BIO 220 Topic 4 Assignment PDF

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BIO 220 Topic 2 Assignment...

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Soriam Gonzalez Grand Canyon University BIO-220 Carlene Holt-Grey February 7, 2021.

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Biomes are large regions of the world with plants, animals, and other living, and nonliving things, that have the capacity to adapt to the climate and other conditions. A biome is made up of many similar ecosystems. Ecosystems are defined by the interactions between living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) things in a given place. In an ecosystem, the animals, plants, and other organisms depend on each other and on the physical environment, which could be the water, temperature, food and soils. Among terrestrial based biomes, is the tropical rainforest. This is the biome with the most biodiversity in the world. Example ecosystems for the tropical rainforest biome include the Amazon rainforest, Central African rainforest in the Congo, or the rainforest of New Guinea (Grand Canyon University, 2015). Tropical rainforests are one of the most important areas in the world because these ecosystems are the home of hundreds of species of animals and plants. In these ecosystems there are keystone species that play an important role in their environment. Keystone species impact multiple species within an ecosystem, and these species are crucial for an ecosystem because without them the ecosystem may cease to exist (Grand Canyon University, 2015). Among the keystone species in a tropical rainforest are the orangutan and the agouti, which is a small rodent. The orangutans have the ability to disperse seed, helping to keep the diversity of the rainforest. The agouti, for its part, is the only species with teeth that are strong enough to open the seed pods of the nut trees in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Both species are important for this ecosystem to create a balance in their environment. Just as there are keystone species that are crucial for the ecosystem, there are also other invasive species that negatively impact the ecosystems. Invasive species arrive when they are introduced on purpose or are accidentally brought with migrating people, and there is a chance that these species take over native niches and dominate the ecosystem because the ecosystem it is

3 introduced to has no limiting factors to control its population (Grand Canyon University, 2015). One of the most invasive species in the Amazon rainforest is the wild boar. This large species of pig is native of North and Central Europe, and they have begun to transmit diseases to the indigenous species and now, many of those native species are catching these diseases and dying from them (Biodiversity, n.d.). Among all the variety of species living in the Amazon tropical rainforest, there are some others that are endangered. There are about 265 endangered species in the Amazon, from which 124 of those species include wildlife that only occur in the Amazon rainforest’s unique microcosm (Daily Mirror, 2019). Some of those endangered species are the golden lion tamarin, the giant otters and the pink Amazon dolphin. The golden lion tamarin is an endemic monkey of Brazil, which is on the list of species that have a great risk of getting extinct. The pink Amazon dolphin is one of the five species of freshwater dolphins that live on the planet, and their main threats are the construction of dams, canals and the deviation of natural causes of the rivers, causing them to be in danger of extinction. Other species like the giant otter, play an important role as a predator in ecosystems. The main causes that these species are in danger are habitat destruction, water pollution and illegal hunting. There are conservation programs dedicated to reverse the damage caused by humans and replenish the Amazon with species that were previously in danger. Tropical rainforests are of great importance for humanity. They balance ecology, they produce oxygen, and they are the home of plenty of species of animals and plants. Tropical rainforests also regulate temperature and global warming, for which they are called the “lungs of the earth”.

4 References Amazon rainforest fires threaten 265 endangered species, WWF warns; The WWF has revealed that the Amazon rainforest fires have increased threats to 265 endangered species of plants and animals. (2019, September 9). Daily Mirror (London, England). Biodiversity. (n.d.). Retrieved February 06, 2021, from http://ecoproject20.weebly.com/biodiversity.html#:~:text=Possibly%20one%20of %20the%20most,Asia%2C%20and%20the%20Mediterranean%20Region. Grand Canyon University. (Ed.). (2015). Environmental science: The human impact on natural resources. Available from http://lc.gcumedia.com/bio220/environmental-science-thehuman-impact-on-natural-resources/v1.1/#/home Trophic species. (n.d.). Retrieved February 06, 2021, from https://fhsapes1tropicalrainforest.weebly.com/trophicspecies.html#:~:text=Orangutans%20are%20also%20keystone%20species,plants %20from%20using%20wind%20pollination.

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