Ecology and Environmental Sustainability Assignment

Running head: ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Study of Ecology and Environment of Royal Botanic Garden in Melbourne
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY1
Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................2
Methods.............................................................................................................................2
Results...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion..........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................10
References.......................................................................................................................11

ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY2
Introduction
An ecosystem can be defined as a community of plants and animals which are
interacting with each other within a geographical area and also with the nonliving
environments. The entities of the nonliving environment include the atmosphere,
climate, soil, sun and weather. Ecosystem describes the process through which the
different organisms live in a geographical area in a close proximity and their individual
interaction with each other. The study of the ecosystem is both relevant and important
because ecosystem plays a major role in maintaining the equilibrium or balance in the
planet. Plants and the animals can only survive when the ecosystem is existing as a
whole. Though ecosystems are considered to be as distinct systems, however
ecosystems are connected with each other and if one fails, a cascading effect is seen
upon the other connected ecosystems around the world (Van Dyne 2012). The study is
based on two different areas within Royal Botanic Garden, Melbourne. Whereas, the
main aim of the study is to compare two different areas of shrubs and trees within the
botanic garden.
Methods
The study involves comparison of two different areas within the Royal Botanic
Garden, Melbourne. Thus, for the study of the ecosystem a region is selected which is
both suitable to access and will be easy to gather all the necessary information. The
place is chosen based on the criteria that both the areas have a variety of species and
the area is more than 200 square meters. Hence, after a search of the several places
Royal Botanic Garden is found to be an appropriate place which encompasses green
areas and includes a variety of plant collections. Royal Botanic Garden, Melbourne is
geographically located in Birdwood Avenue beside the Yarra River. The garden is 2
kilometers away from the city center (figure 1). The Botanic Garden was set up in the
year 1846 by Charles La Trobe in the name of Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens. After that
in the year 1958, the Garden was renamed as Royal by the Queen Elizabeth II for the
garden’s important contribution to the environment (Rbg.vic.gov.au 2018). I went to the
botanic garden with two of my friends on 12 December 2017 at around 11:00 AM. The
day was sunny with clear skies. For the purpose of sampling, I took pencils and

ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY3
notebooks, 4 pegs in order to mark the four corners of the quadrat, a measuring tape, a
compass to identify the exact position of the chosen ecosystem, a camera to take
photographs of the plants for the identification. Due to the large area of the garden
which is of approximately 38 hectares and it includes over 31 different types of plant
species (Rbg.vic.gov.au 2018). The first area chosen for sampling is a large grassplot
which contains a large plot of grass and another area is selected for second sampling
site which included the big trees. My friends helped me with measuring the 1 square
meter area with the measuring tape and the pegs were used to mark the four corners of
the quadrat. The red outlined areas are the two different areas for sampling. The central
lawn is taken to area 1 whereas the area beside the fern gull rest house is taken to be
area 2.
Figure 1: Map of Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne (Melbournepoint.com.au 2018)