Biota & their

environment :
By : KG/KRG SIR.
Introduction :
Biota can be defined as the flora & fauna of a particular region or of a given geological
period.
ECOLOGY : Ecology can be defined as the study of plants & animals in reciprocal
relationship with their environment. Ecology is derived from two Greek words viz, oikos
meaning the home or dwelling place & logos meaning study or understanding. Warming
is the father of plant ecology. The term hexicology or ethology is the synonyms of
ecology. Ecology was first of all coined by Reiter in 1868. But German biologist Ernst
Haeckel in 1866 proposed the definition of ecology.
BRANCHES OF ECOLOGY : Ecology has two main branches :
a. Autecology : The study of ecology from the stand point of component ie individual
species, is called autecology. It is the ecology of individual species.
b Synecology : The study of ecology from the community point of view ie mass of
vegetation, is called synecology.
Level of ecological organisation :
The hierarchy in the level of organisation related with ecological group,
is called ecological level of organisation or ecological hierarchy.
Notes :
• Biome : A biome is a large major terrestrial community unit characterized by the kinds of plants &
animals present extending over large natural area. It is bigger unit than community. The biome are of
following types :
* Forest biome : Trees dominating
*Grassland biome : Herbs dominating
*Desert biome : Xerophytes dominating
• Ecotone : The Ecotone or the transition zone is the zone where two or more different communities meet
& integrate. The border between forest & Grassland is one of the example of Ecotone. The unique
feature of an Ecotone, is called principle of edges.
• Ecotype : A group of organism of the same species living in an area which are morphologically &
genetically different from the organism of the same species living in the different area. Tundra reindeer
& woodland reindeer are two ecotypes of reindeer. The first migrates annually between the two
environment in large number, whereas the other who are fewer remain in the forest for the summer.
• Ecological niche : The functional role or position of an organism in an ecosystem is called ecological niche
of that organism.
Factors of ecosystem or
ecological/environmental factors :
Any external force, substance or condition which affects the life of an organism in any
way is referred to as environmental factors or ecological factors.They are of 2 types:
1. Abiotic factors
2. Biotic factors
Abiotic factors :
The non-living factors are called abiotic factors. It includes following:
a. Climatic factors
b. Edaphic factors
c.Topographic factors
Climatic factors: Climate of any region is chiefly determined by meterological influences.
The study of climate is called climatology. The climatic factors includes following:
i. Light:
Light is the most important ecological factor, which plays an important role in growth, development and
distribution of vegetation. It affects many activities of plants as well as animals in following ways:
ROLE OF LIGHT IN FLORA Ie PLANTS
• Light is the essential factor for the formation of chlorophyll .
• It plays an important role in the opening and closing of stomata, as the stomata opens in light and closed in
the dark except succulent plants.
• It is necessary in photosynthesis, the rate of photosynthesis depends upon the quality, intensity and
duration of light .
• Light plays and important role in the development of vegetative parts of the plants . The plants growing in
strong sunlight are called heliophytes or sun plants and the plants growing in weak sunlight are called
sciophytes/photophobic/shaded plants.
• It plays an important role in transpiration, growth and development of flowers, seeds and fruits.
• It controls the production of enzymes and hormones for metabolism in plants.
• It plays an important role in plat succession, where generally it is noticed that the light requirement of
pioneers are more than climax species.
ROLE OF LIGHT IN FAUNA ie.ANIMALS:
a. Vision – vision in animal is directly related to light
b. Movement /locomotion – The larvae of mussel crab move slowly in dim
light & faster in light of higher intensity, the phenomenon is called photo
kinesis. Euglena is positively phototactic whereas earthworm, slugs &
some zooplanktons are negatively phototactic.
c. Development of eyes – Animals living in caves & in deep sea have no
eyes or rudimentary eyes. In the ocean, the size of eyes increases with
increasing the depth of sea or decreasing intensity of light.
d. Bird migration – Shortening of day length causes southward migration of
birds belonging to colder area in North hemisphere & increasing day
length induces reverse journey in these birds.
e. Metabolism – Light affects the metabolic activities of animals
through it heating effects on tissues. The animals living in caves show
slow metabolic rate.
f. Pigmentation – lt is controlled in the body of animals by the intensity
of light. Animals living in caves & in deep sea can not develop the
pigmentation due to absence of light.
ii. Temperature : The ecological role played by temperature
on flora & fauna can be summarised as follows :
ROLE OF TEMPERATURE IN PLANTS/FLORA :
a. Transpiration –The rate of transpiration is directly proportional to the temperature .
b. Ascent of sap –temperature increases the rate of transpiration which also influences
the upward movement of sap from root to the tip of the plant.
c. Photosynthesis - The rate of photosynthesis gradually increases with rise in temperature
from 6-37 degree celcius, but very & very low temperature reduces the rate of
photosynthesis
d. Respiration – The rate of respiration gradually increases with rise in temperature from 6-
45 degree celcius by more activation of enzymes, but very high & very low temperature
decrease the rate of respiration by denaturation of enzymes.
e. Seed germination – Temperature stimulus the growth of seedlings.
f. Absorption of water from soil – The rate of absorption of water fro soil gradually
increases with the rise in temperature from 20-30 degree celcius.
g. Growth & development - Both extremely high & low temperature
has adverse effect on the growth & development of plants. Very low
temperature causes cold injuries like desiccation, chilling injuries,
freezing injury etc. Very high temperature causes retardation of growth
& development as well as death of the plants, which is called heat
injury.
