (n.)
provide (v.)
purpose (n.)
relationship (n.)
species (n.)
succession (n.)
(воз)действовать (на что-л.); влиять;
вредить, наносить ущерб
оценивать
зд. численность
(био)разнообразие
следствие, последствие
охрана природы, окружающей среды
рассматривать, полагать, считать
приходить в упадок уменьшаться,
убывать, идти на убыль
распределение
воздействие, влияние, результат
окружающая среда
вымерший
среда обитания
оказывать влияние, воздействие, влиять
взаимосвязь, взаимные связи (между
видами)
взаимодействие, воздействие друг на
друга
живое существо
питательное вещество
обеспечивать, предоставлять
цель, намерение; замысел
взаимоотношения (часто внутривидовые)
вид
сукцессия, смена сообществ
2. Why do you think you know the following words without looking up?
biology
component
protein
ecosystem
adaptation
factor
rhythm
baɪ'ɒlədʒɪ
kəm'pəʊnənt
'prəʋti:n
'i:kə(ʋ),sıstəm
‚ædæp'teɪʃn
'fæktə
'rıð(ə)m
genetically
modified
organism
dʒı'netık(ə)lı
'mɑdɪfaɪd
'ɔrgənɪzm
population
energy
ecology
structure
,pɒpjʋ'leıʃ(ə)n
'enədʒɪ
iː'kɒlədʒɪ
'strʌktʃə
abiotic
biotic
bacteria
biomass
balance
organism
,eıbaı'ɒtık
baı'ɒtık
bæk'tı(ə)rıə
'baıə(ʋ)mæs
'bæləns
'ɔrgənɪzm
5
3. Read and translate the text.
What is ecology?
The natural world, with its rhythms, structures, laws, and phenomena, has probably been
studied as long as humans have been able to observe it, which is quite some time. But as far as
we know, the Greeks were the first civilization to intentionally observe and record their findings
of the natural world. In the natural histories of Theophrastus (an associate of Aristotle), we find
the first whispers of the discipline later to be called ecology.
The word "ecology" was first used in 1866, by the German biologist and well-known
Darwinist Ernst Haeckel. Actually, ecology got its name from the ancient Greek words: οἶκος "house", or "environment" and –λογία - "study of".
Today the word ecology is encountered in “ecological products” and “ecological
movements,” but the original definition of the word stresses that ecology is a science – a branch
of biology. Ecology is the study of the relationships between organisms and between organisms
and components of their environment. The environment and the species living in it make up
ecosystems. Ecology describes the detailed connections between the environment and the life
forms and how different changes will influence the balances of the ecosystems and the life
conditions for its members. Ecologists try to explain life processes, interactions and adaptations;
the flow of substances and energy through ecosystems; the successional development of
ecosystems; the abundance and distribution of organisms and biodiversity in the context of the
environment, as well as cooperation and competition within and between species.
Ecology is a key science for those concerned with both natural and man-made changes in
the environment. It is only by knowing how the whole system works we are able to understand
how changes in non-living, abiotic, factors, such as pollution*, will affect living things, biotic
components of the ecosystems. Knowledge and understanding of ecology are fundamental
aspects of environmental science. The role of ecology in understanding and solving
environmental problems is to assess and predict the consequences of various human activities.
However, ecology as a science will not tell us what is right or wrong. Ecologists may, for
instance, predict that a certain bird species will become extinct, or try to predict what would
happen if a certain genetically modified organism was released into nature. Whether or not
action should be taken to prevent this extinction or whether or not creation of this genetically
modified organism should be permitted is then a political and ethical question.
_________________________
pollution - [pə'lu:ʃ(ə)n] - загрязнение
4. Correlate the following phrases with the highlighted ones in the text.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
взаимодействие и адаптация
взаимодействие и конкуренция
встречается в
вымереть
выпущенный в дикую природу
движение веществ и энергии
заинтересован (обеспокоен) чем-либо
законы и явления
намеренно наблюдать и записывать
свои открытия
оценить и предвидеть последствия
последовательное развитие,
сукцессия
применительно к
раздел биологии
численность и распределение
6
5. Match the terms with their definitions.
1
abundance
a
2
3
abiotic
biodiversity
b
c
4
biotic
d
5
distribution
e
6
ecology
f
7
ecosystem
g
8
environment
h
9
10
organism
species
i
j
the study of how organisms interact with one another and with their
physical environment
an individual living thing
all the organisms that live in a particular area, along with their
physical environment
the variability among living organisms on the earth, including the
variability within and between species and within and between
ecosystems.
a set of animals or plants in which the members have similar
characteristics to each other and can breed with each other
'space' or a 'field' in which networks of relationships, interconnections
and interactions between entities* occur; everything that affects a
living organism
non-living chemical and physical factors of the environment that
affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems.
the living factors in an ecosystem, which include plants, animals,
bacteria, fungi* etc.
number of creatures of a certain species found within a given area
the geographic occurrence* of an organism
_________________________
entity
['entıtı]
fungi
['fʌŋgaɪ /-dʒaɪ/ -dʒiː]
occurrence
[ə'kʌrəns]
сущность, существо организм
грибок; низший гриб
зд. распространённость
6. Read the text and provide your own example of biotic and abiotic factor influence on the
development and functioning of an organism.
Biotic and abiotic factors
One core goal of ecology is to understand the distribution and abundance of living things
in the physical environment. For instance, your backyard or neighborhood park probably has a
very different set of plants, animals, and fungi than the backyard of a fellow on the opposite side
of the globe. These patterns in nature are driven by interactions among organisms as well as
between organisms and their physical environment.
As an example, let's consider our shower mold*.
Mold is more likely to appear in your shower than, say,
your sock drawer. Why might this be the case?
 Maybe the mold needs a certain amount of water to
grow, and this amount of water is found only in the
shower. Water availability is an example of an
abiotic, or nonliving, factor that can affect
distribution of organisms.
 Maybe mold eats dead skin cells found in the shower, but not in the drawer. Availability
of nutrients* provided by other organisms is an example of a biotic, living-organismrelated, factor that can influence distribution.
________________________________
mold [məʊld] плесень
7
7. Translate the text. Which ideas contained in the previous text are not mentioned in this
one?
Case study: the red panda
Let's apply the idea of biotic and
abiotic factors to another organism, one
that a field ecologist might be likely to
study.
Red pandas are distant relatives of
raccoons* and are found only in the
eastern Himalayas.
They spend most of their time in trees
and eat a primarily vegetarian diet.
In recent years, the red panda
population has dropped significantly,
leading conservation groups to classify it
as a vulnerable* or endangered* species.
What are the main factors behind this change in abundance? Ecologists have found that
biotic factors, such as pathogenic* viruses and bacteria transferred to panda population by
domestic dogs, played a major role in its decline. Abiotic factors have been less important to
date, but changing temperatures could cause further habitat loss in the future. Understanding the
main factors responsible for the decline in red panda population helps ecologists form
conservation plans to protect the species.
_______________
raccoon
vulnerable
endangered
pathogenic
[ræ'kuːn /rə'kuːn]
['vʌln(ə)rəb(ə)l]
[ın'deındʒəd]
[,pæθə'dʒenık]
енот
уязвимый
зд. исчезающий, вымирающий
болезнетворный
8. Rearrange the following sentences into a comprehensible text. Retell it.
1. Abiotic factors are all of the aspects of the environment that have never been alive.
2. Biotic factors are all of the living or once-living aspects of the environment.
3. Organisms depend on their environment to meet their needs, so they are greatly
influenced by it.
4. The factors can be classified as either biotic or abiotic.
5. There are many factors in the environment that affect organisms.
6. They include all the organisms that live there as well as the remains of dead organisms.
7. They include factors such as sunlight, minerals in soil, temperature, and moisture*.
___________________
moisture
['mɔıstʃə]
влажность, сырость; влага
9. Listen to the presenter of the Difference between Abiotic and Biotic Factors video (00: 00 –
1:10), tick the traits that make environmental factors biotic.
It should:
1 be made of cells
2 be made of proteins
3 breathe
4 contain DNA*
5 contain proteins
6
7
8
9
10
grow and develop
interact with each other
live underwater
require energy
reproduce*
11 respond to stimuli*
12 support particular temperature
13 use sunlight
___________________
DNA
reproduce
stimuli
[ˌdiː en ˈeɪ]
[,ri:prə'dju:s]
['stımjʋlaı]
ДНК
размножаться
стимулы, побудительные причины
8
10. Ecosystems are influenced by both biotic and abiotic factors. Complete the table below with
appropriate factors.
air, animals, bacteria, fungi, minerals, plants, protists*, soil, sunlight, temperature, water,
moisture
biotic factors
abiotic factors
It is commonly known that… while …
_________________________
protists [prəʊtɪst] протисты (простейшие) — гетерогенная группа живых организмов,
включающая эукариот, которые не относятся ни к животным, ни к растениям, ни к грибам.
11. Look at the pictures and list biotic and abiotic factors in them. Prove your point of view
using the ideas from task 10.
12. Using the 5 given sets of words write down 5 different definitions of ecology, then choose
the best one.
Ecology is …
1. interact with and depend on, the study, of the environment, and abiotic factors, each
other, of how biotic.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. to one another, that deals with, a branch, the relations of organisms, and to their physical
surroundings, of biology.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3. and their physical environment, plus the way they interact, exploration of living things,
with one another.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. with the environment, of organisms, of the distribution, and relations, and their
interactions, abundance, the scientific study.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
9
5. the interaction, the interaction, between organisms, between organisms, structure and
function, of the distribution, and their environment, of ecosystems, and abundance of
organisms, the study.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
13. Listen to the presenter of the What is Ecology? video (00: 00 – 1:40) and tick the definition
of Ecology you hear in the list above.
14. Listen to David Dudgeon, the professor of Hong Kong university talking about the reasons
of becoming an ecologist. List them. Can you apply his ideas to Belarusian students? Can you
add your own reasons?
Intermediate level.
15. You are going to read an article about deep ecology. Four phrases have been removed
from it. Choose from the phrases A-E the one which fits each gap (1-4). There’s one extra
phrase you do not need to use.
A. an integral part of its environment
B. environmental and green movements
C. exploitation by humans and for human purposes
D. human interference with the nonhuman world
E. the impacts of human life as one part of the ecosphere
Deep ecology is a somewhat recent branch of ecological
philosophy (ecosophy) that considers humankind as [1] . The
philosophy emphasizes the interdependent value of human and
non-human life as well as the importance of the ecosystem and
natural processes. It provides a foundation for the [2] and has
led to a new system of environmental ethics.
Deep ecology's core principle is the claim that, like
humanity, the living environment as a whole has the same right
to live and flourish. Deep ecology describes itself as "deep"
because it persists in asking deeper questions concerning "why"
and "how" and thus is concerned with the fundamental
philosophical questions about [3] , rather than with a narrow
view of ecology as a branch of biological science.
Deep ecology aims to avoid merely anthropocentric environmentalism, which is
concerned with conservation of the environment only for [4] . Deep ecology seeks a more
holistic* view of the world we live in and seeks to apply to life the understanding that separate
parts of the ecosystem (including humans) function as a whole.
_________________________
holistic [həʋ'lıstık] целостный, глобальный
16. Look through the following principles of deep ecology eight-point platform in Russian.
Сторонники глубинной экологии полагают, что мир существует не как ресурс и не может
свободно эксплуатироваться людьми. В этике глубинной экологии цельная система
превосходит любую из ее частей. Нейсс, Сешнс и Деволл разработали т.н. Восьмеричную
платформу:
10
1. Благополучие и процветание жизни на Земле – как человеческой, так и
внечеловеческой, a. ценно само по себе (синонимы: внутренняя ценность,
присущая ценность). Эта ценность b. не зависит от той пользы, которую человек
извлекает для себя.
2. c. Богатство и многообразие форм жизни способствует достижению этой
внутренней ценности, а также значимо само по себе.
3. Люди не имеют права уменьшать богатство и многообразие форм жизни d. кроме
как для удовлетворения жизненно важных потребностей.
4. В настоящее время e. вмешательство человека во внечеловеческий мир, выходит за
рамки допустимого, и ситуация быстро ухудшается.
5. Процветание человеческой жизни и культуры возможно лишь при существенном f.
уменьшении населения Земли. g. Процветание внечеловеческих форм жизни
требует такого уменьшения.
6. Учитывая вышесказанное, h.
следует изменить политику государств. Эти
изменения должны затронуть основные экономические, технологические и
идеологические структуры. Ситуация, которая сложится в результате этих
изменений, i. должна радикально отличаться от существующей.
7. Изменения в идеологии главным образом заключаются в том, что люди будут
связывать качество жизни с внутренней ценностью всего живого, а не с высокими
потребительскими стандартами. j. Возникнет глубокое осознание разницы между
большим количеством и большой значимостью.
8. Те, кто разделяет вышеприведенные принципы k. берут на себя обязательство по
прямому или косвенному участию в осуществлении необходимых изменений.
17. Match the underlined phrases with their English equivalents.
1. are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes
2. biodiversity
3. decrease of the human population
4. except to satisfy vital needs
5. flourishing of nonhuman life
6. have value in themselves
7. have an obligation directly or indirectly to participate
8. interference with the nonhuman world
9. policies must be changed
10. should be deeply different from the present
11. there will be a profound awareness
18. Correlate the principles in English with those in Russian. Make an equivalent list. See
Appendix 2.
19. Split into pairs. Right the definitions to the words in your part of crosswords. Ask your
partner for the definitions of unknown words. Listen to him/her, guess the words and complete
the crosswords. See Appendix 3.1 (student A) and Appendix 9.1 (student B)
20. Put 7 to 9 questions to the text of task 4 and answering them retell it.
21. Read and translate the article given in Appendix 1, Unit 1. You can either get another
article on the topic from the websites listed. . Render it in 7-9 sentences. Make use of
Appendix 4.
11
Unit 2
Ecological Hierarchy
1. Study the following words.
1
arrange (v.)
ə'reındʒ
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
community (n.)
compete (v.)
competition (n.)
density (n.)
disease (n.)
disturb (v.)
disturbance (n.)
emergent (adj.)
freshwater (adj.)
hierarchy (n.)
in terms of
individual (n.)
interspecific (adj.)
intraspecific (adj.)
occur (v.)
property (n.)
reproduction (n.)
surface (n.)
wetland (n.)
kə'mjuːnətɪ
kəm'pi:t
‚kɒmpɪ'tɪʃn
'densətɪ
dı'zi:z
dıs'tɜ:b
dıs'tɜ:b(ə)ns
ɪ'mɜːdʒənt
ˈfreʃˌwɔː.tə
'haɪərɑrkɪ
ın tɜ:mz əv
‚ɪndɪ'vɪdjʊəl
,ıntəspə'sıfık
,ıntrəspə'sıfık
ə'kɜ:
'prɒpətı
,ri:prə'dʌkʃ(ə)n
'sɜ:fıs
ˈwet.lənd
располагать в определённом порядке,
систематизировать, выстраивать
сообщество
конкурировать
конкуренция
плотность
болезнь
нарушать равновесие, беспокоить, портить;
нарушение равновесия, потрясения
появляющийся
пресноводный
иерархия
относительно, о, касательно, с точки зрения
особь
межвидовой
внутривидовой
случаться, происходить, встречаться, попадаться
свойство
размножение
поверхность
водно-болотные угодья
2. Why do you think you know the following words without looking up?
biosphere
biomass
flora
fauna
dominate
relief
tundra
'baɪəʊ‚sfɪə
'baıə(ʋ)mæs
'flɔːrə
'fɔːnə
'dɒmıneıt
rı'li:f
'tʌndrə
adapt
microclimate
microorganism
microscopic
biome
category
taiga
ə'dæpt
'maɪkrəʊ'klaɪmət
,maıkrəʋ'ɔ:gənız(ə)m
,maıkrə'skɒpık
'baıəʋm
'kætıg(ə)rı
'taıgə
geology
vegetation
selection
demography
molecule
molecular
savanna
dʒɪ'ɑlədʒɪ
‚vedʒɪ'teɪʃn
sı'lekʃ(ə)n
di(:)'mɒgrəfı
'mɒlıkju:l
mə'lekjʋlə
sə'vænə
3. Match the words I to XIII with a to l into comprehensible phrases correlating them with
Russian equivalents. Then write the phrases in the second table.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
благоприятные признаки
внутривидовая конкуренция
возникающие свойства, эмерджентность
возрастно-половой состав
движение энергии
естественный отбор
иерархия экосистем
концентрация питательных веществ
межвидовая конкуренция
оборот питательных веществ
распределение видов
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
age and sex
ecological
ecological
beneficial
emergent
energy
interspecific
intraspecific
natural
nutrient
nutrient
a
b
с
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
competition
competition
cycle
distribution
distribution
features
flow
hierarchy
properties
status
selection
12
12
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
экосистема
благоприятные признаки
внутривидовая конкуренция
возникающие свойства, эмерджентность
возрастно-половой состав
движение энергии
естественный отбор
иерархия экосистем
концентрация питательных веществ
межвидовая конкуренция
оборот питательных веществ
распределение видов
экосистема
XII
species
k system
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
4. Read and translate the text.
Ecological hierarchy
As we learned earlier, ecology generally is defined as the interactions of organisms with
one another and with the environment in which they occur. It is convenient to view nature as
hierarchically organised. We can study it at the level of the individual, population, community,
ecosystem, and biosphere. To understand this hierarchy, let us consider the diagram below.
The basic unit is the individual,
characterised by its age, size, sex,
growth
and
reproduction.
All
individuals of a species within a
certain area, for instance, all tuna in
the sea constitute the population.
When studying a population
we want to know how many
individuals it consists of (density), age
and sex distribution, intraspecific
competition (competition between the
members of the same species), and
whether the population grows or
declines over time.
All populations in an area
together form a community. Often,
plant communities and animal communities are considered separately. When studying the
community we consider the density (number of species), commonness and rarity of different
species, interspecific competition (competition between different species) herbivory*, and
predation*.
The complex natural system including all the living things (the biotic community) in a
given area, which interact with each other, and also with their non-living, abiotic, components of
the environments (weather, earth, sun, soil, climate, atmosphere) is called an ecosystem. An
ecosystem is characterised by its biomass, soil type, microclimate, nutrient status and other
substances, energy flow, and nutrient cycle. Ecosystems are open entities – organisms migrate
between ecosystems and there is an exchange of nutrients and energy across ecosystem borders.
This means that ecosystems are not concrete units that we can observe in nature. The ecosystems
can be categorized in terms of their size: microecosystem, for example, different lichen* species
on a stone; mesoecosystem, for example, a forest; macroecosystems or biomes; and biosphere.
Biomes are very large ecological areas on the earth’s surface, with fauna and flora
(animals and plants) adapted to their environment. Biomes are often defined by abiotic factors
13
such as climate, relief, geology, soils and vegetation. Some scientists even consider a biome as
an independent hierarchical level of ecological organisation not an ecosystem. There are five
major categories (y) of biomes on the earth. They are the following: the desert biomes, the
aquatic biomes, the forest biomes, the grassland biomes, and the tundra biomes. In these five,
there are many sub-biomes, under which there are many more well defined ecosystems.
The biosphere is made up of the biomes; that is all the parts of Earth where life exists.
Since life exists on the ground, in the air, and in the water, the biosphere overlaps all these
spheres. Although the biosphere stretches* about 20 kilometers from top to bottom, almost all
life exists between about 500 meters below the ocean’s surface to about 6 kilometers above the
sea level.
Each level in this hierarchy has its own characteristics and there are different processes
acting at each level. To explain patterns and processes at one level, such as a population, we
often need detailed information on the next upper level, i.e. the individuals comprising the
population. However, we also say that each level in ecology has emergent properties. An
emergent property is a property which a complex system has, but which the individual members
do not have. That means that all characteristics of one level cannot be predicted from knowledge
of the upper levels.
_____________________
herbivory
predation
lichen
stretch
['hə:bɪvɔ:rɪ]
[prɪ'deɪʃn]
['laɪkən]
[stretʃ]
фитогафия - растительноя́дность, травоя́дность
хищнечество
лишайник
тянуться, простираться, иметь протяжение
5. Rearrange the terms from the smallest to the largest as they occur in the ecological
hierarchy. Then add a definition to each term (choose from the table A). In the end add the
aims of study at each level (choose from the table B).
1
2
3
4
biosphere
community
ecosystem
individual 5
population
Table A
a It consists of all the biotic and abiotic factors d It is a group of organisms of the same
that influence that community.
species that live in the same area at the
same time.
b It consists of all the populations of different e It is planet Earth, viewed as an ecological
species that live in a given area.
system.
c It is any living thing or organism.
Table B
I
At this level the aim is to study the IV At this level the goal is the study of
interactions between populations and how
adaptations, beneficial features arising by
these interactions shape the community.
natural selection that allow organisms to
II
live in specific habitats. These
At this level the purpose is to examine
adaptations can be morphological,
global patterns—for example, climate or
physiological, or behavioral.
species distribution—interactions among
ecosystems, and phenomena that affect the
entire globe, such as climate change*.
III
At this level the object is to investigate V At this level ecologists research into
energy flow and nutrient cycle.
intraspecific competition, the size,
density, and structure of populations, and
how they change over time.
____________________________
climate change ['klaımıt tʃeındʒ] изменение климата
14
6. In Table B underline four English synonyms to Russian “цель”. Check the pronunciation.
What other synonymous words can you find in table B? Underline them.
7. Rearrange the following sentences so that they’d compose a comprehensible text. Retell it.
Levels of biological organisation
1. Ecology is the study of the interactions of living things with their environment.
2. At the organismal level, ecologists study individual organisms and how they interact with
their environments.
3. Ecologists ask questions across four levels of biological organization—organismal,
population, community, and ecosystem.
4. Ecologists studying an ecosystem examine the living species (the biotic components) of
the ecosystem as well as the nonliving things (the abiotic components), such as air, water,
and soil, of the environment.
5. At the population and community levels, ecologists explore, respectively*, how a
population of organisms changes over time and the ways in which that population
interacts with other species in the community.
___________________________________
respectively
[rı'spektıvlı]
соответственно; в указанном порядке
8. Watch the Introduction to Ecology video (0:00-2.50). Read the summary and fill in the gaps
with appropriate phrases. Watch once again and check you work.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
to their physical environment
to represent or describe the components
the nonliving or physical and chemical things
other living organisms and nonliving
components
an individual animal
the organisms of one type of species
g.
h.
i.
j.
affect their survival
interact and rely on each other
does not include the nonliving factors
found in a particular place
k. and how abundant they are
l. the levels of organization
Ecology is the study of the relations of organisms to one another and 1. ……………………..
It answers questions like how do living things 2. ……………… or on their surroundings. The
survival of any species is dependent on 3. …………….. . Ecology is extremely complex and
difficult to study. Ecologists deal with this complexity using ecological models 4. ……………….
of an ecological system. This model is called an ecosphere. The largest ecological system we
know of is the biosphere, planet Earth. An ecosystem is all the organisms and nonliving
environment 5. …………….. . The living things in this pond ecosystem include fish, turtles,
aquatic plants, algae*, insects, birds and bacteria. These organisms interact in ways that
6.……………. . 7. ……………….include the chemical composition of the pond, its pH, its levels
of dissolved oxygen* and carbon dioxide*, and its supply of nitrogen*, which all helped to
determine what kinds of organisms live in the pond 8.…………….. . A community is all of the
interacting organisms in an area, which 9. ……………… . A population is all of
10.…………………. in the area, and an organism refers to 11. ……………. . In order
12.………………….. from the most broad to the narrowest are: the biosphere, ecosystem,
community, population and organism.
___________________
dissolved oxygen
[[dı'zɒlvd 'ɒksıdʒ(ə)n]
carbon dioxide
[,kɑ:bəndaı'ɒksaıd]
nitrogen
['naıtrədʒ(ə)n]
algae
['ældʒi:]
растворенный кислород
углекислый газ
азот
водоросли
15
9. Mark the statements below as true or false or “doesn’t say” according to task 4. Using the
statements and the phrases from the table make a short utterance agreeing or disagreeing with
the statements and proving your point of view.
Personal
In my opinion the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
point of view As far as I’m concerned the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
(true or false) If you ask me the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
I am quite sure the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
As far as I can see the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
true
I absolutely agree with the statement because…
I’d like to support this view because…
That’s a very good point because…
false
I disagree with this statement because…
I can’t accept the view because…
I object to this thought because…
confirmation the text says that …
the text asserts that …
the text states that …
it is said in the text that…
the text claims that …
as you can see from the text …
doesn’t say
Perhaps it’s
the article says nothing about it.
true/false, but …
the article doesn’t say anything about it.
there is no such information in the article.
the article contains no information about it
1. The ecological hierarchy is built as follows: an individual, community, population,
ecosystem, and biosphere.
2. The spectrum of ecological level of organisation or hierarchy explains the relationship of
the environment with the organism.
3. All frogs in the pond make up a population.
4. The competition between the members of the same species is referred to as interspecific
competition.
5. Population density is a measure of the number of species in a defined area.
6. The populations of some species are endangered and taking care of them is very
important.
7. Interspecific competition is a competition between different species.
8. The complex natural system including all the living things in a given area is called an
ecosystem.
9. Energy flow is one of ecosystem characteristics.
10. Organisms can’t migrate between ecosystems and there is no exchange of nutrients and
energy across ecosystem borders.
11. According to the number of species living in ecosystems they can be arranged into the
following categories: microecosystem, mesoecosystem, macroecosystems and biosphere.
12. The desert, aquatic, forest, grassland, and the tundra biomes are the five major biomes.
13. All the areas of the Earth where life exists are considered a biosphere.
14. We can understand how each level works by knowing the entire characteristics of the less
complicated level.
16
10. Read the text and complete it with the words according to the sense.
Within the discipline of a. ………., researchers work at five broad levels, sometimes
discretely and sometimes with overlap: organism, b. ………….., community, c. …………, and
biosphere.
The five levels of ecology are listed above from small to large. They are built
progressively - a d.………..…… involves individuals of the same e. ……….. that live in the
same area at the same time; a f. ………… consists of all the populations of different species that
live in a given area; an g. ……….. is composed of h. …………… plus the environment that
influences that communities; and a i. ………. which is made up of all the ecosystems. Each level
of organization has j. …………….., new properties that are not present in the level components
but emerge from these component interactions and relationships.
11. In tasks 4 and 9 find three ways to include a list in a sentence keeping in mind “follow”.
Using the ideas from the text write down 3 sentences containing a list.
12. In tasks 4, 8, 10, 11 find the verbs which describe that smth has smth within. In the
dictionary find more synonyms. Tell the difference.
13. Compose 7 sentences using the ideas from unit 1 and 2 and the synonyms from task 12.
14. Translate into English.
1. Особь - это организм или отдельное живое существо.
2. Популяция - это группа особей одного и того же вида, которые обитают на одной
территории. Особи одного вида обычно взаимодействуют друг с другом.
3. Сообщество состоит из всех популяций всех видов, которые обитают на одной
территории. Популяции в сообществе также обычно взаимодействует друг с
другом.
4. Экосистема состоит из сообщества живых организмов и абиотической среды их
обитания, взаимодействующих как система.
5. Биом - это совокупность экосистем одной природно-климатической зоны. (climatic
zone) Биомы могут быть наземными (terrestrial) или водными.
6. Биосфера состоит из всех частей Земли, где можно найти жизнь. Это высший
уровень организации в экологии.
Intermediate level.
15. Read the introduction. Split into the groups of four. Each student in a group reads his/her
own text, and then puts a couple of questions to it.
17
Types of ecology
Ecology is a branch of
biology concerned with
understanding
how
organisms relate to each
other
and
their
environment. Scientist can
view ecology through a
variety of different lenses,
from
the
microscopic
molecular level all the way
to the planet as a whole.
Ecology is divided into
several categories which
bring about different types
of ecology.
Student A
Organism /physiological/ behavioral ecology
It focuses on how the living organisms (animal and plants) react to biotic and abiotic
factors in their environment; physiology, morphology and behavior. Physiological ecology on
animal focuses on the whole-animal function and alteration to ever-changing environments.
These alterations have a tendency to maximize the fitness of animals (their capacity to survive
and reproduce successfully).
The physiological processes studied are temperature regulation, nutrition, metabolism and
response to environmental stresses. These environmental factors may include nutrition, disease,
climate variation and toxic exposure.
For instance, animal’s heat and mass balances are affected by the climate thus these
changes affect how bodies regulate temperatures. On the other hand, physiological ecology on
plants emphasizes on understanding how plants deal with environmental variation at the
physiological intensity, and on the pressure of resource limitation growth, metabolism and
reproduction of individuals. They also deal with plants populations, gradients and different
communities and ecosystems.
Student B
Population ecology
It deals with studies of structure and dynamics of populations. That is factors that affect
population and how and why a population varies over time. A population ecologist studies the
interrelations of organisms with their environments by determining properties of populations
rather than the behavior of the individual organisms.
Among the properties of population studied is population size, population density,
patterns of dispersion, demographics, dynamics, population growth and restraints on growth.
This ecology is vital in upkeep of biology, particularly in the progress of PVA (population
viability analysis) which allows the forecasting of long-term possibility of a species living in a
particular place such as a national park.
18
Student C
Community Ecology
This deals with the interactions between organisms, that is, the feeding relationships
among species, or who helps who, who competes with whom and for what resources and how
those interactions affect community structure (the organization of a biological community with
respect to ecological interactions).
Community ecologist investigates the factors influencing community structure,
biodiversity, and the distribution and abundance of species. These factors include the
interrelations with the non living world and between species.
Student D
Ecosystem Ecology
The largest scale of organismal organization is the ecosystem. An ecosystem is network
of interconnected biological communities. The largest ecosystem, the biosphere, encompasses all
ecosystems inside of it. Ecosystem ecologist study the complex patterns produced by interacting
ecosystems and the abiotic factors of the environment. They may study water, nutrients, or other
chemical that cycle through the ecosystem. Ecosystem ecology is a very complex and large-scale
science that includes many disciplines.
16. Retell your text briefly. Ask your questions to check your partners’ understanding.
17. Study the terms in the first column. Which of them are you familiar with? Match the terms
with definitions in the table below. Which of the terms describe general types of ecology?
Which can be considered as sub-types?
1 Community ecology
2 Ecosystem ecology
3 Human ecology
4 Microbial ecology
5 Molecular ecology
6 Organism/behavioral
ecology
7 Population ecology
a This type of ecology studies the production of proteins, how
those proteins affect the organism and the environment, and how
the environment in turn affects the production of various
proteins.
b This type of ecology studies how the living organism (animals
and plants) react to biotic and abiotic factors in their
environment; physiology, morphology and behavior.
c This type of ecology studies the relationships between
microorganisms and their natural biotic and abiotic
environments.
d This type of ecology studies the size, density, structure and
dynamics of populations; what factors affect a population and
how and why a population changes over time.
e This type of ecology studies humans, their effect on each other
and other organisms, and their effects on the environment.
f This type of ecology studies the interactions between species in
communities on many spatial and temporal scales*, including the
distribution, structure, abundance, demography, and interactions
between coexisting populations; how these interactions shape the
community.
g This type of ecology studies the living and nonliving
components within the environment, how these factors interact
with each other, and how both natural and human-induced
changes* affect how they function.
__________________________
human-induced changes
['hju:mən ın'dju:st tʃeındʒız]
антропогенные изменения; изменения,
вызванные человеком
on spatial and temporal scales [ɒn 'speıʃ(ə)l ənd 'temp(ə)rəl skeılz] в пространстве и во времени
19
18. Replacing the phrase “this type of ecology” with an appropriate term try to give the correct
definitions. Use the following synonyms to replace “to study” as well:
to deal with
to look at
to focus on
to be concerned with
to refer to
19. Look through the “Ecology (disciplines)” page in Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology_(disciplines)
Choose 3 to 5 branches of ecology and make a presentation consisting of up to 5 slides and 7
to 10 sentences. Don’t include text in your slides.
20. Translate the phrases. Complete each biome column with appropriate ecosystems.
alpine tundra
hot and dry deserts
freshwater biomes
tropical rainforests
The Desert
Biomes
temperate and boreal forests
savanna grasslands
semi arid deserts
arctic tundra
The Aquatic
Biomes
The Forest
Biomes
temperate grasslands.
marine biomes
coastal deserts
cold deserts
The Grassland
Biomes
The Tundra
Biomes
21. Name the types of ecosystem in the pictures below. Use the following patterns:
The desert biome involves…which are photos 1,2,3 respectively.
Photo … depicts a …sub-biome, which is an essential part of …biome.
Photo … refers to a … biome. It contains …sub-biomes, which are pictures …
1
2
3
4
5
6
20
7
8
9
10
11
12
22. Study the following noun suffixes. Search the text of task 4 for the nouns with different
suffixes. Mark them.
-age
-al
-ance/ence/ancy
-ant/ent
-acy/cy
-ory/ery
-dom
-hood
-ian
-ism
-ist
marriage
arrival proposal
inhabitancy occurrence importance
immigrant student
accuracy
laboratory machinery
freedom
childhood
magician
feminism
chemist
-eer
-er/or
-ion/sion/tion
-ty/ity
ment
ness
ship
y
-ure
-th
volunteer, engineer
helper, doctor
decision depression
salinity diversity
movement
kindness, darkness
ownership
property
procedure exposure
depth, warmth
23. Complete each of the following sentences with the correct noun derived from the word in
bold. If you need, consult the dictionary. Mark the suffixes.
Individuals are at the 1st level of the biological ……………. .
Study of this 1st ecological level involves biological, physiological and
morphological …………. of the individual.
3 ………… is a group of individuals belonging to the same species.
4 Ecosystem coming at the 4th level is a ………… of all the above 3 levels
5 The ………. in plant and animal life of a particular area is determined by
abiotic factors.
6 Ecology is the study of the ………… between living organisms, including
humans, and their physical environment.
7 Each level in the hierarchy represents an increase in organizational ………….. .
8 Ecology is the study of the ………….. and
…………….. of organisms, the interaction between organisms, the interaction
between organisms and their …………, and structure and function of
ecosystems.
9 Ecology provides useful evidence on the inter-……………... between people
and the natural world and, as well the consequences of human ……….. on the
environment.
10 Maintaining* a mosaic of habitats ensures the …………
of a rich ………. of species.
1
2
hierarch
develop
populate
combine
differ
relation
complex
distribute
abound
environ
depend
active
survive
vary
21
11 The use of statistical ………….. and computer models based on data obtained proceed
from the field provide insights into population …………. and ecosystem interact
functions.
__________________________________________
maintaining
['meɪn'teɪnɪŋ] поддержание, сохранение;
24. Using the 7 given sets of words write down 7 different definitions of an ecosystem, then
choose the best one.
An ecosystem is …
1. abiotic, both, of the environment, the sum of, biotic, and, components.
__________________________________________________________________________
2. interacting organisms, physical environment, a biological community, of, and, their.
__________________________________________________________________________
3. living, non-living, a community, of all, and, things, geographic area, in a specific.
__________________________________________________________________________
4. living organisms, their physical environment, the complex of, in a particular unit of
space, and all their interrelationships.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. living organisms, a community, such as, made up of, air, water, and mineral soil, and
nonliving components.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
6. their non-living, with each other, a community of, interacting, in a given area, and also
with, environment, plants and animals.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
25. Listen to the Ecosystems and biomes lecture, divide it into three paragraphs and headline
each making a plan.
26. Read a false summary of the first paragraph. Correct the mistakes. Listen to the recording
0:00 – 1:50 and check your work.
