Ecology

Ecological Conservation at Acadia University

Tasty Insect Recipes

Ark Helpers Society

Example of the Scientific Method:

Spontaneous generation
These links should be used in order to understand how the application
of the scientific method refuted the theory of spontaneous generation.
Chapter 2 Related Websites

• NASA's Press Release
  
• Space Settlement
  

Biodiversity

Web resources:
Biodiversity: An Overview from the World Conservation Monitoring Center.
You can consider this link your primary reference on the subject. For faster
loading, we have copied these pages to our server.

Galapagos

Primary succession on bare rock. Rocks erode, sand accumulates, decomposition adds organic matter, and voila! soil. As soil continues to form, larger (and woody) plants appear.

Volcanic eruption is primary succession. Following the eruption, there is no life in the blast zone. Eventually, however, pioneer species of plants do establish themselves, beginning the course of succession.

Primary succession can also occur from man-made structures. Because soil may already be present, the rate of secondary succession is faster than primary succession.

Secondary succession also indicates changes in community composition following disturbances.

• Floods,
• hurricanes, and
• fires are all examples of naturally occurring disturbances. Notice, however, that none of these completely wipes out the life that was in the area.

• Not only do plants and animals survive these disturbances, but some need them to be able to continue to live there.

Plowing is a prime example of disturbance, but it can't eliminate

• underground plant parts

• seeds left in the soil from previous years (even 100 years or more)

• seeds of nearby plants

• seeds blown in from far away

• Yellowstone 1988 fire
• photo of fire along forest floor

• Natural history of fire and flood cycles