Институт международных отношений,

КАЗАНСКИЙ (ПРИВОЛЖСКИЙ) ФЕДЕРАЛЬНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

ИНСТИТУТ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ,

ИСТОРИИ И ВОСТОКОВЕДЕНИЯ

Кафедра английского языка в сфере медицины и биоинженерии

Е. Г. Линючкина, Н. М. Хабирова, А. А. Шакирова

English for Environmental Studies.

Учебно - методическое пособие

КАЗАНЬ 201 6

 

ББК Б 20.1

УДК 574.2

 Печатается по решению методической комиссии Института международных отношений, истории и востоковедения

Протокол № 8 от 15.06.2016 г.

 

 Составители: преподаватель, Е. Г. Линючкина,

                      канд. филол. наук, доцент Н. М. Хабирова,

                      преподаватель А. А. Шакирова

                         

 

Рецензенты: кандидат педагогических наук, доцент КФУ И.Г. Кондратьева

                  кандидат филологических наук, доцент КФУ…Е.Б.Воронина

 

 

English for Environmental Studies: Учебное пособие / Линючкина Е. Г., Хабирова, М.Н., Шакирова А. А., Казань: КФУ, 2016. – 100 с.

 

 

Учебное пособие предназначено для студентов первого курса направления «Экология и природопользование» Казанского Федерального Университета для занятия на уроках английского языка. Учебное пособие состоит из шести разделов. Каждый раздел учебного пособия включает в себя небольшой познавательный текст на английском языке, лексику по специальности, задания на закрепление лексических и грамматических навыков и развитие навыков говорения. В учебном пособии моделируются ситуации на английском языке, которые в будущем помогут студентам общаться на английском языке на профессиональные темы. Пособие также содержит раздел «Глоссарий» с наиболее употребляемыми терминами по специальности и разъяснением этих терминов на английском языке.

                          

© Казанский федеральный университет, 2016

© Линючкина Е.Г., Хабирова Н.М., Шакирова А. А., 2016

I. SUBJECT OF ECOLOGY

Study of life

PRE-READING

  Before reading the passage,answer all the following questions and discuss it with your partner. Then read the passage and find the facts supporting your ideas.

What is ecology?

What does ecology as a science deal with?

Who was the founder of ecology as a science?

Is it important to know the main problems of ecology and why?

TEXT

Task 1. Read, translate the text and be ready to do the exercises.

Ecology

Ecology is a sub-discipline of biology, or the study of life. Ecology is the division of scientific study focusing on organisms and their interactions with the environment. Ecology further researches and examines ecosystems and the network or relationships amongst all aspects of the environment. The term ecosystem refers to both the biological and physical elements within an environment. For example, physical components within an ecosystem consist of such elements as the soil and the land, while the biotic or living components include animals and plants. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary and are always changing. Ecology examines such disciplines as the distribution of organisms within a given environment as well as the diversity, quantities and varieties of life in a particular habitat or ecosystem. Further studies in ecology focus on the movement of materials and flow of energy within groups of living organisms. Ecosystems are always changing and through ecological studies scientists and researchers can map and understand such changes to help us understand the world we live in.

The subject matter of ecology is normally divided into four broad categories: physiological ecology, having to do with the response of single species to environmental conditions such as temperature or light; population ecology, usually focusing on the abundance and distribution of individual species and the factors that cause such distribution; community ecology, having to do with the number of species found at given location and their interactions; and ecosystems ecology, having to do with the structure and function of the entire suite of microbes, plants, and animals, and their abiotic environment, and how the parts interact to generate the whole. This branch of ecology often focuses on the energy and nutrient flows of ecosystems, and when this approach is combined with computer analysis and simulation we often call it systems ecology. Evolutionary ecology, which may operate at any of these levels but most commonly at the physiological or population level, is a rich and dynamic area of ecology focusing on attempting to understand how natural selection developed the structure and function of the organisms and ecosystems at any of these levels.

There are many practical reasons for studying the discipline of ecology. Knowledge gained from ecological studies can be useful in such areas as wetland and resource management, city planning or urban ecology, as well as human ecology or the understanding of humans and social interaction. Long-term ecological studies provide a conceptual framework for understanding ecosystems over periods of time and space. The components comprising ecological studies can be as small as singular cells and as large as rainforest growth and decline over the period of a decade. Ecology embraces the conceptual belief that the world we live in is a whole comprised of many various parts and levels all working, changing and interacting together. Ecological studies typically organize these components into three levels or categories: organisms, populations, and communities. Populations are created by the interactions of organisms and communities by the interactions of populations. These individual parts change in relation to each other as well as in relation to time and space.