If we take the members of a certain species that share the same area, we call that an
individual. All of the organisms in this particular population will be members of different
species. The members of that species that don’t live in the area are the members of this particular
population as well. A certain area has just one species in it. There can be other populations of a
different species there. All of these populations combined in different areas are called a
community. A community of populations. The community only consists of living things, the
abiotic factors. But if we add the non-living things of that region, or the biotic environment, then
we get an ecosystem.
An ecosystem is a very small region, but it's made up of all living things, the biotic
factors, and the non-living things, the abiotic factors.
22
27. Listen to the recording 1:50 to 4:20 and summarise it in three sentences.
28. Listen to the recording 4:20 till the end and answer the questions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What does the presenter provide as an example of a small ecosystem?
Which types of biomes and sub-biomes listed in task 20 does the presenter mention?
Which are not mentioned in task 20?
What traits are ecosystems determined by?
Why can two biomes with the same name be different?
29. Listen to the My biome song. Try to find out what biomes are they singing about. Listen
once again following the lyrics. Make a list. Which biomes are missing?
30. You are going to read a text about ecological succession. Using the 3 given sets of words
write down the key points of it.
Key points
1. of an ecological community, a series of progressive changes, succession is, in the
composition, over time.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. for the first time, when newly exposed, primary succession occurs, or newly formed rock,
is colonized by living things.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3. previously occupied, is disturbed or disrupted, secondary succession occurs, when an
area, by living things, then recolonized following the disturbance.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
____________________
disrupt
[dıs'rʌpt]
разрывать, разрушать, подрывать,
31. Read the text. Divide it into 5 paragraphs. Choose the most suitable heading from list A-F
for each paragraph. There is one extra heading you don’t need to use.
23
Ecological succession
A. Succession
B. Introduction
C. Secondary succession
D. The structure of communities
E. Climax community. The path and endpoint of succession
F. Primary succession and pioneer species
Have you ever looked at a landscape with a complex, diverse community of plants and
animals—such as a forest—and wondered how it came to be? Once upon a time, that land must
have been empty rock, yet today, it supports a rich ecological community consisting of
populations of different species that live together and interact with one another. Odds are*, that
didn't happen overnight!
Ecologists have a strong interest in understanding how communities form and change
over time. In fact, they have spent a lot of time observing how complex communities, like
forests, arise from empty land or bare rock. They study, for example, sites where volcanic
eruptions, glacier retreats*, or wildfires have taken place, clearing land or exposing* rock.
In studying these sites over time, ecologists have seen gradual processes of change in ecological
communities. In many cases, a community arising in a disturbed area goes through a series of
shifts in composition, often over the course of many years. This series of changes is called
ecological succession.
Ecological succession is a series of progressive changes in the species that make up a
community over time. Ecologists usually identify two types of succession, which differ in their
starting points:
 In primary succession, a newly exposed or newly formed rock is colonized by living
things for the first time.
 In secondary succession, an area that was previously occupied by living things is
disturbed, then recolonized following the disturbance.
Succession often involves a progression from communities with lower species diversity,
which may be less stable, to communities with higher species diversity, which may be more
stable; though this is not a universal rule.
Primary succession occurs when new land is formed or bare rock is
exposed, providing a habitat that can be colonized for the first time.
For example, primary succession may take place following the eruption
of volcanoes, such as those on the Big Island of Hawaii. As lava flows
into the ocean, new rock is formed. On the Big Island, approximately 32
acres* of land are added each year. What happens to this land during
primary succession?
succulent plants
First, weathering* and other natural forces break down the
colonizing lava
substrate, rock, enough for the establishment of certain species of plants
during primary
and lichens with few soil requirements, known as pioneer species, see
succession on Maui.
the image on the left.
These species help to further break down the mineral-rich lava into soil where other, less
hardy* species can grow and eventually replace the pioneer species. In addition, as these early
species grow and die, they add to an ever-growing layer of decomposing* organic material and
contribute to soil formation.
This process repeats multiple times during succession. At each stage, new species move
into an area, often due to changes to the environment made by the preceding species, and may
replace their predecessors. At some point, the community may reach a relatively stable state and
24
stop changing in composition. However, it's unclear if there is always—or even usually—a stable
endpoint to succession.
In secondary succession, a previously occupied area is recolonized following a
disturbance that kills much or all of its community.
A classic example of secondary succession occurs in oak* and hickory* forests cleared
by wildfire. Wildfires will burn most vegetation and kill animals unable to flee* the area. Their
nutrients, however, are returned to the ground in the form of ash. Since a disturbed area already
has nutrient-rich soil, it can be recolonized much more quickly than the bare rock of primary
succession.
Before a fire, the vegetation of an
oak and hickory forest would have
been dominated by tall trees. Their
height would have helped them
acquire solar energy, while also
shading the ground and other lowlying species. After the fire, however,
these trees do not spring right back up.
Instead, the first plants to grow back are usually annual plants—plants that live a single
year—followed within a few years by quickly growing and spreading grasses. The early
colonizers can be classified as pioneer species, as they are in primary succession.
Over many years, due at least in part to changes in the environment caused by the growth
of grasses and other species, shrubs will emerge, followed by small pine, oak, and hickory trees.
Eventually, barring further disturbances, the oak and hickory trees will become dominant and
form a dense shelter, returning the community to its original state—its prefire composition. This
process of succession takes about 150 years.
The early ecologists who first studied succession thought of it as a predictable process in
which a community always went through the same series of stages. They also thought that the
end result of succession was a stable, unchanging final state called a climax community*, largely
determined by an area's climate. For instance, in the example above, the mature oak and hickory
forest would be the climax community.
Today, the idea of a set path for succession and a stable climax community has been
called into question. Rather than taking a predetermined path, it appears that succession can
follow different routes depending on the specifics of the situation. Also, although stable climax
communities can form in some cases, this may be uncommon in many environments.
Ecosystems may experience frequent disturbances that prevent a community from reaching an
equilibrium state.
____________________________________
odds are
glacier retreat
to expose rock
acre
weathering
hardy
decompose
oak
hickory
flee
climax community
[ɒdz ɑ: ]
вероятнее всего
['glæsıə rı'tri:t]
отход ледника
[ık'spəʋz rɒk]
обнажать камни (скалы)
['eıkə]
акр (= 0,4 га)
['weð(ə)rıŋ]
выветривание, эрозия
['hɑ:dı]
выносливый
[,di:kəm'pəʋz]
разлагать
[əʋk]
дуб
['hık(ə)rı]
гикори, орешник
[fli:]
спасаться бегством
['klaıməks kə'mju:nıtı] климакс(овое) сообщество
32. Watch the Ecological succession video and make its plan.
25
33. Watch the video once again and tick the phrases you’ll hear.
1. the communities do change over time
2. the makeup of that life will change over time
3. primary is when you start with no life
4. providing a habitat that can be colonized for the first time
5. to make soil and conditions more suitable for other types of species
6. humans might be some of the first pioneer species
7. there's many different ways you could have secondary succession
8. a previously occupied area is recolonized following a disturbance
9. after this disaster of some kind, you might get back to the same type of community
10. the end result of succession is a stable, unchanging final state called a climax community
11. it could just be because a new species gets introduced
34. Compare the description of primary and secondary succession and spot the differences.
35. Using the headings of the text of task 31 as a plan retell it.
36. Read and translate the article given in Appendix 1, Unit 2 . You can either get another
article on the topic from the websites listed. Render the article in 7-9 sentences. Make use of
Appendix 4.
26
Unit 3
Trophic Pyramid
1. Study the following words.
apex predator (n.)
available (adj.)
break down (v.)
carnivore (n.)
compound (n.)
consumer (n.)
convert (v.)
decompose (v.)
'eıpeks 'predətə
ə'veıləb(ə)l
'breık'daʋn
'kɑ:nıvɔ:
'kɒmpaʋnd
kən'sju:mə
'kɒnvɜ:t
,di:kəm'pəʋz
9 decomposer (n.)
10 decrease (v.)
,di:kəm'pəʋzə
'di:kri:s
11
12
13
14
dɪ'trɪtɪvɔ:
fi:d ən
'hɜ:bıvɔ:
ın'kri:s
'ıŋkri:s
'mætə
meɪnˈteɪn, mənnju:'trıʃ(ə)n
'ɒmnıvɔ:
əb'teın
'predətə
preı
'praım(ə)rı
prə'dju:sə
kwə'tɜ:nərı
'sekənd(ə)rı
skeəs
'skævındʒə
'tɜ:ʃ(ə)rı
'trɒfık/'trəʋ-
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
detritivore (n.)
feed on (v.)
herbivore (n.)
increase (v.)
increase (n.)
matter (n.)
maintain (v.)
nutrition (n.)
omnivore (n.)
obtain (v.)
predator (n.)
prey (n.)
primary (adj.)
producer (n.)
quaternary (adj.)
secondary (adj.)
scarce (adj.)
scavenger (n.)
tertiary (adj.)
trophic (adj.)
сверххищник
доступный, имеющийся в наличии
разрушать
плотоядное (животное, растение)
соединение; смесь; состав
консумент
превращать
разлагать на составные части; гнить,
разлагаться
редуцент, биоредуктор
уменьшать; убавлять, сокращать; убывать;
уменьшаться, сокращаться; идти на убыль
детритофаги
кормиться, питаться (чем-л.)
травоядное (животное)
увеличивать, повышать, возрастать;
увеличение, возрастание, рост
вещество
поддерживать, сохранять
питание, пища
всеядное существо
получать, доставать, приобретать
хищник
жертва
первичный
продуцент
четвертичный
вторичный
редкий, редко встречающийся
падальщик
третичный
трофический, питательный
2. Why do you think you know the following words without looking up?
heterotroph
photosynthesis
chemosynthesis
phytoplankton
zooplankton
cellulose
glucose
'het(ə)rətrəʋf
,fəʋtəʋ'sınθısıs
ˌki:mə(ʊ)'sɪnθɪsɪs
,faıtəʋ'plæŋktən
'zu:(ə)ˌplaŋ(k)t(ə)n
'seljʋləʋs
'glu:kəʋs
(in)organic
kilocalorie
metabolic
phosphorus
occupy
absorb
autotroph
(,ın)ɔ:'gænık
'ki:ləʋ 'kælərı
,metə'bɒlık
'fɒsf(ə)rəs
'ɒkjʋpaı
əb'zɔ:b/əb'sɔ:b
'ɔ:tətrəʋf
27
3. Match the words I to XIX with a to s into comprehensible phrases correlating them with
Russian equivalents. Then write the phrases in the second table.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
консументы первого порядка
консументы второго порядка
консументы третьего порядка
консументы четвертого порядка
линейная последовательность
минеральные питательные вещества
неорганические вещества
неорганические вещества
органические соединения
органические вещества
первичные продуценты
передача, переход энергии
пищевые взаимоотношения
пищевая сеть
пищевая цепь
пищевой (трофический) уровень
цепь разложения или детритная
пищевая цепь
цепь выедания или пастбищная
пищевая цепь
консументы первого порядка
консументы второго порядка
консументы третьего порядка
консументы четвертого порядка
линейная последовательность
минеральные питательные вещества
неорганические вещества
неорганические вещества
органические соединения
органические вещества
первичные продуценты
передача, переход энергии
пищевые взаимоотношения
пищевая сеть
пищевая цепь
пищевой (трофический) уровень
цепь разложения или детритная
пищевая цепь
18 цепь выедания или пастбищная
пищевая цепь
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
I
XVII
detrital
energy
food
food
feeding
grazing
inorganic
inorganic
linear
mineral
organic
organic
primary
primary
quaternary
secondary
tertiary
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
compounds
consumers
consumers
consumers
consumers
chain
food chain
food chain
level
materials
matter
nutrients
producer
relationships
sequence
substances
transfer
XVIII
trophic
r
web
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
28
4. Read and translate the text.
Flow of energy and matter in ecosystems
Different organisms use energy in different forms. Depending on the form of ‘food’ they
use, the living things of an ecosystem can be identified as being either a producer (autotroph),
consumer (heterotroph) or decomposer.
Producers
Plants are examples of producers. They
use the process of photosynthesis to capture
light energy and use it to convert simple
inorganic substances such as water; carbon
dioxide* from the air; and nutrients such as
nitrogen*, potassium* and phosphorus from the
ground into carbohydrates* such as sugar,
glucose and other organic compounds such as
cellulose. They build biomass in the form of
roots, stems and leaves. Since plants do not
need to feed on other organisms, they are often
referred to as autotrophs (‘self-feeders’).
Consumers
As animals are unable to make their own food, they
are called heterotrophs (‘other-feeders’), and because they
obtain their nutrition from consuming or eating other
organisms, they are called consumers. Consumers are divided
into different types on the basis of their food source and how
they obtain it.
Herbivores eat plants and are often described as being
primary consumers because they are the first consumers in a
food chain. Carnivores eat other animals and are described as
secondary, tertiary or quaternary consumers. Ants, mice,
bears and humans are examples of omnivores, feeding both
on plants and animals. Another group of consumers are
detritivores, for example, earthworms, dung beetles* and
crabs, which consume the remainders of plants and animals.
Decomposers
While producers convert inorganic materials into
organic matter, decomposers convert organic matter into
inorganic materials. This is an example of how matter can be
recycled* within ecosystems so that they remain
sustainable*. Fungi and bacteria are common examples of
decomposers within ecosystems.
These heterotrophs obtain their energy and nutrients from dead organic matter. As they
feed, they chemically break down the organic matter into simple inorganic forms or mineral
nutrients. Their wastes* are then returned to the environment to be recycled by producers.
While the terms decomposer and detritivore are often interchangeably used, detritivores
ingest*and digest* dead matter via internal processes while decomposers can directly absorb
nutrients through chemical and biological processes hence breaking down matter without
ingesting it.
Feeding relationships in ecosystems can be described as food chains. A food chain is a
linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats
another. Let's look at the parts of a typical food chain in the picture above, starting from the
bottom—the producers—and moving upwards. Within a food chain, each feeding level is called
29
a trophic level. Producers make up the first trophic level and herbivores the next. As herbivores
are the first consumers in the food chain, they are at the second trophic level and are referred to
as first-order or primary consumers. Consumers that eat the herbivores are at the third trophic
level and are called second-order or secondary consumers. Organisms that feed at several trophic
levels (for example, grizzly bears that eat berries and salmon) are classified at the highest of the
trophic levels at which they feed.
Decomposers are sometimes considered their own trophic level. As a group, they eat dead
matter and waste products that come from organisms at various other trophic levels. This means,
the decomposer level runs in parallel to the standard hierarchy of primary, secondary, and
tertiary consumers.
The biomass in an ecosystem is very
unevenly* distributed between the trophic levels.
This is so because not all of the biomass consumed is
converted to the body mass on the next level; it is
used as an energy source for running, flying,
swimming, maintaining body temperature, etc. Thus,
no more than 10 % of the mass of a lower level
becomes biomass on the next level. This explains
why an ecosystem normally does not support more
than three or four trophic levels. In the transfer
between trophic levels, most energy is lost as heat.
In reality, many different food chains interact to
form complex food webs. This complexity may help to
ensure a species’ survival in nature. If one organism in a
chain becomes scarce, another may be able to assume its
role. In general, the diversity of organisms that do
similar things provides a type of safety, and may allow
an ecological community to continue to function in a
similar way, even when one species becomes scarce.
However, some changes in one part of the food web may
have effects at various trophic levels, or any of the
feeding levels that energy passes through as it continues
through the ecosystem.
carbon dioxide
sustainable
carbohydrate
dung beetle
recycle
,kɑ:bən daı'ɒksaıd
səˈsteɪnəbl
,kɑ:bə(ʋ)'haıdr(e)ıt
dʌŋ 'bi:tl
,ri:'saık(ə)l
углекислый газ
устойчивый
углевод
навозный жук
повторно
использовать
nitrogen
potassium
ingest
digest
waste
unevenly
'naıtrədʒ(ə)n
pə'tæsıəm
ın'dʒest
'daıdʒest
weıst
ʌn'i:v(ə)nlı
азот
калий
проглатывать
переваривать
отходы
неравномерно
5. Study tasks 1 through 3 once again. Read the text using the English phrases instead of the
Russian ones.
Energy transfer efficiency limits food chain lengths
Энергия is transferred between пищевыми уровнями when one особь eats another and
gets the energy-rich молекулы from тела жертвы. However, this передача is inefficient, and
this inefficiency limits the length of пищевой цепи.
When energy enters a пищевой уровень, some of it is stored as биомасса, as part of
organisms' bodies. This is the энергия that's available to the next пищевого уровня since only
energy storied as биомасса can get eaten. As a rule of thumb*, only about 10% of the энергии
30
that's stored as биомасса in one пищевом уровне —per unit time—ends up stored as биомасса
in the next пищевом уровне —per the same unit time. This is a 10% rule of передачи энергии.
As an example, let's
suppose the первичные
продуценты
of
an
ecosystem store 20,000
kilocalorie per m2 per year
of энергии as биомасса.
This is also the amount of
энергии per year that's
made available to the
консументов
первого
порядка, which eat the
первичных продуцентов.
According to the 10% rule
the консументы первого
порядка store only 2,000
kilocalorie per m2 per year of энергии in their own bodies, making энергию available to their
хищников— консументов второго порядка —at a lower rate.
This fractional* передача limits the length of пищевой цепи; after a certain number of пищевых
уровней—generally three to six, there is too little поток энергии to support a популяцию at a
higher level.
Here are a few of the main reasons for inefficient передачи энергии:
 In each пищевом уровне, a significant* amount of энергии is dissipated* as heat as
особи carry out cellular respiration* and go about their daily lives.
 Some of the органические молекулы eaten by an organism cannot be digested and leave
the body as feces* rather than being used.
 Not all of the особи in a пищевом уровне will get eaten by other особи in the next level
up. Some instead die without being eaten.
The feces and uneaten, dead organisms become food for редуцентов, who превращают свою
энергию to heat through cellular respiration. So, none of the energy actually disappears—it all
winds up as heat in the end.
_______________________
rule of thumb
fractional
significant
dissipate
cellular respiration
feces
[ru:l əv θʌm]
эмпирическая закономерность— зависимость,
основанная на экспериментальных данных и позволяющая получить
приблизительный результат.
['frækʃ(ə)nəl]
частичный, неполный
[sıg'nıfıkənt]
значительный, существенный, важный
['dısıpeıtıd]
рассеивать
['seljʋlə ,respı'reıʃ(ə)n] клеточное дыхание
['fi:si:z]
фекалии
6. Watch the Food Webs and Energy Pyramids video (0:00-3:37) and choose the terms from the
list that are not mentioned in it.
carnivore
predator
scavenger
heterotroph
apex predator
detritivore
herbivore
omnivore
autotroph
nutrition
producer
decomposer
trophic level
photosynthesis
inorganic
quaternary consumers
tertiary or consumer
secondary consumer
primary consumer
individual
to feed on
prey
energy flow
food web
molecule
7. Complete the summary with the terms given in the table above. One term can be used
several times. Then watch and check your work.
31
A food chain starts with a a. ………. . A producer is an organism that is an b. …………., which
means it can make its own food. A producer is eaten by a c.……………. . Consumers are d.
…………. , which means they need to e. ………… other organisms. The primary consumer is
eaten by f ………….. . The secondary consumer is eaten by a g.………… . The arrows point in
the direction of the one doing the eating, which is the direction of the h. ………. . A food chain
can be arranged into an energy pyramid. The producers are at i. ………… one. They actually
contain the most energy. The j. …………. in tropic level two actually store 10% of the energy
from the producers. The k. ………….. in trophic level three would have only 100 kilocalories of
energy! An ecosystem doesn’t typically have a single l. ……….. ; instead, the organisms are
arranged into a m.………. . A n.………… is made up of multiple o. ………… that interact
together.
8. In the pyramid below, calculate the amount of energy that is passed up from one trophic
level to another. For each trophic level circle all the words that are applied to identify each
organism. Describe the pyramid making use of the following prompts.
It is called…
It’s referred to as …
Another name for … is …
It is considered …
9. Complete the sentences with the words and phrases given.
1. Animals are also known as ………
a. consumers
b. detritivores
c. producers
2. A herbivore can also be called .........
a. an autotroph
b. a producer
c. a detritivore
3. Plants are also known as ………
a. consumers
b. detritivores
c. producers
4. A scavenger can also be called………
a. an autotroph
b. an omnivore
c. a detritivore
5. A secondary or tertiary consumer can also be called ………
a. a producer
b. an autotroph
c. a predator
6. A primary consumer can also be called ………
d. autotrophs
d. a primary consumer
d. heterotrophs
d. a producer
d. a herbivore
32
a. a scavenger
b. a prey
c. a predator
d. an autotroph
7. Consider a pyramid of 5 trophic levels. How many trophic levels can an omnivore feed on?
a. 1 b. 3 c. 4
d. 2 e. none f. all
8. Consider a pyramid of 5 trophic levels. How many trophic levels can a detritivore feed on?
a. 1 b. 3 c. 4
d. 2 e. none f. all
9. Consider a pyramid of 5 trophic levels. How many trophic levels can a herbivore feed on?
a. 1 b. 3-4 c. 2
d. none
e. all
10. In a typical ecosystem what percentage of energy consumed by a primary consumer will be
consumed by tertiary consumer?
a. 10 b. 0,1 c. 0,7 d. 7 e. 1
11. Which of the following is a difference between food chains and food webs?
a. Food chains show energy flow in an ecosystem, and food webs do not.
b. Food webs contain both plants and animals, but food chains contain only plants.
c. Food chains are linear, while food webs are complex.
d. Food webs separate organisms by trophic level, but food chains do not.
12. What organism is a secondary
consumer in the food web in the picture
below?
a. mouse
c. snake
b. grasses
d. grasshopper
13. Which of the following is most likely to cause
the greatest decrease in the species B population?
Why?
a. an increase in species E
b. a decrease in species D
c. a decrease in
species C
d. a decrease in
species A
10. You are going to read the text about the differences between autotrophs and heterotrophs.
Seven phrases have been removed from it. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits
each gap (1-7). There’s one extra sentence you do not need to use.
Retell the text briefly.
A. we can call them consumers
B. energy transfer between trophic levels
C. the base of food chains and food webs
D. sustains* all the other organisms in the community
E. use energy from sunlight to make organic compounds
F. use energy from chemicals to build organic compounds
G. can't capture light or chemical energy to make their own food out of carbon dioxide
H. can make their own food—that is, their own organic compounds—out of simple molecules
like carbon dioxide
________________________
sustain
[sə'steın]
поддерживать
Autotrophs vs. heterotrophs
What basic strategies do organisms use to get food? Some organisms, called autotrophs, also
known as self-feeders, [1]. There are two basic types of autotrophs:
33

Photoautotrophs, such as plants, [2] —sugars—out of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis.
Other examples of photoautotrophs include algae and cyanobacteria*.
 Chemoautotrophs [3] out of carbon dioxide or similar molecules. This is called
chemosynthesis. For instance, there are hydrogen sulfide-oxidizing* chemoautotrophic
bacteria found in undersea communities where no light can reach.
Autotrophs are the foundation of every ecosystem on the planet. Autotrophs form [4], and the
energy they capture from light or chemicals [5]. When we're talking about their role in food
chains, we can call autotrophs producers.
Heterotrophs, also known as other-feeders, [6]. Humans are heterotrophs. Instead,
heterotrophs get organic molecules by eating other organisms or their byproducts. Animals,
fungi, and many bacteria are heterotrophs. When we talk about heterotrophs' role in food chains,
[7]. There are many different kinds of consumers with different ecological roles, from planteating insects to meat-eating animals to fungi that feed on wastes.
_____________________________________________
[sʌɪənəʊbak'tɪərɪə]
['haıdrədʒ(ə)n 'sʌlfaıd 'ɒksıdaızıŋ]
cyanobacteria
hydrogen sulfide-oxidizing
цианобактерия
окисляющие сероводород
11. Fill in the gaps. The first letter of each word is given for you.
Ecosystems maintain themselves by cycling energy and nutrients obtained from external
sources. At the first trophic level, p……… p……… (plants, algae, and some bacteria) use s……
e……. to produce organic plant material through p…………….. . They are also called
a………… as they independently produce food which is necessary for their survival. H
…………… - animals that feed on plants -make up the second trophic level. P………….. that
eat herbivores comprise the third trophic level; if larger predators are present, they represent
higher t……… l……. . D…………, which include some worms and insects, consume the
remainders of plants and animals. All these other-feeders are called h……… and when talking
about their role in food chains, we can call them c……..… . D……….. , which include bacteria
and fungi, break down wastes and dead organisms and return nutrients to the soil. A f……
c……… is a series of organisms that eat one another so that energy and nutrients flow from one
to the next. There cannot be too many links in a single f…… c……… because the animals at the
end of the chain would not get enough food and hence energy to stay alive. Most animals are part
of more than one f…… c……… as they eat more than one kind of food. These interconnected
food chains form a f…… w…… .
12. Match the terms with their definitions. Translate the definitions into Russian, write them
down on the separate piece of paper, cover the English definitions and try to define each term
using the Russian text as a prompt.
1
carnivore
a
2
3
consumer
decomposer
b
c
4
detritivore
d
5
herbivore
e
6
omnivore
f
7
primary producer
g
a heterotrophic organism that is naturally able to eat both plants
and meat
a complex of interrelated food chains in an ecological community
an organism that converts an abiotic source of energy (e.g. light)
into energy stored in organic compounds, which can be used by
other organisms (e.g. heterotrophs)
a heterotrophic organism that breaks down dead or decaying
organisms externally
a group of organisms that occupy the same position in a food
chain.
a linear sequence of transfer of matter and energy starting from
producer organisms and ending at apex predator species
a heterotrophic organism that eats other organisms or organic
matter in a food chain
34
a heterotrophic organism that obtain nutrients by feeding on
detritus (decomposing plant and animal parts)
food web
9
i an organism that gets its energy and nutrients from a diet
consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue*, whether
through predation or scavenging.
10 trophic level
j an animal that feeds chiefly on plants
__________________________________________
8
food chain
tissue
h
['tıʃu: / 'tısju:]
биол. ткань
13. Add spaces, hyphens or commas into the lines so that they would make sense. Translate
the text.
Food chain
1.
2.
3.
4.
Afoodchainshowsushowplantsandanimalswithinahabitatrelyoneachotherforfood.
Foodchainsusuallystartwithagreenplantcalledaproducerasitproducesfoodontheirown.
Aproducerinturniseatenbyananimalcalledaconsumerwhichistheneatenbyanotheranimal.
Decomposersareorganismsthatbreakdowndeadordecayingorganismsandindoingsocomplet
ethenutrientcycle.
5. Thefoodchainisasinglelistwhichconnectsaproducerwithseveraldifferentlevelsofconsumers.
6. Mostplantsandanimalsarepartofmorethanonefoodchain.
7. Whenanumberoffoodchainsinaspecifichabitatforexampleaforesthabitatinteractwitheachot
herwecallthemafoodweb.
Intermediate level.
14. Rearrange the following sentences so that they’d compose a comprehensible text.
Translate it. Which ideas contained in this text are not mentioned in task 4?
Grazing vs. detrital food webs
1. Each food chain is a descriptive diagram including a series of arrows, each pointing from
one species to another, representing the flow of food energy from one feeding group of
organisms to another.
2. Food web represents feeding relationships within a community.
3. Food webs don't usually show decomposers.
4. For example, in the meadow ecosystem shown in the picture below, there is a grazing
food web of plants and animals that provides inputs for a detrital food web of bacteria,
fungi, and detritivores.
5. In a detrital food chain, dead organic
matter of plants and animals is broken
down by decomposers, e.g., bacteria
and fungi, and moves to detritivores
and then carnivores.
6. In a grazing food chain, energy and
nutrients move from plants to the
herbivores consuming them, and to the
carnivores or omnivores preying upon
the herbivores and each other.
7. In reality, it consists of various species
linked
by
specific
feeding
interactions—that is, connected by
arrows, as in the grazing food web
aboveground.
8. It also shows the transfer of food
35
energy from its source in plants through herbivores to carnivores.
9. Nevertheless there are two types of food chains: the grazing food chain, beginning with
autotrophs, and the detrital food chain, beginning with dead organic matter.
10. Normally, food webs consist of a number of food chains combined together.
11. The detrital web is shown in simplified form at the bottom of the diagram.
15. Read the text. Divide it into 5 paragraphs. Choose the most suitable heading from list 1-6
for each paragraph. There is one extra heading you don’t need to use.
Trophic pyramid of Great Lakes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Producers
Food Webs
Energy flow
Top Predators
Primary Consumers
Secondary Consumers
Plants form the base of Great Lakes food chains. They’re called producers, because they
make their own food by converting sunlight through photosynthesis. They also act as food,
providing energy for other organisms. In the Great Lakes, most producers are phytoplankton, or
microscopic floating* plants. An example of phytoplankton is green algae. Large rooted plants,
another type of producer, provide food and shelter for different organisms such as fish. The next
level in the food chain is made up of primary consumers, or organisms that eat food produced by
other organisms. Examples of primary consumers include zooplankton, ducks, tadpoles*,
mayfly* nymphs* and small crustaceans*. These creatures make up the third level of the food
chain. Secondary consumers feed on smaller, plant-eating animals (primary consumers).
Examples of secondary consumers include bluegill*, small fish, crayfish* and frogs. These ones
are at the top of the food chain. Apex predators eat plants, primary consumers and/or secondary
consumers. They can be carnivores or omnivores. Top predators typically sit atop the food chain
without predators of their own. Examples include fish such as lake trout*, walleye*, pike* and
bass*, birds such as herons*, gulls* and red tailed hawks*, bears—and humans! In reality, many
different food chains interact to form complex food webs. This complexity may help to ensure a
species’ survival in nature. If one organism in a chain becomes scarce, another may be able to
assume its role. In general, the diversity of organisms that do similar things provides a type of
safety, and may allow an ecological community to continue to function in a similar way, even
when one species becomes scarce. However, some changes in one part of the food web may have
effects at various trophic levels, or any of the feeding levels that energy passes through as it
continues through the ecosystem.
______________________________________________
floating
['fləʋtıŋ]
плавучий; плавающий
tadpole
['tædpəʋl]
головастик
mayfly
['meıflaı]
подёнка, муха-однодневка
nymph
[nımf]
нимфа - личинка в цикле неполного превращения
crustacean
[krʌ'steıʃ(ə)n] ракообразное
bluegill
['blu:gɪl]
синежаберный солнечник (рыба)
crayfish
['kreı,fıʃ]
речной рак
trout
[traʋt]
форель
walleye
[ˈwɔːlaɪ]
светлопёрый судак
pike
[paık]
щука
bass
[bæs]
окунь
heron
['herən]
цапля
gull
[gʌl]
чайка
red tailed hawk [red teıld hɔ:k] краснохвостый сарыч
36
Energy pyramid
16. Use at least three organisms mentioned in the text
above to create a food chain.
17. Place each of the living beings mentioned in the text
above and the terms below in the correct location on the
ecological pyramid at the left hand side.
autotroph
heterotroph
omnivore
detritivore
herbivore
produser
carnivore
scavender
secondary consumer
primary consumer
tertiary consumer
primary producer
2nd trophic level
3rd trophic level
1st trophic level
4th trophic level
18. Describe the pyramid using the prompt:
The first trophic level is occupied by …. They are … and … . These creatures are … .
Intermediate level.
19. You are going to read the article about ecological interactions. Nine sentences have been
removed from it. Choose from the sentences A-J the one which fits each gap (1-9). There’s
one extra sentence you do not need to use.
A. All animals, all fungi, and some kinds of bacteria are heterotrophs and consumers.
B. All other life depends on the energy-rich food molecules made by producers – either directly
by eating producers, or indirectly by eating organisms that have eaten producers.
C. Instead of using sunlight as the source of energy to make energy-rich molecules, these
bacteria and their relatives use simple chemicals as their source of energy.
D. Food web consists of various species linked by specific feeding interactions.
E. Omnivores eat both animals and plants.
F. Predators can also be prey, depending on what part of the food chain you are looking at.
G. Some consumers are predators; they hunt, catch, kill, and eat other animals, the prey.
H. Some organisms can make their own food, and other organisms have to get their food by
eating other organisms.
I. Some organisms have the amazing ability to make (produce) their own energy-rich food
molecules from sunlight and simple chemicals.
J. This is where scavengers, detritivores (which eat detritus or parts of dead things), and
decomposers come in.
Ecological interactions. Part 1
"No man is an island.” This saying is also true for organisms in an ecosystem. No
organism exists in isolation. Individual organisms live together in an ecosystem and depend on
one another. In fact, they have many different types of interactions with each other, and many of
these interactions are critical for their survival.
So what do these interactions look like in an ecosystem? One category of interactions
describes the different ways organisms obtain their food and energy. [1] An organism that must
obtain their nutrients by eating (consuming) other organisms is called a consumer, or a
heterotroph. While there are a lot of fancy words related to the sciences, one of the great things is
that many of them are based on Latin or Greek roots. For example, heterotroph becomes easier to
remember when you realize that in Greek, “hetero” means “other” and “troph” means food; in
37
other words, heterotrophs eat other organisms to get their food. They then use the energy and
materials in that food to grow, reproduce and carry out all of their life activities. [2]
[3] The prey animal tries to avoid being eaten by hiding, fleeing, or defending itself using
various adaptations and strategies. These could be the camouflage of an octopus* or a fawn*, the
fast speed of a jackrabbit* or impala*, or the sting of a bee or spines of a sea urchin*. If the prey
is not successful, it becomes a meal and energy source for the predator. If the prey is successful
and escape its predator, the predator must expend precious energy to continue the hunt
elsewhere. [4] For example, a trout acts as a predator when it eats insects, but it is prey when it is
eaten by a bear. It all depends on the specific details of the interaction. Ecologists use other
specific names that describe what type of food a consumer eats: carnivores and herbivores are
meat eaters and plant eaters, respectively. [5] Once again, knowing the Latin root helps a lot:
"vor" means "to eat or devour," as in "voracious.” Put "-vore" at the end of a scientific term for a
kind of food, and you have described what an organism eats. For example, an insectivore is a
carnivore that eats insects, and a frugivore is an herbivore that eats fruit. This may seem like a lot
of terminology, but it helps scientists communicate and immediately understand a lot about a
particular type of organism by using the precise terms.
Not all organisms need to eat others for food and energy. [6] Organisms that make their
own food by using sunlight or chemical energy to convert simple inorganic molecules into
complex, energy-rich organic molecules like glucose are called producers or autotrophs. And
here’s another quick Greek lesson: “auto” means “self” and “troph” still means “food.” So
autotrophs are self-feeding; they make their own food. Plants, algae, and microscopic organisms
such as phytoplankton and some bacteria, make energy-rich molecules (in other words, their
food) from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide during the process called photosynthesis (“photo”
means “light, and “synthesis” means “to make” – photosynthesizers are using sunlight to make
food). Some producers are chemosynthesizers (using chemicals to make food) rather than
photosynthesizers. [7] Chemosynthesizers live in places with no sunlight, such as along oceanic
vents at great depths on the ocean floor.
