Environmental

Gradients, Tolerance and

Adaptation
ESE150/C2
GANIBAN, Jerrold Derrel U.
MEGINO, Kim L.
TALLADA, Francisco III F.
GROUP 1

Environmental Gradients
An environmental gradient is a gradual change in abiotic factors
through space (or time). Environmental gradients can be related
to factors such as altitude, temperature, depth, ocean proximity
and soil humidity. Species abundances usually change along
environmental gradients in a more or less predictive way.

Abiotic Factors
In biology and ecology, abiotic components or abiotic factors are nonliving chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living
organisms and the functioning of ecosystems.

Effects of Environmental Gradients

Thermal expansion: When water heats up, it expands.
About half of the past century's rise in sea level is
attributable to warmer oceans simply occupying more
space.
Scientific research indicates sea levels worldwide have been
rising at a rate of 0.14 inches (3.5 millimeters) per year since
the early 1990s. The trend, linked to global warming, puts
thousands of coastal cities, like Venice, Italy and even whole
islands at risk of being claimed by the ocean.

Venice, Italy (2008)

Consequences
When sea levels rise rapidly, as they have been doing, even a small
increase can have devastating effects on coastal habitats. As
seawater reaches farther inland, it can cause destructive erosion,
flooding of wetlands, contamination of aquifers and agricultural soils,
and lost habitat for fish, birds, and plants.
When large storms hit land, higher sea levels mean bigger, more
powerful storm surges that can strip away everything in their path.
In addition, hundreds of millions of people live in areas that will
become increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Higher sea levels would
force them to abandon their homes and relocate. Low-lying islands
could be submerged completely.

How High Will It Go?

Most predictions say the warming of the planet will continue and
likely will accelerate. Oceans will likely continue to rise as well,
but predicting the amount is an inexact science. A recent study
says we can expect the oceans to rise between 2.5 and 6.5 feet
(0.8 and 2 meters) by 2100, enough to swamp many of the
cities along the U.S. East Coast. More dire estimates, including
a complete meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet, push sea
level rise to 23 feet (7 meters), enough to submerge London.

Environmental Tolerance
The ecological definition of tolerance refers to the niche
breadth, or the range of conditions that an organism can
withstand. Based on this definition, more tolerant organisms
can withstand a broader range of conditions.

Environmental Adaptation
All organisms have evolved to adapt to their particular
environment or ecosystem -- their community of interdependent
organisms.

Environmental Adaptation
When changes in an ecosystem occur, resident organisms must
either adapt to those changes or move. Sometimes the
changes are big, such as a violent storm or fire that transforms
a landscape. Sometimes they are relatively small, like a narrow
hiking path cut through a woods.

Environmental Adaptation
In either case, if the changes affect creatures living in that
environment, they adjust either suddenly or gradually through
modifications in their species population. Those adaptations can
generally be classified as structural, functional or behavioral.
While modifications in behavior can occur within one
generation.

Adaptation to Evolution
For example, a particularly shy species might move deeper into
a forest at the encroachment of development. Structural
changes can happen more gradually, sometimes over
generations. This process of more gradual change is called
evolution.

Adaptation to Evolution
To sum it up, genetic variations exist within a population of a
species in an ecosystem, and those variations that favor the
species survival are the traits most likely to dominate a
population. As individuals with more advantageous traits, such
as thicker fur in an animal whose ecosystem has become
colder can survive long enough to reproduce, their genetic traits
get passed on to future generations.

Adaptation to Evolution
Those individuals with lighter fur might not survive to
reproductive age, and their genes do not get passed on. Thus,
an increasing number of individuals in that species have thicker
fur, altering the traits of that population. If habitat change
happens too rapidly, however, a population might not have time
to adapt, and extinction may result.

The Three Types of Environmental Adaptations

Structural Adaptations
Functional Adaptations
Behavioral Adaptations

Structural Adaptations
Structural adaptations include physical traits, such as body
shape and size, size and shape of body parts, or composition of
body parts. For some organisms, their body structures make
obvious what kind of habitat they live in or what kind of niche
they occupy. A penguin, with its webbed feet, waterproof
feathers, streamlined body, oar-shaped wings and layer of
blubber, seems well suited to living in frigid water and capturing
fish.

Structural Adaptations
A lion, with its sharp teeth and claws, powerful muscles, strong
jaw and forward-facing eyes, looks perfectly designed to
capture and tear apart prey.

Structural Adaptations
A penguin's coloring -- light on the belly and dark on its back,
making it less visible when swimming to predators from above
or below -- might be placed in yet a fourth category of
adaptation types, color or camouflage, although structural color,
such as iridescence, does occur in some birds, butterflies and
other organisms.

Functional Adaptations
Functional adaptations might be less obvious to the naked eye,
but they contribute significantly to survival. Marine mammals
can go for long periods of time without breathing because they
have larger quantities of oxygen-rich blood moving through their
bodies, allowing them lengthy diving sessions.

Functional Adaptations
During hibernation, a bear can survive 100 days or more
without drinking, eating, urinating or defecating. When the
external temperature gets too hot for an elephant, its body can
direct blood through its enormous ears; the large surface area
helps to cool the animal's blood and the body.

Functional Adaptations
Photosynthesis in plants, digestive enzymes that help animals
break down various foods and the rapid growth cycles of plants
in areas with short growing seasons are all examples of
functional adaptations.

Behavioral Adaptations
Migration, hibernation, mating and parenting practices, nestbuilding and tool use are all behavioral adaptations.

Behavioral Adaptations
The complex social structure in naked mole rat communities -strangely similar to some insect societies, a phenomenon called
convergent evolution -- seems to benefit their populations
greatly.
An octopus that lives near Australia exhibits a kind of just-incase survivalist mentality, holding coconut shells under its body
to conceal itself from possible future encounters with predators.
Some adaptations can seem like overkill.

Behavioral Adaptations
When peacocks strut their impressive and ridiculously
extravagant tail feathers, they are displaying both behavioral
and structural adaptations that help the healthiest males snag
mating opportunities with the most peahens.
And when pronghorn antelopes in North America gallop at 50
miles per hour -- far faster than any local predators -- it may be
a leftover adaptation from a time when American cheetahs, now
extinct, pursued their ancestors.

THREATS TO THE
ENVIRONMENT

Pollution
It is an unconcerned and uncontrolled
contamination of limited natural resources
available for safe survival of living beings
including humans.
Can take the form of chemical substances or
energy, such as noise, heat or light.

Types of Pollution
Air Pollution
Land Pollution
Light Pollution
Noise Pollution
Thermal Pollution
Visual Pollution
Water Pollution

Air Pollution
air pollution is the contamination of air by smoke
and harmful gases
Exhaust fumes from vehicles
The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, or
gas
Harmful off-gasing from things such as paint,
plastic production, and so on
Radiation spills or nuclear accidents
Air pollution is linked to asthma, allergies and
other respiratory illnesses.

Land Pollution
is the degradation of the Earth's surface caused
by a misuse of resources and improper disposal
of waste.
Some examples of land pollution include:

Litter found on the side of the road

Illegal dumping in natural habitats
Oil spills that happen inland
The use of pesticides and other farming chemicals
Damage and debris caused from unsustainable
mining and logging practices
Radiation spills or nuclear accidents

Light Pollution
is the brightening of the night sky inhibiting the visibility of
stars and planets by the use of improper lighting of
communities
Examples:
Street lamps that shine light in all directions, instead of with a
hood to point light downward toward the street.
Extra, unnecessary lights around the home
Cities that run lights all night long

Light pollution uses more energy (by shining more light up

instead of down, meaning you need brighter bulbs for the
same amount of light), may affect human health and our
sleep cycles, and most importantly, corrupts our kids
telescopes and their curiosity

Noise Pollution
is any loud sounds that are either harmful or
annoying to humans and animals.
Airplanes, helicopters, and motor vehicles
Construction or demolition noise
Human activities such as sporting events or
concerts

Noise pollution can be disruptive to humans'

stress levels, may be harmful to unborn babies,
and drives animals away by causing
nervousness and decreasing their ability to hear
prey or predators

Thermal Pollution
is the increase of temperature caused by human
activity
Warmer lake water from nearby manufacturing (using cool
water to cool the plant and then pump it back into the lake)
Included in thermal pollution should also be the increase in
temperatures in areas with lots of concrete or vehicles,
generally in cities

These kinds of environmental pollution can cause

aquatic life to suffer or die due to the increased
temperature, can cause discomfort to communities
dealing with higher temperatures, and will affect
plant-life in and around the area.

Visual Pollution
is what you would call anything unattractive
or visual damaging to the nearby landscape.
Skyscrapers that blocks a natural view
Graffiti or carving on trees, rocks, or other natural
landscapes
Billboards, litter, abandoned homes, and
junkyards could also be considered among three
kinds of environmental pollution

Water Pollution
is the contamination of any body of water

Raw sewage running into lake or streams

Industrial waste spills contaminating groundwater
Radiation spills or nuclear accidents
Illegal dumping of substances or items within bodies of water
Biological contamination, such as bacteria growth
Farm runoff into nearby bodies of water

These kinds of environmental pollution are linked to health issues in

humans, animals and plant-life

Climate change
also called global warming, refers to the rise in average surface temperatures
on Earth
is the result of human practices like emission of Greenhouse gases. Global
warming leads to rising temperatures of the oceans and the earth surface
causing melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea levels and also unnatural patterns
of precipitation such as flash floods, excessive snow or desertification.
Heat waves, droughts, flooding, storms, decrease in crop yields, and rising sea
levels are just some of the effects were seeing from climate change

Deforestation
Deforestation is one cause of climate
change. But beyond that, its also
responsible for the depletion of oxygen in the
atmosphere and the displacement of wildlife.

Over-fishing
a form of overexploitation where fish stocks
are reduced to below acceptable levels.

Overpopulation
The population of the planet is reaching unsustainable levels as it
faces shortage of resources like water, fuel and food. Population
explosion in less developed and developing countries is straining
the already scarce resources. Intensive agriculture practiced to
produce food damages the environment through use of chemical
fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides. Overpopulation is one of the
crucial current environmental problem.

Loss of biodiversity
As a result of overfishing, deforestation, habitat destruction, pollution,
and other factors, more plants and animals are nearing extinction.
reduced biodiversity means millions of people face a future where
food supplies are more vulnerable to pests and disease, and where
fresh water is in irregular or short supply which means if there is a
biodiversity crisis, our health and livelihoods are at risk