BLOG 3 - RESOURCES AND CONDITIONS

I live in Anos, Los Banos, Laguna and I always travel via my car when I go to my workplace and when I bring my youngest to Maquiling School. In order not to experience the heavy traffic in the crossing area, I make it a point to find an alternative route, and this is taking the Jamboree road. As I drive through this road with my daughter, I always appreciate the wonders of God’s creation. I get to see the beauty of Mt. Makiling as I start driving from PCARRD to UPLB. I feel the fresh air and I see the diversity of plant species there. I really enjoy looking at the tall trees that abound the whole road. I appreciate what a great source of resources Mt. Makiling is to a variety of organisms. For example, along the area of the Magnetic Hill, I get to see residents wash their clothes via the water that comes from the mountain. Mt. Makiling is also an important habitat/home for many animals.  I get to realize this everyday when I pass by the area!

When I took my MA in Environmental Education, my thesis involved Mt. Makiling so since then, Mt. Makiling  has had a soft spot in my heart. Having been exposed to environmental issues due to my graduate courses, it has been my habit to observe the environment and find solutions to every problem I see and witness. A particular problem that prevails along the Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve is deforestation. As I pass the road, I observe the proliferation of many residents squatting in the place which is a proof that much of the area has undergone deforestation. Not only used as a residential area, most of the areas are utilized to plant some crops which serve as the  residents’ sources of food and income. The evidence to this is the area where I see many residents selling backyard crops like fruits (papaya, mango, banana, buko) and vegetables (string beans, raddish, ampalaya). Since I am a lover of fruits and vegetables for my diet, I habitually stop along one of the stores there to buy. However, as I interact with the people living there, there is this question in my mind, “For how long are they going to live there since  they are just squatter residents there?” It really goes to say that the resources in Mt. Makiling must be very abundant making many people reside there for a longer time.  This is an example of how human activities affect the organisms and this is the key concept that I learned from Module 3. As I may be a true environmentalist, I never stop of thinking ways on how to solve partially the problem of deforestation in Mt. Makiling. As residents may not be totally relocated, some important “bald” areas should totally undergo reforestation. For a fact, reforestation will take a long process and perhaps years will be considered for one to say that the area has undergone reforestation. To speed up the reforestation procedure, dormancy in the seeds to be planted should be broken. By understanding the ecology of dormancy among dormant plants, it will be easy to think of possible measures or ways to induce the process. From Module 1, dormancy is defined as a state or a period of temporary metabolic inactivity or minimal activity. Dormancy tends to be closely associated with environmental conditions. Seasonal dormancy may be a valid way of colonizing an environment beyond tolerance ranges.

In plants, dormancy generally occurs in response to adverse growing conditions. For example: perennial plants going dormant during cold period or grass going dormant in intense heat. Growth stops to conserve energy until better conditions take place. This happens naturally as seasons and weather change. For some reasons, dormancy can also be artificially controlled. This is  to store plants for shipping or to get them to flower for particular holidays. In animals, dormancy takes place when growth, development, and physical activity are temporarily stopped. This is to minimize metabolic activity and therefore helps an organism to conserve energy.

Proven as effective, from my readings in biology journals, Trichoderma is one microorganism that is able to break the dormancy of some important plants. I maybe ambitious, but perhaps, I can explore on this and look for some dormant plants that can thrive in the Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve for the rehabilitation, conservation and preservation of this national park.

BLOG 2 - HOW THE ENVIRONMENT AFFECTS THE ORGANISMS

An environment consists all the living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth. As part of the living components of the environment, we observe a variety and variability of different life forms on Earth. These life forms include all plants, animals, protists, bacteria and fungi that naturally live and grow on the Earth as well as their habitats and all of the natural processes of which they are a part. Of course, I can not see all of these organisms unless I use a microscope for the microscopic ones. We recognize the presence of a diverse group of organisms as our life support system because it provides everything we need in order to survive. Such support includes the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the medicines that we take to keep us strong and healthy. Important abiotic components that have a profound influence on the organisms in order to survive and sustain existence include temperature, light intensity, concentration of oxygen, carbon dioxide, wind exposure, availability of chemicals, soil type, etc.