No matter how long you or a giraffe stands out in the sun, you will never be able to make
food by just soaking up the sunshine; you will never be able to photosynthesize. You’ll just get
sunburned and thirsty and will still need to go eat another organism if you are hungry. Producers
use the food that they make and the chemical energy it contains to meet their own needs for
building-block molecules and energy so that they can grow, move, and reproduce. When a
consumer comes along and eats a producer, the consumer gets the building-block molecules and
the chemical energy that is in the producer’s body. [8] Not surprisingly, ecologists also have
terms that describe where in the food chain a particular consumer operates. A primary consumer
eats producers (e.g., a caterpillar eating a leaf); a secondary consumer eats primary consumers
(e.g., a robin eating the caterpillar). And it can go even further: a tertiary consumer eats
secondary consumers (e.g., a hawk eating the robin). A single individual animal can act as a
different type of consumer depending on what it is eating. When a bear eats berries, for example,
it is being a primary consumer, but when it eats a fish, it might be a secondary or a tertiary
consumer, depending on what the fish ate!
All organisms play a part in the web of life and every living thing will die at some
point. [9] They all play a critical role that often goes unnoticed when observing the workings of
an ecosystem. They break down carcasses, body parts and waste products, returning to the
ecosystem the nutrients and minerals stored in them. This interaction is critical for our health
and health of the entire planet; without them we would be literally buried in dead stuff. Crabs,
insects, fungi and bacteria are examples of these important clean-up specialists.
octopus
fawn
urchin
'ɒktə|pəs
fɔ:n
'ɜ:tʃın
осьминог
молодой олень
морской ёж
jackrabbit
impala
ˈdʒækˌræbɪt большой заяц
ım'pɑ:lə
антилопа пала
38
20. Translate into English.
1. В процессе фотосинтеза автотрофы превращают абиотический источник энергии,
солнечную энергию, и простые неорганические вещества в энергию, накопленную в
органических соединениях.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. Гетеротрофы не могут самостоятельно производить себе пищу, поэтому питаются
автотрофами.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3. В зависимости от типа питания все живые организмы в экологической системе
можно разделить на три группы – продуценты, консументы, редуценты.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. Продуценты – это автотрофы, которые могут использовать либо фотосинтез либо
хемосинтез для производства органических веществ из неорганических.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. Консументы – это животные-гетеротрофы, потребляющие готовые органические
вещества.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
6. Консументы I порядка питаются растениями, и поэтому называются травоядными
животными.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
7. Организмы, которые едят консументов первого порядка, называются консументами
второго порядка.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
8. Консументы второго порядка в основном питаются мясом, и поэтому называются
плотоядными животными.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
9. Всеядные - это гетеротрофные организмы, которые могут питаться как растениями,
так и животными.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
10. Редуценты – это гетеротрофные микроорганизмы и грибы, разрушающие останки
живых существ извне, превращая их в неорганические и простейшие органические
соединения.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
39
11. Детритофаги – это гетеротрофные организмы, которые получают питательные
вещества, поедая останки растений и животных
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
12. Пищевaя цепь - это линейная последовательность передачи вещества и энергии,
начиная от организмов-продуцентов и заканчивая высшими видами хищников.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
13. Средняя эффективность передачи энергии между трофическими уровнями
составляет 10%, что ограничивает длину пищевых цепочек.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
14. Пищевая сеть состоит из множества взаимосвязанных пищевых цепей и является
более реалистичным представлением трофических взаимоотношений в экосистеме.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Intermediate level.
21. Watch the Flow of energy and matter through an ecosystem video (0:00-7:21), make the
plan, write out the key words (nouns, adjectives and verbs) and phrases, and using all these
describe the picture below. Mind the words:
bond
cell
[bɒnd] химическая связь
[sel] клетка
oxygen ['ɒksıdʒ(ə)n]
bunny ['bʌnı]
poop
[puːp ]
кислород
кролик, зайчик
сущ. – экскременты; гл. – выделять
40
Intermediate level.
22. Watch the Energy Pyramid video, make the plan, write out the key words (nouns, adjectives
and verbs) and phrases, and using all these describe the picture below.
Intermediate level.
23. Compare two lectures and speak on the difference between them.
24. Split into pairs. Right the definitions to the words in your part of crosswords. Ask your
partner for the definitions of unknown words. Listen to him/her, guess the words and complete
the crosswords. See Appendix 3.2 (student A) and Appendix 9.2 (student B)
25. Using the diagram below make the shortest and the longest food chains and then explain
the interrelations using the current active vocabulary.
26. Read and translate the article given in Appendix 1, Unit 3 . You can either get another
article on the topic from the websites listed. Render it in 7-9 sentences. Make use of Appendix
4.
41
Unit 4
Species Interactions
1. Study the following words.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
benefit (v.)
benefit (n.)
beneficial (adj.)
derive (v.)
cause (v.)
eliminate (v.)
evolve(v.)
fit (adj.)
fitness (n.)
harm (v.) (n.)
host (n.)
impair (v.)
inhabit (v.)
inhibit (v.)
niche (n.)
perform
pollinate (v.)
prey (on) (v.)
range (n.)
'benıfıt
'benıfıt
,benı'fıʃ(ə)l
dı'raıv
kɔ:z
ı'lımıneıt
ı'vɒlv
fıt
'fıtnıs
hɑ:m
həʋst
ım'peə
ın'hæbıt
ın'hıbıt
nıtʃ / ni:ʃ
pə'fɔ:m
'pɒlıneıt
preı (ən)
reındʒ
20
21
22
23
reduce (v.)
requirement (n.)
shelter (n.)
tend to (v.)
rı'dju:s
rı'kwaıəmənt
'ʃeltə
tend tə
извлекать выгоду
выгода, преимущество
выгодный, полезный
выводить, получать, извлекать
быть причиной; вызывать; причинять
устранять, уничтожать
развиваться, эволюционировать; превращаться
приспособленный
приспособленность, соответствие
вредить, причинять вред, пострадать; вред, ущерб
хозяин (паразита)
ослаблять; причинять ущерб
обитать, населять
препятствовать, сдерживать, подавлять
ниша
исполнять, выполнять; делать
опылять
охотиться
зд. ареал; район обитания(животного); область
распространения (растения)
снижать, уменьшать; сокращать, ослаблять
потребность, необходимое условие
убежище, укрытие, жилище
иметь тенденцию; как правило
2. Why do you think you know the following words without looking up?
parasitism
rɪˈzɔːs/ˈriː sɔːs
'pærəsaıtız(ə)m ectoparasite
mutualism 'mju:tʃʋəlız(ə)m endoparasite
sımb(a)ı'əʋsıs
neutralism 'nju:trəlız(ə)m
monophagy
'pæθədʒən
amensalism ə'mens əlız(ə)m commensalism
ə'dæpt
metamorphosis
,kəʊi:və'lu:ʃ(ə)n antibiosis
,æntıbaı'əʋsıs
,i:və'lu:ʃ(ə)n / ,evə'lu:ʃ(ə)n
resource
symbiosis
pathogen
adapt
coevolution
evolution
,ektə(ʋ)'pærəsaıt
‚endəʊ'pærəsaɪt
mə'nɒfəgɪ
kə'mens(ə)lızm
,metə'mɔ:fəsıs
3. Match the words I to XIX with a to s into comprehensible phrases correlating them with
Russian equivalents. Then write the phrases in the second table.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
взаимоотношения видов
взаимоотношения симбиоза
взаимоотношения хищник-жертва
виды - генералисты
виды-специалисты
долговременные взаимоотношения
естественный отбор
защитный механизм
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
competitive
ecological
environmental
fundamental
generalist
long-term
meet
mutualistic
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
conditions
exclusion
interaction/relationship
interaction/relationship
interaction/relationship
interaction/relationship
interaction/relationship
interaction/relationship
42
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
конкурентное исключение
мутуалистические взаимоотношения
паразитические взаимоотношения
перекрывающая ниша
разделение ресурсов
реализованная ниша
специализированная ниша
фундаментальная ниша
экологическая ниша
удовлетворять потребности/
отвечать требованиям
условия окружающей среды
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
natural
overlapping
parasitic
predator-prey
protective
realized
XI X
взаимоотношения видов
взаимоотношения симбиоза
взаимоотношения хищник-жертва
виды - генералисты
виды-специалисты
долговременные взаимоотношения
естественный отбор
защитный механизм
конкурентное исключение
мутуалистические взаимоотношения
паразитические взаимоотношения
перекрывающая ниша
разделение ресурсов
реализованная ниша
специализированная ниша
фундаментальная ниша
экологическая ниша
удовлетворять потребностям/
отвечать требованиям
условия окружающей среды
I
mechanism
niche
species
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
symbiotic
s
the requirements
resource
specialist
specialized
niche
niche
niche
niche
partitioning
selection
species
species
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XI X
4. Read and translate the text.
Species Interactions
Every species has a definite place in its ecosystem. The specific physical place in which
an organism lives is called a habitat. A habitat refers to the natural environment of a species and
involves both biotic and abiotic features such as food, water, shelter, and space that meet that
organism's particular requirements. In contrast, the ecological niche of an organism describes the
role it plays in the ecosystem and how it interacts with the environment and other organisms.
Interactions within an ecosystem may be between
members of the same species or between members of different
species. These interactions may have positive, negative or
neutral effects on either species' ability to survive and
reproduce, or "fitness." By classifying these effects, ecologists
have derived the major types of species interactions:
competition, predation and symbiotic relationships such as
parasitism, mutualism and commensalism.
43
Organisms with a similar niche within an ecosystem pic.1
will compete where their needs overlap. Competition is an
interaction between organisms (or species) in which both
organisms (and species) are harmed. Competition between
members of different species for the same resource (e.g. food or
shelter) is referred to as interspecific competition. (pic.1)
Competition for resources between members of the same
species is referred to as intraspecific competition.
Predation is when one organism eats another organism
to obtain nutrients. The organism that is eaten is called the prey. pic.2
Examples of predation are owls that eat mice, and lions that eat
gazelles. (pic.2) Not all predation interactions result in the death
of the prey. In the case of herbivory, a herbivore often
consumes only a part of the plant.
Symbiotic relationships are those in which the
organisms living together depend on each other. Examples of
symbiotic relationships include parasitism, mutualism and
pic.3
commensalism.
Parasites are organisms that live in or on a host, which
they obtain food or shelter from and which meets their other
requirements. Although the host may be harmed in this
interaction, it is not usually killed. Some parasites are
considered to be pathogens, as they can cause disease. This
means that the functioning of their host is in some way impaired
or damaged.
Parasites living on the host are called ectoparasites (e.g. pic.4
fungi, mosquitoes, fleas*, ticks*, leeches*) (pic.3) whereas
those that live inside the host are called endoparasites. (e.g.
nematodes*, tapeworms*)
Parasitoids are halfway between predators and parasites.
While they act like parasites, they kill their hosts within a very
short period. Examples of organisms that may be classified as
parasitoids are mainly wasps and flies. (pic.4)
An interaction between organisms of two different
pic.5
species in which they both benefit is called mutualism. These
organisms are dependent on each other for their survival. For
example, bees and flowers or lichens which are fungi and algae
living together. (pic.5)
Commensalism is a kind of symbiosis in which one
species obtains some benefit while the other is unaffected. The
examples are remora* fish and sharks. (pic.6)
_____________________________________
flea
[fli: ]
блоха
tick
[tık ]
клещ
leech
[li:tʃ ]
пиявка
nematode
tapeworm
remora
pic.6
['nemətəʋd ] нематода
['teıpwɜ:m] ленточный червь
['remərə]
акулья ремора, рыба-прилипала
44
5. Mark the statements below as true or false or “doesn’t say” according to task 4. Using the
statements and the phrases from the table make a short utterance agreeing or disagreeing with
the statements and proving your point of view.
Personal
In my opinion the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
point of view As far as I’m concerned the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
(true or false) If you ask me the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
I am quite sure the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
As far as I can see the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
true
I absolutely agree with the statement because…
I’d like to support this view because…
That’s a very good point because…
false
I disagree with this statement because…
I can’t accept the view because…
I object to this thought because…
confirmation the text says that …
the text asserts that …
the text states that …
it is said in the text that…
the text claims that …
as you can see from the text …
doesn’t say
Perhaps it’s
the article says nothing about it.
true/false, but …
the article doesn’t say anything about it.
there is no such information in the article.
the article contains no information about it
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
A habitat is the type of natural environment in which a particular species lives.
The ecological niche of an organism describes the role it plays in the population.
Interactions within an ecosystem may be interspecific and intraspecific.
The interaction between species can have either positive or negative effect.
Species with a similar niche will obviously compete.
If the competition is long-term and occurs between two different species, it is another
example of symbiosis.
7. Only carnivores can be predators.
8. Only animals can be predators.
9. Humans are consumers and predators because we hunt, kill, and eat other animals such as
a fish or a pork, or because we eat fruit and vegetables.
10. Symbiosis occurs when two organisms living together benefit from this relationship.
11. Symbiosis is the kind of relationship in which species either are harmed or benefit.
12. Parasites like predators always kill their hosts.
13. Parasites can live either on or inside their hosts.
14. Parasitoids like predators always kill their hosts.
15. In mutualism and commensalism both species benefit.
16. Humans have many mutualistic relationships with other organisms, such as our pets.
6. Complete the text with the following words.
1. abiotic
2. biotic
3. components
4. conditions
5. habitat
6. habitat
7. niche
8. niche
9. environment
10. "job"
A a. …………….… is a place where an organism makes its home. A habitat meets all the
environmental b. …………… an organism needs to survive. The main c. ………….. of a habitat
are shelter, water, food, and space. A d. …………. is said to have a suitable arrangement* when
it has the correct amount of all of these.
The term e. ………….. is used to define an organism's role in an ecosystem. Not only does its
niche include the f. …………… that a given organism lives in, but it also includes the
organism's g. ………… in that environment. A h. ………….. may also encompass what the
45
organism eats, how it interacts with other living (i. …………) elements, and also how it interacts
with the nonliving (j. ………….) aspects of the environment, as well.
_________________________
arrangement
[ə'reındʒmənt] зд. организация
7. Read the text using the English phrases instead of the Russian ones.
Intermediate level. Retell the text.
Fundamental vs. realized niche
1. The ниша is a basic concept in экологии.
2. The фундаментальная ниша refers to a range of условия окружающей среды, the
экологической роли видов, and resources that permit the особям in a species survive,
grow, and размножаться.
3. In nature, however, многие виды не занимают all the среду обитания permitted by
their anatomy and physiology.
4. That is because другие виды конкурируют за ресурсы; охотятся на других особей, or
influence their growth and размножение, reducing the range they actually занимают.
5. This actual range of среды обитания, занятая by a видом is called its реализованная
ниша.
6. Usually, a вид has a larger экологическую нишу in the absence of competitors and
хищников than it has in their presence.
7. In other words, there are certain combinations of условий и ресурсов that can allow a
виду to поддерживать a viable* популяцию.
8. Фундаментальная и реализованная ниши can be wide or narrow.
9. Виды-специалисты is the term for organisms that live in narrow ниши because they
thrive only in certain условиях окружающей среды or eat a certain food.
10. Conversely*, виды - генералисты занимают wider ниши and make use of a variety of
ресурсы and can live in many different условиях окружающей среды.
11. The ниша that an organism занимает may change dramatically* over the course of its
life.
12. An example of this is when a tadpole*, which is a травоядное животное, undergoes*
metamorphosis into a frog, which is a плотоядное животное.
________________________
viable
conversely
dramatically
tadpole
undergo
['vaıəb(ə)l]
[kən'vɜ:slı]
[drə'mætık(ə)lı]
['tædpəʋl]
[,ʌndə'gəʋ]
жизнеспособный
и наоборот
разительно, существенно, поразительно
головастик
испытывать, переносить, подвергаться
8. Using 7 given sets of words write down 7 sentences which compose a text. Read it and
headline.
1. variety, is able, conditions, of, a, species, to thrive, environmental, in a wide, generalist.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. which, different, for example, can, a heterotroph, make use of, resources, has, a varied
diet, it.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3. range of, thrive, a limited diet, a, environmental, species, can, in a narrow, conditions, or,
has, specialist, only.
__________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
46
4. do not, organisms, fit exactly, most, either group, however, into.
__________________________________________________________________________
5. monophagy, of which, specialized, highly, some species, are; the most extreme case, are.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
6. less, and, can, many, specialized, different, others, environments, are, some, tolerate.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
7. is, highly-specialized, broadly-generalist, continuum, in other words, there, a, from, to,
species, a.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________
continuum
[kən'tınjʋəm]
непрерывный ряд
9. You are going to read the article about competition. Seven phrases have been removed
from it. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits each gap (1-6). There’s one extra
sentence you do not need to use.
Intermediate level:
List the key points of the text. Provide the examples.
Competition*
A. thus have different niches
B. two species' niches overlap
C. exactly the same niche in a habitat
D. species may compete for nutrients
E. natural selection has led to the evolution
F. identical niches also have identical needs
G. two species occupy exactly identical niches
H. both of the competing species evolves to use
Ecologists know that two species can't have [1] and stably coexist. That's because species
with [2], which means they would compete for precisely the same resources. This is a
competitive exclusion principle.
A famous example of the competitive exclusion principle is shown in the figure below,
which features two types of single-celled* microorganisms, Paramecium aurelia and
Paramecium caudatum. When grown individually in the lab, both species thrive.
But when they
are grown in the
same test tube
(habitat) with a
fixed amount of
nutrients,
both
grow
more
poorly and
P. aurelia eventually outcompetes* P. caudatum for food, leading to P. caudatum's extinction.
In nature, it's rarely the case that [3]. However, the greater the extent* to which [4], the
stronger the competition between them will tend to be.
47
Competitive exclusion may be
avoided if one or [5] a different resource,
occupy a different area of the habitat, or
feed during a different time of day. The
result of this kind of evolution is that two
similar species use largely nonoverlapping resources and [6]. This is
called resource partitioning, and it helps
the species coexist because there is less
direct competition between them.
The anole lizards* found on the
island of Puerto Rico are a good example
of resource partitioning.
In this group, [7] of different species that make use of different resources. The figure
above shows resource partitioning among 11 species of anole lizards. Each species lives in its
own preferred habitat, which is defined by type and height of vegetation (trees, shrubs, cactus,
etc.), sunlight, and moisture, among other factors.
* Note that some scientists consider competition as a type of amensalism. According to
Encyclopedia Britannica, amensalism is association between organisms of two different species
in which one is inhibited or destroyed and the other is unaffected; there are two basic modes:
competition, in which a larger or stronger organism excludes a smaller or weaker one from living
space or deprives it of food, and antibiosis, in which one organism is unaffected but the other is
damaged or killed by a chemical secretion.
___________________________________
single-celled [,sıŋg(ə)l'seld] одноклеточный
outcompete
[,aʋtkəm'pi:t] вытеснять, побеждать в конкурентной борьбе
extent
[ık'stent]
степень, мера; размер, величина; объём, пределы
anole lizard
[ə'nəʊli 'lızəd] анолисовые— семейство игуанообразных ящериц
10. Complete the text with the following verbs.
1. benefit
2. inhibit
3. consumes
4. impairs
5. feed on
6. interact
7. harmed
8. occur
9. inhabit
10. receives
Nature is full of symbiotic relationships. Symbiosis defines three basic relationship types
that a. ……… between living things. In symbiosis two different species b. ……… in a specific
way to benefit from the presence of another organism. Mutualistic relationships are those
relationships where both species c. …… from the association. Commensalism is when one
species d. ……… all the benefit from its relationship with the other, but the other neither is
e.………. nor benefits. Most of the time, parasites f. ……… or g. ……… the host's body but
does not kill the host. Another type of symbiotic relationships is neutralism where two different
species or organisms may interact, but neither h. ……… the other.
In competition one or both competing species i. ……… the population of the other.
In predation, one organism – a predator - kills and j. ……… another one – a prey.
11. Read the text. Divide it into 4 paragraphs. Choose the most suitable heading from list 1-5
for each paragraph. There is one extra heading you don’t need to use.
48
Interspecific interactions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Amensalism
Commensalism
Mutualism
Parasitism
Symbiosis
This term is generally used for interspecific interactions in which two species live together in
a long-term, intimate association. In everyday life, we sometimes use this term to mean a
relationship that benefits both parties. However, in ecologist-speak, it is a broader concept and
can include close, lasting relationships with a variety of positive or negative effects on the
participants. This relationship occurs if two species have a long-term interaction that is beneficial
to both of them (+/+ interaction). For example, some types of fungi form associations with plant
roots. The plant can photosynthesize, and it provides the fungus with fixed carbon in the form of
sugars and other organic substances. The fungus has a network of threadlike* structures called
hyphae*, which allow it to capture water and nutrients from the soil and provide them to the
plant. In this type of relationship, two species have a long-term interaction that is beneficial to
one and has no positive or negative effect on the other (+/0 interaction). For instance, many of
the bacteria that inhabit our bodies seem to have this relationship with us. They benefit by
getting shelter and nutrients and have no obvious helpful or harmful effect on us. However some
biologists are finding more and more evidence that our normal microbial inhabitants play a key
role in our health hence this relationship can be considered mutualism. Another example is a
cattle egret*. These birds live near cattle because when the cattle graze, their movements stir up*
insects. The birds have their insects and the cattle are unaffected. In this type of relationship, two
species have a close, lasting interaction that is beneficial to one, the parasite, and harmful to the
other, the host (+/- interaction). Some parasites cause familiar human diseases. For instance, if
there is a tapeworm living in your intestine*, you are the host and the tapeworm is the parasite—
your presence enhances the tapeworm's quality of life, but not vice versa!
_____________________________________
threadlike
hypha
egret
stir up
intestine
['θredlaık]
['haıfə]
['i:grıt,'i:gret]
[stɜ: ʌp]
[ın'testın]
нитевидный; волокнистый
гифа, нить грибницы
белая цапля
будоражить, зд. поднимать с земли
кишечник; кишка
12. Which type of species interaction do the following phrases describe?
One Wins, One Loses
The Double Negative
Everyone Wins
A Positive/Zero
13. Read the text and complete it with the words according to the sense.
In interspecific c………. - species compete when they have overlapping n……. members of two different species use the same limited r……… and therefore compete for it.
Competition negatively a…….. both participants (-/- interaction), as either s……… would have
higher survival and reproduction if the other was absent.
In p……….., a member of one species—the p……….—eats part or all of the living, or
recently living, body of another organism—the p….. . This interaction is b………. for the
predator, but h……… for the prey (+/- interaction). P……….. may involve two animal species,
but it can also involve an animal or insect consuming part of a plant, a special case of predation
known as h…………. .
49
14. Pre-intermediate level:
Watch the Predator-prey cycles video and complete a shot summary.
Intermediate level:
Watch the Predator-prey cycles video and formulate the main rule of a predator-prey
interaction.
1. predators
2. predator
3. prey
4. prey
5. increase
6. increase
7. increase
8. grow
9. decline
10. decline
11. low
12. population cycles
Populations of a. ………. and b. ……….. in a community are not always constant over
time. Instead, in many cases, they vary in cycles that appear to be related. The most frequently
cited example of predator-prey dynamics is seen in the cycling of the lynx, a c. ……… , and the
snowshoe hare, its d. …………. . The e. …………. of lynx and hare repeat themselves
approximately every 10 years, with the lynx population lagging* one to two years behind the
hare population. The classic explanation is this: As hare numbers f. ………….. , there is more
food available for the lynx, allowing the lynx population to g.…………… as well. When the
lynx population h. ………….. to a threshold level, however, it kills so many hares that the hare
population begins to i. ……….. . This is followed by a j. ………… in the lynx population due to
scarcity of food. When the lynx population is k. ……….., the hare population begins to l.
……….. — due, at least in part, to low predation pressure—starting the cycle anew.
_____________________________
lagging
['lægıŋ]
запаздывание, отставание
15. Watch the Symbiosis video and complete the summary.
Symbiosis
a. …………. is a close relationship between two species. One type of interaction is
called b. …….. . An example of c. ………. exists between honey bees and flowers. Flowers
provide nectar to the bees; the bees use the sugar rich liquid to make honey. But as the bee flies
from flower to flower tiny grains of pollen gets stuck to the bee. The bee moves the pollen
without even knowing it, and pollen is necessary for flowers to reproduce. In this relationship
both species d. ……… - the bees get nectar and the flowers get pollinated.
Another relationship is called e. ………. . This interaction takes place when the sharks
and remora lives together. Remora use sucking disks on their heads to attach themselves to
sharks. The sharks are powerful swimmers and do not even notice that the remora are there,
however the remora f. …….. from this relationship. The fish get a free ride and they also get
protection. Also the remora g. ……… scraps that are left over by the shark. In h. ……… one
species i. …….. and the other is neither j. ……… nor k.……….
The last l. ………. relationship is called m. ………… . An example of this relationship
exists between humans and mosquitoes. The insects land on and take blood from humans. The
mosquito benefits as it uses the blood for energy. The human or host is harmed in this
relationship as blood is needed and the human could become infected with disease. In n. ……….
one species o. ……… and the other is p.………. . q. ……….. - a relationship where both species
benefit; r. ………. - one species s. ……… and the others neither helped nor t. …….. ; u.
……….. - one species v. ……… and the other is harmed.
16. Read the following summary. There are 16 mistakes in it.
Pre-intermediate level:
Watch the Species interactions video and correct the mistakes.
Intermediate level:
Correct the mistakes. Then watch the Species interactions video and check your work.
50
Species Interactions
In predation an individual of one species, called the predator, eats all or part of an
individual of another species, called the prey. Let’s look at the interactions between predator and
prey over time. As the number of prey decreases the number of predators will raise. But at a
certain point the number of prey available won't support the number of predators hunting them
and the prey population will move to another habitat. The predator population now nearly out of
food will also move there. But as the prey begin to grow the population once more the predators
will become fatter and fatter. It’s a cyclic pattern.
Intraspecific competition is a type of interaction in which two or more species use the
same limited resource. Some species may be better at getting their resources than others. The
realized niche principle describes situations in which one species is eliminated from a
community because of competition for the same limited resource. When similar species coexist,
each species may avoid competition with others by using a specific part of an available resource.
This is called competitive exclusion. By staying out of each other's way the species can both
survive in the same habitat.
Interspecific competition is a type of interaction in which two or more individuals of the
same species use the same limited resource like food or water or mates.
Symbiosis is an interaction between two different organisms living in close physical
association. There are four types of symbiosis: mutualism, commensalism and competition.
Mutualism is a relationship in which both organisms are inhibited or harmed. In commensalism
one individual is harmed while the other individual benefits. Parasitism is a relationship in which
one individual is harmed while the other individual neither helped nor harmed. Like many forms
of predation parasitism usually results in the immediate death of the host.
_______________
immediate
[ı'mi:dıət]
немедленный
17. Study Table 1. Some information is missing. Watch the Interaction between populations
video and complete the table with appropriate terms and explanations, using the texts above,
some prompts in Table 2 and your knowledge on the subject. What information from the table
is new for you?
51
Table 1 Species interactions
№ Relationship
Speci
es 1
Speci
es 2
1
+
+
0
0
2
Neutralism
Definition
Example
A clown fish lives within a
sea anemone
Two species do not affect
each other.
As all life is interconnected to
some degree, true neutralism
is essentially impossible.
3
+
0
Bacteria live on one’s skin.
4
+
-
A louse lives in one’s hair
5
+
-
A cheetah hunts a gazelle.
6
+
-
A goat eats grass
7
-
-
Plants in a forest compete
for sunlight.
0
-
One organism is
inhibited, the other is
unaffected
+
-
One species benefits, the
other is harmed by a
poison/toxin from the
first
8
Amensalism
9
Table 2
Relationship
1. Antibiosis
Sunflower doesn’t allow
the weeds to grow nearby
Definition
1. Both species are harmed as they compete for resources
2. Competition
2. Both species benefit, neither are harmed
3. Commensalism
3. One or both species benefit, but neither are harmed
4. Herbivory
4. One species feeds on the tissue of soft plants
5. One species hunts and feeds on another
5. Mutualism
6. One species lives in or on and feeds off another (host)
6. Parasitism
7. Predation
Examples (for unknown creatures consult the pictures of task 18)
52
1. Animals compete for space, food, shelter.
2. A round worm living in a mammal’s* gut.
3. A cactus and a tarantula living in a desert.
4. A remora accompanies (sticks onto) a shark and feeds on the leftovers.
5. A ground squirrel and starlings living in the same habitat.
6. A caterpillar feeds on leaves.
7. Fleas living on a dog.
8. Jackals accompany lions and eat the leftovers.
9. Leeches and mosquitoes suck blood.
10. Lianes climb around a support to grow towards the light.
11. Lions and hyenas prey on the same animals.
12. A lion preying on zebra.
13. A bull and a tick bird living together.
14. A hare feeds on plants.
15. Lichen is a combination of a fungus and an alga.
16. A plover bird eats the leftovers in crocodile’s jaws.
17. Orchids grow as epiphytes on branches of a mango tree.
18. Penicillium mould produces penicillin, which inhibits the growth of bacteria.
19. Rabbits and mice inhabit grasslands. Rabbits eat grass and mice eat seeds.
20. Sharks feed on seals.
21. Sunflowers do not allow the weeds to grow nearby.
22. A wolf preys on a trout.
23. Tapeworms live in a mammal’s gut.
24. A zebra and a giraffe eat plans.
25. Tagetes secrete chemicals toxic to soil nematodes.
26. The remora fish attaches itself to a shark, hitches a ride, and scavenges when the shark
makes a kill.
27. The shade from trees doesn’t allow light sensitive plants to grow under them.
28. A panda feeds on bamboo.
___________________________
mammal
['mæm(ə)l]
млекопитающее
18. Look at the photos. Describe each form of relationship using the information from the
table. Which type of symbiotic relationship you know is not included in the table?
Trees and other plants in
their shade
A remora and a shark.
A ground squirrel and starlings
53
A sunflower and weeds
A wolf and a trout
A human and a round worm
A crocodile and a plover
bird
A zebra and a giraffe
A liana on a tree
A jackal and a lion
A human and a leech
A bull and a tick bird
A lion and a zebra
A hare and plants
A panda and a bamboo
54
A caterpillar and plants
A lion and a hyena
A lichen
A human and a mosquito
A cactus and a tarantula
Penicillum and staphylococcus
An orchid and a mango tree
Tagetes and soil nematodes
A shark and a seal
55
Deers
Sparrows
Lions
19. Intermediate level. You are going to read the article about defense mechanisms in prey.
Six sentences have been removed from it. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits
each gap (1-7). There’s one extra sentence you do not need to use.
A. Both of these are examples of camouflage, or avoiding detection by blending in with the
background.
B. Chemical defenses are produced by many animals as well as plants, such as the foxglove,
which is extremely toxic when eaten.
C. Of course, predators also have their own set of adaptations to maximize the capture of prey,
such as sharp claws and teeth, fast running speed, and coloring that provides camouflage,
allowing the predator to lie in wait for the prey.
D. Once a predator encounters either member of the pair and discovers its unpleasant taste, it is
likely to avoid both species in the future.
E. Predators that ignore this coloration and eat the organism will experience the bad taste or
toxic chemicals may learn not to eat the species in the future.
F. Some species have evolved to mimic, or copy, another species' aposematic coloration*—
though they themselves may not be bad-tasting or toxic.
G. Some species use coloration in an opposite way—as a means to warn predators that they are
not good to eat.
H. These defenses may be mechanical, chemical, physical, or behavioral.
Defense mechanisms against predation
When we study a community, we must consider the evolutionary forces that have acted—
and continue to act!—on the members of the various populations of the community. Species are
not static but, rather, change over generations and can adapt to their environment through natural
selection.
Predator and prey species both have adaptations—beneficial features arising by natural
selection—that help them perform better in their role. For instance, prey species have defense
adaptations that help them escape predation. [1]
56
Mechanical defenses, such as
the presence of thorns on plants or
the hard shell on turtles, discourage
animal predation and herbivory by
causing physical pain to the predator
or by physically preventing the
predator from being able to eat the
prey. [2] The millipede to the left
has both chemical and mechanical
defenses: when threatened, it curls
into a defensive ball and makes a
poisonous substance that irritates
eyes and skin.
Many species use their body shape and coloration to
avoid being detected by predators. For instance, the crab
spider has the coloration and body shape of a flower petal,
which makes it very hard to see when it's standing still
against the background of a real flower. Can you even see
it in the picture to the right? Another famous example is
the chameleon, which can change its color to match its
surroundings. [3]
[4]
For
example,
the
strawberry poison dart frog shown
below has bright coloration to warn
predators that it is toxic, while the
striped skunk uses its bold pattern
of stripes to warn predators of the
unpleasant odor it produces.
Beyond these two examples, many species use bright or striking coloration to warn of a
foul taste, a toxic chemical, or the ability to sting or bite. [5] This type of defensive mechanism is
called aposematic coloration, or warning coloration.
[6] In Batesian mimicry, a harmless
species imitates the warning coloration
of a harmful one. If they share the
same predators, this coloration protects
the harmless species, even though its
members do not actually have the
physical or chemical defenses of the
organism they mimic.
This is just a sampling of the many adaptations that have evolved in prey species to
minimize predation. [7] In a sense, this is an evolutionary arms race in which both sides must up
the ante* just to stay in the game.
_________________
aposematic coloration [,æpəsı'mætık ,kʌlə'reıʃ(ə)n]
up the ante
[ʌp ðı 'æntı]
отпугивающая окраска
повышать ставки
20. Intermediate level. Listen to the Chapter 5, Topic 1: Species Interactions lecture and make
its plan.
21. Intermediate level. Watch the video 1:56 - 2.52 and 10:35 - 12:00 and fill in the gaps in
the summary.
57
The competitor species that is a. ……… eventually wins and obtains the resource and
others are basically eliminated by the competition. When two different species in a region
compete and the b. …….. species wins is called c. ………. No two species can occupy the same
niche at the same time; and the species that is d. ……… to live in the environment will
eventually relocate, die out or will go on to occupy a smaller niche. When a species occupies a
smaller niche where it would be in absence of competition, the compromise niche is called its e.
……… . The niche where there is no competition is called f. ……… . Direct competition can
also be avoided by g. ……… .
h. ……… is when different species use slightly different parts of the habitat, but they all
rely on the same resource. In this very way to reduce competition they develop a i. ………, but
this can happen only over a long period of time.
22. Intermediate level. Listen to the lecture 4:02 – 5:48. What does this part describe?
23. Intermediate level. Look at the list of some anti-predator adaptations and choose those
mentioned in the lecture.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
deceptive behavior
camouflage
masquerade
mimicry
chemical defence
warning coloration
deceptive look
nocturnality
dı'septıv bı'heıvıə
'kæməflɑ:ʒ
,mæskə'reıd
'mımıkrı
'kemık(ə)l dı'fens
'wɔ:nıŋ ,kʌlə'reıʃ(ə)n
dı'septıv
nɒk'tɜ:nəlıtı
обманчивое поведение
камуфляж
маскировка
мимикрия
химическая защита
отпугивающая окраска
обманчивый внешний вид
ночной образ жизни
24. Intermediate level. Study the Anti-predator adaptations article in Wikipedia and decide
which type of protective mechanisms do the above adaptations belong to?
25. Intermediate level. Watch the video once again and correct your plan. Using your plan,
retell the contents of the video.
26. Watch the video and listen to the song “Symbiotic” What type of symbiosis is it about?
Study the lyrics and sing the song.
27. Read and translate the article given Appendix 1, Unit 4. You can either get another article
on the topic from the websites listed. Render it in 7-9 sentences. Make use of Appendix 4.
58
Unit 5
Biodiversity
1. Study the following words.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
altitude/elevation (n.)
critical (adj.)
crucial (adj.)
diversity (n.)
distinct (adj.)
DNA
dramatic (adj.)
