CURSO SUPERIOR

S DE TECNO
OLOGIA EM
M GESTÃO
O AMBIENT
TAL

Disciiplina: Ecollogia Geral Professoora: Taís B. Costa em

mail: biosic.ttais@gmaill.com

OS BIOM MAS E FO ORMA ANIIMAL

Historicaally, the bioome conceppt developed d around vaariation in tterrestrial plants;
p
animmals do not figure in th he distinctioons between n biomes. In general, tthe life form ms of
animmals are lesss sensitive to t climate tthan are tho ose of plantts. This doees not mean n that
animmals are not adapted to physical coonditions and do not specializes oon narrow raanges
of thhese conditioons, only th hat such adaaptations aree not expresssed as majjor differencces in
life fform. Birdss of deserts and birds of forests have h the saame basic bbody plan; so do
mam mmals, reptilles, amphibians, and innsects, acrosss biomes.
Why thee different responses of plants and animalls? A facille answer-w which
cannnot fully exxplain the plant-animal
p l dichotomyy-is that beecause anim mals are mobile,
they can seek ouut favorablee microclim mates no maatter where they are. Th That is to say
y, the
difference betw ween the env vironment in Arizona and in Illiinois is nott so great for f an
animmal as it is foor a plant, which
w is firmmly rooted in place and must therrefore toleraate all
extreemes of connditions at that particcular point. Three oth her factors seem impo ortant,
howeever. First, plants havee very highh surface-to-volume rattios, both aabove and below b
grounnd level, anda are theerefore mucch more seensitive thaan animals to extrem mes of
envirronmental conditions.
c Second, beecause plan nts are built on a moddular plan, most
cells of the plannt "body" arre more or less indepeendent. They must survvive extrem mes of
envirronmental conditions
c on
o their ownn, with littlee help from other parts of the body y. The
animmal body hass many speccialized orggans, such as a the kidney ys, lungs, lyymphoid syystem,
and muscles, which w supp port other tissues, particularly
p by amelioorating thee cell
envirronment. Thhird, plants play basicaally the sam me ecologiccal role in ddifferent bio omes:
they draw water and minerals throughh their roott systems and a fix carbbon by meaans of
photoosynthesis in i their leav ves. As a reesult, their entire
e existeence is dom minated by water
balannce and thee problems of deliverinng an adequate water supply to tthe abovegrround
portiion of the plant
p organissm. Again bbecause of the modulaar design off plants, thee only
effecctive ways of manipu ulating wateer balance are through the desiggn of the water
delivvery systems and leaves, and throuugh the overall size of the plant annd the ratio of its
abovveground too belowgrou und parts. T These are precisely
p th
he characterristics of grrowth
formm that definee the major terrestrial
t bbiomes.
Variationns in anim mal form, as are app parent betw ween worm ms, insects,, and
verteebrates, refleect the diffeerent roles tthat animalss play within biomes. T Thus, differences
in annimal form are associatted more w with differen
nt ecologicaal roles withhin biomes (soil-
dwellling, seed--gathering, and predattory, for in nstance) thaan with diffferences in n the
physical enviroonment betw ween biom mes. Also, in i the casee of animaals behaviorr can
comppensate for differences in growthh form. For example, in the desserts of Ariizona,
seedss are gatherred from thee soil surfacce by roden nts, birds, annd ants; otheer rodents, birds,
b
and aants gather seeds in thee forests of N North Carolina and in thet savannaas of East Africa.
A
In sppite of theirr different body
b plans, these animmals' ecologiical roles arre the samee. It is
impoortant to remmember thatt similar plaants also caan occupy different possitions withiin the
samee biome. Trropical foressts exhibit tthe greatestt diversity of o plant grow wth form, which
w
incluudes trees (bboth deciduous and eveergreen in some localities), vines ((both wood dy and
herbaaceous), eppiphytes, un nderstory trreelets and shrubs, and d herbaceouus plants on o the
foresst floor. Eaach of thesee growth foorms lives in a very different ennvironment with
respeect to light and
a moisturre stress.
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