 Levels of Organization of Ecology. (Credit: Erle Ellis)

The establishment of ecology as a field of biological science was first named in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Haeckel coined the term ecology as referring to the study of all the complex interactions that are caused by the conditions of the struggle of existence. Other forefathers of the field of ecology include Carl Linnaeus who inaugurated a study known as the economy of nature that influenced the later works of Charles Darwin and Alexander von Humbolt who established the modern ecological law of species in regards to relationships to area. The environmental movement of the 1960s further spurred popularity in ecological studies. Charles Darwin's work, The Origin of Species, was one of the first documentations that looked critically at the corresponding and complementary relationships between organisms, their adaptations and changes in the environment. Darwin's work and increasing research in the field of ecology forever changed the way that researchers considered the ecological world. Many researchers were investigating such ideas during corresponding periods around the world and research regarding the history of ecology and its origin are still active fields of study today.

The environment and the lives of mankind are undoubtedly linked. Through ecological processes our planet Earth is able to provide us with air to breathe and food to eat. One of the most important and crucial components of our immensely diverse physical ecosystem is water. Water sustains all forms of life, therefore the management of this invaluable resource is of the utmost importance. Various fields and researches with the science of ecology strive to find the most effective ways to utilize and respect this resource. Many contemporary ecological studies emphasize the need to guarantee the stability and soundness of our ecosystem through sustainable water resource management. Ecological studies assist in finding ways to ensure that human activity and human use of water resources does not negatively affect or compromise the sustainability of aquatic resources and ecosystems over the long-term. Through these studies, solutions to water resource management can be established and further implemented. Contemporary ecological studies give high priority to the study of water as a prominent aspect and factor affecting all ecosystems and environments. Humans, animals and plants need water to survive and ecology helps us to learn how to use this precious resource appropriately.

Ecology studies the direct and undeniable link between all living things, time and space. Fundamentally, everything on earth depends on something else and can be affected by even the slightest change in our ecosystem. The scientific field of ecology and ecological studies helps us to understand this intricate and complex network of relationships. The effects that human beings have on the planet earth are substantial and significant and it is therefore crucial that we understand them in order to preserve our ecosystem for future animal life, plant life as well as our own future generations to come.

(Retrieved from: http://www.rususa.com/science/articles.asp-tc-ecology)

Glossary

· Permanent – постоянный

· Network – сеть, цепочка, система

· Crucial - ценный

· Diversity – разнообразие, многообразие

· Abundance – изобилие, избыток

· Comprise – включать, содержать в себе

· Sustain – поддерживать, способствовать, обеспечивать

· Implement – воплощать в жизнь

· Intricate – запутанный, сложный, замысловатый

· Substantial – существенный, важный.

 

Word study

PRE-READING

  Before reading the passage,answer all the following questions and discuss it with your partner. Then read the passage and find the facts supporting your ideas.

Ecology

Author: Charles Hall

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Ecology is the study of environmental systems, or as it is sometimes called, the economy of nature. "Environmental" usually means relating to the natural, versus human-made world; the "systems" means that ecology is, by its very nature, not interested in just the components of nature individually but especially in how the parts interact. Ecology is technically an academic discipline, such as mathematics or physics, although in public or media use, it is often used to connote some sort of normative or evaluative issue as in something is “ecologically bad” or is or is not “good for the ecology”. More properly ecology is used only in the sense that it is an academic discipline, no more evaluative than mathematics or physics. When a normative or evaluative term is needed then it is more proper to use the term “environmental”, i.e., environmental quality or “environmentally degrading”. Most professional ecologists are not terribly unhappy when ecology is used in the normative sense, preferring the wider public awareness of environmental issues today compared to the widespread ignorance of three decades ago.

Ecology is usually considered from the perspective of the specific geographic environment that is being studied at the moment: tropical rain forest, temperate grassland, arctic tundra, benthic marine, the entire biosphere, and so on. Thus you might study the population ecology of lions in an African savanna, an ecosystems study of a marine benthic environment, global nutrient budgets, and so on. The subject matter of ecology is the entire natural world, including both the living and the non-living parts. Biogeography focuses on the observed distribution of plants and animals and the reasons behind it. More recently ecology has included increasingly the human-dominated world of agriculture, grazing lands for domestic animals, cities, and even industrial parks. Industrial ecology is a discipline that has recently been developed, especially in Europe, where the objective is to follow the energy and material use throughout the process of, e.g., making an automobile with the objective of attempting to improve the material and energy efficiency of manufacturing. For any of these levels or approaches there are some scientists that focus on theoretical ecology, which attempts to derive or apply theoretical or sometimes mathematical reasons and generalities for what is observed in nature, and empirical ecology, which is concerned principally with measurement. Applied ecology takes what is found from one or both of these approaches and uses it to protect or manage nature in some way. Related to this discipline is conservation biology. Plant ecology, animal ecology, and microbial ecology have obvious foci.

