5-Minute Reflection

Chapter three of my Environmental Science textbook covers how genetics and biomes come into play and interact with organisms. Organisms can inherit certain genetic trains from one another, and natural selection basically means that members of a species with more adaptive traits will be more likely to reproduce and create other similar organisms. This allows for biological evolution in that it causes the earth’s organism’s to slowly change and adapt over time. Things like random changes in the DNA molecules of a cell called mutations can affect how certain species adapt. Eventually something called speciation can happen, where one species splits into two different species based on traits that a portion of the species has acquired that make it unable to reproduce with the rest of said species. This is often of how new species come into existence. Different species live in different biomes. A biome is an area that has certain climate factors and soil in it, creating a distinct environment fit for particular types of plants and animals. Some examples of biomes would be dry and rain-free deserts, dry but moist grasslands, high-altitude mountains that have steep slopes, tree-dominated forests, and wetlands that are covered in water. Overall this chapter teaches about the types of environments there are and how species can adapt to them.

             

A few questions came to mind while reading this chapter. I was thinking about how each biome supported specific types organisms, some of which may be necessary to sustain parts of the environment. If a biome like wetlands became extremely scares and the species in it died out, would other species adapt to fill the roles of those now extinct species? Also how many of the species that once lived in that biome would survive and adapt to a new biome? I was also thinking about if a species splits into two separate species, will one of those species often die out given that there is a similar species that requires the same resources and fills the same general roll? If humans end up killing off an important species is it likely or even probable that other species will adapt and fill the role of the extinct species? 

This chapter was relevant to me in that I think it does a good job of outlining how delicate the earth is. By that I mean that species require very specific conditions to thrive, and even small changes in the environment can cause a species to have to adapt or change. This means that everything in the world is constantly changing around us, which is partly why the earth is so different now from what it was millions of years ago.

           

The most interesting thing about this chapter is how the environment naturally designates certain areas to sustain particular species. There are also natural checks and balances in place to ensure that a population does not exceed the number of species that the biome it is living in can support. 

Source: Miller, Tyler G. and Spoolman, Scott E. "Sustaining The Earth." Belmont: 2009, Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning