BL1007 DISCUSSION: How all life on earth evolved and co-evolved with one another over the last 3.5 billion years. Read through the entire post as students have found this additional information supportive of their understanding. Directions for your engagement are located at the end of the content.
At this point, you have learned how, from a scientific perspective, all life on Earth evolved and, more importantly, co-evolved with one another over the last 3.5 billion years. In this period, there have been five or six mass extinctions where many life forms went extinct. The vast majority of life that has ever existed has gone extinct. Scientists can track these extinctions by studying and monitoring the number of species (i.e., biodiversity) recorded in the fossil record (see image below).
However, the life forms have survived geological time and established relatively stable ways of interacting with one another. These stable ways of relating to other life forms and to the earth systems that underlie animal prosperity (i.e., freshwater, a relatively stable climate, nutrients for plants) are collectively referred to as biogeochemical cycles.
https://naturalresources.
Life on earth is not just related to one another. Through the evolution and coevolution of our genes, we depend upon one another for the chemical constituents required for survival. A particularly consequential example of this interconnection is plants which produce oxygen and carbohydrates upon which all animal life ultimately depends. Even carnivores indirectly depend upon plants for food, because the animal carnivores consume depend on plant life to survive. These types of relationships are embodied in the combination of various biogeochemical cycles, as shown below.
In general terms, these relationships between the various categories of life on Earth (microbes, plants, aka producers, animals, and fungi, aka decomposers) can be illustrated in the atrophic or food web.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The planetary ecosphere is further analyzed in terms of broad ecological biomes such as the ocean or marine biome, or deserts.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.
The link above takes you to NASA\’s interactive website to investigate each biome in greater detail. The map below shows where some of these biomes are located.
https://www.windows2universe.
Notice each biome is primarily determined by climatic factors like temperature averages and ranges, precipitation patterns, along with soil and water quality.
https://openoregon.pressbooks.
Here is another way to depict this information.
https://apesknow.weebly.com/
Biomes themselves are further subdivided into ecosystems. For instance, deserts include very dry, hot subtropical deserts and cool to cold but still arid temperate deserts. Forests include the northern or high altitude cold Boreal forests as well as temperate seasonal (deciduous) forests and warm tropical forests (jungles). Each ecosystem has a unique range of plant, animal, fungal, and microbial life. As a result, the nutrient cycling and trophic pyramid (food webs) associated with each is somewhat unique. For instance, here are some examples of ecosystem-specific trophic pyramids. The Redwood National Park:
https://sites.google.com/a/nv.
A marine ecosystem:
https://www.sciencelearn.org.
Unfortunately, human activity has now disrupted some of these cycles and relationships. We are now entering a sixth mass extinction related to human impact. https://www.businessinsider.
In this section, you\’ll examine the implications of human impact on a particular ecosystem and food web by engaging in the Wolfstone National Park simulation. You might also find this non-required simulation of a food web interesting.
You can manipulate the diet and presence/absence of given species and see what happens over time. http://www.learner.org/
The essence of this module is for you to master some of the details associated with the importance of biodiversity in maintaining the ecological structure of a given ecosystem. After reviewing some of the module content, please reach out to comment on something new or interesting you learned to complete your engagement requirement for this competency.
In preparation for your final submission, review the details of the rubric. There are several responses requiring knowledge of your geographical region. Be specific and in your own words. The recommendations given to you in your submission for BL 1003 must be applied (e.g., APA citations).
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