In the advent of global industrialization, we expect the proliferation of many establishments all over the parts of the globe. In Laguna, industrialization continues to dominate some areas of the locality affecting the rate at which the organisms operate at maximum efficiency. For example, the construction of SM outlets in Calamba and San Pablo City and the nearly to be finished Health Serve Hospital in Los Banos, Laguna will contribute to pollution all over the Laguna Lake. I really appreciate looking at these buildings as I see them along the stretches of Calamba, San Pablo and Los Banos. Moreso, I experience the happiness everytime my family and I visit these places and explore what is inside. These establishments may not be as large as SM North Edsa or SM MOA, though. Just recently, my family had a hop from SM Sta. Rosa to SM Calamba and to SM San Pablo. We really enjoyed doing this stuff but when we took our dinner at a fastfood chain in SM Pablo where we had the last stop, I could not help but think about the wastes of the food chain as the crew was holding the trash bag full of trash for disposal. I even asked my kids, “where will such wastes be thrown?” My kids were so sensitive about this and we shared the same concern. Then, while eating, we had an educational discussion about the problem, particularly on water pollution. My kids and husband were laughing at me because, I, being a teacher dominated the discussion. Of course, I had to capitalize on that so that they would all listen to me and learn from me. Then, I started sharing to them bits of information about water pollution. I told them that though some solid waste materials may be recycled, the non-biodegradable stuff will just pile up in an area where they are deposited. And since this part of the year that we are still under the effect of the La Nina phenomenon, much of the non-biodegradable stuff will flow to Laguna Lake resulting to increased water pollution. I continued telling them that the accumulation of wastes on the water surface decreases the rate at which aquatic photosynthetic life forms may perform photosynthesis. Except for my eleven-year old kid, my two boys and my husband understood completely what I said. It was actually a fast discussion while we had our dinner. In between my sharing would be some laughter because I mentioned not so familiar words in Biology. They teased me for being so “scientific”. We went home with some questions at the back of my kids’ minds. True enough, when we were at home, my high school son insisted that I explain more about water pollution.
Not all people would know that due to water pollution, the aquatic organisms’s ability to survive is restricted and this tolerance limit restricts the organisms to operate more efficiently. The key concept here that I learned from Module 1 is “Limit to Tolerance”. Covering the surface of the water with such non-biodegradable waste materials will cause decreased dissolved oxygen since there is no chance that sunlight penetrates down the waters. Due to this, some organisms down below may be killed. This kind of abiotic environment has an effect on other organisms which may thrive in the place. It is because the biodeterioration or biodegradation of solid wastes is not complete since the enzymes of microbial communities that feed on its residues cannot cause its disappearance or conversion into another compound. Sewage and waste-waters such as the effluent from bathrooms, kitchens, laboratories, laundries and clinics which also add to the water pollution. In addition, the sewage effluent from industrial wastes discharged to sewer will lead to accumulation of heavy metals in important aquatic animals. All these physical and chemical variables are important in order to evaluate the ability of important organisms to survive.

On my part, as I realize that industrialization and urbanization can not be controlled if only for the improvement of the economy of our country, perhaps an action I will do is to solve this environmental issue on water pollution by coming up with a research on a kind of microorganism which has the ability to degrade important solid wastes in Laguna Lake, thus improving water quality and maintaining an aquatic environment that will favour the growth and survival of the aquatic life forms.

Understanding and Appreciating the Principles of Ecology

Understanding and Appreciating The Principles of Ecology

by LEA C. GARCIA

Bio 260 Advanced Ecology

Animals’ lives are shaped by basic needs. In order to survive, animals need to reproduce themselves, protect them from their enemies and to find food. These needs are obtained as long as there are interactions among the animals and other factors in the environment and maintaining the interaction means that there is balance of nature.

Animals live in a variety of unique environments. To survive in many of these environments, animals have adapted both behaviourally and physically. The key concepts here are adaptation and survival. Animals adapt to the environment in order to survive. As I learned about this, I get to appreciate some feeding and protective behaviours of animals through direct observation at home and at the Wildlife Zafari Zoo during the school’s field trip or through film strip presentation at the National Geographic channel.

A variety of feeding behaviours of animals can be considered merely by direct observation. Flies and mosquitoes have this long structure (proboscis) extended to pick up the food and suck up blood, respectively. Dogs have sharp teeth to tear food and to protect themselves and cats have whiskers to serve as "feelers," telling the animal whether or not it can fit into a specific area and also these whiskers are use for food-searching.  Birds have wings and fish have scales for movement and protection, respectively.

As I observed some of the animals at the Zafari Zoo, I realized that animals adapt either physically or behaviourally. From readings, an animal adapts physically if there is a structural modification to a part of the body while an animal that adapts behaviourally is something an animal does – how it acts - usually in response to some type of external stimulus. By looking at the animals, I could easily see some of its adaptations - like what it is able to eat, how it moves, or how it may protect itself. Different animals have many different ways of trying to stay alive. Their adaptations are matched to their way of surviving. Each group of animals (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) has its own general adaptations.

Physical and behavioural adaptations fall into three categories: body parts, body coverings, and behaviours. Some body parts for adaptation that I observed in the animals at the Zoo are the sharp claws of the lion, sharp teeth of the tigers for tearing and chewing of food and for defense, large beaks of birds like macaw for food getting. For the body coverings, I observed some animals such as the tiger with striped fur and the leopard with spotted fur both for camouflage, brightly colored feathers of ostriches, potbellies, wild boars and guinea fowls which they use for camouflage, defense, and mating, scales of snakes, crocodiles, lizards, iguanas, turtles and a lot more cold blooded animals for protection. How the animals respond to any stimulus is the specific behaviour one gets to observe.

Also at the Zoo, I got to observe that there are animals that have evolved their adaptations. This means a long period of slow change resulted in an animal's adaptation(s). For example, the spots on the leopard did not emerge overnight. Instead, this process took generation upon generation of leopard physically adapting to their environment for characteristic spot patterns to evolve. As I observed these leopards, I noticed that there are more leopards with spot patterns than those without spots. This allowed the longer surviving leopards to reproduce and create more leopards with spot patterns like their own. Indeed, this process of change over time is the key to how many organisms develop adaptations. Some adaptations can arise quickly through genetic mutations; these mutations also maybe deadly.

From the National Geographic Channel, I got to see that snakes have the Jacobson’s organ deep inside the mouth for detecting odors.  Woodpeckers use their hard, chisellelike beaks to search for food. Catfish have whiskerlike sensory organs called barbels that sift through mud and sand to find food.  For defense with some animals that rely on their camouflage to avoid predators, some camouflage may include having coloring that blends into the background or having a shape that resembles that of another object. Some insects such as butterflies are brightly colored and stand out from their surroundings.  A rattlesnake’s rattling noise is part of its defense against attackers.

All these things are what Ecology is all about. It is the science that deals with how organisms relate to other organisms and how the organisms relate to their environment. Ecology explains many life processes and adaptations. Adaptation is the evolutionary process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat. This process takes place over many generations, and is one of the basic phenomena of biology. The term adaptation may also refer to a feature which is especially important for an organism's survival. Learning about ecology becomes more meaningful as the concept of natural selection comes in. It is because such adaptations of animals to the environment  are produced in a variable population by the better suited forms reproducing more successfully, that is, by natural selection. Therefore, as organisms interact with one another, natural selection provides an adaptive mechanism for an evolutionary change in populations.