There are usually four basic reasons given to study and as to why we might want to understand ecology: first, since all of us live to some degree in a natural or at least partly natural ecosystem, then considerable pleasure can be derived by studying the environment around us. Just as one might learn to appreciate art better through an art history course so too might one appreciate more the nature around us with a better understanding of ecology. Second, human economies are in large part based on the exploitation and management of nature. Applied ecology is used every day in forestry, fisheries, range management, agriculture, and so on to provide us with the food and fiber we need. For example, in Argentina in many circles there is no difference between ecology and agriculture, which is essentially the ecology of crops and pastures. Third, human societies can often be understood very clearly from an ecological perspectives as we study, for example, the population dynamics (demography) of our own species, the food and fossil energy flowing through our society. Fourth, humans appear to be changing aspects of the global environment in many ways. Ecology can be very useful to help us understand what these changes are, what the implications might be for various ecosystems, and how we might intervene in either human economies or in nature to try to mitigate or otherwise alter these changes. There are many professional ecologists, who believe that these apparent changes from human activities have the potential to generate enormous harm to both natural ecosystems and human economies. Understanding, predicting and adapting to these issues could be the most important of all possible issue for humans to deal with. In this case ecology and environmentalism can be the same.

Since ecology by its very nature is an integrative discipline, science students preparing themselves professionally in the field are encouraged to take a broad suite of courses, mostly in the natural sciences and including physics, chemistry, and biology of many sorts but certainly including evolution, meteorology, hydrology, geography, and so on. Ecologists interested in human ecology are encouraged to take courses and undertake readings in agronomy, demography, human geography, sociology, economics, and so on. Since ecology is so broad there are many things that an ecologist might wish to do and to train for. Today many ecology courses are taught in biology departments, where the focus is often on population or community ecology and also individual species.

There are a number of classical areas of interest in ecology, and they revolve around questions similar to the following: how much is the photosynthesis of a hectare of land? How many animals of what types might that photosynthesis be able to support as a base for their food resources? How many species might “divide up” the land or food resources available? How do the species present change as the physical conditions change, for example as one ascends a mountain? What is the proportion of food that is passed on from each food or “trophic” level to the next? What are the mechanisms that control the populations, communities and ecosystems in some area? How are human activities impacting these natural systems?

Ecology should be more than just a set of ideas and principles that one might learn in a classroom or book but rather more a way of looking at the world which emphasizes the assessment and understanding of how the pieces fit together, how each influences and is influenced by the other pieces and how the whole operates in ways not really predictable from the pieces. When we are lucky we are able to capture these relations in conceptual, mathematical or, increasingly, computer models that allow us some sense of truly understanding the great complexity of nature, including as it is impacted by human activity. This is the goal of most ecologists.

Hall, C. (2014). Ecology.

(Retrieved from: http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/151932)

 

Glossary

· Connote – означать, подразумевать, иметь значение

· Derive – получать, извлекать, происходить

· Appreciate – ценить, оценивать

· Fiber – волокно, древесное волокно

· Mitigate – сдерживать, смягчать, облегчать

· Alter- изменять, менять

· Revolve – вертеться, поворачиваться

· Impact – влиять, воздействовать

Word study

Glossary

· Maintain – содержать, поддерживать, сохранять

· Rigorous – строгий, точный

· Erosion – эрозия, разрушение

· Cornerstone – краеугольный камень, основа

· Diversity – разнообразие, многообразие

· Foundation – основа, база

 

Экология как наука

Как самостоятельная наука экология сформировалась приблизительно к 1900 г. Термин «экология» был предложен немецким биологом Эрнстом Геккелем в 1869 г. Следовательно, это сравнительно молодая наука. Но именно она переживает в настоящее время период быстрого роста.

Существует много определений экологии, однако подавляющее большинство современных исследователей считает, что экология — это наука, изучающая условия существования живых организмов и взаимосвязи между организмами и средой, в которой они обитают.