'æltıtju:d/ ,elı'veıʃ(ə)n
'krıtık(ə)l
'kru:ʃ(ə)l
daı'vɜ:sıtı
dıs'tıŋ(k)t
ˌdiː en ˈeɪ
drə'mætık
8
endangered(adj.)
ın'deındʒəd
9 estimate (n.)
10 estimate (v.)
'estımıt
'estımeıt
11 even (adj.)
12 gene (n.)
13 measure(n.) (v.)
'i:v(ə)n
dʒi:n
'meʒə
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
'lætıtju:d
'ɒf,sprıŋ
prı,sıpı'teıʃ(ə)n
sə'septəb(ə)l
sə'steın
tə'restrıəl
θret
'θretn
'vʌln(ə)rəb(ə)l
,ve(ə)rıə'bılıtı
ju:'ni:k
latitude (n.)
offspring (n.)
precipitation (n.)
susceptible (adj.)
sustain (v.)
terrestrial (adj.)
threat (n.)
threaten (v.)
vulnerable (adj.)
variability (n.)
unique (adj.)
высота; высота над уровнем моря
зд. важный, ценный
решающий, ключевой, критический
разнообразие; многообразие
зд. различный, разный
ДНК
резкий, значительный, серьезный,
разительный
находящийся в опасности, исчезающий,
вымирающий
оценка
оценивать, давать оценку; выносить
суждение, судить (о чём-л.)
равномерный, одинаковый
ген
сущ. мера, критерий
гл. измерять, оценивать; иметь размер
широта (географ.)
отпрыск, потомок
выпадение осадков
восприимчивый, чувствительный
поддерживать
наземный
угроза опасность
угрожать; грозить
уязвимый
изменчивость
единственный в своём роде, уникальный
2. Why do you think you know the following words without looking up?
atmosphere
geosphere
biochemical
concept
'ætməsfıə
'dʒi:ə(ʋ)sfıə
,baıəʋ'kemık(ə)l
'kɒnsept
hydrosphere
evolutionary
extraordinary
erosion
'haıdrəsfıə
‚evə'luːʃənərɪ
,ekstrə'ɔ:dın(ə)rı
ı'rəʋʒ(ə)n
genetic
mutation
dynamic
virus
dʒı'netık
mju:'teıʃ(ə)n
daı'næmık
'vaı(ə)rəs
59
3. Match the words I to XVI with a to p into comprehensible phrases correlating them with
Russian equivalents.
антропогенные изменения, изменения
вызванные человеком
биологическое разнообразие
видовое богатство
видовой состав
вымирающие виды
выравненность (равномерность
распределения) видов
генетическая изменчивость
генетическое разнообразие
«горячие точки» биоразнообразия
I
biodiversity
a
abundance
II
III
IV
V
VI
biological
endangered
ecosystem
evolutionary
genetic
b
c
d
e
f
abundance
changes
composition
diversity
diversity
VII
VIII
IX
g
h
i
diversity
diversity
ecosystems
10 обилие видов
11 относительная численность (обилие) видов
12 потеря генетического разнообразия
(генетическая эрозия)
13 представлять угрозу
14 продуктивные экосистемы
15 разнообразие видов
16 эволюционные процессы
17 экосистемное разнообразие
X
XI
XII
genetic
genetic
humaninduced
(to) pose
productive
relative
j
k
l
erosion
evenness
hotspots
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
species
species
species
species
species
m
n
o
p
q
processes
richness
species
a threat
variability
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
антропогенные изменения, изменения
вызванные человеком
биологическое разнообразие
видовое богатство
видовой состав
вымирающие виды
выравненность (равномерность
распределения) видов
генетическая изменчивость
генетическое разнообразие
«горячие точки» биоразнообразия
обилие видов
относительная численность (обилие) видов
потеря генетического разнообразия
(генетическая эрозия)
представлять угрозу
продуктивные экосистемы
разнообразие видов
эволюционные процессы
экосистемное разнообразие
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
60
4. Read and translate the text.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety of all living organisms on earth. No
feature of Earth is more complex, dynamic, and varied than the layer of living organisms that
occupy its surfaces and waters, and no feature is experiencing more dramatic change at the hands
of humans than this extraordinary, unique feature of Earth. The layer of living organisms—the
biosphere—through the collective activities of its innumerable plants, animals, and microbes
physically and chemically unites the atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere into one
environmental system within which millions of species, including humans, have thrived.
Biodiversity is unevenly distributed. It varies globally and within regions. The various
factors that influence biodiversity include temperature, altitude, precipitation, soils and their
relation within and between the species. For instance, ocean biodiversity is 25 times lesser than
terrestrial diversity. Biodiversity also increases from the poles towards the tropics. Colombia and
Kenya, for example, each have more than 1,000 species of birds, whereas the forests of Great
Britain and of eastern North America are home to fewer than 200. A coral reef off the coast of
northern Australia may have 500 species of fish, while the rocky shoreline of Japan may be
home to only 100 species.
Raw species count is not the only measure of biodiversity. As a matter of fact,
biodiversity has three essential elements: genetic diversity, species diversity and the diversity of
ecosystems, together with their associated evolutionary and ecological processes. Recently a new
aspect has also been added — ‘molecular diversity’.
Genetic diversity is the variation in the
amount of genetic information within a species.
Genetic diversity serves as a way for populations to
adapt to changing environments. With more
variation, it is more likely that some individuals in a
population will possess variations of genes that are
suited for the environment. Those individuals are
more likely to survive to produce offspring bearing
those genes. The population will continue for more
generations because of the success of these individuals.
Species diversity is determined not only
by the number of species within a biological
community—i.e., species richness—but also by
the relative abundance of individuals in that
community. Species abundance is the number of
individuals per species, and relative abundance
refers to the evenness of distribution of
individuals among species in a community. Two
communities may be equally rich in species but
differ in relative abundance. For example, each
community may contain 5 species and 300 individuals, but in one community all species are
equally common (abundant) (e.g., 60 individuals of each species), while in the second
community one species significantly outnumbers the other four.
61
The idea of biodiversity also encompasses
the range of ecological communities and
ecosystems. Ecosystem diversity is the variety of
unique biological communities or ecosystems, in
terms of species composition, physical structure,
and processes. This is the highest level of
biodiversity. A common approach to quantifying
this type of diversity is to record the variety of
ecological communities that an area may contain. It
is generally accepted that an area having, say, both
forests and grasslands is more diverse than one with
forests alone, because each of these ecosystems is
expected to house different species.
The catalog of Earth’s biodiversity is very
incomplete. About 1.9 million species have
scientific names. It is estimated that the total
number of living species is around 10 million,
which means that most species have not been
discovered and described. (These estimates omit bacteria because of the practical problems in
defining bacterial species.) Of the approximately 1.9 million species now described, perhaps
two-thirds are known from only one location and many from examining only one individual or a
limited number of individuals, so knowledge of the genetic variation within species is even more
restricted. From just a few well-studied species, it is clear that genetic variability can be
substantial and that it differs to a large extent between species.
5. In the text of task 4
- Find and write out three words with negative prefixes.
- What other negative prefixes do you know?
- Form the opposites of the following words using prefixes.
variability
living
appear
effective
limited
- find five derivatives of the verb “vary”. Insert them in the table below.
noun
R переменная
E
R изменение; колебание
E
R
вариант; модификация; тип,
разновидность
E
R разнообразие, ряд, множество,
разновидность, вариетет
E
R изменчивость, возможность
изменений, вариабельность
E
R изменение, разновидность;
варьирование, изменчивость
E
adjective
изменчивый,
непостоянный
adverb
изменчиво, непостоянно;
различный, отличный (от
чего-л.); иной, чем
неизменно, постоянно
неизменный, постоянный
неизменяющийся
по-разному, различно,
различным образом
различный, разный;
разнообразный
62
-using the dictionary accomplish the work.
- find derivatives of the word “even”.
6. Intermediate level. For pre-intermediate level do to Appendix 5. Look at the highlighted
words and phrases in the text which are commonly used in popular scientific articles. Match
them with definitions 1-18. Translate them into Russian.
1
nearly
2
3
a method of doing something
or dealing with a problem
actually, to tell the truth
4
by or through the action of
5
6
to include a wide range of
ideas, subjects, etc.
in relation to
7
too numerous to be counted
8
it is calculated roughly
9
it’s a common view
10 more possible
11 not include someone or
something
12 to be more in number than
another group
13 mainly,
14 variety of things that are all
different, but are all of the
same general type
15 used for a particular purpose
16 lately
17 simple
18 while on the contrary
7. Mark the statements below as true or false or “doesn’t say” according to task 4. Using the
statements and the phrases from the table make a short utterance agreeing or disagreeing with
the statements and proving your point of view.
Personal
In my opinion the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
point of view As far as I’m concerned the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
(true or false) If you ask me the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
I am quite sure the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
As far as I can see the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
63
true
false
confirmation
doesn’t say
I absolutely agree with the statement because…
I’d like to support this view because…
That’s a very good point because…
I disagree with this statement because…
I can’t accept the view because…
I object to this thought because…
the text says that …
the text asserts that …
the text states that …
it is said in the text that…
the text claims that …
as you can see from the text …
Perhaps it’s
the article says nothing about it.
true/false, but …
the article doesn’t say anything about it.
there is no such information in the article.
the article contains no information about it
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Biodiversity is the term used to encompass the variety of all living organisms on earth.
The term ‘biodiversity’ emerged in the 1980s.
Biodiversity is the least vulnerable to human induced changes.
Biodiversity is equally distributed throughout the planet.
Biodiversity is affected by abiotic factors only.
It is not enough to simply count the amount of species to measure biodiversity.
The concept of biodiversity includes genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem
diversity.
8. Genetic diversity considers variability of genes within a single species.
9. In the recent decades, a new science named “biotechnology”, which manipulates the
genetic materials of different species, has emerged.
10. Relative abundance focuses on the equability* of distribution of individuals among
species in a community.
11. Ecosystem diversity is concerned with the quantity of biological communities in every
ecosystem.
12. At the ecosystem level, India, for instance, with its deserts, rain forests, mangroves, coral
reefs, and wetlands has greater ecosystem diversity than a Scandinavian country like
Norway.
13. The scientists have already discovered and described most species on earth.
14. The estimated number of living species does not include bacteria.
15. Only one-third of discovered and described species are well-studied now.
___________________________
equability
[,ekwə'bılıtı]
равномерность
8. In the texts below use the English phrases instead of the Russian ones.
Scientists define биоразнообразие as the разнообразие (множество) of all living
organisms on Earth and at all уровнях организации. It включает all живые существа –
бактерии, viruses, растения, грибки, invertebrate animals, animals with backbones – and not
just the things we can see or prey upon. Биоразнообразие включает человеческих существ
too. Биоразнообразие is not simply список видов. Yet* the scientific definition of
биоразнообразия включает not only organisms themselves but also генетическое
разнообразие within each species and экосистемное разнообразие that those species make up,
as well as the экологические и эволюционные процессы that keep them functioning and
adapting.
_________________________
yet
[jet]
ещё (кроме того, в дополнение)
64
9. Match the terms with their definitions.
1
biodiversity
a
2
genetic diversity
b
3
species diversity
c
4
d
5
ecosystem
diversity
species richness
6
species evenness
f
genetic make-up
e
the number of species and abundance of each species that live in a
particular location.
the variety in the ecosystems found in a particular area or the
variety in ecosystems over the whole planet.
a variety in life forms, diversity in ecosystems, species
composition or genetic makeup*
relative abundance of each species in an environment.
the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup
of a species.
the number of species that live in a certain location
[dʒı'netık 'meɪkʌp]
генотип
10. Listen to the “What is biodiversity?” video and rearrange the statements in the order they
appear in it.
1. A diverse ecosystem is strong and able to withstand natural disasters, disease, and
drought*.
2. Biodiversity is not consistent* from place to place.
3. Biodiversity - short for a biological diversity - simply means that all life is different.
4. Ecosystem biodiversity means that ecosystems communities of living things are different
from one another.
5. Genetic biodiversity means that the genes within a species vary.
6. Places near the equator tend to have a high amount of biodiversity while areas near the
poles have a much lower biodiversity.
7. Scientists study three main types of biodiversity: species, genetic and ecosystem.
8. Today over 1.7 million species have been named, and new kinds of plants, animals,
fungi, and microorganisms are being discovered all the time.
9. When one or more of these species is eliminated an ecosystem balance will suffer and
other species are forced to migrate or become extinct.
______________________________
drought
consistent
[draʋt]
засуха
[kən'sıst(ə)nt] зд. неизменный
11. Read the text and complete it with appropriate words and phrases from the table. Listen to
the “Biodiversity” recording and check your work.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
a species
species (2)
species diversity (2)
estimate (n.)
estimate (v.)
genetic diversity (3)
larger number
smaller number
fewer species
more species
healthy and productive
11. ecosystems
7.
8.
9.
10.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
biodiversity
lower elevations
evenly
drier climates
ecosystem
diversity
Biological diversity, commonly referred to as a. ……………. , is a measure of the
diversity of life forms on Earth. Biodiversity exists on three scales: b. ……….. , ecosystem, and
genetic.
c.…………… refers to the number of species in a region or in a particular type of habitat.
In general, a location with a d.……….. of species is healthier than if that same location had a e.
…………. of species. […] f. …………. is defined as a group of organisms that is distinct from
other groups in its morphology, body form and structure, genetics, behavior, or biochemical
properties. […] There are currently 2 million named or documented g. ……….. on Earth. But
65
scientists that study biodiversity h. ……….. that there could be anywhere from 5 million to 50
million species on Earth. 10 million is a common i. ……… for how many species are on Earth
and might be a good number to remember. Species diversity is often used as an environmental
indicator for the health of ecosystems. […] Ecosystems with greater j. ………… tend to be more
productive and resilient, that is, resistant to changes. […] Species diversity is not k. ………..
distributed across the globe. There tend to be l. ……………. at lower latitudes and m.
………….. towards the poles. More species at n. …………… compared to higher elevations,
more species at wetter climates compared to o. ………….., and more species in larger
geographic areas.
p. ……………. is a measure of the diversity of ecosystems or habitats that exist in a
given region. A greater number of q. ………… means a healthier environment overall.
r. ……………. is a measure of genetic variation among individuals in a population.
Populations with higher s. ………….. are better able to respond to environmental changes. For
example, when disease strikes a population, if that population has a high t. …………. , there's a
better chance that at least some individuals will survive the disease.
12. In groups of four, using the following sets of words and phrases make comprehensible
sentences. Retell your text. What new idea in comparison with the previous information does
the whole text present?
Species Diversity
1. contains, interacting, every ecosystem, of species, with each other, a unique collection.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. more species, may have, than others, some ecosystems.
__________________________________________________________________________
3. so large that, in some ecosystems, can grow, it, the natural community, one species,
dominates.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. to have the most, that has, but no species, a large number of species, greatly outnmbers, is
considered, species diversity, an ecosystem.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. of species, that is, the larger the number, the more, an ecosystem has, species diversity,
is.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
6. some species, ecological threats, go extinct, can help, recover from, even if, a large
number of species, an ecosystem.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
66
Genetic Diversity
1. in a given ecosystem, describes, the members of, genetic diversity, how closely related*,
one species, are.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. genetic diversity, the species, in simple terms, have, if all members, many similar genes,
has low.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3. due to inbreeding* , their small populations, because of, endangered species, low genetic
diversity, may have.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. more susceptible, to inheritance of undesirable traits*, this can, to a population, if it leads,
or makes the species, to disease, pose a threat.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. species, helps, having, high genetic diversity, adapt to, changing environments.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________
closely related
['kləʋslı rı'leıtıd]
близкородственный
inbreeding
['ınbri:dıŋ]
родственное спаривание, инбридинг
inheritance of undesirable traits
[ın'herıt(ə)ns əv ,ʌndı'zaı(ə)rəb(ə)l treı(t)s]
наследование
нежелательных черт
Ecosystem Diversity
1. may have, a region, several ecosystems, or, one.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. wide expanses*, or deserts, with low, are examples, of regions, ecological diversity, of
oceans.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3. ecosystem biodiversity, lakes, forests and grasslands, a mountain area, that has, has,
higher.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. is threatened, survive, to provide, to help native species, a region with several
ecosystems, may be able, more resources, especially when, one ecosystem,by drought or
disease.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
expanse
[ık'spæns]
пространство, протяжение, простор
67
Functional Diversity
1. is known as, and use natural resources, the way species behave, obtain food, of an
ecosystem, functional diversity.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. there are many species, to have high functional diversity, a species-rich ecosystem, in
general, is considered, because, with many different behaviors.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3. can be useful, or restore, functional diversity, understanding an ecosystem’s, to
ecologists, trying to conserve, damaged ones.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. ecologists can locate, the behaviors and roles, or ecological niches, due to knowing, of
species, gaps in a food web, that are lacking species.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
13. Intermediate level. Read the text. Complete it with the phrases from the box below. Retell
the text.
1. genetic diversity
2. genetic diversity
3. genetic diversity
4. genetic diversity
5. genetic differences
6. genetic differences
7. genetically identical
8. genetically similar
9. the same species
10. an endangered species
11. genetic erosion
Genetic diversity
a. …………..
refers to the level of
genetic
variety
within a single
species.
While
individuals
of
b.……………. are
very similar from a
genetic point of
view, virtually no two members of the same species are c. ………… . Individuals can show
d.………….. between one another, as well as whole groups or populations. For example, two
sparrows in New York will be a little different, genetically speaking. The differences between a
sparrow in London and one in New York, however, would be much more pronounced*.
An important conservation consequence of this is that even if e. …………. is saved from
extinction it has probably lost some of its f. ………….. . Consequently, when this population
expands* again, they become more g. ……………. than their ancestors*. Subsequent inbreeding
in small populations may result in reduced fertility* and increased susceptibility to disease.
h. …………… within species occurs as a result of sexual reproduction, in which i.
…………. between individuals are combined in their offspring to produce new combinations of
68
genes or from mutations causing changes in the DNA. j. …………. is usually mentioned with
reference to agriculture and maintaining food security. This is because k. ………… in crops has
already occurred leading to the world's dependence for food on just a few species. Currently,
they are rice, maize, and wheat that account for 69% of the calories and 56% of the proteins that
people derive from plants.
___________________________________
pronounced
expand
ancestor
fertility
[prə'naʋnst]
[ık'spænd]
['ænsəstə]
[fɜ:'tılıtı]
явный, определённый, резко выраженный
расширяться, развиваться, распространяться; расти
предок, прародитель
плодовитость, способность к воспроизведению потомства
14. Intermediate level. Rearrange the sentences into a comprehensible text. Retell it.
Species diversity
1. An ecosystem where all the species are
represented by the same number of
individuals has high species evenness.
2. Another measure of species diversity is
the species evenness, which is the relative
abundance with which each species is
represented in an area.
3. Communities with the highest species
richness tend to be found in areas near the
equator, which have lots of solar energy
(supporting high primary productivity),
warm temperatures, large amounts of
rainfall, and little seasonal change.
4. Communities with the lowest species
richness lie near the poles, which get less
solar energy and are colder, drier, and less
inclined to sustain life.
5.
However,
the
diversity-stability Map shows the spatial distribution of mammal species
relationship isn't a universal rule, and there richness in North and South America.
are some cases where other factors (besides species diversity) are more important in determining
ecosystem stability.
6. An ecosystem where some species are represented by many individuals, and other species are
represented by very few individuals has low species evenness.
7. In general, ecologists think that more diverse ecological communities are more stable (that is,
more able to recover after a disturbance) than less diverse communities.
8. Larger numbers of species and more even abundances of species lead to higher species
diversity.
9. Many other factors in addition to latitude can also affect a community's species richness.
10. Species richness is the number of different species in a particular community.
11. The higher the number of species in the community the higher the species richness is.
12. Two important measures ecologists use to describe species diversity are species richness and
species evenness.
69
15. Intermediate level. Watch the Ecosystem biodiversity video and then complete the
summary with the phrases below. Watch it for the second time and check your work.
Ecosystem biodiversity
A. by protecting the most biodiverse example of that ecosystem in the world
B. distinct types of ecosystems, such as tropical reef or tropical rainforest, combined with the
diversity of the species within a specific type of ecosystem
C. make each type of ecosystem unique.
D. there are webs of interactions among ecosystems themselves.
E. there will also be a high diversity of species themselves
F. there's diversity of habitats and ecological processes within each ecosystem type
G. they will be different species, sometimes very distantly related species at that*
H. to try to maximize the protection of as many ecosystems and all their unique biodiversity as
possible.
The science of measuring ecosystem diversity is still pretty young, but scientific
knowledge at the ecosystem level is now recognized as a critical part of understanding total
biodiversity on Earth. We usually describe an ecosystem in terms of a habitat and a climatic
descriptor, such as tropical rainforest or arid* grassland, but it's important to note that [1].
You can have similar-looking ecosystems that have very different makeups. The name of
an ecosystem doesn't automatically imply that all the species in that ecosystem are the same
everywhere in the world. High diversity among types of ecosystems means that [2]. Each species
is specialized to a type of ecosystem in a particular place.
Most people are familiar with ecosystems in
terms of where they are, that is, in terms of
ecosystem distributions. A tropical reef in the
Philippines will still be a coral reef but, in terms of
species composition, could be very, very different
from a reef in the Caribbean. Organisms making up
a Philippine reef might be similar to and do the
same jobs as those in a Caribbean reef, but[3]. In
other words, the ecosystem functions performed by
these different reef organisms will be the same in
spite of how different the lists of species from each reef might be. To me, that's the essence of
ecosystem diversity: [4].
It's always important to keep ecosystem diversity in mind in any management or
conservation strategy. We can maximize protection of species numbers in a given type of
ecosystem [5]. But what about all the others? What effect will there be on the stability of all
Earth's ecosystems if we focus on only one example of a particular ecosystem? Is it enough to
preserve a single ecosystem as a kind of museum of diversity for that type of ecosystem? The
only successful strategy is [6]. And there's another factor to consider when we're talking about
biodiversity at the ecosystem level - the interactions between the different types of ecosystems.
There are complex webs of interactions among the species that [7]. But just as there are complex
webs of species interactions within ecosystems, [8]. And what will we lose if we don't attempt to
protect those interactions as well?
_________________________
at that
[ət ðət]
на том, притом, причем, к тому же
arid
['ærıd]
сухой; засушливый;
70
16. Look through the following words and phrases which will help you better understand the
utterance.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
to do triage
to come up with
Conservation International
to recognize
endemic species
to designate
an assemblages of species
an avatar
to employ the concepts
to draw people in
resilience of ecosystems
установление очередности
выступить с идеей, придумать, изобрести
Международное общество сохранения природы
признавать (что-л., кого-л.)
свойственный данной местности, эндемический вид
определять, обозначать; называть, характеризовать
группа видов
зд. олицетворение
использовать, применять понятие, идею, концепцию
вовлекать людей
способность экосистем к быстрому восстановлению
17. Watch the What is a biodiversity hotspot? video and choose the correct answer.
1. Biodiversity hotspots are the places which need …
a. protection.
b. generation.
c. attraction.
d. interconnection.
2. The first criterion a biodiversity hotspot is characterized by is …
a. 1500 endemic species of animals.
c. 1500 endemic species of plants.
b. geological location
d. climatological conditions
3. The second criterion a biodiversity hotspot is characterized by is …
a. that it must be recognized by lots of conservation organizations.
b. that more than 70% of the original habitat already lost.
c. that there are more than 34 biodiversity hotspot areas on earth.
d. species richness.
4. Plants, particularly in terrestrial environments are crucial because …
a. plants are the primary consumers. b. they are mostly threatened.
c. they're at the base of food webs.
d. they prevent habitat destruction.
5. An endemic species is a species that …
a. are found in the list of endangered species.
b. are found nowhere but on the Galapagos Islands.
c. are found due to international efforts.
d. are found in a certain area and nowhere else on earth.
6. An endemic species is …
a. irremovable.
b. irreducible.
c. irreparable.
d. irreplaceable.
7. Conservation International formally recognizes that …
a. back in 1988 there were prehistoric biodiversity hotspots.
b. at the moment there are 34 biodiversity hotspot areas on earth.
c. the Galapagos Islands are a biodiversity hotspot.
71
d. more than 70% of biodiversity hotspots are large geographical units.
8. Less than ………. of the earth's land surface area is represented by biodiversity hotspots.
a. 34%
b. 3%
c. 70%
d. 30%.
9. … obviously critical and important places for lots of organisms to live.
a. Biodiversity hotspots are
c. Planet Earth is
b. Other endangered areas on the planet are
d. The Galapagos Islands are
10. We have to focus our attention on protecting …
a. biodiversity hotspots only.
b. the highest number of species that we can.
c. tortoises and plants.
d. endemic species.
18. Intermediate level. Watch the What is a biodiversity hotspot? video for the second time
writing out the key ideas. Retell the utterance.
19. Intermediate level. Watch the Ecosystems-and-ecological-networks video making notes on
the ideas mentioned. Present a short summary.
20. Read and translate the article given Appendix 1, Unit 5 . You can either get another article
on the topic from the websites listed. Render it in 7-9 sentences. Make use of Appendix 4.
72
Unit 6
Ecosystem services
1. Study the following words.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
aerate (v.)
awareness (n.)
contribute (v.)
crop (n.)
degrade (v.)
dispersal (n.)
flow (n.)
maintenance (n.)
'e(ə)reıt
ə'weənıs
kən'trıbju:t
krɒp
dɪ'greɪd
dɪsˈpə:səl
fləʋ
'meınt(ə)nəns
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
medicine (n.)
medicinal (adj.)
mitigate (v.)
moderate (v.)
obtain (v.)
pollinate (v.)
pollutant/
contaminant (n.)
preserve (v.)
provide (v.)
purification (n.)
recreation (n.)
sequestration (n.)
'meds(ə)n
mı'dıs(ə)nəl
'mıtıgeıt
'mɒdəreıt
əb'teın
'pɒlıneıt
pə'lu:t(ə)nt/
kən'tæmınənt
prı'zɜ:v
prə'vaıd
,pjʋ(ə)rıfı'keıʃ(ə)n
,rekrı'eıʃ(ə)n
,si:kwı'streıʃ(ə)n
21
22
23
24
support (v.)
value (n.)
vital (adj.)
waterborne (adj.)
sə'pɔ:t
'vælju:
'vaıtl
ˈwɔːtəbɔːn
насыщать воздухом или кислородом
осведомлённость, информированность
способствовать, содействовать
с.-х. культура
разрушать, снижать
рассеивание; распространение
течение, объем воды
поддержание, сохранение; поддержка,
защита
медицина, лекарство, медикамент
лекарственный, целебный
смягчать, уменьшать, умерять,облегчать
умерять; сдерживать; смягчать
получать
опылять
загрязнитель окружающей среды,
загрязняющее вещество
сохранять, оберегать
предоставлять, обеспечивать
очистка, очищение
отдых, восстановление сил; развлечение
улавливание и хранение углерода
растениями, или секвестрация
помогать, поддерживать
значение, ценность; важность; полезность
жизненно важный
переносимый водой
2. Why do you think you know the following words without looking up?
ingredient
malaria
spiritual
regulate
сoral reefs
boom
ın'gri:dıənt
mə'le(ə)rıə
'spırıtʃʋəl
'regjʋleıt
'kɒrəl ri:fs
bu:m
cortisone
novocaine
pharmaceutical
delicate
mangrove (tree)
hydrological
eutrophication
'kɔ:tızəʋn
'nəʊvəkeɪn
,fɑ:mə'sju:tık(ə)l
ˈdelɪkət /ˈdelɪkɪt
'mæŋgrəʋv
haı'drɒlədʒıkəl
ju:,trəʋfı'keıʃ(ə)n
anesthetic
aesthetic
erosion
mental
buffer
mollusk
,ænıs'θetık
i:s'θetık
ı'rəʋʒ(ə)n
mentl
'bʌfə
ˈmɒl.əsk
73
3. Match the words I to XXIII with a to w into comprehensible phrases correlating them with
Russian equivalents.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
благосостояние человека
генофонд, пул генов
загрязняющее вещество переносимое
водой
смягчение, урегулирование последствий
природных катастроф
очистка сточных вод
парниковые газы
плодородие почвы
природные компоненты
природные явления
распространение семян
регулирование численности вредителей,
борьба с вредителями
смягчение (последствий) наводнений
стихийные бедствия
сырье
удаление отходов
улавливание и хранение углерода/
секвестрация углерода
услуги культурного характера
услуги по поддержке
услуги по регулированию
услуги по снабжению
экосистемные услуги
экстремальные погодные явления
эрозия почвы
благосостояние человека
генофонд, пул генов
загрязняющее вещество переносимое
водой
смягчение, урегулирование
последствий природных катастроф
очистка сточных вод
парниковые газы
плодородие почвы
природные компоненты
природные явления
распространение семян
регулирование численности
вредителей, борьба с вредителями
смягчение (последствий) наводнений
стихийные бедствия
сырье
удаление отходов
улавливание и хранение углерода/
секвестрация углерода
I
II
III
carbon
cultural
ecosystem
a
b
c
contaminant
control
disaster
IV
extreme
d
dispersal
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
flood
gene
greenhouse
human
moderation
natural
natural
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
erosion
fertility
gases
ingredients
material
mitigation
of extreme
events
l
natural
phenomena
m pool
pest
provisioning n removal
o sequestration
raw
p services
regulating
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
seed
soil
soil
supporting
wastewater
waterborne
waste
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
services
services
services
services
treatment
well-being
weather events
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
74
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
услуги культурного характера
услуги по поддержке
услуги по регулированию
услуги по снабжению
экосистемные услуги
экстремальные погодные явления
эрозия почвы
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
4. Read and translate the text. Mark the phrases from task 3 if any.
What Are the Benefits of Biodiversity?
By Gemma Argent; Updated January 09, 2018
https://sciencing.com/list-6177330-benefits-biodiversity-.html
Ecosystem Services
The term "biodiversity" indicates the diversity
of biological species within an ecosystem.
Biodiversity, though, goes beyond simply a list of
species; it also encompasses the interactions
between the species, how they survive, what they
do, and the living conditions in which they exist.
Although it is easy to give a definition to the word
"biodiversity," it is not quite so easy to explain
exactly why we should be interested in and
concerned about the biodiversity of an ecosystem.
Some argue that it is our moral responsibility to
preserve the Earth’s incredible diversity for the next generation. Others simply like knowing that
nature’s great diversity exists and that the opportunity to utilize it later is secure. Scientists value
biodiversity because it offers clues about natural systems that we are still trying to understand.
There are, though, specific benefits of biodiversity, which are called ecosystem services that
affect every one of us on this planet.
Soils
Biodiversity includes not only the large
plants and animals we see, but also microscopic
bacteria, fungi, algae, and a lot of tiny insects and
invertebrates*. These smaller organisms are the
ones responsible for creating soil and maintaining
the quality of soil. Worms are well known for
conditioning soil by digging through and aerating
it and providing nutrients from their excreta*.
Bacteria and fungi degrade organic material,
which then further breaks down in the soil, where
plants can use the nutrients.
Water Quality
The benefits of biodiversity include keeping water pure. In
wetlands, lakes and rivers plants will take up waterborne
contaminants and process them purifying water. Shellfish such as
mollusks take up nutrients from the water, thereby preventing a
condition called eutrophication, which can cause a huge increase
in microorganisms in the water that leads to oxygen depletion*
and mass die-offs.
75
Waste Removal
The biodiversity of microbes, fungi, and other
smaller organisms is important in decomposing
waste matter. Organic material in nature, such as
leaves, logs and twigs, and dead animals and
insects, is all degraded and decomposed by the
diversity of organisms in the ecosystem. It is a
delicate balance, in which certain microorganisms
perform a vital function in removing waste from
the environment, making it cleaner and less
vulnerable to the spread of disease.
Pollination and Seed Dispersal
Bees are not the only organisms responsible
for pollinating plants and crops. In fact, birds, bats,
and butterflies play a vital role in spreading pollen
and in dispersing seeds. Butterflies and
hummingbirds*, for instance, feed on nectar and can
transport pollen from flower to flower. Birds and
fruit bats eat the fruit and nuts from plants, and then
disperse the seeds through their fecal matter.
Medicine
Many modern medicines incorporate natural
ingredients from plants that are found in jungles or
forests, especially the Amazon rainforest. There is a
huge number of plant species used in modern
medicine, somewhere around 50,000 to 70,000. If any
of these plants become extinct, corresponding
medicine will disappear. Examples of plants used in
modern medicine include quinine* from a cinchona
tree* in South America, used to treat malaria;
cortisone from Central American yams*, which is a main ingredient in birth control pills, and
novocaine, which is derived from a coca plant and used as an anesthetic by dentists.
Ecotourism
Travel companies promote tours into off-the-beaten-path
locations, such as forests and jungles, where tourists can go on
river cruises, hike, and observe and enjoy nature without
disturbing the ecosystem. Money from ecotourism goes back
into the region and helps to preserve the diversity of plants and
animals. Thus, biodiversity has a fundamental value to
humans because we are so dependent on it for our cultural, economic, and environmental wellbeing.
___________________________
invertebrate
[ın'vɜ:tıbr(e)ıt]
excreta
[ık'skri:tə]
depletion
[dı'pli:ʃ(ə)n]
hummingbird
['hʌmıŋbɜ:d]
quinine
['kwıni:n]
cinchona tree
[sıŋ'kəʋnə tri:]
yams
[jæmz]
беспозвоночное животное
выделения, испражнения,
истощение,
колибри
хинин
хинное дерево
ямс, батат, сладкий картофель
76
5. Correlate the following phrases with the highlighted ones in the text.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
в современных лекарствах есть
натуральные составляющие
выходит за пределы просто списка видов
дает представление о природных
системах
заинтересованы и обеспокоены
поддержанием биоразнообразия
экосистем
копаясь в земле, они насыщают ее
воздухом
который получают из коки (кокаинового
куста)
менее чувствительна к распространению
болезней
нехоженые места
одни утверждают, что это наша
нравственная обязанность
10 поддержание чистоты воды заслуга
биоразнообразия.
11 противозачаточные таблетки
9
12 распространяя пыльцу и семена
13 что ведет к гипоксии и массовому
вымиранию.
6. Mark the statements below as true or false or “doesn’t say” according to task 4. Using the
statements and the phrases from the table make a short utterance agreeing or disagreeing with
the statements and proving your point of view.
Personal
In my opinion the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
point of view As far as I’m concerned the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
(true or false) If you ask me the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
I am quite sure the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
As far as I can see the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
true
I absolutely agree with the statement because…
I’d like to support this view because…
That’s a very good point because…
false
I disagree with this statement because…
I can’t accept the view because…
I object to this thought because…
confirmation the text says that …
the text asserts that …
the text states that …
it is said in the text that…
the text claims that …
as you can see from the text …
doesn’t say
Perhaps it’s
the article says nothing about it.
true/false, but …
the article doesn’t say anything about it.
there is no such information in the article.
the article contains no information about it
77
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Biodiversity is similar to a list of species.
Some people value biodiversity because they or their descendants* can make use of it.
Fungi and algae are microscopic bacteria.
Worms are better decomposers than insects.
Some species consume and process pollutants.
Shellfish is the major cause of eutrophication.
Microbes, fungi, and other smaller organisms are important in producing nutrients from
dead matter.
