Seed Predation and the Reproductive Success of a Plant - Paper Example

It is apparent that both the direct and indirect relationships help in the determination of the abundance of the species and the community characteristics among them being diversity and stability. In this regard, there is a direct effect between seed predation and the reproductive success of a plant. Taking the plant Acromomia aculeta as an example, seed predation caused by Pachymerus cardo and Speciomerus revoili during the post-dispersal could lead to more than 70 percent of the propagules which is affected by the herbivory during the processes of pre-dispersal. The fruits that the plants produce and which have a higher level of herbivory and during the processes of pre-dispersal are less likely to be attacked by the predators during the times of the post-dispersal. In this regard, there is the hypothesis that helps in the description of the interaction in terms of a direct defense that is mediated by fungi in a multitrophic interaction.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

From the experiment, there are various conclusions and one of them is that predictions require that differences in the fungal colonization in the fruits that have intact or damaged epicarp need to be evaluated for the fruits that were exposed in the field. The same helps in making conclusions for the first prediction. For the second prediction, there is a need to carry out observations in the field to help in the determination of the number of eggs in the fruits of for every fruits in addition to the degree of fungal colonization in the fruits. There was a corroboration in the resulting hypothesis. In this manner, the fruits that have injuries in the epicarp recorded a higher degree of fungal colonization, and the fruits that were under colonization by fungi had less chances for egg-laying by the seed predators. The conclusion for the experiment was that there was a need to put an emphasis on the importance of networks of interactions between multitrophic systems as it helps in understanding dynamics and the maintenance of natural populations.

Volume and Concentration Totals

Trophic Level Cylinder Volume of H2O Volume of Oil Total Volume Percent Oil

1st 0 60 95 131 14.4

2nd 5 25 33 13 12.1

3rd 0 25 34 13 12.6Experiment Two: Effects of pH on Radish Seed Germination

In this experiment, the main focus was put on the habitat tolerance that organisms develop to help them survive in their different environments. It is habitations that organisms develop aid in allowing for compensation of minimal temporal and spatial variation within an environment. Such is made possible through various ways among them being the regulation of body temperature or controlling the rate of transpiration. There is also a need to acknowledge that organisms have limits to the degree within which they can control their bodies to control the environmental conditions to survive. There is the conclusion that not a single organism can tolerate all the environmental condition on earth. The distribution of organisms is greatly affected by the physical environment because the environment determines the ability of organisms to survive. The reason is because the distribution of species is greatly controlled by abiotic factors in the population.

Another conclusion in this experiment is that despite the fact that all organisms are found in the planet, they conform to habitat tolerance that is defined which have a specific range of environmental conditions in the population. The conclusion is that there ate specialist species and generalist species. The specialist species are the living organisms that have a limited diet and cannot live within a wide range of environmental conditions. On the other hand, the generalist species are those that have a wide range of the diets and environmental conditions within which they can survive.

Stage/Day Observations Acetic Acid Sodium Bicarbonate Water

Initial pH pH 4 (Faded Orange) pH 7 (Green) pH 5 (Light yellow, color barely changed)

1 0 no growth 0 no growth (the color of the seeds turned black) 10 All shoots emerged

2 0 no growth 0 no growth 10 sprouting

3 0 no growth 0 no growth 10 sprouting

4 0 no growth 0 no growth 10 sprouting

5 0 no growth 0 no growth 10 sprouting

6 0 no growth 0 no growth 10 sprouting

7 0 there were no germination of seeds 0 there were no germination of seeds Seed #1 6cmSeed #5 3cmSeed #9 2cm

Seed #2 6cmSeed #6 5cmSeed #10 2cm

Seed #3 7cmSeed #7 5cm

Seed #4 6.5cmSeed #8 2cm