Student Blog Post Assignment 4 : An Ecological Analysis of the Garden And My Plants - Jessica Serrano

Student Blog Post Assignment 4 : An Ecological Analysis of the Garden And My Plants - Jessica Serrano

As we see our plant continue to grow more and more we realized that some abiotic and biotic factors are are affecting its survival in a positive and sometimes negative way.  Some biotic factors that affect our plants are animals such as the chickens , decomposers, and bacteria. Decomposers break down some of the dead plant molecules which can then turn into nutrients. Animals mainly herbivores eat upon our plants, leaving bite marks on our planet. Our plants are also in competition with other plants. Other plants may block our plant from sunlight and cause it to have a minimal growth. They may also be competing for space in our designated area of Story o the Seed Plants. This may also cause our plant to be limited in growth due to a shortage of space.

Due to these limiting factors, some “winners” and “losers” are found in this situation. This all depends on how big the population is in the environment. The more plants there are the more competition our plant will have. Parasitism is also a contributing factor of having “winners” and “losers”. This means that one organism will benefit from our plant and our plant will suffer which makes it the “loser”.

  Our plant is involved in different interactions besides competition. For example, the chickens tend to eat bits and pieces of our plants.  This means that the chicken is being benefitted and getting food. The plant is not being benefitted at all which is commensalism or in some cases is being harmed  which is an act of parasitism. Our plant can also suffer from predation. Some of its predators include chickens and humans who eat the plant. This may cause a plant to die or not grow at an increasing pace.  Our plant may also suffer from density dependent factors such as a change in the climate. If its habitat becomes too cold the the plant won’t be able to have access to the sun which will limit its grow.

Secondary succession is occurring in our garden because multiple plants are growing every season. New plants are planted in the garden such as our cabbage plant. Last year plants were grown in the garden and now another batch of plants are being grown. Our garden has fertilized soil in which plants can grow. Therefore our garden is a result of secondary succession. Some plants were already planted in our garden which means the soil had to be fertilized.