8. Certain microorganisms spread diseases.
9. Different species can act as pollinators.
10. Pharmaceutical industry benefits from biodiversity.
11. Ecotourism is free of charge.
12. Nowadays ecotourism is being developed in Belarus.
____________________________________________
descendant
[dı'sendənt]
потомок
7. Split into two teams and put 7 wh-questions to the text of task 4. Play a “Brain-ring” game,
where one team provides the questions and another has to answer them having 30 seconds per
each question. Then swap the roles. The winner is the team that gives more correct answers
and provides correct questions.
8. Read the text and divide it into 5 paragraphs. Choose the most suitable heading from list AF for each paragraph. There is one extra heading you don’t need to use.
A. Cultural Services
B. Ecosystem Services
C. Other types of services
D. Provisioning Services
E. Regulating Services
F. Supporting Services
Types of Ecosystem Services
The value of nature to people has long been recognized, but in recent years, the concept
of ecosystem services has been developed to describe these various benefits. An ecosystem
service is any positive benefit that wildlife or ecosystems provide to people. The benefits can be
direct or indirect—small or large. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment* (MEA), a major UNsponsored effort to analyze the impact of human actions on ecosystems and human well-being,
identified four major categories of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, cultural and
supporting services. When people are asked to identify a service provided by nature, most think
of food. Fruits, vegetables, trees, fish, and livestock are available to us as direct products of
ecosystems. A provisioning service is any type of benefit to people that can be extracted from
nature. Along with food, other types of provisioning services include drinking water, timber,
wood fuel, natural gas, oils, plants that can be made into clothes and other materials, and
medicinal benefits. Ecosystems provide many of the basic services that make life possible for
people. Plants clean air and filter water, bacteria decompose wastes, bees pollinate flowers, and
tree roots hold soil in place to prevent erosion. All these processes work together to make
ecosystems clean, sustainable, functional, and resilient* to change. A regulating service is the
benefit provided by ecosystem processes that moderate natural phenomena. Regulating services
include pollination, decomposition, water purification, erosion and flood mitigation, carbon
sequestration and climate regulation. As we interact and alter nature, the natural world has in
turn altered us. It has guided our cultural, intellectual, and social development by being a
constant force present in our lives. The importance of ecosystems to the human mind can be
traced back to the beginning of mankind with ancient civilizations drawing pictures of animals,
plants, and weather patterns on cave walls. A cultural service is a non-material benefit that
contributes to the development and cultural advancement of people, including how ecosystems
78
play a role in local, national, and global cultures; the building of knowledge and the spreading of
ideas; creativity born from interactions with nature (music, art, architecture); and recreation. The
natural world provides so many services; sometimes we overlook* the most fundamental.
Ecosystems themselves couldn't be sustained without the consistency* of underlying natural
processes, such as photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, the creation of soils, and the water cycle.
These processes allow the Earth to sustain basic life forms, let alone whole ecosystems and
people. Without supporting services, provisional, regulating, and cultural services wouldn't exist.
___________________________
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [mı'lenıəm]
программа «Оценка экосистем на пороге
тысячелетия»
[rı'zılıənt]
быстро оправляющийся; имеющий запас жизненных сил
['əʋvəlʋk]
не замечать, пропускать
[kən'sıst(ə)nsı]
согласованность
resilient
overlook
consistency
9. Look through the terms in the first column. Match the terms with definitions in the table
below.
1
2
3
4
Provisioning Services
Regulating Services
Supporting Services
Cultural Services
a
b
c
d
the benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes
the products or energy directly obtained from ecosystems
the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems
are necessary for the production and the maintenance of all other
ecosystem services.
10. Ecosystem services can be categorized in four main types. Complete the table below with
the things each of them includes.
-biochemicals
-carbon sequestration
-climate regulation
-crop pollination
-cultural and spiritual inspiration
-energy (hydropower, biomass fuels)
-erosion control
-flood mitigation
-food (including seafood and bushmeat*)
-crops
-wild foods
-habitat provision
-nutrient cycling
-pest and disease control
-pharmaceuticals
-primary production
-purification of water and air
-recreational experiences (including ecotourism)
-scientific discovery
-species diversity maintenance
-waste decomposition and detoxification
-water
-water cycle
-wood
_______________________________
bushmeat
[ˈbʊʃˌmiːt]
Provisioning Services
мясо диких животных (для потребления в пищу)
Regulating Services
Supporting Services
Cultural Services
79
11. Which services in your opinion are described in the text of task 4?
12. Complete the following text with appropriate phrases. Mind the words.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
runoff
trap
sediment
invertebrates
timber
pastures
harvest
horticulture
calcium
carbonate
10 bioremediation
ˈrʌnɒf
træp
'sedımənt
ın'vɜ:tıbr(e)ıts
'tımbə
'pɑ:stʃə
'hɑ:vıst
'hɔ:tı,kʌltʃə
ˌkæl.si.əm ˈkɑː.bəneɪt
поверхностный сток
задерживать
осадок, отстой
беспозвоночные
лесоматериал; древесина
пастбище
собирать
садоводство
карбонат кальция
ˌbʌɪə(ʊ)rɪˌmi:di'eɪʃ(ə)n
биоремедиация — комплекс методов очистки
вод, грунтов и атмосферы с использованием
растений, грибов, насекомых, червей и других
организмов.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
maintenance of fertile soil
breakdown of pollutants
environmental well-being
native plants and animals
greenhouse gas reduction
maintenance of fresh water quality
provision of native species gene pools
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
production of oxygen
pest control
provision of foods
flood mitigation
provision of vegetation
pollination of agricultural crops
tourism and cultural activities
Biodiversity has a fundamental value to humans because we are so dependent on it for our
cultural, economic, and 1. ……………….. . Arguably, the greatest value to humans, however,
comes from the “ecosystem services” it provides.
Some ecosystem services include:
 The 2. ……………….. by land based plants and marine algae;
 The 3. ……………….. by vegetation slowing run off, trapping sediment and removing
nutrients and by soil organisms breaking down pollutants;
 The production and 4. ……………….. as a result of decomposition activities done by
microorganisms, insects and invertebrates;
 The 5. ……………….. such as fish, bushmeat, wild forest foods;
 The 6. ……………….. such as pastures for cattle and sheep, timber, fire wood and
harvested wildlife such as native cut flowers;
 The 7. ……………….. used in industry research and development, for instance, in
traditional breeding and biotechnology applications in agriculture, forestry, horticulture,
pharmacy, chemicals production and bioremediation;
 8. ……………….., forest trees and native flowering plants by native insects, birds and
other creatures;
 9.……………….. in agriculture by beneficial native predators;
 10. ……………….. by vegetation slowing run off, trapping sediment and by wetlands
soaking up flood water;
 11. ……………….. by microorganisms in soil and aquatic ecosystems and isolation of
heavy metals in marine and fresh water sediments;
 12. ……………….. by, for instance, sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide by
vegetation and marine calcium carbonate deposits;
 Maintenance of habitats for 13. ………………..;
 Maintenance of habitats that are attractive to humans for recreation, 14. ………………..
and that has spiritual importance.
80
13. Go back to task 1. Pay attention to the words in italic. Write out the derivatives of those
words from the tasks 2-12, arrange them into the table, mark the suffixes.
nouns
verbs
adjectives
participle I
participle II
14. Pre-intermediate level.
Look at the diagram. Using the information from the previous tasks write captions under each
picture and describe each group of ecosystem service. Mind the words.
scientific discoveries
disease control
leisure and fun
fibres
climate regulation
water filtration
inspiration
wood
aesthetic
medicines
energy
pollination
food
waste
decomposition
15. Pre-intermediate
level. In pairs compare the
information in the table
with that given in the
diagram above. Draw the
missing pictures and let
your partner guess which
service they belong to and
give the example
corresponding to each
service in the table.
81
16. Pre-intermediate level. Can you describe the benefits humans obtain from ecosystem
services? Use the following patterns:
The greater biodiversity the more food we can get.
The greater biodiversity the greater the soil quality.
17. In groups of four make a poster on ecosystem services. Write a short utterance describing
each ecosystem service and each picture.
Pre-intermediate: choose the correct caption from the set given in Appendix 10 to each
picture.
Watch the Why biodiversity is important for us video and check you work. Don’t pay attention
to the accent and language usage mistakes!
Intermediate: Use the utterances in Russian as prompts. See Appendix 6. Watch the Why
biodiversity is important for us video. Don’t pay attention to the accent and language usage
mistakes! Whose presentation is better?
Food
Raw materials
Moderation of extreme events
Waste-water treatment
Tourism
Carbon sequestration and storage
82
Aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for
culture, art and design
Spiritual experience and sense of place
Pollination
Maintenance of genetic diversity
Fresh water
Erosion prevention and maintenance of
soil fertility
Pest control
Habitats for species
83
Recreation and mental and physical health
Medicinal resources
Local climate and air quality
18. Intermediate level. Watch the Ecosystem services video and find out:
 What three types does the presenter divide these services into?
 Which services are included into the first type?
 Which examples does the presenter provide to illustrate the indirect services?
 Which services does the presenter describe as being of the third type?
19. Intermediate level. Watch the Ecosystem services video 0:00 through 6:00 and answer the
questions.
1. In what context does the presenter mention the following numbers?
a. 20%
b. 50%.
c. 3
d. 1/3
e. $6 billion
f. $300 million
g. $1 billion h. 10 years
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. In what context does the presenter mention the following phrases?
a. tomatoes
b. trees
c. rosy periwinkle
d. mangrove swamps
e. shrimps
f. fish
g. the New York City
h. wetland
20. Intermediate level. Watch the Ecosystem services video 6:00 till the end and answer the
question.
84
What is the value of ethical and aesthetic services?
21. Read and translate the article given Appendix 1, Unit 6. You can either get another article
on the topic from the websites listed. Render it in 7-9 sentences. Make use of Appendix 4.
85
Unit 7
Threats to Biodiversity
1. Study the following words.
1
2
3
4
5
alter (v.)
amplify (v.)
destroy (v.)
develop (v.)
driver (n.)
deforestation (n.)
exceed (v.)
excessive (adj.)
8 fertilizer (n.)
8 measures (n.)
9 nitrogen (n.)
10 overexploitation
6
'ɔ:ltə
'æmplıfaı
dıs'trɔı
dı'veləp
'draıvə
dı'fɒrıs'teıʃ(ə)n
ık'si:d
ık'sesıv
'fɜ:tılaızə
'meʒəz
'naıtrədʒ(ə)n
,əʋvər(,)eksplɔı'teıʃ(ə)n
(n.)
11 impact (n.)
impact (on) (v.)
12 significant (adj.)
'ımpækt
ım'pækt
sıg'nıfıkənt
изменять, переделывать, менять
усиливать, увеличивать, расширять;
уничтожать; истреблять
развивать, разрабатывать
фактор (воздействия, влияния) влияющий
фактор
обезлесение, вырубка леса
превышать, выходить за пределы
чрезмерный; излишний; избыточный
удобрение
принимаемые меры
азот
использование природных ресурсов выше
уровня их естественного восстановления
влияние, воздействие; последствия
оказывать воздействие
существенный, значительный, важный
2. Why do you think you know the following words without looking up?
invasive
irrigation
institution
conversion
ın'veısıv
ın'veızıv
,ırı'geıʃ(ə)n
,ınstı'tju:ʃ(ə)n
kən'vɜ:ʃ(ə)n
indirect
trend
indicator
synthetic
,ındı'rekt
,ındaı'rekt
trend
'ındıkeıtə
sın'θetık
direct
degradation
migration
fragmentation
dı'rekt
daı'rekt
,degrə'deıʃ(ə)n
maı'greıʃ(ə)n
,frægmən|'teıʃ(ə)n
3. Match the words I to XXIII with a to w into comprehensible phrases correlating them with
Russian equivalents.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
азотные удобрения
ареал (зона) распространения
вегетационный период
временные рамки
вымирание видов
глобальное потепление
деградация (ухудшение) среды
обитания
изменение землепользования
изменение земного покрова
изменения климата
инвазивный вид
косвенные факторы воздействия
меры по восстановлению среды
обитания
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
climate
direct
distribution
dramatic
drivers
global
growing
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
change
change
change
degradation
destruction
disturbances
drivers
habitat
habitat
habitat
habitat
habitat
indirect
h
i
drivers
extinction
fertilizers
fragmentation
impacts
loading
j
k
l
86
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
нагрузка по питательным
веществам (питательными
веществами)
потеря среды обитания
привнесенные виды
природные катаклизмы
пространственный масштаб
прямые факторы воздействия
серьезные последствия
уничтожение среды обитания
уязвимые виды
факторы, влияющие на
вымирание
фрагментация среды обитания
24
_______________________
spatial
['speıʃ(ə)l]
scale
[skeıl]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
XIII
introduced
m
loss
XIV
XXII
invasive
land cover
land use
natural
nitrogen
nutrient
spatial*
species
time
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
of extinction
range
restoration measures
scale*
scale
season
species
species
species
XXIII
vulnerable
w
warming
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
пространственный
масштаб, соотношение, размер, охват; размах, шкала, рамки
и др.
азотные удобрения
ареал (зона) распространения
вегетационный период
временные рамки
вымирание видов
глобальное потепление
деградация (ухудшение) среды
обитания
изменение землепользования
изменение земного покрова
изменения климата
инвазивный вид
косвенные факторы воздействия
меры по восстановлению среды
обитания
нагрузка по питательным веществам
(питательными веществами)
потеря среды обитания
привнесенные виды
природные катаклизмы
пространственный масштаб
прямые факторы воздействия
серьезные последствия
уничтожение среды обитания
уязвимые виды
факторы, влияющие на вымирание
фрагментация среды обитания
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
4. Read and translate the text.
What are the Threats to Biodiversity?
87
Natural or human-induced factors that directly or indirectly cause a change in
biodiversity are referred to as drivers.
 Direct drivers that explicitly* influence ecosystem processes include land use change,
climate change, invasive species, overexploitation, and pollution.
 Indirect drivers, such as changes in human population, incomes or lifestyle operate more
diffusely* by altering one or more direct drivers.
Some direct drivers of change are easier to measure than others, for instance, fertilizer usage,
water consumption, irrigation, and harvests. For other drivers, indicators are not as well
developed and measurement data is less readily available. This is the case for invasive species,
climate change, land cover conversion, and habitat fragmentation.
Changes in biodiversity are driven by combinations of drivers that work over time, on
different scales, and that tend to amplify each other. For example, population and income growth
combined with technological advances can lead to climate change.
Five major indirect drivers that influence biodiversity are changes in economic activity;
population groth; socio-political factors; cultural and religious attitudes; science and technology
development.
Different direct drivers are critical in different ecosystems. Historically, habitat and land use
change have had the biggest impact on biodiversity in all ecosystems, but climate change and
pollution growth are projected to increasingly affect all aspects of biodiversity. Overexploitation
and invasive species have been important as well and continue to be major drivers of changes in
biodiversity.
Natural disturbances (such as fires) or changes in land use (such as road construction*) lead
to the fragmentation of habitats. Such changes have a significant impact on biodiversity, as small
fragments of habitat can only support small populations that tend to be more vulnerable to
extinction.
Invasive alien species that establish* and spread outside their normal distribution range have
been a major cause of extinction. This has particularly affected islands and freshwater habitats
and continues to be a problem in many areas, as effective preventive measures are lacking.
Overexploitation remains a serious threat to many species, such as marine fish and
invertebrates, trees, and animals hunted for meat. Most industrial fisheries* are either fully or
overexploited, while destructive fishing techniques harm estuaries* and wetlands. The
overexploitation of bushmeat is in a similar situation, where sustainable levels of exploitation are
poorly understood, and the catches* difficult to manage effectively. The trade in wild plants and
animals and their derivatives* is estimated to reach nearly $160 billion annually. Due to the fact
that this trade crosses national borders, the effort to regulate it requires international cooperation
to protect certain species from overexploitation.
Over the past four decades, excessive levels of nutrients in soil and water have emerged as
one of the most important drivers of ecosystem change in terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal
ecosystems. More than half of all the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers ever used on Earth has been
used since 1985, and phosphorous use is now three times as much as it was in 1960.
The total amount of nitrogen made available to organisms by human activities now exceeds
that from all natural sources combined. Excessive additions of nitrogen and phosphorus to
freshwater or coastal marine systems can lead to excessive plant and algae growth
(eutrophication) and a lack of oxygen as well as to other environmental problems.
Recent changes in climate, such as warmer temperatures in certain regions, have already had
significant impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. They have affected species distributions,
population sizes, and the timing* of reproduction or migration events, as well as the frequency of
pest and disease outbreaks. Projected* changes in climate by 2050 could lead to the extinction of
many species living in certain limited geographical regions. By the end of the century, climate
change and its impacts may become the main direct driver of overall biodiversity loss.
While the growing season in Europe has lengthened over the last 30 years, in some regions of
Africa the combination of regional climate changes and human pressures have led to decreased
88
cereal crop production since 1970. Changes in fish populations have also been linked to largescale climate variations. As climate change will become more severe, the harmful impacts on
ecosystem services will outweigh the benefits in most regions of the world. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) project that the average surface temperature
will raise by 2 to 6.4 C by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels. This is expected to cause
global negative impacts on biodiversity.
________________________________________________________________________
explicitly
[ık'splısıtlı]
ясно, точно, недвусмысленно
diffusely
[dɪ'fjuːzlɪ]
разбросанный, рассеянный, распространенный
construction [kən'strʌkʃ(ə)n]
строительство
establish
[ı'stæblıʃ]
адаптироваться, укореняться, приниматься (о растении)
fishery
['fıʃərı]
рыболовство; рыбный промысел
estuaries
['estʃʋ(ə)rı]
устье (реки); эстуарий, дельта
catch
[kætʃ]
улов
derivative
[dı'rıvətıv]
производная (то, что из них производят)
timing
['taımıŋ]
выбор времени, привязка по времени
project
['prɒdʒəkt]
прогнозировать; предполагать
5. Correlate the following phrases with the highlighted ones in the text.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
приводятся в движение
не так хорошо разработаны
прогнозируется, что они будут
все в большей степени (все
больше) влиять
может привести к чрезмерному
производство зерна
в
сравнении
с
доиндустриальным периодом
губительные
методы
промыслового рыболовства
адаптируются
и
распространяются
частота массового появления
вредителей и вспышки болезней
по оценкам (предположительно)
достигнет примерно
сейчас в три раза больше чем
было
труднодоступный
морская рыба и беспозвоночные
отсутствуют
эффективные
превентивные меры
в различном масштабе
перевешивают преимущества
в
течение
определенного
времени
на
протяжении
последних
сорока лет
имеют свойство усиливать друг
друга
89
6. Which two of the above phrases compare issues? Do you know any other means of
comparison? Consult Appendix 7. Rephrase the following sentences.
1. Global economic activity is now nearly seven times what it was 50 years ago and it is
expected to grow further.
2. World population has doubled in the past forty years, having reached 6 billion in 2000.
7. In the text of task 4 highlight the verbs in various tenses and voices. Explain the usage.
8. The drivers of biodiversity loss can be direct and indirect. Complete the table below with
appropriate drivers.
1. changes in economic activity
2. changes in land use
3. climate change
4.cultural and religious attitudes
direct
5. habitat change
6. invasive species
7. overexploitation
8. nutrient loading
9. pollution
10. population growth
11. science and technology
development
12. socio-political factors
indirect
9. Look through tasks 1 through 3 once again. Revise the vocabulary of the previous units.
Read the text using the English phrases instead of the Russian ones.
How quickly are drivers causing change?
Today many факторы, влияющие на вымирание, such as изменение
землепользования, emerging disease, and инвазивные виды, are all occurring together and at a
greater intensity than in the past. Because exposure to one угрозе often makes a виды more
susceptible to a second, and so on, multiple угроз may have unexpectedly серьезные
последствия для биоразнообразия.
Факторы, влияющие на биоразнообразие range from local to global and from
immediate to long-term. Изменение климата may operate on a spatial scale of a large region,
whereas political change may operate at the scale of a nation or a municipal district. Sociocultural changes often происходят медленно, on a time scale of decades, while economic
changes имеют свойство происходить more rapidly.
Many последствия of management interventions on экосистемы are slow to become
apparent*. For example, a популяция cannot recover more quickly than the time needed to give
birth to a new generation, and recovery will often take several generations. Moreover, human
institutions are often slow to reach decision and to implement them. In addition, none of the
влияющих факторов appears to be well controlled and we have not yet seen all of the
последствия изменений that occurred in the past.
The вымирание видов due to потери среды обитания has a significant lag time*. For
some виды this process can be rapid, but for other it may take 100 to 10 000 years. Time lags
between фрагментацией среды обитания and вымиранием provide an opportunity for
90
humans to restore среды обитания and rescue виды от вымирания. Notwithstanding* this,
меры по восстановлению среды обитания will not be likely to save the most уязвимых видов,
which will вымрут soon after a потери среды обитания.
________________________________
apparent
lag time
notwithstanding
[ə'pærənt]
явный, очевидный,
[læg taım]
время запаздывания, время задержки
[,nɒtwıθ'stændıŋ / ,nɒtwıð'stændıŋ]
тем не менее; однако; и всё-таки
10. Mark the statements below as true or false or “doesn’t say” according to task 4. Using the
statements and the phrases from the table make a short utterance agreeing or disagreeing with
the statements and proving your point of view.
Personal
In my opinion the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
point of view As far as I’m concerned the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
(true or false) If you ask me the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
I am quite sure the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
As far as I can see the statement is true/false (correct/ incorrect) because…
true
I absolutely agree with the statement because…
I’d like to support this view because…
That’s a very good point because…
false
I disagree with this statement because…
I can’t accept the view because…
I object to this thought because…
confirmation the text says that …
the text asserts that …
the text states that …
it is said in the text that…
the text claims that …
as you can see from the text …
doesn’t say
Perhaps it’s
the article says nothing about it.
true/false, but …
the article doesn’t say anything about it.
there is no such information in the article.
the article contains no information about it
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Drivers are only human-induced factors that affect biodiversity.
Direct drivers influence ecosystem processes while indirect drivers affect humans.
Not all direct drivers can be measured accurately*.
Combinations of drivers amplify each other.
Changes in economic activity, population change, and socio-political factors are the three
major direct drivers of biodiversity loss.
6. Habitat and land use change are recognized to greatly influence biodiversity loss.
7. Overexploitation and invasive species are less important than habitat and land use
change.
8. An increasing number of fisheries, especially in developed countries, are moving towards
more sustainable management.
9. Natural disturbances have a significant impact on biodiversity.
10. Effective measures to prevent the spreading of invasive species are lacking.
11. Important progress has been made in identifying invasive species and the ways by which
they are spread, but this hasn’t had an impact in reducing the actual number of invasions
so far.
12. It is only possible to reduce or halt the loss of biodiversity if the drivers and pressures on
biodiversity are themselves reduced or eliminated.
13. Industrial fishery supports marine biodiversity.
14. Industrial production of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and phosphorous fertilizers started
in 1985 and 1960 respectively.
15. Climate change means the decrease in world mean annual temperatures.
16. Climate change is projected to be the main direct driver of overall biodiversity loss.
91
17. The prolonged growing season has its benefits both in Europe and Africa.
18. By 2100 the average surface temperature will be 2 to 6.4 C higher than it was before
industrial revolution.
__________________________________________________
accurately
['ækjərətlı]
точно, правильно; безошибочно; тщательно, аккуратно
11. Study the terms in the first column. Match the terms with definitions in the table below.
1 changes in land use
2 climate change
3 habitat fragmentation
4 habitat loss
5 invasive species
6 overexploitation
7 nutrient loading
a a process during which a large habitat is transformed into a
number of smaller habitats, isolated from each other
b a process by which human activities alter the natural
landscape, referring to how land is used, usually for
economic purposes
c the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of
supporting its native species. It includes habitat destruction,
habitat degradation and habitat fragmentation
d the input of nutrients into the ecosystem from numerous
anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic sources
e the overuse of wild animal and plant species by people
f any kind of living organism that is not native to an
ecosystem and causes harm.
g the rise in average surface temperatures on Earth
12. Complete the text with the following terms.
1. drivers
2. pollution
3. pollution
4. overfishing
5. biodiversity
6. climate change
7. overexploitation
8. habitat change
9. economic activity
10.population declines
11. indirect drivers
12. direct drivers
13. invasive species
14. invasive species
15. land cover change
16. longer growing season
What factors lead to biodiversity loss?
a. ………….. is declining rapidly due to factors such as land use change, climate change,
b.………… , overexploitation, and c. ……… . Such natural and human-induced factors –
referred to as d. ……… – tend to interact and amplify each other.
While changes in biodiversity are more clearly linked to f. ……….. such as habitat loss,
they are also linked to e. …………. The main indirect drivers are changes in human population,
g. ……….. , and technology, as well as socio-political and cultural factors.
Different direct drivers have been critically important in different ecosystems over the
last 50 years. For example, in terrestrial ecosystems, the main driver has been h. …………….
such as the conversion of forests to agriculture lands. In marine systems, however, fishing, and
particularly i.………, has been the main driver of biodiversity loss.
Overall, the main direct drivers of biodiversity loss are: a. …………. , such as
fragmentation of forests; j. ………… that establish and spread outside their normal distribution;
k. …………. of natural resources; and l. ……….., particularly by excessive fertilizer use leading
to excessive levels of nutrients in soil and water.
Recent changes in climate have already had significant impacts on biodiversity and
ecosystems in certain regions. As m. ………… will become more severe, the harmful impacts on
ecosystem services are expected to outweigh possible benefits, such as a n. ……………. , in
most regions of the world. Climate change is expected to amplify risks of extinctions, floods,
droughts, o. …………. , and disease outbreaks.
92
13. In the texts of tasks 4, 8 and 11 find 3 synonyms (both verbs and nouns) which can be
translated as влиять and влияние.
14. Compose 6 sentences using the ideas from tasks 4 and 7 and the synonyms from task 13.
15. Read the text. Divide it into four paragraphs. Headline each paragraph. Choose the most
suitable heading from list 1-5. There is one extra heading you don’t need to use.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Conclusion
Freshwater ecosystems
Introduction
Marine ecosystems
Terrestrial ecosystems
Direct drivers vary in their importance within and among systems and in the extent to which
they are increasing their impact. Historically, habitat and land use change have had the biggest
impact on biodiversity across biomes. Climate change is projected to increasingly affect all
aspects of biodiversity, from individual organisms, through populations and species, to
ecosystem composition and function. Pollution, especially the deposition of nitrogen and
phosphorus, but also including the impact of other contaminants, is also expected to have an
increasing impact, leading to declining biodiversity across biomes. Overexploitation and
invasive species have been important as well and continue to be major drivers of changes in
biodiversity. The most important direct driver of change in the past 50 years has been land cover
change. Only biomes relatively unsuited to crop plants, such as deserts, boreal forests, and
tundra, are relatively intact. Deforestation and forest degradation are currently more extensive in
the tropics than in the rest of the world, although data on boreal forests are especially limited.
Approximately 10–20% of drylands are considered degraded, with the majority of these areas in
Asia. A study of the southern African biota shows how degradation of habitats led to loss of
biodiversity across all species. The most important direct driver of change in the past 50 years
has been fishing. Fishing is the major direct anthropogenic force affecting the structure, function,
and biodiversity of the oceans. Due to overfishing or fishing above their maximum sustainable
levels the biomass of fish targeted in fisheries has been reduced by 90% compared to levels of
pre-industrial times. Recent studies have demonstrated that after the peak in the late 1980s, the
global amount fished has been declining. Destructive fishing is also a factor in shallower waters;
bottom trawling homogenizes three-dimensional benthic habitats and dramatically reduces
biodiversity. Depending on the region, the most important direct drivers of change in the past 50
years include physical changes, modification of water regimes, invasive species, and pollution.
The loss of wetlands worldwide has been speculated to be 50% of those that existed in 1900.
However, the accuracy of this figure has not been established due to an absence of reliable data.
Massive changes have been made in water regimes. In Asia, 78% of the total reservoir volume
was constructed in the last decade, and in South America almost 60% of all reservoirs were built
since the 1980s. Water withdrawals from rivers and lakes for irrigation or urban or industrial use
increased six times since 1900. Globally, humans now use roughly 10% of the available
renewable freshwater supply, although in some regions, such as the Middle East and North
Africa, humans use 120% of renewable supplies—the excess is obtained through mining
groundwater. The introduction of non-native invasive species is now a major cause of species
extinction in freshwater systems. It is well established that the increased discharge of nutrients
causes intensive eutrophication and potentially high levels of nitrate in drinking water and that
pollution from point sources such as mining has had devastating impacts on the biota of inland
waters.
16. Study the diagram in Appendix 8. Using the active vocabulary of the unit describe the
reasons of biodiversity loss.
93
17. Watch the Introduced species and biodiversity video (0:00 – 1:02) and provide definitions of
native and introduced species.
18. Watch the Introduced species and biodiversity video (1:02 – 2:55) and answer questions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
In what way do people introduce species?
Provide the examples of intentional introduction.
Provide the examples of an accidental one.
What happens when we introduce a new species into an environment?
What effect did the introduction of snakes have on native species of the Guam island?
6. Why do world economy spend 1,4 trillion dollars every year?
19. Watch the video (2:55- 4:48) and tick those ideas that the presenter mentions.
1. The term native habitat is ambiguous.
2. People started carry species from one place to another without thinking that it was a
problem.
3. An invasive species does not have to come from another country.
4. When the origin of the species is unclear we call the species cryptogenic.
5. Approximately 42 percent of threatened or endangered species are at risk due to invasive
species.
6. Invasive species have devastating effects on wildlife.
7. Collections can preserve historical information and collections made today establish the
base for future reference.
8. Not all introduced species are harmful for humans and environment.
9. An invasive species can be any kind of living organism—an amphibian, plant, insect,
fish, fungus, bacteria, or even an organism’s seeds or eggs.
10. Some introduced species live nearby and we even don’t know about their existence.
11. We don’t even realize that some unnoticed introduced species do some damage to the
ecosystem.
20. Watch the 4:48-8:40 part and arrange the following sentences as they appear in the video.
1. 80% of the elms* in Toronto was destroyed by fungal pathogen which came with
introduced bark beetles.
2. All invasive species are introduced, but not all introduced species are invasive.
3. In the Black Sea in the 90s the consequence of comb jellies introduction was the
destruction of an anchovy population.
4. Invasive comb jellies altered the ecosystem food web destroying not only the anchovies
but also whatever else that was eating them.
5. Invasive species are organisms that cause decreases in ecosystem function.
6. Invasive species come with new diseases, new parasites, and new accompanying effects.
7. Some introduced species don’t live peacefully with the native species.
8. Some invasive species are generalists and tolerate a wide range of environmental
conditions.
9. Some organisms that we don't often consider as invasive species include disease-causing
organisms like, fungi, or bacteria, and even viruses.
10. They lack natural controls such as the predators or diseases which regulate their
abundance in their native habitats.
11. They win in competition because they have competitive advantages.
12. When introduced species outcompete native ones, they're known as invasive.
_________________________________________
elm
[elm]
вяз
94
21. Watch the video till the end and answer the questions.
1. Why does the presenter call humans an invasive species?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What is the difference between invasive and introduced species?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
22. Intermediate. Look through the following words and phrases which will help you better
understand the utterance.
1
2
3
4
5
6
exponential
curve on a graph
concept of carrying capacity
slash-and-burn agriculture
plowing over stuff
Superfund
7
8
9
10
11
leaking of harmful chemicals
waterborne pollutants
waste disposal
untreated sewage
Polychlorinated biphenyl
(PCB)
hormone mimics
sonar pollution
sea turtle hatchling
lumber
12
13
14
15
мат. экспоненциальный, показательный
кривая на графике
концепция способности вмещать
подсечно-огневое земледелие
пахать все подряд
Суперфонд - организация в США, занимающаяся
очисткой земель, загрязненных в результате
деятельности человека.
утечка опасных химикатов
переносимые водой загрязнители
удаление отходов
необработанные сточные воды
полихлорированные бифенилы (ПХБ)
имитаторы гормонов
ультразвуковое загрязнение
процесс отложения яиц черепахами
пиломатериалы
23. Intermediate. Watch the Human activities that threaten biodiversity video 0:00 through
3:30 and answer the questions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Why is people reproduction growing?
What is an estimated number of people in 2050?
What is the concept of carrying capacity?
Who was the author of the concept and when did he come up with the idea?
Why was his idea so unusual for his time?
Why did he think that we would exceed the planet's carrying capacity for human beings?
Why haven’t we reached the Malthusian limit yet?
In what case (under what conditions) could the earth support an estimated 40 billion
people?
24. Intermediate. Watch the Human activities that threaten biodiversity video 3:30 through
5:37 and tell the main idea of the passage.
25. Intermediate. Watch the Human activities that threaten biodiversity video 5:37 till the end.
95
Make the diagram of human induced causes of biodiversity loss. Write out the key ideas. Mark
the spell of each cause description. Explain each point in the diagram using the vocabulary of
the unit.
26. Read and translate the article given Appendix 1, Unit 7. You can either get another article
on the topic from the websites listed. Render it in 7-9 sentences. Make use of Appendix 4.
96
Scripts
Unit 1
Difference between Abiotic and Biotic Factors
Welcome to MooMooMath and Science.In this video I'd like to talk about the difference
between biotic and a biotic factors.
Biotic factors are things in an ecosystem that are living. Examples include plants,
animals, algae and bacteria. In order to be considered alive you must have each of the following
traits: be made of cells, contain DNA, require energy, reproduce, respond to stimuli, and grow
and develop.
Abiotic factors on the other hand are non-living; nor have they ever been alive. Examples
include water, fire, ice, temperature sunlight and even lightning.
Simply put, an ecosystem is all the abiotic and biotic factors in an area.
This area can be big or small. Let’s look at some pictures and identify the abiotic and biotic
factors. In this picture the fox is biotic, the snow, temperature and sunlight are abiotic factors.
Iguana is biotic, the rock, ocean, air and sunlight are abiotic factors. In this picture the human is
biotic, the trees and the lichen growing on the rocks. And the rocks, clouds, temperatures and air
are all abiotic.
I hope that helps in identifying abiotic and biotic factors.
Why should students study Ecology & Biodiversity? By Prof. David Dudgeon
Ok. I'm often asked by students why should they study ecology and biodiversity. I think
the first good reason for why you should study ecology and biodiversity is if it interests you; and
if you have a passion for some particular group of plants and animals that's even better; so if it
interests you and you have a passion for it then that's good. But that's not good enough. There are
two other reasons why you should be studying ecology and biodiversity. So the second reason is,
you should do it if you care about nature and its protection. Now people talk a lot about
sustainability, but sustainability isn't just keeping things the way they are, because we've already
lost quite a lot. Sustainability is about making things better. So if you decide to study ecology
and biodiversity you should not be planning to be an observer on the sidelines. But you should
be taking an active part. You should be somebody who will take action to make things better, to
protect our shared heritage. And that's not a small thing because nowadays our country parks and
our seas and all the species that live in and around them are under greater threat now. There may
have been any recent time in the past you only have to look at the media to see that that is the
case. So what's the third reason then? Third, I think you should study ecology and biodiversity
because you want to be the best scientist you can. Arguments for protecting nature can't just be
based on passion and enthusiasm because you love it. That’s not going to be enough. Both of
these things are important but in Hong Kong today you have to back up your passion and your
arguments with sound scientific information. You have to have data to back up assertions that
species are declining in numbers, and may be in danger of being lost, or that a particular habitat
is being degraded. And that this destruction will impoverished the environment. Now personally,
I believe that biodiversity has value in and of itself, irrespective of its utilitarian value or its
service value or whatever. But in Hong Kong where development has always said to be balance
off, against conservation, and keep in mind that so-called balance always means that
development wins and conservation loses. And development, by the way, is always destruction.
