BIO 101 Temperate Rain Forest Energy Flow

Temperate Rain Forest Energy Flow

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Temperate Rain Forest Energy Flow

FOOD CHAIN

Temperate rain forest have well defined seasons and have plenty of flora and fauna. The rich and fertile soil ensure that there is lots of plan and animal life that exists and thrives in such a forest. This biome has the following levels in a food chain.

Primary producers are the green plant that use chlorophyll to manufacture food for themselves and for other animals that exist in the forest. The primary producers such as grass and other small plants use the dead matter; logs, twigs and leaves that are have been decomposed are digested by this small plants(detritivores) and made available for recycling. The forest has a thick cover called a canopy that prevents sunshine and snow from reaching the ground and thus there is a fierce competition in the forest for sunshine. The smaller trees benefit from the decomposed leaves and twigs that fall from the big trees because they feed on them to manufacture food.

Primary consumers are mainly composed of small animals that have found a habitat in this biome. The rich vegetation, humid and mild temperatures are conducive for the growth and multiplication of insects and small animals. The insects that exist here include; grasshoppers that feed on the green plants that are found on the floor of the forest. The grasshoppers are well adapted to this biome. For instance their green color enables to blend with nature and they cannot be easily spotted by predators.

The third level is the secondary consumers that also find a home on the floor of the forest. They are mostly made up of insect-eating birds such as woodpeckers and animals such as snakes and frogs. On the other hand tertiary consumers are feed on the first and second consumers. The tertiary consumers are fewer in number because they need a lot of secondary consumers to feed on to survive. They include hawks, owls and eagles.

Finally, the decomposers feed on the dead animals and plants and by so doing recycled. They include fungi, bacteria and mushrooms etc.

According to Masaki (1986) animals can change through behavioral of ecological means when confronted situations or weather changes that are unbearable. This change that ensure survival of a species is what is called adaptation various species in the temperate forest have their unique features and characteristics that ensure the survival in a habitat of cut-throat competition. For instance a hawk, has a strong a curved beak that is meant to tear and rip flesh off their victims.Thier talons are also strong to grab, hold and carry their prey. The hawk also has sharp vision that penetrate the overlying canopy and see their prey on the floor of the forest.

Several factors can play a role in either increasing or reducing the size of the population in a temperate forest. For instance, immigration and a high birth rate can cause an exponential increase in the population while on the other hand emigration and death can cause a big reduction in the population. Community interactions such as competition, predation and parasitism help to ensure that the Population is regulated and within the sustainable rate. For instance hawks by eating snakes and frogs they ensure that the population of the prey is not too much for the biome to support. While competition mainly happens between or among species that share the same resources. For instance all plants require sunshine to make food but due to the intense competition in a temperate forest the smaller trees are force to die or be stunted because the big one an overlying canopy above that traps sunlight so that it doesn’t reach the forest floor. Fire is one of the human caused hazards that can create great disturbance to the stability of a temperate forest. Most of these fires can be attributed to human activities on the edge of the forest (Goldammer and Jenkins, 1990).These fire if not controlled can lead to loss of biodiversity that exists in the temperate forests. Such can bed due to destruction by fire of flora and fauna in the forest.

References

Goldammer, J. G. and M. J. Jenkins (eds.) (1990). Fire in Ecosystem Dynamics. Mediterranean a

Northern Perspectives. The Hague, Netherlands, SPB Academic Publishing.

Masaki, S. 1986. Significance of ovipositor length in life cycle. Pp. 20–34 in F. Taylor and R.

Karban, eds. The evolution of insect life cycles. Springer, New York.