Unitary and Modular Organisms: Their Response to Environmental Changes and Perturbation1

The purpose of our experiment is to test animal behavior and reactions to a change in environment. Our guiding question is, “Why do living organisms respond to environmental factors?” This is basically a question that is asking why living things will react a certain way to environmental changes. The task to answer this question is to experiment with changing environmental factors with pill bugs.

organisms can last months to years if kept in a controlled environment to allow for the

Duckweed is a small aquatic plant that is able to grow rapidly, making it the ideal specimen for our experiment. It is hypothesized that altering the amount of light received by duckweed will alter its photosynthetic rate. It is predicted that a lower light intensity will lower the rate of growth in duckweed.

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

25) In The Usefulness of the Parts Galen discussed how an organisms color, shape, and size are determined to what would allow the organism to survive in its ecosystem (p. 154, 155).

Living organisms display specific characteristics. They respond to external stimuli, use energy, reproduce, and contain materials that are only found in living organisms. They sense, adapt, and alter their environment. Living organisms have a high degree of organization and maintain a constant internal environment (Ireland, 2012). These characteristics displayed by a chia pet, however are not displayed by an inanimate object, such as a rock.

Adaptations in terrestrial environments involve the structural and functional qualities of the organism, to achieve the adequate intake of oxygen and other essential substances for the animal to survive, the evolution of more complex anatomical structures were required. Gravity is stronger on land than water, which means terrestrial organisms have to be more structural than aquatic organisms. Also, the balance of gas exchange with water loss is a key feature to survive in land. For example plants, when doing photosynthesis require carbon dioxide and water to produce oxygen, at the end of this process a lot of water is lost and terrestrial plants have to compensate the water being lost and the water taken from soil. Furthermore, the dispersal of gametes by wind or other animals have helped plants reproduce in large amounts and create varieties of species of the same kind. Short-term weather patterns as well as long-term climate conditions based on precipitations, temperature, wind, humidity as well as other factors are survival obstacles that organisms in land have to adapt to live; endothermic organisms have to maintain a constant internal

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

Habitat: Commonly found in terrestrial. Forest light gaps, slips, margins, disturbed sites, open habitats, riverbeds, cliffs, inshore and offshore islands, fernland, herbfield,

Nitellopsis obtusa, or Starry stonewort, is a species of macroalgae that can grow up to 2 meters in height and in depths of up to 10 meters (Pullman & Crawford 2010). They form in dense algae beds that stretch across the landscape (Simons and Nat 1996). Though it is beneficial and endangered in its native location of Europe and Asia, it has thrived and become a nuisance since its arrival in North America (Pullman & Crawford 2010).

Why do organisms respond to environmental factors? Organisms keep themselves in the most favorable conditions in order to survive. Pill bugs are members of the terrestrial isopod family. Terrestrial Isopods retrieve oxygen through their gills and live in dark damp environments. These organisms eat decaying plant and animal matter. Sow bugs, also known as pill bugs were tested to see how they react or respond to environmental factors. In this lab two different experiments were conducted. During the first experiment pill bugs were tested to see if they prefer a light environment or a dark environment. Throughout second experiment the pill bugs were tested to see how many of the bugs prefer an environment with vinegar or environment

All living things respond to stimuli, including animals. In our experiment, we tested how roly-polies, or pill bugs, respond to two types of material: wet sand and wet dirt. Pill bugs are isopods, a group of 10,000 species living on land and in fresh water and ocean. They are under the phylum Arthropoda, class Crustacea, containing both crabs and shrimp. Pill bugs generally live in dark, moist environments with the decaying matter they eat.

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

In my research paper, I will attempt to determine how the perception of light in phytochromes plays a role in the development of plants. Specifically, I will look at how phytochromes play a role in the growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana. The paper will also look at how light perception plays a role in phototropism and the immune systems of a plant. Finally, my paper will explore how changing light conditions impact perception in phytochromes.

Examples of animals adapting to the environment have been known as far back as the case of the black peppered moths of England in the mid-1800s. In that case, entire populations of the black peppered moths were observed to change color in response to changes in their environment. More recently, bacteria have been known to develop resistance to antibiotic drugs, insects have developed various forms of resistance to insecticide, and plants have adapted to accommodate higher levels of heavy metals in the soil and water.