Because of this balance in Hong Kong it's imperative that we employ the very, very best science
that we can if we hope to win arguments about conserving nature in the face of development
97
imperatives in Hong Kong. So I think it's most important for Hong Kong students to study
ecology and biodiversity because they are the best people to protect Hong Kong's environment
and our natural heritage into the future. Who else is going to do that apart from our students? So
in a nutshell, I think you should study ecology and biodiversity because it matters, because it's
important, because it's interesting, and sometimes because it's fun.
Unit 2
Introduction to Ecology
Our big beautiful blue planet is in a complicated balance of life and death, predator and
prey, friend and foe. The word ecology literally translates to the “study of home” - our home,
planet Earth. The more specific definition of ecology is the study of the relations of organisms to
one another and to their physical environment. It answers questions like how do living things
interact and rely on each other or on their surroundings. The survival of any species is dependent
on other living organisms and nonliving components. This is called interdependence. For
example, humans could not survive without plants to produce oxygen and the plants need carbon
dioxide from humans and other organisms or even from volcanic eruptions. Ecology is extremely
complex and difficult to study. So one way that ecologists deal with this complexity is to use
ecological models to represent or describe the components of an ecological system. This model
is called an ecosphere. The largest ecological system we know of is the biosphere, planet Earth.
This is the only biosphere we study because so far it's the only place in the universe that we
know has life. The biosphere is the thin veil on earth that goes from above the ground to the
deepest parts of the ocean. All life on Earth is in the biosphere. If you zoom into one ecosystem
it's a little easier to see all the parts working together. An ecosystem is all the organisms and
nonliving environment found in a particular place. The living things in this pond ecosystem
include fish, turtles, aquatic plants, algae, insects, birds and bacteria. These organisms interact in
ways that affect their survival. For instance, insects and fish eat aquatic plants, and the turtles eat
the fish. The nonliving or physical and chemical things include the chemical composition of the
pond, its pH, its levels of dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide and its supply of nitrogen, which
all helped to determine what kinds of organisms live in the pond and how abundant they are. A
community is all of the interacting organisms in an area. It does not include the nonliving
factors. A population is all of the organisms of one type of species in the area, and an organism
refers to an individual animal. In order the levels of organization from the most broad to the
narrowest are: the biosphere, ecosystem, community, population and organism.
Ecosystems and Biomes
So, just as a bit of review.
If we take the members of a certain species that share the same area, we call that a
population. Population. All of the organisms in this particular population will be members of the
same species. There could be other members of that species that aren't in that same area, and they
wouldn't be a member of this particular population. And a certain area won't have just one, or it
doesn't tend to have just one species in it. So, we could call this population one. You might have
other populations there of a different species. So, this is another species right over here. All of
them combined in the same area, we could call this population, population two. And if you
take... And we could, obviously have many more populations there. And if you take all of the
populations in a given area, there's flexibility on how you define that area or define that region,
you take those together, so you're really taking all of the living things in a certain area, we call
that a community. A community of populations.
98
Now, the community only consists of living things, the biotic factors. So, let me write that down.
Biotic. Biotic referring to the living things in a certain area. But if we want to think about not just
the living things, but also the non-living things in that region. So, I'll write abiotic. Let me do
that in another color. So, let's take the abiotic factors, or the abiotic environment. And, once
again, we're sharing the same region, and that is flexible on how you define that region. You put
all of these things together, and then you get your ecosystem.
Your ecosystem, once again, it could be a very small region, it could be a very large region, but
it's made up of all living things, the biotic factors, and the non-living things, the abiotic factors.
1:50
Now, what we're gonna think about in this video is just the types of ecosystems that you
might have. Think a little bit about it, and also begin to think about how the different factors
interact with each other. How there's conservation of matter where, within an ecosystem, matter
tends to go from one form to another. You also have a flow of energy. Energy tends to enter an
ecosystem in form of light, and that energy gets transferred from one organism to another, and,
sometimes, even involving the non-living things, eventually, becoming, getting turned into actual
heat.
Now, in terms of the types of ecosystems. I’ve already mentioned there's a lot of variety
there. This, right here, is a picture of a tide pool at Half Moon Bay, not too far from where I live.
I've actually been to the tide pools at Half Moon Bay. And you could consider one particular tide
pool, both the abiotic factors, the water, and the rock there, as well as the biotic factors, the
starfish, the sea anemones, and whatever else might be living there. Those combined, that could
be an ecosystem. You might say that the entire beach is an ecosystem. You might say that the
entire region is an ecosystem. Once again, it depends on how much you want to zoom in or how
much you want to zoom out, and you can zoom out a good bit. This rain forest, right over here,
this is the Amazon rain forest. You can consider the whole rain forest an ecosystem, or maybe
you just want to study, maybe you just want to study what's happening in this exact region, right
over there. You can also consider that an ecosystem. You can consider what's happening in the
river, itself, an ecosystem, or, maybe, one part of that river. And, as you notice, I'm talking about
some ecosystems that are on land, and some that are in water, and that is a general way, one way
of classifying them. So an ecosystem, you could have it on land. You could have it on, near, in
the water. So, you could say it's aquatic. And then, if within aquatic, you could have ones that...
You have salt water, or partially salty water, and these are called marine, and the main marine
ecosystem, we're thinking about - the oceans and things like that. And then, you have freshwater
ecosystems. Like if you are in the upper-Amazon, that is freshwater that is flowing. So we could
say fresh, freshwater, non-salty water. And even though it looks like rivers are big and there's a
lot of freshwater around us. Obviously we need freshwater to live, most of the aquatic
ecosystems are marine, are not involved freshwater. Freshwater is a very small subset.
4:20
Now, this is just a few examples. Even your body, you could view your body as a whole
ecosystem. You could view parts of your body as an ecosystem. You could look at just... You
could look at just a fraction of... If this is my hand right over here, you could take just a little
square there, and you could consider that an ecosystem. You can think about the different
bacteria that are there, other types of microorganisms that are there, and how they're interacting
with the non-living things, the air. How they're interacting with the oil on your skin, with the
dead skin cells, and also, how they're interacting with the living skin cells, and you, yourself.
Now, since we're in the…, since we're in the…, we're focused on how we can classify
ecosystems, one thing that's often done is classifying land ecosystems into various categories.
And, right over here, we have depicted the major types of land ecosystems on our planet and
where you might find them. And these different types of land ecosystems, these are called
biomes. Biomes. And as you can see from this diagram, tropical forests, you can find it right
over here. This is the Amazon rain forest. You can find it in Africa. You can find it in Southeast
Asia. You can find it in Central and even Southern or North America. You have boreal forests
99
which you'll find in more northern latitudes. Savanna, desert, tundra, chaparral, polar ice,
temperate forest, temperate grasslands, and these are just helpful for thinking about roughly the
types of ecosystem, or ecosystems we would find in those regions. And it's typically most
determined by temperature, moisture, the climate. Actually, the climate and the terrain and the
types of minerals that you would find there, that tends to be a pretty good indicator for what it
will be like, what the life would be like. But even with that said, there could still be a lot of
variety. For example, the Sonoran Desert, that is right over here in the southwest United States,
in the northwest Mexico. This is a desert, and there's deserts all over the rest of the planet, but
they won't have... They might be similar in a lot of ways, but they won't have the exact same
climate, or the exact same abiotic factors, or the exact same biotic factors. So, for example, right
now I'm gonna show you a picture, pictures of the Sonoran Desert and the Rock Desert that's on
the island of Boa Vista. Boa Vista is right over there. You really can't see it. It's a very small
island off the coast of Africa. And, as we see in these diagrams, or in this picture, you don't have
to be an expert to recognize that, okay, these are both deserts. They both look dry. There's not a
lot of water here, but they are also very different. The Sonoran Desert looks to have at least a lot
more life, than the Rock Desert have here. It's appropriately named the Rock Desert because it
seems, at least to the naked eye, it looks like all you can see is rock. So biomes, once again, it's a
very rough, high-level way to classifying land ecosystems. But even the same biome can be very,
very... Two things that are categorizing in the same biome could be very different.
My Biome Song
I'm coming home to my biome
Tell the world there’s six main biomes
Some are dry and others rain
Some have trees and others plain
I know my kingdom awaits
With plants and animals and lakes
I'm coming home to my biome
Tell the World that I'm coming…
I’m back where I belong
Yeah, in my own biome
I feel like this climate is just right
And if you with me put your hands high
If you ever lost your way before.
This one’s for you
I hear the call of Macaw
I love their song
The rainforest is hot and sticky on the floor
It’s gonna rain again at dawn
Another Boa, Capybara, Jaguar, and Gibbon
With Cannopy, Understory, and Forest floor
It’s got a lot of stuff and it's nearly equator
What if they keep knocking down all of palms
How do I respond?
What if we move around to a much different
zone?
The deserts can be icy, sandy or from stone
Hey, nothing seems be growing
It’s the Taiga, biggest to see it
Even snow on the ground
Can’t conceal it
But now we come to the biome called Tundra
The ground is frozen like ice or permafrost-a
Maybe the polar bears ain’t thin
‘Cause they have all that fat
Keepin’ warm under their skin
The animals have changed their outer manes
It’s time to see the treeless plains
Hear me explain, come on
I'm coming home to my biome
Tell the world there’s six main biomes
Some are dry and others rain
Some have trees and others plain
I know my kingdom awaits
With plants and animals and lakes
I'm coming home to my biome
Tell the World that I'm coming…
I’m almost home, check this out, yeah
Savannahs and Prairies are grasslands, that
ain’t wrong
Receives more rainfall than Deserts but not
prolonged
Animals use colours, some use spots
To camouflage for hunting or hide on rocks
It’s lions, zebras, even hyenas
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But at night it gets cold to the bone
Another day another dawn
just tell Africa and Asia no rain in the morn’
Another hot and dry day gone
I need to get back to the place I belong
I'm coming home to my biome
Tell the world there’s six main biomes
Some are dry and others rain
Some have trees and others plain
I know my kingdom awaits
With plants and animals and lakes
I'm coming home to my biome
Tell the World that I'm coming…
Hey Yo, check this out
The Taiga’s a biome, not a lion
It’s got conifer trees with leaves never gone
and wolves, bears, rabbits and deer adapt for it
And you know they’ve adapted to the short
summers
Rich fertile soil with tall grasses and bushes
Soaking up the water
Roots not tall but shorter
Yeah it’s now deciduous forest
Lot of trees, lot of deer, lot of leaves,
Lot of bear, lot of season, lot of regions
That’s a fact, trees lose leaves – that’s their gig
And they stand right on the land
Not ignored but adored.
I'm coming home to my biome
Tell the world there’s six main biomes
Some are dry and others rain
Some have trees and others plain
I know my kingdom awaits
With plants and animals and lakes
I'm coming home to my biome
Tell the World that I'm coming…
Ecological succession | Ecology | Khan Academy
You look at a community that is in a given habitat, a natural question is to say, well, has
that community always been that way? Has it always been there? Was there a time where maybe
there was no life there?
And the answer is, well, yes, the communities do change over time, and there is some
initial period where there might not be any life in that habitat, and then life slowly colonizes it,
and the makeup of that life will change over time, the makeup of that community. And this
general idea is called ecological succession.
Ecological succession. And folks will often talk about the different types of ecological
succession, splitting it up into primary ecological succession, and so primary is when you start
with no life, because you really have a new habitat, and then slowly life colonizes it. And the
best example of that, or one of the best examples of that, is when new land forms due to lava
flows. There are pictures from Hawaii, where new land is forming as this lava hardens. And, at
first, there is, when it's molten lava, there's no life there, then it hardens, and slowly, basic life, or
life in general, will start to colonize that lava rock. And some of it you won't be able to see with
your naked eye, it would be microbes, and some of it you could see, it could be simple ferns and
plants like that, and these are often called the pioneer species. But what they often do is make
that environment more suitable for other types of life. So they might slowly break down that
rock. As they die, along with the broken down rock that also gets eroded from the water and the
air and the rain, it starts to make soil and conditions more suitable for other types of species. And
these pioneer species, they don't even have to just be plants and microbes. I was just reading an
article about how in Hawaii, humans want to get that land because it's beachfront property. Or
the beach might not have formally formed in the traditional sense, but you have ocean view
property. So humans might be some of the first pioneer species who might wanna be out on that
land. And that new land doesn't just form from lava flows. There are other examples of new
habitats forming. So right here, we have pictures of a new habitat forming because of the retreat
of glaciers. When the glaciers were covering up these rocks, you didn't have life on them. But as
the glacier retreats right over here, you see things like these mosses and other types of pioneer
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species starting to colonize. And over time, they're going to make it more and more suitable for
other types of species. So that's primary succession.
Another situation is when you have secondary succession. And there's many different
ways you could have secondary succession. One of the most cited examples is when you have
some type of a disaster. And so this right over here, this is a picture of a fire, so here, we're
talking about secondary succession, where you had a community, but then you have a fire, and
so that fire might wipe out a lot of the community. And then it creates space for other things to
form. So after you have a fire, the forest might look something like this, and then, notice, you
have species that start to colonize where a lot of other species might have died or died during the
fire. And sometimes, after this disaster of some kind, you might get back to the same type of
community that you had before the disaster, but sometimes, it could be a completely different
one, that the communities don't come about in exactly the same way.
So the general idea is communities change over time, we have ecological succession.
There are times where there's no community, and then they come in, that's primary succession.
And then, you have times where you have disasters of some kind that could change the
environment in some ways, and it could change the makeup of that community. And things don't
have to be as dramatic as new land formation because of lava or because of forest fires or even
glaciers retreating. It could because of a disease, or it could just be because a new species gets
introduced somehow that changes the makeup, changes the competition, the predatory, the
various, the symbiotic dynamics within that community.
Unit 3
Food Webs and Energy Pyramids: Bedrocks of Biodiversity
When we were little, we loved nature shows. One reason was because we didn’t have
cable and it was one of the few things we actually got a TV signal for that didn’t require you to
dance around with the TV antennae for reception. But the other reason was that, of course, it was
cool science. It often showed animals that we couldn’t see in our own backyard doing some
AWESOME things. But then it would be traumatizing when, inevitably, some predator would
walk in and gobble the unsuspecting animal up.
Truly, action scenes with predators and prey are often shown in nature shows because it’s
all part of nature’s food chains. A food chain starts with a producer. A producer is an organism
that is an autotroph, which means it can make its own food. A plant, for example. The plant is
eaten by a primary consumer, this grasshopper here. Consumers are heterotrophs, which means
they need to feed on other organisms. The primary consumer is eaten by a secondary consumer,
this frog. The secondary consumer is eaten by a tertiary consumer, this snake. And the food
chain can keep going! Notice how the arrows are supposed to point in the direction of the one
doing the eating, which makes sense, because that’s the direction of the energy flow. You can
also arrange the same food chain into an energy pyramid. The producers are at the base here---in
trophic level 1. They actually contain the most energy. What is crazy to think about is that the
primary consumers here---in tropic level 2---they actually only store 10% of the energy from the
producers. Meaning, let’s say the plants here had 10,000 kilocalories (that’s an energy unit) of
energy. Well the next level here---the primary consumers in trophic level 2, they would only
store 1,000 kilocalories of energy. So, where did the rest go? Much of it is lost in heat or
undigested. If you go up to the secondary consumers in trophic level 3, that would be only 100
kilocalories of energy! So as you go up each trophic level, it’s roughly only 10% of the energy
from the trophic level below that would be stored. Back to our food chain. Notice that, like a
domino effect, if something is removed ---let’s say the grasshoppers---you can harm the others
because they may not have enough to eat. You really have to consider the relationships among
organisms in a food chain. In fact, even if you took out the apex predator in this particular food
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chain, which is the snake, you could end up with an excessive population of frogs, and so many
frogs, that’s possible they wouldn’t have enough grasshoppers to even support them.
You know, this is actually not a very good model, because in real life, this snake probably
doesn’t just eat frogs. It probably eats rabbits and birds too. Because an ecosystem doesn’t
typically have a single food chain, instead, it has more of a food web. A food web is made up of
multiple food chains that interact together. So notice now that we have multiple food chains here
tied in with our original to make a food web. The beauty of a food web is that it shows more
interactions among a variety of producers and various level consumers. It also can show
biodiversity.
3:37
Flow of energy and matter through ecosystem | Ecology | Khan Academy
Let's think a little bit how energy flows and how matter is recycled in an ecosystem; and
so the whole time that we go through this video think about these two ideas and then even after
watching this video look at ecosystems around yourself even ones that you are part of, and think
about how energy flows and how matter is recycled.
So let's first think about energy. so the energy for most ecosystems originally comes from
the Sun. there are other sources of energy; you could think about even moonlight, but that
essentially comes from the Sun, but there's also geothermal energy, but the Sun is the source of
most energy for most ecosystems we can think of. And how does the ecosystem make use of that
energy? How does that get into? How does it get stored within the ecosystem especially as
biomass?
Well it starts with primary producers, which are usually going to be plants. They can also
be bacteria that are able to photosynthesize or that are able to take that energy and create
biomolecules that store energy from it. And so these are primary… primary producers… these
plants in this diagram. sometimes you'll see them referred to as autotrophs. They are getting their
own food from … from the Sun, from this energy. And once again, how is that energy stored?
Well it's stored in these biological molecules. If you were to zoom in into the molecules in this
plant (and this is a huge oversimplification) you'll see all these bonds between these carbons and
to make those bonds requires energy. And if you were to break those bonds it could release
energy. And you might say, well, where did all these carbons come from that are in this tree?
Well, the carbon is coming from the air. Our air has carbon dioxide in it. It has carbon dioxide.
So those are the carbons. Maybe let me draw some oxygens. So two oxygens for every carbon.
and the whole process of photosynthesis is all about fixing that carbon (let me write that word
down) we are fixing… fixing that carbon in from a gaseous form - when it's of carbon dioxide into the structure of the plant, into …into the biological molecules of the plant, so it's storing that
energy. Now it's not a perfectly efficient process, not all of the energy from the Sun is going to
be able to be stored. Some of it is being reflected, even the plant itself as it …as it goes, as it
lives, as it reproduces, as it cells divide some of that energy is used. And eventually that energy
is released as heat, and you're going to see this trend a lot in thermodynamic systems, that you
are take… you're going from one energy, you're using energy to do some work but in the process
you are going to be producing heat.
But this is just the beginning of our of our energy flow. Now we can think about how it…
that energy now flows to the other actors in the ecosystem. So the next phase - and this is a very
simplified diagram of an ecosystem that we're thinking about, most ecosystems are far, far, far
more complex. Let’s think about the characters that would eat the plants, the characters that
would eat the primary producers; and we call the folks that eat the primary producers, we call
them primary consumers. So this bunny or this squirrel right over here, they are primary …
primary consumers. They consume the primary producers and why do they consume them? Why
do … why does a bunny eat the grass? Well because it gets energy from those bonds between …
in the biological molecules, from those carbon bonds, and … and other bonds. And it's able to
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use that energy to grow itself, to reproduce, to live, to run around; and it also stores some of that
energy in its own biomass. And once again, this process is not very efficient. Going from one
layer of trophy to another layer of trophy you only have about ten percent … ten percent of the
energy gets transferred or gets stored in the next … gets stored in the next layer. Why only ten
percent? Well because not all of the plants get eaten. In the whole process of eating plants,
digesting plants some of the energy gets … some of the energy gets pooped out … gets pooped
out, because the… the primary consumer here or the consumer isn't able to get all of it out of the
actual biological molecules; and so overall it's an inefficient process. Now we're not done yet; we
still have energy stored in the biological molecules of this primary consumer that someone might
be interested in; and we know that in many ecosystems there are things that like to eat rabbits or
even squirrels. And in this drawing it will be this fox. And this fox, because it eats primary
consumers, we would call it a secondary consumer… a secondary consumer. And you could
keep going on with this, if there was some character out here, let's say, there's some guy who
likes to eat foxes, that's a knife in his hand, that he uses to go after the foxes with. Well, so the
fox could go to him. And once again, why is he eating foxes? Well he wants that energy in that
fox and actually some of them .. is actually not just about molecules, we’ll talk about matter in a
second. He wants the energy and the matter from the fox to grow and live himself. And so this
character would be called a tertiary consumer … tertiary consumer. And if there's no one who
wants to eat him, well, then he would be considered a … an apex consumer … an apex predator.
And these characters that eat other animals - we've talked about it before - they're called
carnivore… carnivores, but let me just say, he's the apex. An apex, we're really thinking about
the top of the food chain, that's why they're called … that would be called an apex consumer or
an apex predator. But we're not done yet, because at some point all of these characters, whether
we're talking about the trees, the bunnies, the fox, this … this character, who likes to eat foxes,
they … they're going to die, and that energy just doesn't disappear. And in general, you're going
to see, energy is conserved and it flows from one place to another, that energy is then going to be
used by … it is going to be used by these characters right over here, which we call decomposers.
They can take all that leftover energy in that … that dead carcass or even in the poop. And they
can make use of it, once again, for them to live, for them to reproduce. and then … and … and
then they by breaking that down they … they can release a lot of those nutrients and the matter
that's used and once again, the matter is recycled, once again to be used … to be used by the
plants. So it creates this really nice cycle. And the important thing to realize is it comes in as
light, that energy gets transferred as we go to through the layer … different layers of trophy, and
… and it's not a completely efficient process, and a lot of that energy, especially as we … as
these organisms live and reproduce and run around gets released as heat.
7:21
Now we focus a lot on the energy, let's think a little bit about the matter, and I've already
touched on it. But the matter is recycled. There isn't at least the way we've set this up, there isn't
a new matter that is entering or leaving these ecosystems or being magically created or magically
destroyed. as I mentioned, when you look at a leaf on a … on a plant growing or a tree growing
or a leaf of grass growing, that matter isn't just coming out of nowhere it's coming out of the it's
… it's just a different form or - maybe the best way to put it - that matter was always there, in the
form of carbon dioxide. The plant is just using that energy from the Sun to fix that carbon from a
gas form into … into a solid form. And it's able to use that energy to form bonds, bonds between
the carbons in these biological molecules that actually store energy. And the plant can use that
energy to grow and - as we've talked about things that eat the plants or things that eat the things
that eat the plants - can use that energy. And as we talked before, the carbon dioxide comes in
these plants and maybe this … this arrow might be a little bit misleading, so let me erase that …
let me erase that for now. But we release oxygen - O2 - that oxygen - and we've seen that as part
of the photosynthesis process - that oxygen is used by the animals to metabolize these biological
molecules. We study that in biology, in respiration. and the matter itself, as we say, we have this
carbon right over here, when it gets eaten, well then that becomes part of the biomolecules inside
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… inside of this … inside of this bunny; and when the bunny uses those, any of these biological
molecules as a source of energy, so it's able to break those bonds through respiration, well then
that carbon … that carbon gets released in the form of carbon … in the form of carbon dioxide.
So maybe this is a better way and actually it was already drawn right over here. And so the
important thing to realize is that energy is flowing: light from the Sun comes in, it's slow, you
know all this action goes on, and then it gets released as heat … as heat on almost every step but
the matter itself, it's always been there, all of the atoms in our body on earth, it's just constantly
being recycled, it's actually was generated inside of stars many … many billions of years ago,
and we just keep reusing it over and over and over again. it gets recycled from one form to
another, even after all of these … these biological - after these actors die - the decomposers
break them down into simple inorganic molecules, as we talked about before, that can then be
used as the plants in conjunction with the carbon from the air and the light from the Sun and
water that gets through its roots to start that process all over … all over again.
Energy Pyramid
In this session we're going to study energy pyramids. Energy pyramids are an important
concept in ecology,y because as a teacher they lend themselves to writing questions on the test.
Nearly any test that you take on ecology you're going to have at least one if not more questions
about an energy pyramid.
So let's start by taking a look at one. At the very bottom we have the producers. In this
case we have phytoplankton, cyanobacteria and algae. Now those are not producers that we
would normally be familiar with, but this is a marine ecosystem, so it's not something that we
come in contact with as often. Producers get their energy from the Sun. they make their own
food through the process of photosynthesis. Another name for a producer that we might run into
is autotroph. Autotroph meaning “on their own”. Something that's automatic, happens on its
own, an autotroph is able to make its food on its own. We move up the food chain, we see that
we have - labeled here – herbivores. Anything that is unable to make its own food is a consumer;
so everything in this range is a consumer. Ok you'll notice that the amount of energy in each
level decreases as we rise, so let's say, we start out with 90,000 kcal of energy. 90,000 kcal is a…
is a unit of energy. So, we start out with 90,000 of these units of energy. Every level that we
raise on the energy pyramid we go down by 10%, so now we have 9000 kcal. The zooplankton,
the snails and the urchins - these herbivores which are eating the phytoplankton, cyanobacteria
and algae, if we were to write a food web. We would draw those as arrows. We always draw the
arrows pointing towards the mouth of what's eating them. So these zooplankton have to do other
things they have to reproduce, they have to try to escape from things that are trying to eat them.
Just their day-to-day living uses up energy, so they don't have as much energy as the level below
them, so there's 9,000 kcal in these. Okay we call these consumers, since these are the first
consumers we call these primary consumers. as we move further up we start getting into
carnivores. Carnivores; they also cannot make their own food like producers can, so what they
do is they eat other consumers. So these primary… these consumers - the sea stars, whale sharks
and most of the fish that are in the ocean are going to be eating primary consumers and each
other. okay so these levels right here - the secondary carnivores - and these carnivores are all
consuming one another, okay and as we go higher with each successive level we have less and
less energy that's left because these fish are having to escape from being eaten from each other,
to go find the snails. As we go higher into the secondary carnivores, now we're only talking
about 90 kcal of energy. These secondary carnivores and carnivores together we would call the
secondary consumers. Then we move to the top of the energy pyramid. The apex predators or
what we might also refer to as the tertiary consumers. These are the top of the food chain - the
tiger shark, the moray eel. The things that nothing else will prey upon. Okay as we keep moving,
as we said, each level is 10% of the energy of the level below it, so there's only 9 kcal of energy
left in the system starting at 90,000. Okay. So what that means is that most of our energy is at the
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bottom of the energy pyramid. As we move up the amount of energy that's in the energy pyramid
decreases. And the energy doesn't disappear it's just used in moving around and swimming and
running in other ways. Energy doesn't get destroyed, is just used in the process of living.
Everything; that a consumer can also be referred to as a heterotroph. Okay so a consumer and a
heterotroph mean the same. Where do we have the most number of organisms? Again, starting at
the bottom we by far have the most producers, if you think about going outside do you see more
squirrels or do you see more grass? There are far more producers, than there's anything else. As
we move up the number of those species decrease as well. The one classification of organism
that is not found on this food pyramid is the decomposers. Decomposers are the garbagemen of
the ecosystem. The decomposers are not represented on this food pyramid because they're active
at each level whenever any of these organisms dies and is left in the environment, the
decomposers are the ones who break down that organism and return its nutrients back to the
environment providing all the nutrients needed to sustain the food pyramid.
Unit 4
Predator-prey cycles
What I wanna do in this video is think about how different populations that share the
same ecosystem can interact with each other and actually provide a feedback loop on each other.
And there's many cases of this, but the most cited general example is the case when one
population wants to eat another population. And so you have the predator population that likes to
eat the prey. So you have the predator and prey interactions. I'm doing the prey in I guess a
somewhat bloody color, I guess 'cause, well, they're going to be eaten. So let's just think about
how these populations could interact. Let me draw a little chart here that you're probably familiar
with by now where we show how a population can change over time. So the time, the horizontal
axis is time. The vertical axis is population. Population. And so let's just, in our starting point,
let's say that our prey is starting out at a relatively high point. Let's say we're right there in time,
and let's say for whatever reason, our predator population is relatively low. So what do we think
is going to happen here? Well, at this point, with a low density of predators, it's gonna be much
easier for them for find a meal, and it's gonna be much easier for the prey to get caught. So since
it's more easy, it's easier for the predators to find a meal, you can imagine their population
starting to increase. But what's going to happen is their population is increasing. Well, it's gonna
be more likely that they're gonna, their prey is gonna get caught. There's gonna be more of their
hunters around, more of their predators around. So that population is going to start decreasing all
the way to a point where if the population of the prey gets low enough, the predators are gonna
have, they're gonna start having trouble finding food again, and so that their population might
start to decrease, and as their population decreases, what's gonna happen to the prey? Well, then,
there's gonna be less predators around, so they might be able to, their population might start to
increase. And so I think you see what's happening. The predator and prey, they can kind of form
this cyclic interaction with each other. And what I've just drawn, this is often known as the
predator-prey cycle. And I just reasoned through that you can imagine a world where you can
have the cycle between predator and prey populations. But you can also run computer
simulations that will show this, and even observational data out in the field also shows this. One
of the often cited examples is interactions between, between the snowshoe hare, which would be
the prey in this situation, and the Canadian lynx, which would be the predator, the predator in
this situation. And you see a very similar cycle to what I just drew, kind of just reasoning
through it, and this, right here, is actual data. You see the passage of time here, and this is a long
passage of time. We're starting in the early 1800's going all the way to the early-mid 1900's. So
it's roughly 100 years of data that we're showing, and in the vertical axis, you have thousands of
animals and we're plotting both the population of snowshoe hares and Canadian lynx in a certain
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area on this chart. And as you see, when the prey population is high, when the prey population,
sorry, when the predator population is high, when we have a lot of the Canadian lynx around,
that we see a lower, a lower population of the prey, of the hare. But then as, since you have a low
population of the food in this situation, the predator population starts to decrease. So let me draw
an arrow here. The predator population starts to decrease and, let me do that same blue color.
And so the predator population decreases, and as that predator population decreases, well then
the prey population increases 'cause there's less folks around to hunt them. So the prey
population increases, and you see that the other way around. When the prey population is really
is, well maybe we'll show it right over here, and this is real data. That's why it's not always super
clean. But when the prey population is really, really high and the predator population is relatively
low, well, then, the predators say, "Hey, it's really easy for us to find meals right now." That's
kind of that starting point in that, when I was just reasoning through it. And so their population
starts to. Oh, oops, what did I do? There, there. Let me make sure. So their population starts to
increase, and as the predator population increases, well the prey population, the prey population
is going to decrease. So this is real data showing the snowshoe hare, the prey, and the Canadian
lynx, the predator, on over many, many decades to show this predator-prey cycle.
Symbiosis
Symbiosis. With so many organisms living on earth living things are bound to interact
with one another. Symbiosis is a close relationship between two species. One type of interaction
is called mutualism. An example of mutualism exists between honey bees and flowers. Flowers
provide nectar to the bees; the bees use the sugar rich liquid to make honey. But as the bee flies
from flower to flower tiny grains of pollen gets stuck to the bee. The bee moves the pollen
without even knowing it, and pollen is necessary for flowers to reproduce. In this relationship
both species benefit - the bees get nectar and the flowers get pollinated.
Another relationship is called commensalism. This interaction takes place when the
sharks and
remora lives together. Remora use sucking disks on their heads to attach themselves to sharks.
The sharks are powerful swimmers and do not even notice that the remora are there, however the
remora benefit from this relationship. The fish get a free ride and they also get protection. Also
the remora feed on scraps that are left over by the shark. In commensalism one species benefits
and the other is neither helped nor harmed.
The last symbiotic relationship is called parasitism. An example of this relationship exists
between humans and mosquitoes. The insects land on and take blood from humans. The
mosquito benefits as it uses the blood for energy. The human or host is harmed in this
relationship as blood is needed and the human could become infected with disease. In parasitism
one species benefits and the other is harmed.
Mutualism - a relationship were both species benefit; commensalism - one species
benefits and the others neither helped nor harmed; parasitism - one species benefits and the other
is harmed.
Symbiosis
Species Interactions
In predation an individual of one species, called the predator, eats all or part of an
individual of another species, called the prey. Let’s look at the interactions between predator and
prey over time. As the number of prey increases the number of predators will follow. But at a
certain point the number of prey available won't support the number of predators hunting them
and the prey population will crash. The predator population now nearly out of food will also
crash in numbers. But as the prey begin to grow the population once more the predators will also
increase the population. It’s a cyclic pattern.
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Interspecific competition is a type of interaction in which two or more species use the same
limited resource. For example, two species of birds in the same habitat might try to occupy the
same niche eating from a tree. And both lions and hyenas compete for prey such as zebras; and
many plant species compete for soil or sunlight. Some species may be better at getting their
resources than others. The competitive exclusion principle describes situations in which one
species is eliminated from a community because of competition for the same limited resource.
Often one species is more efficient than another at getting the resources. In order to avoid too
much interspecific competition the birds in this habitat may choose to do something else.
Resource partitioning. When similar species coexist each species may avoid competition with
others by using a specific part of an available resource. This is called resource partitioning. In the
case of these birds they will claim different parts of the tree: the red birds will feed and live up at
the top and the blue birds will feed and live at the bottom. By staying out of each other's way
they can both survive in the same habitat.
Intraspecific competition is a type of interaction in which two or more individuals of the
same species use the same limited resource like food or water or mates. For example, two trees
of the same species growing close together will compete for light, water and nutrients in the soil.
And these eagles are all competing for their different food types.
Symbiosis is an interaction between two different organisms living in close physical
association. There are three types of symbiosis: mutualism, commensalism and parasitism.
Mutualism is a relationship in which both organisms derive some benefit. An example is flowers
and their pollinators like bees. Flowers provide food and the pollinators carry pollen to other
flowers. it's a mutual benefit to both species. In commensalism one organism benefits but the
other organism is neither helped nor harmed. Cattle egrets and cape buffaloes are a great
example. The birds feed on small animals such as insects and lizards that are forced out of their
hiding places by the movement of the buffaloes through the grass. It’s a great way to get food for
the egrets and it makes no difference to the buffalos. Parasitism is a relationship in which one
individual is harmed while the other individual benefits. Unlike many forms of predation
parasitism usually does not result in the immediate death of the host. One example of a parasite
is a tapeworm. Tapeworms live in the host’s small intestine and absorb nutrients directly through
their skin. They reproduced by making egg filled chambers which are released in their hosts
feces. The hosts will have a difficult time maintaining their weight and it could lead to sickness
or death.
Now to summarize. The different types of symbiosis. We can make a little chart to
quickly show the types of relationships. Mutualism benefits both organisms in the relationship.
Commensalism benefits one organism but has no effect on the other and parasitism benefits one
organism and harms the other organism.
Interactions between populations
In the introduction to ecology, we introduce the idea of a community, which is all about
different populations that are in the same habitat, that share the same area or that are in the same
area. So populations, and if we're thinking in terms of water or in the air, it could be to share a
similar volume even, populations sharing a habitat. Sharing a habitat. And in particular in this
video, we're going to focus on the interactions between those populations, the interactions
between the different species. The technical term for that is interspecific interactions. I like to
just say “interactions between species”.
Now the first one that is often thought about is the notion of competition. And this is
when different populations, different species, are competing for the same resources. You can
imagine a forest, where you have different populations of plants that are competing for sunlight,
that are competing for water, that are competing for nutrients in the soil. Even in this picture
right over here, this is a picture of a community. All of these different populations of fish, and
other things, sea anemones and coral, they are sharing this same region, and many of them could
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be in competition with each other. They might be going after the same food, or they might be
going after the same shelter someplace. And oftentimes, when people are talking about these
inter-species or interspecific interactions, you'll see something like this, a minus slash minus, or a
negative sign slash a negative sign. And that means that this type of interaction, when you have
two species or two populations that are in competition with each other, the more that you have of
one, it's going to have a negative effect on the other, and vice versa. If I'm a plant, and if I'm in
competition with another plant, and that one's taking my light, and if there's more of it taking my
light, that's gonna have a negative impact on me and vice versa. If I'm in competition with you,
and we eat the same thing, the more of me that there's around eating your food, that's gonna have
a negative impact on you, and vice versa.
