English report draft.docx

8/17/2019 English report draft.docx

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English report draft

Introduction:

Over the years, human population has expanded, thus changing the

natural ecosystems to adapt to our needs. A quarter of the Earth’s land surface is

left remained untouched by human developments, and it has caused an

enormous impact on all the biomes, mainly aquatic life (Reece et. al, !"#. $o

summarise everything% community ecology. &ommunity ecology is the study of

symbiosis 'hereby evolution by natural selection is driven by ecological

interactions bet'een organisms and bet'een organisms and their environment

(mith, "))!#. $herefore, interaction bet'een species consists of many types,

'ithout them the balance of ecosystem life may cease to exist (Reece et. al,

!"#. $he types of interaction bet'een species are mutualism, parasitism,

commensalism, predation and competition. Each in their o'n unique 'ay

controls the balance of the ecosystem.


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*redation

*redation, a relationship 'here it involves t'o main components% prey and

predator. *redators often prey according to certain age+sex+sie class of their

prey (Reece et. al, !"#. According to the predators choices of age+sex+sie of

the prey determines the survival of both parties (Reece et. al, !"#. -ima and

ill ("))!# states that, most studies conducted have indicated that a prey’s

behavioural and physique a/ects the survival of the prey itself. $herefore,

according to the author, each of both components has developed ecological

evolution in order to cope 'ith the food chain (-ima 0 ill, "))!#. According to

Reece et. al (!"#, in a prey’s perspective, they are able to achieve adaptive

animal evolution 'hereby they inherit the antipredator evolutionary genes. $ypes

of antipredator evolutionary aspects are% camou1age, mimicry, developing

armour, and releasing of chemicals for protection. As de2ned by tevens et. al

(!!)# , the term camou1age includes all strategies of concealment. &amou1age

is 'hen an organism ta3es the resemblance of its environment to hide itself from

predators. According to ar'in ("45)#, one strategy to achieve crypsis is

bac3ground matching, it is a principle that has long been ac3no'ledged. One

example of organism that ta3es upon camou1age is the octopus (Endler, ")4"#. $he octopus possesses the remar3able ability to change its body pattern

matching the change in their visual bac3ground 'hich this is termed as crypsis

(Endler, ")4"#. 6imicry on the other hand, is a phenomenon of high degree of

resemblance due to natural selection, proposed by ir 7alter 8enry 9ates in

"4: upon returning from the Amaon rainforest after "" years as a professional

collector. One of the examples of mimicry is the 6etalmar3 6oths. $he author

observed the moth’s morphologies and noted, “on these expanded membranes

Nature writes, as on a tablet, the story of the modications of species” . 8e

proposed that the long'ings and other moths gained protection by mimic3ing

undesirable species and the similarities among such unrelated insects lent

support to &harles ar'in’s ne'ly proposed theory of natural selection (9ates,

"4:#. Armoury is also one of the aspects for a prey to protect itself from the

predator as 'ith a hard shell (Reece et. al, !"#. One of the examples of

armoured animals is the armadillo, Dasypus novemcintus. $heir armour provides

di;culty to dislodge, though they can still receive bites from predatory species

such as the 6ountain lion and American alligator (


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that, group formation in animals is also one of the 3ey components for survival

'here strength in numbers refers to animals living in the groups to prevent

predation ris3 (>rause, !!#. According to >rause (!!#, animals in larger

groups bene2t from team vigilance, defence cooperation, and dilution as 'ell as

confusing the predators. ?or example, large grouping animals such as ebras and

'ildebeest are safer as they are in larger groups in the open plains of the

erengeti as lions prefer smaller groups (cheel, "))@#. 6any animals use

chemicals for protection. $he usage of chemicals for protection 'ill usually inure

or paralyse the predator. One of the examples for animals that use chemicals for

protection is the Poecilocerus pictus grasshopper species. Bt secretes greenish+

yello' 1uid. Bt is used for protection and it is unpleasant. Bt is eected

independently of pressure and in di/erent directions under the insect’s control

(8ingston, ")=#. According to Reece et. al (!"#, the predators, they have their

o'n 'ays to cope 'ith the prey. $hey are% the 'aiting game, venom 3illing spree

and the usage of nets or deadly devices. According to 8ugie (!!@#, the 'aiting

game is the most common among the predators. 7aiting game contests are

expected to be common in nature because prey often respond to predators by

ta3ing refuge in a 'ay that restricts further information from being obtained

about a predator’s continued presence (8ugie, !!@#. Other than that, venom is

also used for predators to paralyse the prey 'hen hunting. Cenom is a secretionof an animal or a plant that can cause the paralysation or a fully fatal cause to

the prey 6ebs (")=4#. $his secretion must contain molecules that disrupt normal

physiological processes (?ry et. al, !!:#. -ast but not least, the usage of nets

and deadly devices for capturing the prey. 6ainly, insects are the prey to these

traps as they are very small and easy to be trapped due to their bad coordination

and thus being the victims of the traps (Reece et. al , !"#.

Reference%

". ar'in, &. ("45)#. On the oriin of species by means of natural selection

or the preservation of favoured races in the strule for life. Dnited

>ingdom, -ondon% ohn 6urray.. Endler, . A. (")4"#. An overvie' of the relationships bet'een mimicry and

crypsis. !ioloical "ournal of the #innaen $ociety, ":, :+@".@. 9ates, 7. 8. ("4:#. &ontributions to an insect fauna of the Amaon Calley.

#epidoptera%&eliconidae.'rans #inn $oc #ond, @, F)5+5::.F. cheel, . ("))@# *ro2tability, encounter rates and prey choice of African

lions. !ehavioural (coloy, F("#, )!+)=.


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5. 8ingston, R. 7.

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