University Biology Assignment 2: Biomes, Cycles, and Interactions

This biology assignment, completed for BIOL1010, delves into the concept of biomes, defining them as vast ecological areas with specific flora and fauna adapted to their surroundings. The student chooses the temperate deciduous forest biome, detailing its four seasons, favorable rainfall, and fertile soils. The assignment then explores various ecological interactions including competition, predation, parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism, providing examples for each and analyzing their potential impacts. Furthermore, it outlines the water, phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon cycles, illustrating how nutrients move through ecosystems. Finally, it examines climate change, discussing mitigation and adaptation strategies, referencing an article on energy efficiency, renewable resources, and emission/carbon taxes. The assignment is well-researched and includes a comprehensive reference list in APA format.

Running Head: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Biological Science
Student’s Name
University Affiliation
Date

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Biological Science
1. Definition of Biome
Biomes are defined as vast ecological areas on the surface of the earth having flora and fauna
adapting to the surroundings. Biomes are normally characterized by abiotic factors like the relief,
vegetation, soils, climate, temperature, and geology. It is interesting to note that a biome is not
considered as an ecosystem even though it may look like a vast ecosystem. However, a closer
look at the biome will leads one to notice that the animals or plants in the biome have special and
unique adaptations which enable them to exist and live in such a biome. Thus, one may notice
various units of ecosystems in a single biome.
2. Temperate deciduous forests
3. Features that make it ideal to live in this biome
My chosen biome is a temperate deciduous forest. The various characteristics of the biome make
it ideal for me to live and survive in it. Temperate deciduous forest is characterized by trees that
shed leaves as well as its seasons. The biome is ideal since it experiences four seasons, that is,
fall, summer, spring, and winter. Since I am from Canada, the biome is ideal for me since it is
found in Europe, Japan, China, Canada, the united states of America, and some parts of Russia.
The temperatures of this biome are not extreme making it ideal for living. The amount of rainfall
is usually considered to be favorable and is only second to tropical rainforest. The biome
receives rainfall of about 30-60 inches annually. As the name of the biome suggests, trees in the
biome are deciduous, that is, most of the leaves of the trees change color and finally fall to the
ground in winter.

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Since the leaves of the trees are deciduous, the soils are very fertile and rich in nutrients making
it very ideal for agriculture (Wang et al. 2017). The animals in this biome normally camouflage
with the ground. Thus they can escape from their enemies.
PART B: Biological interactions and the examples
Competition; this is a type of ecological interaction in which two or more organisms
depend on the same type of ecological resource. In this type of relationship, various organisms
compete or vie for a similar and limiting environmental resource. An example of competition is
the relationship between a lion and cheetah competing for the same deer.
Predation; predation is described as a type of ecological relationship between two species
whereby one species benefit at the detriment of another species. Even though this type of
ecological relationship is linked with the typical predator and prey relationship, in which the
predator kills and eats the prey, not all the predation relationship leads to the death of one
species. For instance, herbivory is a type of predation in which the herbivore only eats part of the
plant. An example of this type of relationship includes a cheetah-deer relationship in which
cheetah is the predator while deer is the prey.
Parasitism; this is a type of relationship in which one of the organisms, known as the
parasite, lives off and survives in another organism, known as the host, causing harm to the host
and can sometimes kill it. The parasite can live on or in the host (Brouwer, 2014). A good
example of this type of relationship is the tick and cow. Some of the known parasites are the
fleas, tapeworms, and barnacles. However, although some parasitic relationship results in death,
most of the parasites do not intend to kill the host since it relies wholly on the host to provide it
with food and relies on its body function and circulation to live.