So the next form of interspecific interaction, or interaction between species, is predation.
This is when one population likes to eat another population. And you might often associate
predation with pictures like this that you see on television shows, on documentaries, you see a
cheetah hunting, it looks like a cheetah hunting a gazelle or a deer of some kind. Actually it says
right here it's a young bushbuck. And this is predation. But this is not the only form of predation.
This picture here of the goat eating grass, this is also predation. It's not quite as bloody and as
violent, but it is still predation, because you have one species eating another species. In this case
you have this animal, the goat that is eating the grass. And this type of predation, this specific
type of predation, is called herbivory. But it is a type of predation. So we could say, predation,
slash herbivory. Let me do a little slash here. Slash herbivory, which is a special case of
predation. And you'll often see a plus slash minus. The more of, let's say this species that you
have, the species that is being eaten, it's going to benefit the predator, but the more of the
predator that you have, it's going to have a negative effect on the actual prey.
Now the next types of interactions are ones where you have long-term, fairly intimate
interactions, where you have organisms that oftentime live with each other, or often on each
other. And this general term of organisms that have these long-term intimate interactions is
symbiosis. Now, in every day language, when people talk about symbiosis, they're often talking
about organisms that really benefit each other. But technically, symbiosis isn't just about
benefiting each other. It could be that they're even hurting each other in some way, or that maybe
one benefits while the other one really doesn't care. And so there're several types of symbiosis.
The first that we could talk about is parasitism. Parasitism. And this looks a lot like predation,
where the more that the parasite benefits, the most of the host that there is, but the host is
actually hurt by the parasite. And there's all sorts of examples of parasitism. We have, right over
here, a zoomed in picture of a louse. So why is this parasitism? Well if this lice, if this louse, I
should say, so this is parasitism. And we would call the louse here a parasite, parasitism. And
this benefits by living in your hair because that's where it gets its food from, it can lay, or living
on your scalp, it gets your food by sucking your blood, it can also lay eggs in your hair. In some
ways you could view it as almost a shelter from the rest of the environment. But it's negative for
you. It will make you itchy, it is taking your blood, it is uncomfortable. And so, parasitism, once
again, it's good for the parasite, just like predation is good for the predator, but not so good for
the host in the case of parasitism.
Now you have another situation, where it is benefiting both sides. And that is called
mutualism. Mutualism, let me do that in a different color. So mutualism. This is where both sides
benefit. And oftentimes when people talk about symbiosis, they're really talking about
mutualism, which is a specific type of symbiosis, where both species, or both animals,
organisms, benefit. They don't have to just be animals. This is an example of mutualism right
here. Let me do that in a color you can see. So this is mutualism, where you have a clownfish
living within a sea anemone. The sea anemone is providing the clownfish shelter, while the
clownfish is keeping away other fish that might eat that sea anemone. So they are both benefiting
from that interaction, and so that is mutualism.
Now you have another category, where one species is benefiting, and the other one is
maybe a little bit more indifferent. So one species is benefiting, and then the other one, well,
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maybe it is a little bit indifferent. And we call that commensalism. Commensalism. And once
again, there's many examples of commensalism. This right over here is a picture of bacteria
living on your skin, and you do have bacteria living on your skin right now. Accept it. And
actually, well oftentimes it's a good thing. Sometimes it's mutualism, that it's providing
protection from harmful bacteria. But sometimes it, the bacteria are surely benefiting, it's living
off of nutrients on your skin. The skin is its habitat. But oftentimes, it doesn't really have an
impact on you. Now, commensalism, let me write this down. Commensalism, oftentimes the
more that we study it and the more that we understand it, we realize that actually maybe the host
actually is benefiting, which it is mutualism, or maybe the host actually is getting hurt, in which
case it is parasitism. So oftentimes commensalism isn't completely neutral for the host. It could
go either way.
And so these are all the different types of interactions. So I encourage you to look around
you, look at the world around you, and don't just limit yourself to animals, think about bacteria,
think about plants. And think about within a habitat, what're all of the different interspecies
interactions, and how you might wanna classify them.
Chapter 5, Topic 1: Species Interactions
Chapter five: biodiversity species interactions and population control. This first
presentation is going to be dealing with topic five-one, which is “how do species interact?”.
So let's talk more about how species get along together in ecosystems. You probably
recall from biology class that a group of organisms of the same species is called a population.
And when populations of different species occupy the same geographic area they form a
community and every species within a community has an ecological niche which is described as
the total sum of a species use of the living and nonliving resources in its environment. So really,
when we get into talking about species interactions, biodiversity obviously comes into play,
population control will come into play.
So the first thing that we're going to wind up discussing are the types of interactions.
After talking about types of interactions we're going to talk about resource sharing, a predator …
predator-prey relationship, and we're also going to talk about competition.
So let's talk about species interactions. First thing we want to talk about when we talk
about species interactions we're going to talk about competition. Okay. Competition arises when
two individuals, whether it be of the same species or a different species, are competing for
resources in the environment. When the two individuals that are competing are of the same
species, this is called intraspecific competition - intraspecific - within the same species; and
when they are a different species, it is called interspecific competition. The resources that are
competed for: you can be dealing with food, air, shelter, sunlight and various other factors
necessary for life. Individuals could be competing to live in a fallen tree, they could be
competing to catch a running rabbit or to mate with the most desirable female in the population all of that part is competition, I guess, all that would be considered resources.
1:56
But the competitor who is called most fit eventually wins and obtains the resource and
others are basically eliminated by the competition. Another thing to remember about
competition, when two different species in a region compete and the better adapted species wins,
this is what's called competitive exclusion. No two species can occupy the same niche at the
same time; and the species that is less fit to live in the environment will eventually relocate, it'll
die out or it will go on to occupy a smaller niche. When a species occupies a smaller niche where
it would be in absence of competition, the compromise niche is called “its realized niche”. The
niche it would have … have if there was no competition whatso …whatsoever, it's called its
fundamental niche. Direct competition can also be avoided, and that's going to be in the case of
resource partitioning, which we'll talk about later.
2.52
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So let's talk about predation. Predation happens when a member of one species, which is
the predator, winds up feeding directly on all or a part of a member of another species, which is
the prey. So in an example, I'm going to show you those two species together, like a brown bear
and a salmon wind up forming a predator-prey relationship. In this case, the picture you're seeing
here is in Alaska, and basically, what happens is the bear will catch the salmon and eat it. So you
have this predator-prey relationship. So we've got a couple of different types of predators. You
can consider herbivores and carnivores both to be predators.
And in this table here on the screen I've talked about a couple of methods of predation.
you can simply, you know, herbivores can simply walk up to a plant and eat it; carnivores they
can either pursue or they can ambush or they can camouflage themselves, so they can surprise
and ambush their … their … their prey. They can use chemicals to stun or sedate their prey, so
they can go and eat it as well.
4:02
But along with predation, you do have these predator-prey relationships, and preys
actually want to do developing protective mechanisms. And some of the protective mechanisms
here are found in your book. You’ve got organisms like the span … the span worm and
wandering leaf insect that actually camouflage themselves, so they can hide themselves from the
predators. The bombardier beetle, the monarch butterfly, the poison dart frog - all of them have
chemicals which can either be foul-tasting or actually venomous, or actually a spray of a
chemical very much like a skunk will use chemical warfare to protect itself from its predators.
You’ve got a warning coloration, you know, bright colors like the poison dart frog or the
monarch butterfly to warn off predators and makes it look more intimidating or scary than …
than actually they are. you have something like mimicry, if you look at D and F over there on the
right hand side, the Viceroy butterfly looks a lot like the monarch butterfly; and organisms have
learned over long periods of time that the monarch butterfly doesn't taste very good, it's got that
foul taste to it. So the Viceroy butterfly actually winds up protecting itself because it does kind
of look like the monarch. you've got deceptive looks, like the low moth down there in G, the
wings actually look like eyes of a much larger animal; and then you've got deceptive behavior
like the snake caterpillar, when it gets touched basically it changes its shape to look like the head
of a snake. So all of these things have developed over time to, where, these prey can actually
protect themselves better.
5:48
So interactions between predator and prey species can actually drive the evolution of
those organisms. Here we're dealing with the concept of coevolution. And coevolution, basically,
it has … when you have populations of two different species interacting in a certain way over a
really long period of time, changes in the gene pool of each one of those species can wind up
leading to changes in the other. Here’s an example. Basically the changes that take place,
basically, help both of those species to become more competitive or to help them avoid
competition or avoid being preyed upon. And here is the … the bat and moth example from your
book. Basically what's happening here is the fact that the bat is - on the right - is hunting a moth
but the long-term interactions between these two organisms can lead to coevolution. So the bats
wind up evolving traits that help increase their chance of eating a meal, and the moths wound up
evolving traits to help them avoid being eaten. And that's what we see here in this picture.
So the next thing we're going to talk about, we're gonna talk about symbiotic
relationships. Okay, basically, symbiotic relationships are close prolonged associations between
two or more different organisms of different species that could, but they don't necessarily,
benefit each member. There are three different types of symbiotic relationships. You’re gonna
have to be familiar with all three of these and really be able to recognize each one.
Mutualistic symbiotic relationships or mutualism, where both sides benefit; you've got
commensalism, where one organism benefits and the other organism is neither helped nor hurt;
and then parasitism, and parasitism is where one species is harmed and the other benefits. So let's
talk about mutualism first.
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In mutualism you've got two species behaving in ways that benefit both by providing
each with food, shelter or some other resource. An example of this is an example between the sea
anemone and clownfish. The clownfish protects the sea anemone from some of its predators
while the stinging cells of the anemone protect the clownfish. The fish is also able to eat some of
the detritus that's left behind when the anemone feeds. Okay. Another one you have here in the
left-hand corner is you have the oxpeckers and a black … black rhinoceros. So basically what
happens is the birds feed on parasitic ticks that show up on these rhinos. So the birds are actually
helping the rhinos out by getting those ticks off of them; but then they're also filling their
stomachs. Another example of a mutualistic relationship is this one, the hummingbird. The
hummingbird benefits by feeding on a nectar in this flower and then it benefits the flower
because if the flower winds up getting pollinated.
The next relationship we're going to talk about is commensalism. Example of this type of
relationship it exists between trees and epiphytes. But basically, what it is it's an interaction that
benefits one species but really doesn't have much effect on another. Again, the epiphytes
example. The trees are not affected by the epiphytes growing in them and the epiphytes benefit
by collecting water that runs down the bark and they get better access to light than they would on
the ground. so basically in this picture from your book on page 111, this is an example of
commensalism, the epiphyte - the air plant there on the tree trunk (this is a picture in Brazil's
Atlantic tropical rainforest) - basically, what it does its roots on the trunk of the tree rather than
in the soil and it doesn't penetrate or harm the tree. So here the epiphyte, like I said before, gains
access to sunlight, water, nutrients from the tree and the tree really remains unharmed, doesn't
gain a benefit at all.
Finally we're going to talk about parasitism. And that basically occurs when one species
which is the parasite, it feeds on another organism - the host - usually by living inside the host,
but sometimes not all the time. So what we have here is picture from your book. We’ve got the
blood sucking parasitic sea lamprey, and it's attached itself to an adult lake trout. So in this
parasitic relationship one species is harmed, in this case the trout is being harmed, while the
other benefits. Another example would be the relationship that exists between fleas and dogs.
Okay, the fleas obviously benefit from that situation while the dogs are hummed.
10:35
So let's talk about sharing of resources or resource partitioning. Basically what resource
partitioning is … is when different species … when different species use slightly different parts
of the habitat, but they all rely on the same resource. For example the five species of warblers
that we're seeing right here, they can all live in the same pine tree. They coexist because each
species feeds in a different part of the tree: the trunk, the ends of the branches, other sides. Okay,
so it's easy to observe this competition, but also another way of being able to observe it is
actually looking over a long period of time and the development of specialized ecological niches.
And this specialized ecological niche is perfectly illustrated in something that you, guys, actually
talked about with your with your Hawaiian Birds presentations. So you have these honey
creepers and through natural selection different species of honeycreepers have developed
specialized ecological niches that reduced competition between the species. So each species has
evolved a specialized beak to take advantage of certain types of food resources. So you've got
your fruit and your seed eaters obviously with smaller beaks, and the insect and nectar eaters are
developing longer beaks.
12:00
Well that's all I have for you. I'm gonna go ahead and post the link to the video, the quiz
on the video and the reading for topic 5.1. And I will continue to work on topic 5.2 & 5.3 thanks
so much.
Symbiotic (song)
I stir up bugs when root for grub
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And bugs do bite and that’s the rub
But a tickbird friend who rides on my back
It’s me!
Eats up the bugs and we like, like that.
Oh yes!
We are symbiotic you and me
We are symbiotic: it’s the great big “we”
We are symbiotic helping each other through
It’s us together it’s me and you
Oh, you’re my friend
My feathered friend flaps when a danger’s there
So poachers don’t get my horn or hair
And if a lion or leopard wants to take rude trick
I scare them away with my nose and feet.
Thank you, honey
We are symbiotic you and me
We are symbiotic: it’s the great big “we”
We are symbiotic helping each other through
It’s us together it’s me and you
Like the crab and the algae on the ocean floor
Working together they can do a lot more
That’s right
The crab’s tough shell makes a real nice lodge,
The algae on the crab makes a camouflage
I mean …
We are symbiotic you and me
We are symbiotic: it’s the great big “we”
We are symbiotic helping each other through
It’s us together it’s me and you
It’s called mutualism. Oh, yes, it’s true
What’s good for one is good for two
So it’s harmony when you sing a song
With a real good buddy you can get along.
We are symbiotic you and me
We are symbiotic: it’s the great big “we”
We are symbiotic helping each other through
It’s us together it’s me and you
We are symbiotic, yearh …
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Unit 5
What Is Biodiversity?
Hi, I'm Emerald Robinson and in this ‘What is?” video we're going to examine the Earth's
wide variety of organisms through a concept called biodiversity. Biodiversity - short for a
biological diversity - simply means that all life is different. The earth is home to organisms that
have different genes, live in different habitats, and function in different ecosystems. Scientists
study three main types of biodiversity: species genetic and ecosystem. A species is a group of
genetically distinct organisms that can have offspring. Today over 1.7 million species have been
named, and new kinds of plants animals fungi and microorganisms are being discovered all the
time. Scientists have predicted that there are between 3 and 30 million species on earth. Genetic
biodiversity means that the genes within a species vary. For example, all dogs belong to the same
species, but there are many different breeds that have genes for different traits such as size, color,
and coat type. Ecosystem biodiversity means that ecosystems communities of living things are
different from one another. For example, some ecosystems are warm and wet like tropical
rainforest, and others are cold and dry like arctic tundra. Biodiversity is not consistent from place
to place. Because warm areas are able to support so many different kinds of life, places near the
equator tend to have a high amount of biodiversity while areas near the poles have a much lower
biodiversity. Biodiversity is important because all species in an ecosystem have a role to play.
When one or more of these species is eliminated an ecosystem balance will suffer and other
species are forced to migrate or become extinct. A diverse ecosystem is strong and able to
withstand natural disasters, disease, and drought. With an estimated one-third of all species in
danger of extinction, habitat conservation is more important than ever.
Biodiversity
Biological diversity, commonly referred to as biodiversity, is a measure of the diversity
of life forms on Earth. Biodiversity exists on three scales, species, ecosystem, and genetic.
Species diversity refers to the number of species in a region or in a particular type of
habitat. In general, a location with a larger number of species is healthier than if that same
location had a smaller number of species. Species diversity is the type of biological diversity
most commonly referred to when you read about biodiversity in the popular press. A species is
defined as a group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in its morphology, body form
and structure, genetics, behavior, or biochemical properties. A species is sometimes defined as
individuals of a group that can interbreed and produce viable offspring. There are currently 2
million named or documented species on Earth. But scientists that study biodiversity estimate
that there could be anywhere from 5 million to 50 million species on Earth. 10 million is a
common estimate for how many species are on Earth and might be a good number to remember.
Species diversity is often used as an environmental indicator for the health of ecosystems. Why?
Ecosystems with greater species diversity tend to be more productive and resilient, that is,
resistant to changes. Species losses in several ecosystems can indicate larger scale environmental
problems, such as deforestation of a forest might lead to a reduction in species diversity in that
forest. Species diversity is not evenly distributed across the globe. There tend to be more species
at lower latitudes and fewer species towards the poles. More species at lower elevations
compared to higher elevations, more species at wetter climates compared to drier climates, and
more species in larger geographic areas.
Ecosystem diversity is a measure of the diversity of ecosystems or habitats that exist in a
given region. A greater number of healthy and productive ecosystems means a healthier
environment overall.
Genetic diversity is a measure of genetic variation among individuals in a population.
Populations with higher genetic diversity are better able to respond to environmental changes.
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For example, when disease strikes a population, if that population has a high genetic diversity,
there's a better chance that at least some individuals will survive the disease.
Ecosystem biodiversity
The science of measuring ecosystem diversity is still pretty young, but scientific
knowledge at the ecosystem level is now recognized as a critical part of understanding total
biodiversity on Earth. Defining ecosystems is hard, but we do know a distinct ecosystem when
we see one. We usually describe an ecosystem in terms of a habitat and a climatic descriptor,
such as tropical rainforest or arid grassland, but it's important to note that there's diversity of
habitats and ecological processes within each ecosystem type.
You can have similar-looking ecosystems that have very different makeups. The name of
an ecosystem doesn't automatically imply that all the species in that ecosystem are the same
everywhere in the world. High diversity among types of ecosystems means that there will also be
a high diversity of species themselves. Each species is specialized to a type of ecosystem in a
particular place.
Most people are familiar with ecosystems in terms of where they are, that is, in terms of
ecosystem distributions. A tropical reef in the Philippines will still be a coral reef but, in terms of
species composition, could be very, very different from a reef in the Caribbean. Organisms
making up a Philippine reef might be similar to and do the same jobs as those in a Caribbean
reef, but they will be different species, sometimes very distantly related species at that. In other
words, the ecosystem functions performed by these different reef organisms will be the same in
spite of how different the lists of species from each reef might be. And, in turn, the ecosystem
functions will be similar, but the species will be different in the Great Barrier Reef off Australia
or reefs off Madagascar or wherever things that we would label a tropical coral reef might occur.
To me, that's the essence of ecosystem diversity: distinct types of ecosystems, such as tropical
reef or tropical rainforest, combined with the diversity of the species within a specific type of
ecosystem. Recognizing this means that we can ask what makes a South American tropical
rainforest different from one in Africa?
It's always important to keep ecosystem diversity in mind in any management or
conservation strategy. We can maximize protection of species numbers in a given type of
ecosystem by protecting the most biodiverse example of that ecosystem in the world. For coral
reefs, that would be the ones in the Philippines, for example. But what about all the others? What
effect will there be on the stability of all Earth's ecosystems if we focus on only one example of a
particular ecosystem? Is it enough to preserve a single ecosystem as a kind of museum of
diversity for that type of ecosystem? I think most scientists would agree with me that the only
successful strategy is to try to maximize the protection of as many ecosystems and all their
unique biodiversity as possible. And there's another factor to consider when we're talking about
biodiversity at the ecosystem level, the interactions between the different types of ecosystems.
The interconnectedness of these systems is not best served by labeling this or that ecosystem as
if it were some kind of distinct entity that can be put in a giant, imaginary box and guarded.
There are complex webs of interactions among the species that make each type of ecosystem
unique. But just as there are complex webs of species interactions within ecosystems, there are
webs of interactions among ecosystems themselves. And what will we lose if we don't attempt to
protect those interactions as well?
What is a biodiversity hotspot?
What we're gonna talk about right now is something called a biodiversity hotspot. How
do you figure out what the places are on earth that deserve our special focus, that deserve
attention that they need to protect them for future generations?
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It's obvious that the earth is in trouble and we can't save the entire planet all at once. We
need to have a focus. We can't do triage on an entire planet. We've limited resource. We have
limited time. We're running out of time to protect many of these places.
So what are the criteria that we use to try and figure out what those hotspots really are
that need that special attention for protection? Back in 1988, ancient history to some of us and in
fact might be pre-history to others there was a scientist by the name of Norman Myers who wrote
a really important paper that analyzed different types of geological, climatological and
uniqueness criteria to come up with concept of a hotspot.
Scientists who looked at this problem decided eventually that there really were two main
criteria that were gonna lead to what Conservation International now recognizes as a biodiversity
hotspot.
One criterion was that there had to be at least 1500 endemic species of plants. We'll get
back to the idea of endemism in a moment. There also had to be an additional factor that made
the area unique and deserving of our focus. There had to be more than 70% of the original
habitat already lost which highlighted the need to designate this place as a hotspot. Well why
plants? Plants, particularly in terrestrial environments are crucial. Animals go where the plants
are. Plants are the primary producers. They're at the base of food webs. Life attracts other life
and it depends on other life.
Now let's get back to that idea of endemism. An endemic species is a species that's found
in a certain area and nowhere else on earth. In other words, endemism is a measure of how
unique and irreplaceable something is. An example of an endemic organism that resonates with
people, people love tortoises. If you think about the Galapagos Islands for example, most islands
have their own special type of tortoise. It lives there, and nowhere else. So if something happens
to wipe out the tortoises on that island, those tortoises are gone forever. They're not found
anyplace else. They were irreplaceable.
At the moment Conservation International formally recognizes 34 biodiversity hotspot
areas on earth. The interesting thing about this is that less than three percent of the earth's land
surface area is represented by these hotspots. So we're talking about some very, very special
places indeed.
There are other ways to think about these special places on earth besides hotspots. Some
of these concepts are used to help recognize larger geographical units of land and water that have
unique assemblages of species or distinct environmental conditions that make them worthy of
our special attention. I think it's really important that we recognize that the hotspot idea is much
more than a conservation tool. It's actually become a powerful scientific tool. Because hotspots
are a blood pressure cuff for planet Earth. You can go back and keep measuring the effects on
these different places due to human activity or environmental change of various kinds and go
through the science of measuring the pressure on biodiversity.
In a sense, hotspots are almost like avatars. They're like representatives for other
endangered areas on the planet that might not necessarily meet these special criteria of 1500
endemic species of plants and more than 70% of the original habitat lost; and yet they are still
obviously critical and important places for lots of organisms to live.
You need to think about hotspots as a network of places on Earth that are interconnected.
Not just single units that protect small pieces of biodiversity but that help preserve biodiversity
in a great many other habitats and other hotspots as well.
And lots of conservation organizations, government agencies and even concerned people
like all of us can use these hotspots to better help direct the resources to the places that require
our greatest attention.
Above all, we need to remember one overriding principle. That we focus on protecting
the highest number of species that we can. Especially the ones that are most threatened. That's
what this hotspot concept is trying to get to. We want to enhance our ability to protect species
richness. That way, we can boost the stability and resilience of ecosystems.
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So I think that for me these hotspots really do carry that special signal and are really
worthy of the special effort that's been developed over the last few decades to monitor to them,
to provide the good, solid science that helps us not just to define them but to monitor and
promote their health down the road and to employ those concepts to draw people in, to develop
that people power that's really necessary to move forward with the protection of life on Earth.
Ecosystems-and-ecological-networks
If we think about our biodiversity tutorials as an archipelago, then today we visit this
island to discover why biodiversity is so important. In terms of biodiversity, we mean a lot of
different things. In this case, we're gonna talk about something that's known as species richness
because that's something that we can measure. Because counting up the number of species, going
out and finding out how many species there are in a given environment, is something that we can
actually do. There are different species of plants, there are many different species of animals,
many different species of microbes, and many different species of fungi. And they all interact in
their environment to create what we would call an ecosystem. Eco is an interesting word. It's an
ancient word that means house. So it's a system of what goes on in your house, that is, where we
all live. All of these different organisms are interacting. They're behaving together. They're
interacting with one another, some of them eat each other, some of them eat what others
decompose into, and they, plus the physical environment, or the house, form the ecosystem. Why
would the number of species, in other words, species richness, be crucial to the way an
ecosystem functions? What is it about the number of species that makes the ecosystem work
better and contribute to the resiliency or the stability of the ecosystem? Scientists are really
beginning to study this, and the emerging field is referred to as BEF, biodiversity-ecosystem
function. We can think of any ecosystem as species that network one to another. They have
interactions with each other, they can be a lot of different interactions. They can live on top of
one another like certain birds nesting in trees. Or even more crucially, these things might eat one
another. This is a diagram, a network diagram, of, believe it or not, a relatively simple ecosystem
in which the organisms are interacting one with the other. We can draw lines between the species
to indicate those interactions. And, we can make the lines directional to show that material, or
matter, and energy are moving from one species to another. When one organism takes a bite of
another, it not only gets a mouthful of matter, or food, but that food contains energy. So these
arrows show the direction that energy is flowing from one species to another. The most
important thing about these webs is that the strength of these interactions can vary. That is, the
interdependence of the organisms in the web can vary. And here's something that might be
counterintuitive. These interactions become less important the more species you have within a
network. You can think of it as the interactions being spread among more players. But what
happens when there are fewer players? Let's say we've got a really super simple set of
interactions, where this owl is eating that mouse, but can also eat this squirrel. This gives the owl
options. If we remove one of these, take that guy right out of there, then we only have two
species that are interacting with each other. And it's really easy to disturb this system. This guy
would just eat all of these guys, and boom. You can cause total ecological collapse. So the higher
the biodiversity, or species richness in a system, or in a network, the stronger it is.
The more stable it will be because of all the additional options open to the organisms in
it. Think of that old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket. Not all interactions within a
given ecosystem or network are exactly the same strength because some species have stronger
interactions with each other than they do with some other species. For example, let's imagine that
somewhere in here, you've got one of these guys. And he's eating plankton, the microscopic
organisms living in the water. Plankton are goin' in. These guys are the producer end of things,
the ones who can photosynthesize and make chemical energy from sunlight. And remember,
food equals energy. So what we're talking about is a lot of energy flowing from the producers to
the consumer, represented by Mister Whale over here. That's what these lines represent.
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They represent the flow of energy through the ecosystem. Eventually, the whale
succumbs to life and dies. And, poor Mister Whale ends up on the sea floor. Are things over at
that point? Definitely not, because at that point, he's gonna give up stuff that ends up as part of
the producers' food web. It's shown, actually we're starting to get some really great new evidence
that these events, where whales fall onto the sea bottom start an ecosystem of their own in ways.
This is known as a whale fall. Don't get under one, it's always best not to be under one. But when
the whale does hit the bottom, all kinds of interesting stuff happens. Lots of organisms comes
and feed on the whale. There's a succession of organisms, that is, organismal communities that
change over time as the condition of the whale itself changes, that turn this whale from a fleshy
organism to bones. And eventually even the bones are eaten. So this huge influx of energy that
the whale's been accumulating from these producers, the plankton that it's been feeding on, is
returned to the environment cycled back through the ecosystem. You might imagine that that
complex set of events that I just diagrammed here are part of this little bit of web. It turns out,
that where you get concentrated clusters of things happening in these webs, it's usually because
energy's being run through the larger organisms in the system. And when you disturb a bit of
that, where you've got large amounts of energy flowing through the system, you can get a real
drop in ecosystem function. If you take the whales out of the equation by over-hunting them, you
get this drop in ecosystem function, 'cause there's this removal of an entire major energy flow
system from this network. Think of it a little bit like this tremendous thing that we have now, this
internet. If you draw a diagram of the interactions amongst all of the servers and all of the things
that push messages through the internet, there are places where that network's going to show a lot
of stuff going on. A major hub in the internet. A lot of messages are flowing through. Like
Google's servers, for example. Google is going to be at the center of one of these big clusters of a
lot of messages going through. Other servers may not be so important. Those servers are gonna
be places like my desktop, where I'm just messaging my kid to tell him to come home for dinner.
If you take my server out of the system, it's not going to disturb the entire web. But you can see
what happens if you suddenly take Google out of the system. You're gonna greatly perturb that
particular ecosystem. So these webs of interaction throughout an ecosystem are really, really
important. If the system is bigger, with more species and more interactions, you're gonna reduce
the chance that a perturbation or a disturbance is gonna have a really negative impact. Because
you're just reducing the chance that you're gonna take out something that's really crucial. The
other thing about this is that all of these things are doing something different. They're all doing
different things in the ecosystem. So if you imagine one of my favorite things; I love planes.
Here's a complicated plane with four engines, lots of moving parts, piston engines roaring away,
you've got a rudder here, you've got ailerons. Imagine this aircraft flying along. If you take out,
say, the curtains that are in the window, you're probably not gonna bring the plane down. But if
you do something like remove a couple of the crucial bolts at the base of the wing here where it
connects to the fuselage, then the wing's gonna fall off, and we're gonna have a problem. 'Cause
before you know it, the airplane's going to crash. Same thing with the ecosystem. Everything's
doing something different. Some things will matter more than others if you remove them. The
more bolts, the better.
Unit 6
Why biodiversity is important for us
0:00
Hi, guys, welcome to the second lecture of the course “Biological diversity theories,
measure and data sampling techniques”. Today I will explain you why biodiversity is important
for us.
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According to United Nations Environmental Program definition ecosystem services are
the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. The concept ecosystem
goods and services is synonymous with ecosystem services.
Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs
from ecosystems. They include food, water, and other resources.
Ecosystems provide the conditions for growing food. Food comes principally from
managed agroecosystems but marine and freshwater systems or forests also provide food for
human consumption. Wild foods from forests are often underestimated.
Ecosystems provide a great diversity of materials for construction and fuel including wood,
biofuels and plant oils that are directly derived from wild and cultivated plant species.
Ecosystems also play a vital role in the global hydrological cycle, as they regulate the
flow and purification of water. Vegetation and forests influence the quantity of water available
locally. Ecosystems and biodiversity provide many plants used as traditional medicines as well
as providing the raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry. All ecosystems are a potential
source of medicinal resources.
1:42
Regulating services are the services that ecosystem provide by acting as regulators. For
instance, they regulate the quality of air or soil or providing fluid and disaster control. Local
climate and air quality is another regulating services. For instance, trees provide shade with
forests, influence rainfall and water availability, both locally and regionally. Trees and other
plants also play an important role in regulating air quality by removing pollutants from the
atmosphere. Another regulating service is carbon sequestration storage. Ecosystems regulate the
global climate by storing a sequestering green house gases. As recent plants grow they remove
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and effectively locked it away in their tissues. In this way,
forest ecosystems are carbon stocks. Biodiversity also plays an important role by improving the
capacity of the ecosystem to adapt the effects of the climate change. Another regulating service
is the moderation of extreme events. Extreme weather events or natural disasters include floods,
storms, tsunamis, avalanches, and landslides. Ecosystems and living organisms create buffers
against natural disasters, thereby preventing possible damages. For example, wetlands can soak
up flood waters, whilst trees can stabilize slopes. Coral reef, instead, and mangroves, help protect
coastlines from storm damage. There is another regulation service that is water waste treatment.
Ecosystems such as wetlands filter both human and animals waste and act as a natural buffer to
the surrounding environment. Through the biological activity of microorganism in the soil, most
waste is broken down. Thereby pathogens, disease causing microbes, are eliminated, and the
level of nutrients and pollution is reduced. Another regulating service is erosion prevention and
maintenance of soil fertility. Soil erosion is a key factor in the process of land degradation and
desertification. Vegetation cover provides a regular service by preventing soil erosion. Soil
fertility is essential for plant grow and agriculture. A well functioning ecosystem supply the soil
with nutrient required to support plant grow. Another regulating service is the biological control.
Ecosystem are important in regulating pest and vector-borne disease that attack plants, animals
and people. Ecosystems regulate also pests and disease through the activities of predators and
parasites. Birds, bats, flies, wasps, frogs, and fungi all act as natural control.
4:20
Apart from regulating services we have Habitat or Supporting Services. Habitats provide
everything that an individual plant or animal needs to survive: food; water; and shelter. Each
ecosystem provides different habitats that can be essential for a species’ lifecycle.
Migratory species including birds, fish, mammals, and the insects all depend upon different
ecosystems during their movements.
The maintenance of genetic diversity is important service that ecosystem provide from
biodiversity. Genetic diversity is the variety of genes between and within species populations.
Genetic diversity distinguishes different breeds or races from each other thus providing the basis
for locally well-adapted cultivars and a gene pool for further developing commercial crops and
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livestock. Some habitats have an exceptionally high number of species which makes them more
genetically diverse than others and are known as ‘biodiversity hotspots’. (I will tell you about
biodiversity hotspots during the next lecture. Today we need to complete the discussion about
ecosystem services.)
There are other remaining services, but very important. For instance recreational and
mental and physical health. Walking and playing sports in green space is not only a good form of
physical exercise but also lets people relax. The role that green space plays in maintaining
mental and physical health is increasingly being recognized, despite difficulties of measurement.
Tourism is another important ecosystem service. Ecosystems and biodiversity play an important
role in many kinds of tourism which in turn provides considerable economic benefits and is a
vital source of income for many countries. In 2008 global earnings from tourism summed up to
US$ 944 billion. Cultural and eco-tourism can also educate people about the importance of
biological diversity.
Aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art, and design is another important
ecosystem service. Language, knowledge, and the natural environment have been intimately
related throughout human history. Biodiversity, ecosystems and natural landscapes have been the
source of inspiration for much of our art, culture and increasingly for science. For example just
have a look at Maurice drawings.
Another not very much appreciated ecosystem service is spiritual experience and sense
of place. In many parts of the world natural features such as specific forests, caves or mountains
are considered sacred or have a religious meaning. Nature is a common element of all major
religions and traditional knowledge, and associated customs are important for creating a sense of
belonging.
This long list is just a summary of the ecosystem services that biodiversity produce for
human beings. Overall if you remember what I told you during the first lecture, biodiversity is
what makes us alive. See you next lecture.
Ecosystem services
We're talking about why biodiversity is important specifically to us as humans in the
form of ecosystem services. Given that we'll lose about twenty per cent of the present species
richness by the middle of the century it's crucial to ask why that should matter to any of us.
Should be worried about that loss? And why do so many of us care so much about it already.
There are three main ways in which biodiversity is crucial to humans. The first is by direct
services, the second is by indirect services, and the third is the aesthetic or ethical effect. We get
so many things directly from biodiversity on this planet, food, clothing, housing, transportation,
many medicines and medical supplies, and even energy in some cases. These things are derived
directly from various ecosystems. Food goes without saying, all of our major food types, as
diverse as they might be, originated in diverse ecosystems. Turns out, that they're a wild types of
tomatoes still growing in Peru. These Peruvian tomatoes are a different species from the kind of
tomato we typically eat and hold some of the genetic diversity within them. When bred with
some of the tomatoes that we're using as our own food now, the yield from the hybrid tomatoes
can go up almost as much as fifty per cent. And, we wouldn't have that productivity if we'd let
that wild type of Peruvian tomato go extinct. If we didn't have that as part of the biodiversity out
there today, there's no way that we would have access to that genetic diversity. Another direct
service provided by biodiversity is shelter. Originally, we built housing out of all kinds of
biological materials and even today, we're still building houses out of trees. What about
medicine? Almost all the medicines that humankind has developed have come directly from
studying the way that organisms live in their environment, how they interact and the chemicals
that they use during those interactions. The rosy periwinkle is a very famous example of a plant
that grows in some very secluded environments in Madagascar. And it turns out that this plant
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produces a couple of very interesting chemicals that are now used to treat childhood leukemia.
