Biotic Components

Biotic Components

Thomas E. Dunn

University of Phoenix

SCI/256 People, Science and the Environment

September 23, 2011

Biotic Components

The study of ecosystems largely entails the learning of particular procedures that relate the living, or biotic, mechanisms to the non-living, or abiotic, mechanisms. Energy conversions and biogeochemical cycling are the chief methods that encompass the arena of environmental ecology. We learned previously, ecology is usually defined as the collaborations of organisms with the surroundings in which they take place. We must study ecosystems at the level of the individual, the population, the community, and the environment.

Throughout the east coast there are various wildlife preserves. In the state in which I live (North Carolina) the most known is the McDowell Nature Preserve located adjacent to the Charlotte metropolitan area. The McDowell Nature Preserve reserves a home for 119 types of fowl, twenty-one kinds of mammals, twenty-one species of reptiles, and fourteen kinds of amphibians. Some of the uncommon animals discovered on the reserve are: Seminole bat (first record in NC), spotted salamander, Gulf Coast spiny soft-shelled turtle, and Loggerhead Shrike. This reservation is also recognized for an assortment of spring ephemeral wild flowers and is one of the finest regions in Mecklenburg County for the observation of the Pileated Woodpecker. The McDowell Nature Preserve shelters an imperiled plant (Schweinitz's sunflower), a federal candidate species (Georgia's aster), and a single unusual plant (Prairie Dock) located at both Piedmont Prairie renewal locations. The majority of the assets were charted or "high-graded" throughout the Mid-20th century leaving only undeveloped hardwood trees standing. The remaining trees form the developed woodland community types established on the land currently.

According to Campbell, Reese, and Mitchell (1999), “Human activity often intrudes in nutrient cycles by removing...