Role of temperature on fauna /animals :
a. Growth and development – Temperature affects the growth & development of animals Eg,
sea urchin develops maximum size of body in warmer water, blow fly decreases incubation
period with increasing temperature.
b. Reproduction – The maturation of gonads & liberation of gametes takes place at a
particular temperature which varies from species to species .
c. Crossing over – In Drosophila, & in some other insects, the rate of crossing over increases
with increasing temperature.
d. Sex ratio – In some animals like rotifers & daphnids, sex ratio is affected by temperature,
under normal conditions, They give parthenogenic eggs that develop into female, whereas
with increase in temperature, they give sexual eggs which after fertilization develops either
into males or females.
e. Colouration – Some insects, birds & mammals in warm humid climates bear darker
pigments than the races of same species present in cool & dry climates, this phenomenon is
called gloger rule.
f. Hybernation & aestivation – Some animals like amphibians, reptiles,
insects, bat etc undergo dormant stage in winter for physiological
adjustment in low temperature, which is called Hybernation & some
animals like spider, molluscs, squirrels etc undergo dormant stage in
summer for physiological adjustment in high temperature, which is
called aestivation.
g. Thermal migration – The journey taken by the animals to avoid
extremely hot or cold weather, is called thermal migration. It occurs in
birds & insects.
iii. Precipitation or rainfall :
An interchange of water between earth’s surface and atmosphere forms the hydrological cycle. The
two important events which are involved in this process are precipitation and evapo-transpiration.
Some of the important ecological importance of water are given below:
• Water constitutes about 75-90 % of protoplasm.
• Water is used as raw material for food production in photosynthesis by green plants.
• Water maintains the turgidity of cells and cell organelles .
• Water plays an important role in species composition and distribution on plants. The quality and
duration of rainfall regulates the vegetation of any place. Heavy rainfall throughout the year
produces tropical evergreen forest, good rainfall in one or two season causes deciduous forests,
moderate rainfall/scanty rainfall in one or two season causes grassland, while very low seasonal
rainfall causes desert.
• Water is useful for mobility of gametes and dispersal of spores, fruits and seeds.
• Water is associated with absorption of nutrients, translocation of solutes, transpiration, growth
etc of the plants.
iv. Atmospheric humidity :
The amount of water vapour present in air is called humidity. The plants which requires the least
atmospheric humidity grow into tall tree, while opposite occurs in case of ground flora. Submerged
hydrophytes are not affected by humidity because of the devoid of the stomata. The ecological role played
by atmospheric humidity are as follows:
• Some plants like lichen, mosses, orchid etc get their water supply directly from air.
• In fungi and other microbes, it plays an important role in germination of spores and subsequent stages
of life cycle.
• Humidity influences the rate of transpiration and absorption as higher the humidity, lower is the
transpiration and absorption.
• It directly influences the form and structure of the plants. The plant which requires the least
atmospheric humidity grow into tall tree, while opposite occurs in ground flora.
• In higher animals dry air make respiration difficult, causing dehydration. In plants, lack of moisture in air
increase transpiration rate .
• The rate of transpiration increase in dry air which decrease the water content of the leaf tissue so that
the temporary wilting of leaves occurs.
v. Wind :
The air in motion is called wind. It is an important ecological factor which influences in plants and
animals in following ways:
• The rate of transpiration increases with increasing wind velocity, which removes saturated air from
around the transpiring area and the plants may suffer from desiccation due to high velocity of wind
because plants fails to maintain an internal water balance.
• The high velocity of wind causes premature shedding of flowers, fruits, buds, breakage of branches,
bending of crop plants i.e lodging and sometimes causes complete uprooting of plants.
• Wind maintains the temperature of earth and helps in dispersal of pollen grains, fruits and seeds.
• Constant unidirectional wind stimulates branches in windward direction, this type of tree is called flag
tree.
• Desiccation caused by wind reduces the turgidity of cells, so growth is reduced resulting dwarf plants.
• Strong wind causes soil erosion, so that fertility of soil reduced and causes desirtification.
• Along seashore, wind sprays salt droplets, the deposition of salt over the surface of the plant causing
exo-osmosis and blocking of stomata.
vi. Fire :
Fire is one of the ecological factors naturally caused by lightening and
volcanic activities. It also occurs due to careless use of man. Fire
destroys an ecosystem by destroying producers so that the natural
habitat of animal is destroyed and the animals are driving out from
ecosystem. Fire is the lethal factor because it destroys the large area of
vegetation including wild animals. The ash of plants and animals made
the soil fertile and some ascomycetes grow in soil of burnt areas, called
pyrophilous. Such area is also considerd as the opportunity area for
many plants to regenerate. In some grasses and legumes, the seeds
would germinate only after getting fire treatement.
vii. Pressure :
Pressure can be defined as the force per unit area. It affects the
behaviour and metabolism in animals. The hydrostatic pressure
influences the solubility, ionic dissociation etc. It also influences the
aquatic organisms. Eg amoeba show intensive motion in increased
pressure. The pressure varies from place to place and decreases with
increasing altitude. The pressure on terrestrial animals affects certain
behaviour and metabolism, but pressure on ocean has constant effect
on aquatic organisms. The pressure of liquid increases with increasing
depth.