The Main Ecosystems Are Maquis, Garigue and Steppe

14

Ecological Relationships

The main ecosystems are maquis, garigue and steppe

Minor ones include patches of woodland, coastal wetlands, sand dunes, freshwater and rupestral communities and those of caves, vallies, beaches, seabed, etc.

A woodland (bosk) is a land dominated by ______. Examples of trees in a Maltese woodland are Holm Oak (Ballut) and Aleppo Pine (Znuber). Exampleof a woodland in Malta is ______. Many birds and other living things live in a woodland.

A maquis (makkja) is a type of land dominated by small shrubs such as carob trees (harrub), olive trees (zebbug), and lentiscus (deru). Many birds and other living things live in a maquis.

Buskett

A garigue (xaghri) is a type of land dominated by rocks with shallow pockets of soil. The main vegetation is aromatic herbs and low plants examples thyme (saghtar), spurges (tenghud) and thisle (xewk).

Had-Dingli

Steppe (steppa) is a type of land that resulted from the degradation of maquis and garigue mainly due to grazing. It is dominated by vegetation such as Crown daisy (lellux), Bargeman’s cabbage (gargir), and cape sorrel (haxixa ngliza).

Disturbed land (fl-imharbat) is a type of land that is dominated by a variety of plant species, many of which are aliens. Examples of plants that grow in such land are tree spurge (tenghud tas-sigar), and borage (fidloqqom).

Mellieha

Saline marshlands are an interface between the marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments.

Saline marshland il-Maghluq Marsaxlokk.

Sand dunes are heaps of sand on which a few types of vegetation grow.

Ramla Bay Gozo.

Rupestral communities are vegetation communities that grow on cliff faces example caper (kappar). Example Dingli Cliffs.

In vallies grow freshwater communities examples poplar tree (sigra tal-Luq), bay laurel (rand) and Bear’s breeches (hannewija).

Chadwick lakes

Any living thing is called an ______. Unicellular organisms are the smallest and most primitive forms of ______things. They are ____ cell big. Then there are bigger living things that are made up of more cells. These are referred to as ______organisms. The word ______refers to all living things. Non-living objects like rocks are not organisms.

Living organisms are classified as follows:

1.  Viruses – are very very small organisms that we cannot even see them with a light microscope. They are so small that we can only see them using an electron microscope that is a very powerful microscope. Viruses are on the borderline between living and non-living as they start to live only if they get inside a living cell. If they are not inside a living cell they are not living.

2.  Bacteria – are very small organisms but not as small as viruses. We can see them with a light microscope, like the microscopes that we find in the school lab.

3.  Protists – are unicellular organisms i.e. one cell big. We can only see them with a light microscope.

Amoeba

4.  Fungi – example mushrooms, yeast, moulds etc. . These do not feed by photosynthesis. Therefore they are not like plants.

Plants – are green because they feed by photosynthesis.

5.  Animals – can be invertebrates or vertebrates. Invertebrates are animals without a backbone and vertebrates are those animals that have a backbone.

Cnidarians e.g. corals, jelly fish, sea anemones
/ Fish e.g. swordfish

Flatworms e.g. tapeworm
/ Amphibians e.g. frog

Roundworms e.g. Ascaris
/ Reptiles e.g. snake, crocodile etc.

Segmented worms e.g. earthworm
/ Birds e.g. sparrow, robin etc.

Molluscs e.g. octopus, snail etc.
/ Mammals e.g. cat, dog, human, sheep

Arthropods e.g. fly, spider, crab, millipede

Echinoderms e.g. sea star

Exercise: Classify these organisms as unicellular, fungi, plants or animals?

a. mushroom ______; b. deer ______

c. horse ______; d. sea star ______

e. pea plant ______; f. jelly fish ______

g. bacilli ______; g. tomato plant ______

h. Amoeba ______; i. mould ______

j. coral ______; k. bird ______

l. sea anemone ______; m. mosquito ______

n. crab ______; o. octopus ______

p. cat ______; q. influenza virus ______

r. salmonella bacteria ______; s. girl ______

Different ______live in different environments. We call the area where a species lives a ______. Different habitats include the oceans, underground areas, green lands, forests, cold areas and warm desert area. In order for species to survive they need to compete for the resources like for example air, food and water. Therefore, organisms adapt themselves according to the environment they live in.

For example animals that live in very cold regions of the world have the following adaptations:

1.  Animals that live in very cold places e.g. ice, have a thick layer of fat called ______just underneath their skin which helps to keep them warm.

2.  Some animals like squirrels and brown bears ______, spending the winter fast asleep in a warm den.

3.  Birds have wings and so can move further and faster than mammals. Most of them migrate to warmer areas to escape the winter.

Other examples of adaptations are shown by animals that live in the desert:

In deserts, water is so scarce, so most desert animals get their water from the food they eat. But they must carefully conserve the little water they obtain in this way, so desert animals prevent water leaving their bodies in a number of different ways.