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Commensalism; commensalism is a type of interaction in which one of the organisms
benefits from the interaction and the organism remains unaffected (Heiling et al. 2018). In the
world of microbes, commensalism is normally linked to nutrition, for instance, when the
metabolism process of one organism is used by another microbe with no particular benefit to the
former organism. A good example of this type of relationship is between anammox bacteria and
denitrifiers.
Mutualism; this is a type of relationship in which all the organisms in the relationship
equally benefit from each other — for example, the relationship between oxpecker and the
Zebra. Oxpecker, a type of bird, lands on the zebra, eats the tick as well as other dangerous and
harmful parasites. The bird gets food while the zebra receives pests’ control on its body.
c). The potential impact of the ecological interactions; in competition, one organism can become
extinct, or there can be a reduction in evolution two organisms competing for a similar limiting
resource cannot coexist at the same time (Emsens, Aggenbach, Rydin, Smolders & van
Diggelen, 2018). In predation, one organism, the prey, is killed reducing their number. On the
other, predators get multiply in number as they receive food from the prey. However, as the
number of prey reduces, the number of predators will eventually reduce due to the reduction of
their food. In a parasitic relationship, the host is normally harmed and can even die, reducing
their number. In mutualism, both the organism benefit from each, thus, their numbers increase.
PART C; NUTRIENT CYCLE
a. Water or hydrologic cycle; water cycle is defined as the continuous cycle in which there
are changes in water from the water vapor found in the atmosphere to condensed liquid

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water through the process of condensation waterfall through precipitation and then back
to the process of evaporation, respiration as well as transpiration.
b. Phosphorus cycle; the phosphorus cycle is a cycle in which phosphorus moves through
water, organisms, sediments, soil, and rocks. In the cycle, phosphorus ions are released
from the rocks due to weathering or rain. The phosphate is distributed in soils as well as
water. In the soil or water, the inorganic phosphate is taken by the plants which are eaten
by the animals. Once consumed by animal or plant, the phosphate is integrated into the
body like DNA. If the plant or animal dies, it will decay and releases the organic
phosphate which is taken back into the soil. In the soil, phosphate is made available by
the action of bacteria to various plants in a process called mineralization. Lastly,
phosphorus in the soil ends in the water channels and into the oceans where they are
integrated into rocks or sediments.
c. Nitrogen cycle; this is a continuous series of events in which the nitrogen in the
atmosphere, as well as the nitrogenous compounds found in the soil, are converted
through nitrogen fixation and nitrification into inorganic compounds which can be
consumed or utilized by plants, the substance is then returned into the atmosphere and sol
through denitrification and decay of plants (Xia et al. 2018).
d. Carbon cycle; this is carbon atoms circulation in the biosphere due to the process of
photosynthesis as the carbon dioxide is converted by plants into intricate organic
compounds which are then utilized by other organisms. The carbon returns into the air as
carbon dioxide due to decay by bacteria, fungi, respiration as well as the fossil fuels
combustion.
PART D; currents to the biosphere

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a. Climate Change
b. https://www.activesustainability.com/climate-change/mitigation-adaptation-climate-
change/
The environmental problem being addressed in this article is climate change. Climate change
has been described by the scientists as one of the greatest threats that face the environment. In
this article, various mitigation measures have been put forward which can reduce the impacts of
climate change in the environment. Some of the proposed mitigation measures include;
practicing energy efficiency, that is, using green and renewable sources of energy, emission tax
as well as a carbon tax. The article also talks about adapting to the effects of climate change.
c. Climate change has negative effects on the built and natural environment that are so
deleterious. For instance, the increased heatwave is very harmful to human beings and
animals; increased flooding is dangerous to both human beings and infrastructure.
Mitigation adaptive measures must be put in place to tackle climate change.

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References
Brouwer, D. (2014). Principles of Ecology (Vol. Second edition). Paterson NSW, Australia:
Tocal College, NSW DPI.
Emsens, W.-J., Aggenbach, C. J. S., Rydin, H., Smolders, A. J. P., & van Diggelen, R. (2018).
Competition for light as a bottleneck for endangered fen species: An introduction
experiment. Biological Conservation, 220, 76–83.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.02.002
Heiling, J. M., Ledbetter, T. A., Richman, S. K., Ellison, H. K., Bronstein, J. L., & Irwin, R. E.
(2018). Why are some plant–nectar robber interactions commensalisms? Oikos, 127(11),
1679–1689. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.05440
Wang, J.-J., Pisani, O., Lin, L. H., Lun, O. O. Y., Bowden, R. D., Lajtha, K., … Simpson, M. J.
(2017). Long-term litter manipulation alters soil organic matter turnover in a temperate
deciduous forest. Science of the Total Environment, 607/608, 865–875.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.07.063
Xia, X., Zhang, S., Li, S., Zhang, L., Wang, G., Zhang, L., … Li, Z. (2018). The cycle of
nitrogen in river systems: sources, transformation, and flux. Environmental Science:
Processes & Impacts, 20(6), 863–891. https://doi.org/10.1039/c8em00042e