This little bee in the center of the dandelion is a great example of a pollinator. Many angiosperms rely on pollinators like bees to (inadvertently) carry pollen from other plants to fertilize their own seeds and start the development cycle of a whole new plant! Pollinators, especially bees like this one, are essential to plants and their ecosystems because they literally carry on their little bee/bird shoulders the final key to reproductive success.
These 'helicopter seeds' are good examples of how plants adapt to disperse their seeds. The 'helicopter wings' allow the seed to be carried to faraway lands (or the neighboring field) on the winds, spreading the plant's seeds (and genetic influence/success) far and wide.
This earthworm belongs to the phylum annelida (the segmented worms). As is characteristic of that group, it is made up of repeating body segments. This contrasts to the segmentation of insects like this dragonfly (below), which have three distinct segments (the head, thorax, and abdomen). Segmentation was an important development in organisms because it allowed for more differentiation of regions of the body (or, in the case of the annelids, repetition), allowing for specialized and advanced functions (organs!).
The tall, thin projections from this bit of moss are actually more accurately defined as the moss' sporophyte structures (sporangium). Mosses belong to the bryophytes, one of the earliest groups of plants to develop. Characteristically low to the ground and moisture-dependent, bryophytes are unique in that the dominant stage of their life cycle (the plants' alternation of generations) is the haploid gametophyte (gamete-producing) generation. Most plants are sporophyte-dominant, or go through the majority of their lives in their sporophyte (diploid, spore-producing) form. In bryophytes like this moss, the sporangium are nutritionally and structurally dependent on the moss itself (hence their submission). These sporangium will produce the spores that will grow into more haploid gametophytes like the moss.
This fern (seedless vascular) is a good example of an autotroph, or an organism that produces its own sustenance through photosynthesis. The fern absorbds sunlight through its leaves and, through the chemical processes that make up photosynthesis, eventually produces the glucose necessary for the plant's survival. Autotrophs makes up the base of the trophic pyramid and are essential to its stability. Without the autotrophs, primary consumers (herbivores like insects, mice, or deer) would have nothing to eat and no energy to gain, and, as such, neither would the higher trophic levels (secondary, tertiary, and quaternary consumers like us!). We need the autotrophs. That's all there is to it.
1 comment:
Yes, we owe a lot to those primary producers! Have you hugged an autotroph today? ;)
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