Types Of Plants And Insect Herbivores Influence Community Structure And Function

Plants are found everywhere on earth, up high on the ridge and down low in caves and caverns. The types of plants that live in these places depends on many factors. These factors are separated into two different categories, the biotic factors and the abiotic factors. Some of the biotic factors include, predation, competition, and habitat destruction. Plants with limited competition and large amounts of resources will be in a higher abundance than plants with limited resources and higher competition rates will be confined to areas and either out competed or will be the dominant species. Certain plants adapt to these factors and thrive and others don’t do as well. Some of the abiotic factors include, sunlight, water, temperature, and wind. These

A two-part study was recently done to show what natural habitat a Pill bug, Armadillidium vulgare, naturally prefers: wet or dry environments along with a light or dark environment. It was hypothesized that a Pill bug would prefer and wet and dark environment based on its natural habitat of soil. For the wet and dry experiment, a coffee filter and soil were placed in each chamber of a double petri dish with one being dampened before being placed in. For the light and dry experiment a light was hung above one chamber of another double-chambered petri dish while the other chamber was covered with aluminum foil, after placing soil in both chambers. An equal number of Pill bugs was placed in each chamber and a study was taken for

On Tuesday, October 3rd, 2017, several samples of random bean beetles were sorted by gender and size. 6 groups sorted 5 males and 5 females, making for a total of 60 bean beetles. All beetles were measured under a Dissection 3D Microscope to approximate their torso length. After this was accomplished for every beetle in every group, a large data table was compiled to compare sizes. The 10 smallest and 10 largest beetles were each placed in their own respective bean “habitat,” and 10 random beetles from the remaining pool were also placed in their own bean “habitat.” These habitats were nearly identical to avoid unnecessary variability. The goal of the experiment will be to produce significant evidence to either reject the null hypothesis that bean beetle size has no correlation with survivability as a species, or to reject the alternative hypothesis that bean beetle size has some correlation with survivability as a species.

In this experiment, we tested three different environments, soil, sand, and a leafy mixture to see which one a pill bug would prefer the most. Originally, we believed that the pill bug would find the leafy substance to be most favorable. Five pill bugs and then a single pill bug was placed in the center so that it could select one of the substrates. The data collected at the end of the experiment opposed our original hypothesis as we discovered that the most favored environment was the soil. This finding could correlate with the dark color of the soil closely matching the color of the pill bug or the moisture in the soil.

Read "Lab 3: Biodiversity." This lab will allow you to investigate how various organisms alter their environments. Additionally, it will allow you to

In this chapter the author stresses the importance of creatures that pollinate such as insects, birds,

Pollination is essentially plant reproduction - without help from animal pollinators, our everyday food supply would look much different

University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. E J H Corner, 2002. The Life of Plants. University of Chicago Press,

The first hypothesis for this lab is that, if red flour beetles are placed in the center of a dish with wheat flour on one side and white flour on the other, then more beetles will go to their preferred substrate. Our prediction is that the white flour side will occupy more red flour beetles than the oat flour side of the dish because that is the preferred substrate. The null hypothesis is that there will be no preference between the two substrates.

War, A., Paulraj, M., Ahmad, T., Buhroo, A., Hussain, B., Ignacimuthu, S. and Sharma, H. (2012). Mechanisms of plant defense against insect herbivores. [online] NCBI. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493419/ [Accessed 10 Mar.

Larvae defoliate and reduce the yield, quality and stand health, young larvae feed on terminal buds while larger larval feed on the leaflets of plants.

Bees are important pollinators of many plants in the ecosystem (2). Recently, the decline in the number of bees in North America and Europe has shifted the research focus of many ecologists towards pesticide use (2). The impacts of pesticides on bees and other pollinators can have a major influence on honey production and biodiversity.

Since the beginning of time, people have had a few basic needs. Somewhere to live, and most importantly, something to eat. Nature works within a very delicate balance, and one of the biggest challenges we face is the battle to keep our food supply plentiful and safe. Various plants, animals and other organisms can threaten our food supply, along with our health and comfort. When they display a threat we consider them to be pests, and their impact is never taken lightly.

Other services nature provides are more easily taken for granted. We depend on plant life to replenish the oxygen in the atmosphere, and on insects to replace nutrients in the soil. (31) These insects are especially vital, as they are part of the foundation of nearly all ecosystems. Without insects, plant species that rely on them for pollination would quickly become extinct, including many of the species we rely on for food. Following them would be species that feed on insects, as well as species which rely on vegetation as part of their habitats. Finally, as insects make the prime contribution to soil renewal, even non-insect pollinated plant life would begin to decline. (34) The result, according to Wilson, would

Genetically Modified insect resistant crops produce the toxic substances as a results it effect non-target organism and entire ecosystem. Biodiversity has significant role to balance environment as biodiversity decreases interaction between species decrease and ecosystem and food chain affect adversely. Some weeds are source of food for