Question

1:in ehich ecosystem, southern live oak woodland or chaparral, do you expect to have more mammal species? why?

2:in ehich of the two ecosystem do you expect the number of total individual animals to be more than the other one? why?

3:how do you conpare the umber of primary consumers and higher level consumers in each of these ecosystems?

4:how do your findings relate the principle of ecology of these ecosystems and how is the body size imprtant answering this question?

thank you.

Answer 1

The oak woodlands and Chaparrals are the terrestrial ecosyatems found through out California (United states).

These ecoregions forms almost continuous ellipse of oak woodland and chaparral around California central valley ranging at an elevation of about 300 to 3000 ft.

These ecoregions continues across the coast ranges to Pacific from point Reyes to Santa Barbara.

With in California interior woodland and Chaparral ecosystems, you can find mosaic of grassland, chaparral shrubland, oak woodlands, open oak savannas, closed-cone pine forests, serpentine communities etc., amongst which oak savannas and chaparral ecosystems are most common.

The live oak is the beautiful evergreen oak, which typically grows taller and have a branched trunk.

A great variety of mammals, birds, reptiles and invertibrates live in live oak woodlands.

The habitat expers evaluated that the oak woodland habitats have moderate physical and topographical diversity, moderate component species diversity and moderate functional diversity.

The live oak woodlands provide critical habitat for a vriety of wild species.

In constrast, Chaparrals are the ecosystems made up of thick, impenetrable, dense shrubs and thorny bushes or small trees.

This is an ecological community made up of shrubs that are adapted to the dry summers and moist winters.

Chaparrals are exceptionally rich in rodents.

2.

The number of total individual animals will be more in live oak woodlands than in chaparrals because of the moderate conditions.

The trees with taller trunks in live oak woodlands favor the species growth.

Chaparrals have a greater number and variety of rodents. These ecosystems are characterised with many herbivorous animals like and Jack rabbits, wild goats and the carnivores like jackals and pumas

3.

A diverse variety of flora and fauna is seen in live oak woodlands. The number of primary consumers as well as the secondary and tertiary consumers will be more in these ecosystems. Very complex food webs are found in wood lands.

In chaparrals, the primary consumers eat producers.

Jack rabbits, wild goats and other grazing animals eat the low laying shrubs, sage brush and grasses.

As the number of rodents is high in chaparrals, the jackals and pumas will keep the population in check.

The nutrition recycling is taken care by the earth worms, which are the decomposers.

4.

There are certain fundamental ecological principles that explain various aspects of living systems including distribution of flora and fauna, evolution of species, transfer of energy in different components of the ecosystem, interactions and interrelations between different species, food chain and food webs, etc.

Mainly it explains the relation between living and non living components.

The ecosystem requirements, mainly the supply of energy and energy flow in the ecosystem will influence the size.