Species

is not always a mutualistic between different plant species. Invasive plant species have been known to impact native species by altering the environment. The University Woods location was ideal for data collection. The different trails provided information on numerous invasive and native species aiding in the quasi-experiment/ observational study. An invasive species and a native species were selected to assist in accepting/ rejecting the hypothesis. The Privet (Ligustrum sp.) and the Spicebush…

The first chapter in the sixth extinction is geared towards focusing on the rapid extinction of frogs, a species that has survived over 400 million years. Elizabeth Kolbert, the author believes that we are entering a sixth extinction and that it is crucial to pay close attention to it because any slight change can drastically influence an entire ecosystem and its inhabitants. The epicenter of the extinction seemed to begin in a small town in Central Panama called El Valle de Anton. The…

of biological anthropology and archaeology. The theory of evolution describes the process of a gradual change in traits in a species over time. Human evolution describes the slow process that led to the rise of anatomically modern humans—who we are today. During this process, traits were altered in order to adapt to environmental situations and needs. The name of our species is Homo sapiens sapiens. Out of Africa Evolution posits that our human ancestors moved out of Africa thousands and…

Through the lecture, the professor explains why a re-examination of available information has produced new conclusions about why bioluminescence occurs in the mushroom kingdom. Although he agrees with the general information in the reading, he believes it generates alternative conclusions. The first bit of information he refutes is the idea that mushrooms emit light to attract insects to their spores. He points out that the part of the mushroom that emits light is not the same as the part that…

organisms in an ecosystem. This variety can be between species, within species, and between ecosystems, but in this lab, only the variety between species will be discussed to quantify the biodiversity of the target ecosystem. Biodiversity can be quantified by two main aspects which are species richness, and species eveness. Species richness is the number of species observed per sample of an ecosystem, and if there are a higher amount of different species within one sample of an ecosystem, then…

Over the past decade the accounts of various coral diseases have been on the rise which had lead to the decimation of keystone species of corals throughout mainly the world’s tropical oceans. Since the mid-1990s, 18 coral diseases affecting at least 150 scleractinian, gorgonian, and hydrozoan zooxanthellate species have been described in the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific (Sutherland et al. 2004). Most of these diseases have been caused by bacterial, fungal, and protist type pathogens as well the…

future. Without a doubt, the life of all the species on Earth depends on the peculiar sequence written in their DNA, which may me beneficial or detrimental, ultimately writing the story of a population. Genetic Diversity…

selection of habitat across three spatial scales and the effects of understory arthropod biomass, vegetation structure and breeding productivity. As human populations grow and urban development increases desirable habitat for many habitat-specific species decreases resulting in population declines. It is important to understand habitat selection criteria the negative effects of urbanization on the flycatcher to establish management techniques and implement any necessary conservation efforts.…

In his essay “The Lives of a Cell,” Lewis Thomas notes that although humans think of themselves to be independent of nature, they are fundamentally interconnected with other living organisms. Humans aren’t just connected in the larger sense of the planet, says Thomas, but also at the cellular level. Thomas argues that human survival wouldn’t be possible without the help from the microscopic and independently acting organisms that are present in the human body. Organisms such as mitochondria and…

One of the most intimidating tasks challenging an aspiring entomologist is the identification of species within a family as diverse as ground beetles (Choate, 2001). Ground beetles are one of the most diverse insect families in the word. They occur in apparently all terrestrial habitats and represent a major part of the invertebrate predator guild of the soil fauna, e.g. in forests, maquis and agrocoenoses (Arndt et al., 2011). Ground beetles are often chosen for study because they are abundant…