Понятие экологии очень обширно, поэтому в зависимости от акцента на той или иной ее задаче меняется и формулировка определения. Для «долгосрочного употребления» лучшим может быть, например, следующее: «Экология — это биология окружающей среды». Для последних десятилетий XX в. наиболее подходит одно из определений экологии, приведенное в полном словаре Уэбстера: «Предмет экологии — это совокупность или структура связей между организмами и средой». Эрнст Геккель дал этой науке исчерпывающее определение: «Под экологией мы понимаем сумму знаний, относящихся к экономике природы: изучение всей совокупности взаимоотношений животного с окружающей его средой, как органической, так и неорганической, и прежде всего — его дружественных или враждебных отношений с теми животными и растениями, с которыми оно прямо или косвенно вступает в контакт. Одним словом экология — это изучение всех сложных взаимоотношений, которые Дарвин назвал условиями, порождающими борьбу за существование».

Экология, как и всякая другая наука, имеет два аспекта:

первый — это стремление к познанию ради самого познания,

второй — применение собранных знаний для решения практических проблем, связанных с окружающей средой.

Все возрастающее значение экологии объясняется тем, что ни один из вопросов огромной практической важности в настоящее время нельзя решить без учета связей между живыми и неживыми компонентами природы.

Практический выход экологии можно видеть, прежде всего, в решении вопросов природопользования; именно она должна создать научную основу эксплуатации природных ресурсов. Законы, лежащие в основе естественных природных процессов, будут в центре нашего внимания. Однако прежде необходимо остановиться на взаимоотношении экологии и охраны природы. Западные ученые обычно различают науку экологию и науки об окружающей среде. Экология изучает три группы факторов среды, воздействующих на организмы:

абиотические

биотические

антропогенные.

Охрана природы рассматривает только третий фактор — воздействие человека на среду, и то не во всем совпадает с общеэкологическим подходом. Охрана природы и шире и уже раздела экологии, который исследует влияние антропогенного фактора на природу. Уже — потому, что анализируется не любое воздействие, а лишь то, последствие которого может иметь значение для жизни человеческого общества. Шире — потому, что рассматривается влияние антропогенного фактора не только на органический мир, но и на неживую природу.

 

II. ENVIRONMENT

Natural environment

PRE-READING

  Before reading the passage,answer all the following questions and discuss it with your partner. Then read the passage and find the facts supporting your ideas.

What is environment?

TEXT

Environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof.

The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components:

Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.

Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.

The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment (with an indefinite article), if the human impact on it is kept under a certain limited level.

Composition

Earth science generally recognizes 4 spheres, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere as correspondent to rocks, water, air, and life. Some scientists include, as part of the spheres of the Earth, the cryosphere (corresponding to ice) as a distinct portion of the hydrosphere, as well as the pedosphere (corresponding to soil) as an active and intermixed sphere. Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. There are four major disciplines in earth sciences, namely geography, geology, geophysics and geodesy. These major disciplines use physics, chemistry, biology, chronology and mathematics to build a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of the Earth system.

Geological activity

The Earth's crust, or Continental crust, is the outermost solid land surface of the planet, is chemically and mechanically different from underlying mantles, and has been generated largely by igneous processes in which magma (molten rock) cools and solidifies to form solid land. Plate tectonics, mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes are geological phenomena that can be explained in terms of energy transformations in the Earth's crust, and might be thought of as the process by which the earth resurfaces itself. Beneath the Earth's crust lies the mantle which is heated by the radioactive decay of heavy elements. The mantle is not quite solid and consists of magma which is in a state of semi-perpetual convection. This convection process causes the lithospheric plates to move, albeit slowly. The resulting process is known as plate tectonics. Volcanoes result primarily from the melting of subducted crust material. Crust material that is forced into the Asthenosphere melts, and some portion of the melted material becomes light enough to rise to the surface, giving birth to volcanoes!

Oceanic activity

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt. Though generally recognized as several 'separate' oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water often referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a global ocean as a continuous body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography.

The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other criteria: these divisions are (in descending order of size) the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean (which is sometimes subsumed as the southern portions of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans), and the Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic). The Pacific and Atlantic may be further subdivided by the equator into northerly and southerly portions. Smaller regions of the oceans are called seas, gulfs, bays and other names. There are also salt lakes, which are smaller bodies of landlocked saltwater that are not interconnected with the World Ocean. Two notable examples of salt lakes are the Aral Sea and the Great Salt Lake.