And again, we wouldn't have those medicines if the rosy periwinkle had gone extinct.
Some of the more interesting things that I think people forget about when thinking about the
value biodiversity fall under the category of indirect services that are delivered to us by healthy
ecosystems. If you think about mangrove swamps which hare these fantastic places along the
coastal margins of some tropical countries where specific types of trees, trees called mangroves
grow. Mangroves can grow in salt water, so they form a semi-marine forest at the edge between
land and sea. There are many species of mangrove trees and they're all really tough, resilient
plants that provide tremendous services to us and to the natural environment. They protect the
coastline from wave action and erosion, they're nurseries for all kinds of different types of
organisms, and some of these are very important food types for us. Unfortunately, in certain
parts of the world people are destroying the mangroves in order to make shrimp fisheries. They
remove the mangroves and set up shrimp farms with the idea that they're adding economic value
to that part of the coastline by putting in a shrimp farm that's going to produce a commercially
viable product. But if you look at a graph of the value of these things then value of the shrimp
farm is really only one third, maybe even only one quarter of the value of the original,
undisturbed mangrove swamp because of the protection that the mangroves give against storms
and erosion and the food sources they produce such as fish. You can actually attach a dollar
value to these things which is sometimes the only way that people really come to grips with
ecosystem value. It's the only way that people really understand the value of ecosystem services
to humanity. Economic value of intact biodiversity has also been determined for ecosystems far
from mangrove swamps, much closer to home. Some years ago, a large city on the east coast,
which shall remain nameless, except that it's New York, had an issue with the quality of its
source water. There are rivers feeding into the New York City area and the sources of that water
were being compromised by pollution and environmental degradation to the point where
biodiversity was being lost in some of those areas. So, city officials had a question in front of
them, how do we deal in a cost effective way with this problem of declining quality of our water.
It turns out that to build treatment plants to deal with cleaning the water up was gonna cost
somewhere in the neighborhood of six billion dollars just to build the treatment plants. Then
another three hundred million dollars per year to maintain those plants and make sure that they
were doing the things they were supposed to by removing the harmful chemicals that were being
introduced through environmental degradation upstream. Then they looked at what it was gonna
cost to clean up and restore the environments to make sure that the ecosystems and the
biodiversity in those ecosystems were maintained to the point where they were doing what they
would naturally do by removing chemicals from the water, basically filtering it through wetland
habitat. Wetlands are tremendous, tremendous places for the recycling of dangerous chemicals
and for the removal of chemicals from water and for clarifying and cleaning water. The cost for
this restoration was gonna be about one billion dollars, spread over ten years. Much, much lower
costs. So the answer was pretty clear, you're gonna go and spend that billion dollars over ten
years. Not only do you enhance the quality of the water in a very cost effective way but you do
something else, too.
6:00
And that addresses the third and final aspect of biodiversity value. The ethical and
aesthetic services or value provided by biodiversity. These services may in fact be, in some
ways, the most important ones. Sure, we can attach dollar values to the direct and indirect costs
of a decline in biodiversity and the decline environmental services and ecosystem services but
the ethical and aesthetic value is something that's very, very difficult to put a price on. You might
say, okay, well, it costs so much to go visit a park or you might enjoy the views so much that
you'll put a quarter into the telescope and soak in that environment but that's not really what
we're talking about. The value here comes in what we leave for the future. A drop in
biodiversity, removal of biodiversity, the extinction of species, those are things that we can't
repair. Lost biodiversity is something we cannot bring back. So our children are gonna inherit a
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depleted world. The ethical and aesthetic quality of the environments that they're going to
experience in their future, is gonna be decreased. How do you put a dollar value on that? We are
the stewards of the environment but we are also the major influence on environmental quality
and certainly on ecosystem function these days through our activities that result in pollution,
over fishing, habitat destruction, loss of certain species from the environment. No one wants a
world that's filled with nothing but wheat, corn, dandelions, some cows and us. That's a very
simple ecosystem that's fraught with future difficulty and instability. If you reduce biodiversity
to the point where the loss of species in the ecological food web causes an ecological collapse of
that system, we won't be just standing by watching that collapse, we're going to be part of it.
Clearly, biodiversity ecosystems are great places to live and to visit. There's much to see and
make you feel happy, restful, appreciative, full of awe, reminded of what a remarkable and
unique plant this is. After all, it's ours. I think there's a deeper sort of societal psychology at work
here. And it behooves us to pay attention not just to the economically measured direct and
indirect services and benefits provided by diversity rich, healthy ecosystems. But also to the
ethical and aesthetic value of those amazing environments that are the inheritance we will leave
for future generations.
Unit 7
Introduced species and biodiversity
At first glance it might seem that introducing new species, the human act of taking
species from somewhere else and dropping them in a different area, would be good for
biodiversity. Let's face it, if you take a bunch of beautiful flowers and plant them in your garden
you're increasing the biodiversity in your garden, right? You raised the species richness in your
garden. But it's not a simple additive equation. It's more complicated than that. The term
introduced species is synonymous with exotic species. The definition is, any species that through
the activities of humans is knowingly or accidentally transferred from its native habitat into one
in which it doesn't naturally occur. An introduced species is the opposite of a native species.
Which is one that occurs in an area naturally. Without human intervention.
1:02
Many introductions are intentional. We do it on purpose. And we've been doing that for a
heck of a long time. Probably ever since humans came onto the scene and realized that they
could pick something up that was alive and bring it somewhere else to serve their purposes.
From goats and pigs to cattle and crops, mostly we transport organisms that will do some good
for us through agricultural means. We've been introducing plants and animals to places where
they weren't native for a long, long time. Usually when people think about introduced species
they're really thinking more about the accidental ones. The things that happen coincidentally
alongside human activities. When we introduce a species to a new area, everything that's living
on, in, or with that species comes along with it. If you pick up a cow from one place and move it
to another, it's gonna bring along all the parasites that those cows normally deal with. I think
people immediately picture images of rats streaming off the ships when they pull into some
beautiful Tahitian paradise. Or the snakes that came into Guam with military movements during
World War Two. These animals are legendary in doing damage to native birds. They're very
obvious ways that introduced organisms radically change biodiversity, in a single place.
There are so many other subtle ways that introductions happen and cause problems. The
bottom line is that the world economy is hit with an annual cost of 1.4 trillion dollars dealing
with the negative impacts, obvious and not so obvious, of introduced species. That's a number I
have a hard time wrapping my mind around. If you had an extra 1.4 trillion dollars to play
around with there's a lot of possibility to do some good in the world.
2.55
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Because humans have been introducing new species for a long time, the concept of native
habitat is a little bit slippery. The human activities that caused the transfer can happen long
before we recognized that it actually happened. So that sometimes the history of an introduction
can be lost. When we aren't sure of the history, up until the point we are sure, or have some
reasonable evidence, we call those species cryptogenic. Crypto means hidden. Genic means
origin. Solving the riddles of cryptogenic species underscores another reason why collections are
so important. The only way to trace the origins of introductions is to know what was there
beforehand. Collections can preserve that historical information and collections made today
establish baselines for future reference. If those collections are maintained in perpetuity those
baselines are gonna be good 100 years from now. Or 1,000 years from now, when we see a
radically different and altered environment due to the introductions. So we can use collections to
try and get answers to this problem.
Not all species are in fact harmful. Clearly they're not all harmful to us. Because the ones
that we introduce on purpose are ones that are there for our benefit. Some introduced species can
provide new food sources or even habitats for native species. Native species aren't always
helpless and harmed. They can make use of some of the newcomers. Introduced grasses and corn
for example, are eaten by native species. And certain trees that've been introduced can serve as
habitats for birds. Some introduced species live under our radar, we don't even know they're
there doing little perceivable damage to the ecosystem, by reducing species richness.
4:48
But some introduced species certainly go beyond just living peacefully, alongside the
natives. They can do this because they have competitive advantages. They lack natural controls,
such as the predators or diseases that keep them in check in their native habitats. Some invasive
species are generalists which means they can tolerate, reproduce rapidly, and thrive in a wide
range of environmental conditions. Allowing them to successfully compete with and overwhelm
native populations. When introduced species take over an environment at the expense of native
species, they're known as invasive species. All invasive species are introduced, but not all
introduced species are invasive.
Here's an example of consequences for humans as well as for species richness. In 1992,
an introduced species of comb jelly was found in the Black Sea. Comb jellies are weird,
transparent, jellyfish-like forms with a voracious appetite for fish larvae and eggs. Within
months that single introduction resulted in the total collapse of the anchovy fishery, in the Black
Sea. Comb jellies tolerated the conditions in the Black Sea and their population exploded, at the
expense of the anchovies. The bottom line here is that introduced species can outcompete the
natives for food, for space, and other resources. They alter the ecosystems food webs, disturbing
crucial elements and interactions that would otherwise contribute to healthy ecosystem function.
The comb jelly is a good example of that. Sure, your species list for the Black Sea is gone up by
one, but it destroyed all the anchovies. You have to take a species off the list. Plus, perhaps
whatever else was eating the anchovies. And before you know it, because there's nothing for the
comb jellies to eat anymore, they're gone, too. So, not only have you not added a species, but in
the end you've actually subtracted a whole bunch.
So invasive species are ultimately, organisms that cause decreases in ecosystem function.
That's another definition of invasives that we need to come to grips with. What's worse,
invasives very seldom come by themselves. As I was saying with the cow example, they often
come with new diseases, new parasites, new accompanying effects, that we can hardly predict.
Another good example of invasives are pathagens. Something that we don't often consider as
invasives. These include disease-causing organisms like, fungi, or bacteria, and even viruses.
These are things that we also introduce to wild populations. And there are extinctions that come
from that. In fact, in the past 500 years we've directly caused the extinction of more than 100
species of birds, partly through the introduction of disease and heck knows what damage we did
to organisms that were depending on those birds. In the forest realm ареал, Dutch Elm disease
was something that, when I was growing up was a huge thing and actually it still is. In North
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America, Dutch Elm disease left skeletal trees for miles and miles. When I was a kid growing up
in Toronto in the 60s 80% of the elms in the city were killed. And it was really sad. Those trees
were not only gorgeous, they were very important lumber. Elm trees were a direct service to us,
in so many different ways, from producing shade to furniture. The fungus was introduced by
bark beetles, some of which were native and some of which were introduced. Both of which
supported and co-evolved with the fungal pathogen. Which could not be stopped.
8:40
This idea of being a generalist, the ability to reproduce and displace natives, the ability to
become more abundant at the expense of other species, to introduce diseases, to proliferate in
non-native habitats, that should sound pretty familiar. Because that's us. In some ways, we are
the ultimate invasive species. We don't just introduce ourselves, we are invasive. The difference
is that unlike the comb jellies and the bark beetles and cows, we're capable of recognizing that
fact and maybe mitigating our impact. We can look at the world and the problems and start
thinking about ways to control the invasives, to coral them, maybe to reduce their effects and not
introduce them in the first place. We have to, not just for moral reasons, I think, but because
ironically, and as we said earlier, the invasives that we're bringing with us accidentally or on
purpose, can do a lot of harm to species upon which we depend. Worse, they can upset healthy
ecological functions upon which all life depends. Including us.
Human activities that threaten biodiversity
Why is biodiversity threatened? We're gonna talk about something that we'll call local
factors, as opposed to more global human effects, but before we go into some of those, we really
need to talk about the fact that the human population is growing fast.
In 2014, the estimate was just over seven billion people on earth. Human population
growth is exponential. The more people you have, the more reproduction you have going on. If
you have more reproduction happening, then the curve on a graph of population versus time is
gonna get steeper and steeper and steeper to the point where we're looking at about nine billion
people by the year 2050.
It was Thomas Malthus in 1798 who came up with the concept of carrying capacity.
Basically, he said that the earth can't indefinitely support an ever-increasing human population.
That's a concept that, to us I think, seems quite clear, but Malthus was a member of a social force
at that time, basically, the clergy that felt the earth was put here for humans to use and upon
which we should go forth and multiply. But Malthus was among the first in recognizing that
there was no way that human population could increase indefinitely without having some sort of
an effect on the environment and the environment's ability to support us. The logic he used led
him to the fact that based on the kind of farming he saw around him at the time, there would
soon be so many people, there wouldn't be enough to eat. Basically, the planet was gonna check
population growth through famine. He had seen famine. He knew what it was like, so the planet
was gonna take care of it if we didn't. In other words, we would exceed the planet's carrying
capacity for human beings.
The question arose, what actually is the carrying capacity of planet earth for humans? The
answers, like most scientific replies, it depends. We haven't hit the Malthusian limit yet because
of a very important thing, and that's human technology, the ability to come up with answers to
problems that are facing us at almost every turn. In this case, the answers came through science
and technology that increased food production. This made it possible for us to get back on the
exponential population growth curve and escape Malthus' view of what the upper limits were. In
fact, there are some estimates that suggest if we all did with less and lived at the lowest possible
level for existence, earth could support an estimated 40 billion people. But even if we were able
to reach a carrying capacity of 40 billion, it would require sacrifices for all humans on earth,
some more than others. It raises a huge question about the quality of life, which points out what's
increasingly becoming the single most important fact about human population growth on earth
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today, that the world's wealthiest 16% of the people on earth use 80% of the available resources.
The bottom line here, as I say, is that it's complicated. We recognize that the human population is
growing. We recognize that resource utilization is much higher in some countries than in others.
3:30
But what I really want to do is circle back to our primary objective and examine what this
really means for biodiversity. If you asked anyone, they'd say it's pretty clear that human
population growth and resource utilization have huge effects not just on our social and economic
well being, but, of course, on biodiversity. But how, exactly?
It translates into decreases in species richness. It's primarily through the loss of species
richness that our greatest population growth effects are gonna show up. If we simplify it, it's as
fundamental as no two things can occupy the same place at the same time. That's what we're
talking about. If a human is living in a given place, fewer native plants and animals can live
there. The details of how human population growth actually affects species richness are only
now starting to be worked out. We don't have a lot of data yet. It's a huge, complex problem. One
of the pioneering papers on this was published in 2003 by McKee and colleagues. They
measured a number of factors in 114 different countries, and what they discovered was that, out
of all the factors that they looked at, human population growth and species richness were tightly
linked. In other words, if you were to slow population growth, that might be sufficient to stop
drops in species richness. They suggested that all you need to know is population size. Plug this
into the equation, and you can figure out in a given place what effect it's going to have on
biodiversity. Calculations show that the number of threatened species in an average nation is
going to increase 7% by 2020 and 14% by 2050 just based on population growth alone. That's a
very simple relationship, but if you open up that box represented by the idea of population
growth and unpack what it means, you're talking about lots of human-induced drops in
biodiversity. And, as usual, things get complicated.
5:37
I'd say that there are seven major human mediated causes of biodiversity loss. They can
be grouped into two main categories, localized ones and global ones. The global causes we'll
look at in separate videos, but for the localized ones, we're gonna list four: land-use change,
pollution, resource exploitation and introduction of exotic species. Of course, they overlap a
little, but I think, for the most part, these are good ways of unpacking our box of problems.
6:13
Let's start with land-use changes. These include things like habitat destruction and
conversion of natural habitat to human use that isn't necessarily compatible with the organisms
that are native there. This includes crop monoculture that results in a very dramatic drop in
species richness in a given habitat. When people think about habitat destruction and conversion,
they think of slash-and-burn agriculture, destroying rainforests, plowing over stuff or removing
the tops of mountains to get at resources like coal. But there are ocean-use changes too that I
think we should not ignore. Think of coastal wetland loss and mangrove destruction.
Urbanization is an enormous change in land use. More people need more homes and more places
to work. That, in turn, requires an expansion of agricultural resources and the spread of those
into environments that were previously untouched. It's a very complex problem, as I say, but,
simply put, the more people you have, the less natural undeveloped habitat there's going to be.
And it's very easy to see how that's linked to a drop in biodiversity.
7:22
The second local factor is pollution. A lot had been done to bring the subject to people's
attention to the point where we think about it as enormous disasters attached to Superfund
cleanup sites and such, but there are other, more subtle ways of polluting the environment that I
think are worth thinking about when we talk about drops in biodiversity. For example, the
degradation of local habitats through human activities that causes downstream effects, things like
the leaking of harmful chemicals from mines into the water table. Waterborne pollutants can pop
out in very unusual places and have really big downstream effects, if you'll excuse the pun, on
125
the reproductive viability of organisms that happen to be in those places. There are also dead
zones in the ocean caused by nitrogen fertilizers that wash into rivers. Where the rivers flow into
the sea, the nitrogen causes blooms of bacteria, which in turn, use up the oxygen. Anything that
tries to be active in an area where the oxygen is being used up by the bacteria, any oxygenrequiring organism, that is pretty much any animal, for example, is going to have a really hard
time of it. These dead zones are now starting to be a little bit better understood, and it's pretty
clear that they're growing in size and in number in relation to population growth.
Then there's the overall problem of waste disposal. Untreated sewage is a classic problem
for biodiversity. It's not just, of course, human waste. It has to do with sometimes bizarre
chemistry involved in the high-tech stuff that we're making now. We're talking about chemical
compounds, including drugs and PCBs. There are lots of strange molecules that humans are
producing and dumping. In some cases, you get these hormone mimics, simple compounds
derived from prescription drugs and other man-made chemicals that get flushed into waterways.
Hormone mimics act like naturally occurring hormones that control normal development of wild
organisms, particularly water-living ones. Hormone mimics can also adversely affect their
reproductive organs, and there are many, many, many examples of this kind of pollution, one
that people wouldn't necessarily think of.
Another one that doesn't immediately occur to people is noise pollution. Birds in cities
are reacting to noise levels, so even the organisms that are not being wiped out because of our
expanding cities are starting to adapt to an urban environment by changing their behavior and
reproductive patterns. And some of them just can't do it. Noise can also be a major factor in
marine mammal survival. Evidence suggests that sonar pollution interferes with the health of
marine mammals. Patterns of reproduction can also be upset by our introduction of light
pollution to places where there wasn't light before. Sea turtle hatchlings can be impacted by
artificial light heading toward it instead of the ocean when they hatch out of their nests on the
beach. And bird strikes on buildings are greatly increased at night when the lights are left on.
10:35
Let's look at the third local factor, resource exploitation. This gets to the simple idea that
humans are always using things from their environment. We are inextricably linked to that
environment, and we use up stuff, we always have. We have to do that in order to stay alive.
There are classic ways we use resources like hunting, cutting down forests for firewood and
lumber, where does the biodiversity go then? A big one for me as a marine scientist, of course, is
fishing. We talk about the harvest of fish, but it's not really a gathering of what one sows, it's
really a straight-up removal of a resource, as much as mining is. There are attempts to control
overfishing, but to a large extent, we often don't have enough data to know just what a
sustainable amount of extraction is until it's too late. Before we were moved to action, for
example, the cod fishery had collapsed on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Today, we have
no idea what the long-term effect of huge trawls scraping over the sea bottom will be. Now
countries are pushing to fish more on the Antarctic, which is a problem, because fish, like most
things there, grow slowly in the cold Antarctic depths.
11:50
The last local cause of reduction in species richness I wanna mention is the introduction
of exotic species, and we'll talk about those in the next video. So just to bring it all back to this
concept of carrying capacity, the emerging message is that if everyone on earth can manage to do
more with less, especially in places where we presently use up relatively so much more, we
might be on track towards a more manageable carrying capacity for humans on earth with a
decent quality of life. In our world of finite resources, it's a balancing act between humans and
every other species on earth. We have to learn to do more with less to keep that natural balance,
the natural species richness. The biodiversity that keeps ecosystems, and therefore all of nature,
including ourselves, healthy.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
On-line resources:
1. British Ecological Society // [электронный ресурс].- режим доступа:
https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org
2. The Ecologist // [электронный ресурс].- режим доступа: https://theecologist.org
3. Help Save Nature // [электронный ресурс].- режим доступа: https://helpsavenature.com
4. Journal of Ecology // [электронный ресурс].- режим доступа:
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652745?tabActivePane=
5. Nature // [электронный ресурс].- режим доступа: https://www.nature.com
6. ScienceDaily // [электронный ресурс].- режим доступа: https://www.sciencedaily.com/
7. The Scientist // [электронный ресурс].- режим доступа: https://www.thescientist.com/tag/ecology
8. Scientific American // [электронный ресурс].- режим доступа:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/ecology/
Unit 1
Climate change not the only threat to giant pandas, study says
https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-not-the-only-threat-to-giant-pandas-study-says
Unit 2
Wet and dry tropical forests show opposite pathways in forest recovery
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-tropical-forests-pathways-forest-recovery.html
Forest Fire – As an Ecological Factor
https://www.technologytimes.pk/forest-fire-as-an-ecological-factor/
Unit 3
Ecologists find strong evidence of fishing down the food web in freshwater lake
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190918115914.htm
Climate change drives collapse in marine food webs
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190918115914.htm
Unit 4
How do corals make the most of their symbiotic algae?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200108160332.htm
In Defense of the Predator
https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/in-defense-of-the-predator/
Unit 5
Role of Keystone Species in an Ecosystem
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/role-keystone-species-ecosystem/
Unit 6
Ecosystem Services
http://www.ecology.gen.tr/what-is-agroecology/52-ecosystem-services.html
Importance of Biodiversity
https://openstax.org/books/concepts-biology/pages/21-1-importance-of-biodiversity
127
Unit 7
Invasive Species: How They Affect the Environment
https://www.environmentalscience.org/invasive-species
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, including Aichi Biodiversity Targets
https://www.cbd.int/sp/
Aichi Biodiversity Targets
https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/
Appendix 2
Proponents of deep ecology offer an eight-point platform to summarize their claims:
Biodiversity contributes to the realization of these values and is also a value itself.
Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.
Policies must therefore be changed. The changes in policies must affect basic economic,
technological, and ideological structures. The resulting state of affairs should be deeply different
from the present.
Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly
worsening.
The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the
human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease.
The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of
inherent worth) rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a
profound awareness of the difference between big and great.
The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves
(synonyms: intrinsic value, inherent value). These values are independent of the usefulness of the
nonhuman world for human purposes.
Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to
participate in the attempt to implement the necessary changes.
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Appendix 3.1
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Appendix 4
How to Render an Article
Headline
The title of the article is ..
The article is headlined...
The article goes under the
headline...
The headline of the article is...
The article under the headline...
has the subhead...
The article is entitled...
Place of origin
The article is (was) printed / published in the ...
newspaper/ magazine/ journal
The article is published/ posted on the …….
Internet site
The article is taken from the ………
newspaper/ magazine/ journal
Time of origin
The publication date of the article is the first of October, 2008.
The article is dated the first of October, 2008.
The article is printed on the second of October, 2008.
Author
The article is written by…
The author of the article is...
The article is written by а group of authors. They are…
Theme / Topic
The article is about...
The article addresses the problem of...
The article raises/brings up the problem...
As the title implies the article describes ...
The article assesses the situation...
The article informs us about… / comments
on…
The headline of the article corresponds to its
topic.
The paper is concerned with…
Main idea
The aim of the article is to …
The main idea of the article is…
The purpose of the article / author is to give the reader some information on...
The aim of the article / author is
 to provide the reader with some information about...;
 to provide the reader with some material / data on...
 to inform about...;
 to compare / determine...;
Contents of the article
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(а short summary of 3 or 4 sentences) + important FACTS, NAMES, FIGURES.
The article can be divided into some parts.
The first part deals with...
The second covers the events...
The third touches upon the problem of...
The fourth part includes some interviews, dialogues, pictures, reviews, references, quotations,
figures.
Основные штампы (key-patterns) аннотаций
на английском и русском языках
1. The article (paper, book, etc.) deals with…
касается…
2. As the title implies the article describes….
описывается…
3. It is specially noted…
4. It is spoken in detail…
5. The paper looks at recent research
dealing with…
6. …are noted
7. It is reported…
8. The text gives valuable information on….
9. Much attention is given to…
10. The article is of great help to …
11. The article is of interest to…
12. It (the article) gives a detailed analysis of ….
13. It draws our attention to…
14. The following conclusions are drawn…
15. It should be stressed (emphasized) that…
16. …is proposed
17. …are examined
18. …are discussed
19. It is shown that ….
20. It is described in short …
21. Data are given about…
22. It is stressed that…
Эта статья (работа, книга и т.д.)
Согласно названию, в статье
Особенно отмечается…
Подробно описывается…
Статья рассматривает последние
исследования ...
Упоминаются…
Сообщается…
Текст дает ценную информацию…
Большое внимание уделяется…
Эта статья окажет большую помощь…
Эта статья представляет интерес для…
Она (статья) дает детальный анализ…
Она (статья, работа) привлекает наше
внимание к…
Были получены следующие выводы...
Следует подчеркнуть, что…
Предлагается…
Проверяются (рассматриваются)
Обсуждаются…
Показано, что …
Кратко описывается …
Приведены данные о …
Подчеркивается, что
Appendix 5
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nearly
a method of doing something
or dealing with a problem
actually, to tell the truth
by or through the action of
to include a wide range of
ideas, subjects, etc.
in relation to
приблизительно
подход, метод
фактически, собственно говоря,
на самом деле, в сущности
посредством, из-за.
заключать (в себе), касаться,
охватывать
относительно, о, касательно, с
точки зрения
132
7
8
too numerous to be counted
it is calculated roughly
9 it’s a common view
10 more possible
11 not include someone or
something
12 to be more in number than
another group
13 mainly,
14 variety of things that are all
different, but are all of the
same general type
15 used for a particular purpose
16 lately
17 simple
18 while on the contrary
бесчисленный, неисчислимый
подсчитывать приблизительно;
прикидывать
общепринятo
более вероятный, возможный
пропускать, не включать
превосходить численно
главным образом, в основном
ряд
служить (для чего-л.),
применяться
в последнее время
зд. простой
тогда как, в то время как; а
Appendix 6
Экосистемы предоставляют условия для выращивания пищи. Пища поступает главным
образом из управляемых агроэкосистем, но морские и пресноводные системы или леса
также обеспечивают пищу для потребления человеком. Дикие продукты (wild foods) из
лесов часто недооценивают (underestimate).
Прогулки и занятия спортом в зеленой зоне - это не только хорошая вид физических
упражнений, но и позволяет людям расслабиться. Люди давно осознали роль, которую
играет зеленое пространство в поддержании психического и физического здоровья, хотя
ее и трудно измерить.
Деревья предоставляют тень, в то время как леса влияют на количество осадков (rainfall) и
наличие воды как на местном, так и на региональном уровне. Деревья или другие растения
также играют важную роль в регулировании качества воздуха путем (by) удаления
загрязняющих веществ из атмосферы.
Во многих частях мира природные объекты (sights), такие как леса, пещеры или горы,
считаются священными (sacred) или имеют религиозное значение. Природа является
общим элементом всех основных религий и традиционных знаний, и связанные с ними
обычаи важны для создания чувства принадлежности.
Среда обитания обеспечивает все, что нужно отдельному растению или животному для
выживания: пищу; воду; и приют. Каждая экосистема обеспечивает различные места
обитания, которые могут быть важны для жизненного цикла вида. во время своих
передвижений мигрирующие виды, включая птиц, рыб, млекопитающих и насекомых, все
133
зависят от различных экосистем.
Эрозия почвы является ключевым фактором в процессе деградации земель и
опустынивания. Растительный покров обеспечивает жизненно важные регулирующие
услуги, предотвращая эрозию почвы. Плодородие почвы имеет важное значение для роста
растений, а сельское хозяйство и хорошо функционирующие экосистемы снабжают почву
питательными веществами, необходимыми для поддержки роста растений.
Экосистемы обеспечивают большое разнообразие материалов для строительства и
топлива, включая древесину, биотопливо и растительные масла, которые непосредственно
получены из диких и культивируемых видов растений.
Экосистемы регулируют глобальный климат, секвестрируя и сохраняя парниковые газы.
Когда деревья и растения растут, они удаляют углекислый газ из атмосферы и эффективно
сохраняют его в своих тканях. Таким образом, лесные экосистемы являются хранилищами
углерода. Биоразнообразие также играет важную роль, улучшая способность экосистем
адаптироваться к последствиям изменения климата.
Генетическое разнообразие отличает разные породы (breeds) друг от друга, тем самым
обеспечивая основу для локально хорошо адаптированных сортов (cultivars) и генофонд
для дальнейшего развития коммерческих сельскохозяйственных культур и домашнего
скота. Некоторые места обитания имеют исключительно большое количество видов, что
делает их более генетически разнообразными, чем другие, и известны как «горячие точки
биоразнообразия».
Экосистемы, такие как водно-болотные угодья, фильтруют отходы как человека, так и
животных и служат естественным буфером для окружающей среды. Благодаря
биологической активности микроорганизмов в почве, большинство отходов разрушается.
Тем самым уничтожаются болезнетворные микроорганизмы (pathogens), а уровень
питательных веществ и загрязнение снижаются.
Экосистемы и биоразнообразие играют важную роль для многих видов туризма, что, в
свою очередь, обеспечивает значительные экономические выгоды и является жизненно
важным источником дохода (income) для многих стран. Культурный и экологический
туризм также может рассказать людям о важности биологического разнообразия.
Экосистемы обеспечивают разнообразие растений, используемые в качестве
традиционных лекарств, а также сырье для фармацевтической промышленности. Все
экосистемы являются потенциальным источником лекарственных ресурсов.
Язык, знания и окружающая среда тесно связаны на протяжении всей истории
человечества. Биоразнообразие, экосистемы и природные ландшафты (landscapes) были
источником вдохновения для большой части нашего искусства, культуры и для науки.
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Насекомые опыляют растения и деревья, что важно для развития фруктов, овощей и
семян. Опыление животными является экосистемной услугой, в основном
предоставляемой насекомыми, а также некоторыми птицами и летучими мышами. Около
87 из 115 ведущих мировых продовольственных культур зависят от опыления животными,
включая такие важные товарные культуры, как какао и кофе.
Экосистемы имеют важное значение для регулирования появления вредителей и болезней,
которые нападают на растения, животных и людей. Экосистемы регулируют вредителей и
болезней посредством деятельности хищников и паразитов. Птицы, летучие мыши, мухи,
осы, лягушки и грибы все действуют как естественные управления.
К экстремальным погодным явлениям или стихийным бедствиям относятся наводнения,
штормы, цунами, лавины, и оползни (tsunamis, avalanches, landslides). Экосистемы и
живые организмы создают буфер от (against) стихийных бедствий, тем самым (thereby)
предотвращая возможный ущерб. Например, водно-болотные угодья могут впитывать
паводковые воды, в то время как деревья могут укреплять (стабилизировать) склоны.
Коралловые рифы и мангровые заросли помогают защитить береговые линии от ураганов.
Экосистемы играют жизненно важную роль в глобальном гидрологическом цикле, так как
они регулируют поток и очистку воды. Растительность и леса влияют на количество воды,
доступной в местном масштабе.
Appendix 7
Means of comparison
1. When you compare two things, use ‘than’.
This population is more abundant than the neighbouring one.
2. When you want to say something is similar, use ‘as – as’.
This population is as abundant as the neighbouring one.
3. When you want to say one thing is less than another, you can either use ‘less than’ or ‘not as –
as’.
This population is less abundant than it was considered before.
This population is not as abundant as it was considered before.
4. “A lot”, “much”, “a little”, “slightly” and “far” before “more / less than” can b used to
compare two things.
This population is a lot more abundant than the neighbouring one.
This population is much more abundant than the neighbouring one.
This population is much (slightly) less abundant than it used to be.
5. “Almost as … as”, “not quite as … as”, “(not) nearly as … as”, “nowhere near as … as”,
“twice as … as” and “half as … as” to change the extent of the similarity can be used.
This population is almost as abundant as the neighbouring one.
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Appendix 8
136
Appendix 9.1
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Appendix 10
Ecosystems provide a great diversity of materials for construction and fuel including wood,
biofuels and plant oils that are directly derived from wild and cultivated plant species.
Trees provide shade whilst forests influence rainfall and water availability both locally and
regionally. Trees or other plants also play an important role in regulating air quality by removing
pollutants from the atmosphere.
Extreme weather events or natural disaster include floods, storms, tsunamis, avalanches and
landslides. Ecosystems and living organisms create buffers against natural disasters, thereby
preventing possible damage. For example, wetlands can soak up flood water whilst trees can
stabilize slopes. Coral reefs and mangroves help protect coastlines from storm damage.
Ecosystems are important for regulating pests and diseases that attack plants, animals and
people. Ecosystems regulate pests and diseases through the activities of predators and parasites.
Birds, bats, flies, wasps, frogs and fungi all act as natural controls.
Ecosystems provide the conditions for growing food. Food comes principally from managed
agro-ecosystems but marine and freshwater systems or forests also provide food for human
consumption. Wild foods from forests are often underestimated.
In many parts of the world natural sights such as forests, caves or mountains are considered
sacred or have a religious meaning. Nature is a common element of all major religions and
traditional knowledge, and associated customs are important for creating a sense of belonging.
Ecosystems regulate the global climate by sequestering and storing greenhouse gases. As trees
and plants grow, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and effectively store it away
in their tissues. In this way forest ecosystems are carbon stores. Biodiversity also plays an
important role by improving the capacity of ecosystems to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Habitats provide everything that an individual plant or animal needs to survive: food; water; and
shelter. Each ecosystem provides different habitats that can be essential for a species’ lifecycle.
Migratory species including birds, fish, mammals and insects all depend upon different
ecosystems during their movements.
Ecosystems and biodiversity play an important role for many kinds of tourism which in turn
provides considerable economic benefits and is a vital source of income for many countries.
Cultural and eco-tourism can also educate people about the importance of biological diversity.
Ecosystems play a vital role in the global hydrological cycle, as they regulate the flow and
purification of water. Vegetation and forests influence the quantity of water available locally.
139
Language, knowledge and the natural environment have been intimately related throughout
human history. Biodiversity, ecosystems and natural landscapes have been the source of
inspiration for much of our art, culture and science.
Ecosystems provide plant diversity used as traditional medicines as well as providing the raw
materials for the pharmaceutical industry. All ecosystems are a potential source of medicinal
resources.
Walking and playing sports in green space is not only a good form of physical exercise but also
lets people relax. The role that green space plays in maintaining mental and physical health was
recognized long ago, despite difficulties of measurement.
Soil erosion is a key factor in the process of land degradation and desertification. Vegetation
cover provides a vital regulating service by preventing soil erosion. Soil fertility is essential for
plant growth and agriculture and well functioning ecosystems supply the soil with nutrients
required to support plant growth.
Genetic diversity distinguishes different breeds from each other thus providing the basis for
locally well-adapted cultivars and a gene pool for further developing commercial crops and
livestock. Some habitats have an exceptionally high number of species which makes them more
genetically diverse than others and are known as ‘biodiversity hotspots’.
Ecosystems such as wetlands filter both human and animal waste and act as a natural buffer to
the surrounding environment. Through the biological activity of microorganisms in the soil, most
waste is broken down. Thereby pathogens are eliminated, and the level of nutrients and pollution
is reduced.
Insects pollinate plants and trees which is essential for the development of fruits, vegetables and
seeds. Animal pollination is an ecosystem service mainly provided by insects but also by some
birds and bats. Some 87 out of the 115 leading global food crops depend upon animal pollination
including important cash crops such as cocoa and coffee.
140
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