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English report draft
Introduction:
Over the years, human population has expanded, thus changing the
natural ecosystems to adapt to our needs. A quarter of the Earth’s land surface is
left remained untouched by human developments, and it has caused an
enormous impact on all the biomes, mainly aquatic life (Reece et. al, !"#. $o
summarise everything% community ecology. &ommunity ecology is the study of
symbiosis 'hereby evolution by natural selection is driven by ecological
interactions bet'een organisms and bet'een organisms and their environment
(mith, "))!#. $herefore, interaction bet'een species consists of many types,
'ithout them the balance of ecosystem life may cease to exist (Reece et. al,
!"#. $he types of interaction bet'een species are mutualism, parasitism,
commensalism, predation and competition. Each in their o'n unique 'ay
controls the balance of the ecosystem.
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*redation
*redation, a relationship 'here it involves t'o main components% prey and
predator. *redators often prey according to certain age+sex+sie class of their
prey (Reece et. al, !"#. According to the predators choices of age+sex+sie of
the prey determines the survival of both parties (Reece et. al, !"#. -ima and
ill ("))!# states that, most studies conducted have indicated that a prey’s
behavioural and physique a/ects the survival of the prey itself. $herefore,
according to the author, each of both components has developed ecological
evolution in order to cope 'ith the food chain (-ima 0 ill, "))!#. According to
Reece et. al (!"#, in a prey’s perspective, they are able to achieve adaptive
animal evolution 'hereby they inherit the antipredator evolutionary genes. $ypes
of antipredator evolutionary aspects are% camou1age, mimicry, developing
armour, and releasing of chemicals for protection. As de2ned by tevens et. al
(!!)# , the term camou1age includes all strategies of concealment. &amou1age
is 'hen an organism ta3es the resemblance of its environment to hide itself from
predators. According to ar'in ("45)#, one strategy to achieve crypsis is
bac3ground matching, it is a principle that has long been ac3no'ledged. One
example of organism that ta3es upon camou1age is the octopus (Endler, ")4"#. $he octopus possesses the remar3able ability to change its body pattern
matching the change in their visual bac3ground 'hich this is termed as crypsis
(Endler, ")4"#. 6imicry on the other hand, is a phenomenon of high degree of
resemblance due to natural selection, proposed by ir 7alter 8enry 9ates in
"4: upon returning from the Amaon rainforest after "" years as a professional
collector. One of the examples of mimicry is the 6etalmar3 6oths. $he author
observed the moth’s morphologies and noted, “on these expanded membranes
Nature writes, as on a tablet, the story of the modications of species” . 8e
proposed that the long'ings and other moths gained protection by mimic3ing
undesirable species and the similarities among such unrelated insects lent
support to &harles ar'in’s ne'ly proposed theory of natural selection (9ates,
"4:#. Armoury is also one of the aspects for a prey to protect itself from the
predator as 'ith a hard shell (Reece et. al, !"#. One of the examples of
armoured animals is the armadillo, Dasypus novemcintus. $heir armour provides
di;culty to dislodge, though they can still receive bites from predatory species
such as the 6ountain lion and American alligator (
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that, group formation in animals is also one of the 3ey components for survival
'here strength in numbers refers to animals living in the groups to prevent
predation ris3 (>rause, !!#. According to >rause (!!#, animals in larger
groups bene2t from team vigilance, defence cooperation, and dilution as 'ell as
confusing the predators. ?or example, large grouping animals such as ebras and
'ildebeest are safer as they are in larger groups in the open plains of the
erengeti as lions prefer smaller groups (cheel, "))@#. 6any animals use
chemicals for protection. $he usage of chemicals for protection 'ill usually inure
or paralyse the predator. One of the examples for animals that use chemicals for
protection is the Poecilocerus pictus grasshopper species. Bt secretes greenish+
yello' 1uid. Bt is used for protection and it is unpleasant. Bt is eected
independently of pressure and in di/erent directions under the insect’s control
(8ingston, ")=#. According to Reece et. al (!"#, the predators, they have their
o'n 'ays to cope 'ith the prey. $hey are% the 'aiting game, venom 3illing spree
and the usage of nets or deadly devices. According to 8ugie (!!@#, the 'aiting
game is the most common among the predators. 7aiting game contests are
expected to be common in nature because prey often respond to predators by
ta3ing refuge in a 'ay that restricts further information from being obtained
about a predator’s continued presence (8ugie, !!@#. Other than that, venom is
also used for predators to paralyse the prey 'hen hunting. Cenom is a secretionof an animal or a plant that can cause the paralysation or a fully fatal cause to
the prey 6ebs (")=4#. $his secretion must contain molecules that disrupt normal
physiological processes (?ry et. al, !!:#. -ast but not least, the usage of nets
and deadly devices for capturing the prey. 6ainly, insects are the prey to these
traps as they are very small and easy to be trapped due to their bad coordination
and thus being the victims of the traps (Reece et. al , !"#.
Reference%
". ar'in, &. ("45)#. On the oriin of species by means of natural selection
or the preservation of favoured races in the strule for life. Dnited
>ingdom, -ondon% ohn 6urray.. Endler, . A. (")4"#. An overvie' of the relationships bet'een mimicry and
crypsis. !ioloical "ournal of the #innaen $ociety, ":, :+@".@. 9ates, 7. 8. ("4:#. &ontributions to an insect fauna of the Amaon Calley.
#epidoptera%&eliconidae.'rans #inn $oc #ond, @, F)5+5::.F. cheel, . ("))@# *ro2tability, encounter rates and prey choice of African
lions. !ehavioural (coloy, F("#, )!+)=.
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5. 8ingston, R. 7.