1.  Some, like kangaroo rats and lizards, live in burrows which do not get too hot or too cold and have more humid (damp) air inside. These animals stay in their burrows during the hot days and emerge at night to feed.

2.  Camels have a hump so as to store fat. This allows them to go without food and water for a long period of time. The came has also long eyelashes so as to protect its eyes from desert sand. They can also close their nostrils and have hair in their ears so as to protect themselves from the sand. Its lips are thick and leathery, allowing to eat cactus without hurting their mouths.

3.  A Cactus is a plant which is able to live in the dessert. It has tiny spines instead of leaves to reduce the water lost by evaporation. Since it lives in places where water is scarce, it has very long roots.

Other adaptations shown by other animals:

1.  Certain predators, such as the cheetah, need to run really fast so as to capture their prey. A cheetah's long step and flexible back and limb joints help to make it the world's fastest mammal.

2.  A giraffe has a long neck so as to reach the leaves from the trees and to see its predators.

3.  In forests, most animals live on the branches of the trees where they can find food. Some animals have developed some good ways of travelling about the forest. Flying lemurs and flying squirrels do not actually fly, but have broad flaps of skin between their front and hind limbs that enable them to glide from tree to tree to escape predators or to find food.

4.  South American monkeys have tails that act like an extra limb to help them swing from branch to branch.

5.  Certain animals, like certain lizards and frogs have special ______so that they can stick to the walls and climb on to the tress so that they can catch their prey.

6.  Certain animals have a similar ______to the surroundings. In this way, the predators won’t see them easily and has so have more chance to survive.

Predators and Prey.

A ______ is an animal that eats other animals. The animals that predators eat are called ______.

The organisms that feed on producers (example: ______) are called ______. Animals that eat other animals are called ______. Secondary consumers are ______of primary consumers, but also the preys of tertiary consumers.

______levels are the feeding position in a food chain such as

·  primary producers,

·  herbivore,

·  primary carnivore, etc.

1.  Green plants form the ______trophic level. These are the pr______.

2.  Herbivores form the ______trophic level. Examples of herbivores, i.e. organisms that feed on plants are ______, ______.

3.  Carnivores form the ______and even the ______trophic levels. Carnivores eat ______and examples of carnivores are ______, ______and ______.

The feeding of one organism upon another in a sequence of food transfer and is known as a food chain. Another definition is the chain of transfer of energy (which typically comes from the sun) from one organism to another. A simple food chain is like the following:

plant à caterpillar à frog à snake à owl.

In this food chain, the plant is the pr______.

The caterpillar is the primary co______because it feeds on the plant.

The frog is the secondary con______because it eats the caterpillar. It is not a herbivore because it doesn’t feed on plants, but it is a ______because it feeds on another caterpillar.

The snake, a tertiary ______. It feeds on the frog, that had fed on the caterpillar, that had fed on the plant. Because the snake feeds on frogs, it is called a car______.

The owl is the forth con______. It is also a carnivore because it eats the snake. The owl eventually dies and its remains are broken down by decay-causing bacteria and fungi. These are called dec______.

Rewrite this foodchain:

______à ______à ______à ______

In an ecosystem there are many different food chains and many of these are cross-linked to form a food web. Ultimately all plants and animals in an ecosystem are part of this complex food web.

Although it looks complex, it is just several food chains joined together. Here are some of the food chains in this food web:

grass → insect → vole → hawk

grass → insect → frog → fox

grass → insect → vole → fox

Find more food chains from this food web.

______

· 

Trophic levels and the energy flow from one level to the next, can be represented by drawing pyramids. There are 3 types of pyramids:

·  Pyramids of ______(that show the number of oraganisms in each trophic level)

·  Pyramids of ______(that show the mass of organisms in each trophic level)

·  Pyramids of ______(that show the amount of energy in each trophic level).

o  Another example:

·  many grass plants are needed to feed fewer snails

·  fewer chickens would be able to feed on the snails

·  This in turn requires only a few people to eat the chickens that ate the snails.

·  so each consecutive level contains fewer organisms than the level below it. Draw this pyramid here

Energy is lost from one trophic level to another. Energy is lost when the organism is performing its vital functions.

What are the effects of humans on the animals and plants?

People may affect the environment in good and bad ways. ______is helping the environment and pollution is harming the environment.

Examples of harmful human activities are:

·  Deforestation: the cutting down of trees. Many plants and trees are cut down which are also the homes of many animals.

·  Pollution: the pollution caused by humans such as water pollutions. Whenever there are oil spills many animals die as a result. This also may have an effect on the food chain!

·  Animal hunting: when a certain species is hunted there is also a chance that a species may become extinct.

·  Pesticides: pesticides that are added by farmers to protect certain crops may end up killing a number of insects.

Mrs. J. Ebejer Grech B.Ed.(Hons.)