Atmosphere, climate and weather

The atmosphere of the Earth serves as a key factor in sustaining the planetary ecosystem. The thin layer of gases that envelops the Earth is held in place by the planet's gravity. Dry air consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon and other inert gases, carbon dioxide, etc.; but air also contains a variable amount of water vapor. The atmospheric pressure declines steadily with altitude, and has a scale height of about 8 kilometres at the Earth's surface: the height at which the atmospheric pressure has declined by a factor of e (a mathematical constant equal to 2.71...).The ozone layer of the Earth's atmosphere plays an important role in depleting the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation that reaches the surface. As DNA is readily damaged by UV light, this serves to protect life at the surface. The atmosphere also retains heat during the night, thereby reducing the daily temperature extremes.

Life

Although there is no universal agreement on the definition of life, scientists generally accept that the biological manifestation of life is characterized by organization, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli and reproduction. Life may also be said to be simply the characteristic state of organisms.

Properties common to terrestrial organisms (plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria) are that they are cellular, carbon-and-water-based with complex organization, having a metabolism, a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, and reproduce. An entity with these properties is generally considered life. However, not every definition of life considers all of these properties to be essential. Human-made analogs of life may also be considered to be life.

The biosphere is the part of Earth's outer shell — including air, land, surface rocks and water — within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. From the broadest geophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere (rocks), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere (air). Currently the entire Earth contains over 75 billion tons (150 trillion pounds or about 6.8 x 1013 kilograms) of biomass (life), which lives within various environments within the biosphere.

(Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_environment)

Glossary

· Concept – понятие, идея, концепция

· Intervention – вмешательство

· Boundary – граница, предел

· Envelope – окружать, обернуть

· Deplete – истощать, опустошать, исчерпывать

· Manifestation – проявление, демонстрация

· Cellular – клеточный, состоящий из клеток

Word study

Environment

concept

massive

vegetation

microorganisms

atmosphere

phenomena

universal

magnetism

radiation

impact

lithosphere

hydrosphere

atmosphere

biosphere

cryosphere

pedosphere

 

Biodiversity

PRE-READING

  Before reading the passage,answer all the following questions and discuss it with your partner. Then read the passage and find the facts supporting your ideas.

What is biodiversity?

TEXT

Biodiversity

Species by the Numbers

Scientists have identified about 1.75 million different species. That includes 950,000 species of insects, 270,000 species of plants, 19,000 species of fish, 9,000 species of birds, and 4,000 species of mammals. This is only a small portion of the total number of species on Earth. There are millions more species yet to be discovered and named.

Biodiversity refers to all the different kinds of living organisms within a given area. Biodiversity includes plants, animals, fungi, and other living things. Biodiversity can include everything from towering redwood trees to tiny, single-cell algae that are impossible to see without a microscope.
Kinds of Biodiversity

A common way to measure biodiversity is to count the total number of species living within a particular area. Tropical regions, areas that are warm year-round, have the most biodiversity. Temperate regions, which have warm summers and cold winters, have less biodiversity. Regions with cold or dry conditions, such as mountaintops and deserts, have even less.
Generally, the closer a region is to the Equator, the greater the biodiversity. At least 40,000 different plant species live in the Amazon rain forest of South America, one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet. Only about 2,800 live in Canada’s Quebec province.
The warm waters of the western Pacific and Indian Oceans tend to be the most diverse marine environments. The Bird’s Head Seascape in Indonesia is home to more than 1,200 species of fish and 600 species of coral. Many of the corals build coral reefs, which are home to hundreds more species, from tiny seaweeds to large sharks.
Some places in the world have a large number of endemic species—species that exist only in that place. The Cape Floristic Region in South Africa is home to about 6,200 plant species found nowhere else in the world. Areas with high numbers of endemic species are called biodiversity hotspots. Scientists and communities are making a special effort to preserve biodiversity in these regions.
Biodiversity can also refer to the variety of ecosystems—communities of living things and their environments. Ecosystems include deserts, grasslands, and rain forests. The continent of Africa is home to tropical rain forests, alpine mountains, and dry deserts. It enjoys a high level of biodiversity. Antarctica, covered almost entirely by an ice sheet, has low biodiversity.
Another way to measure biodiversity is genetic diversity. Genes are the basic units of biological information passed on when living things reproduce. Some species have as many as 400,000 genes. (Human beings have about 25,000 genes, while rice has more than 56,000.) Some of these genes are the same for all individuals within a species—they’re what make a daisy a daisy and a dog a dog. But some genes within a species are different. This genetic variation is why some dogs are poodles and some are pit bulls. It’s why some people have brown eyes and some people have blue eyes.
Greater genetic diversity in species can make plants and animals more resistant to diseases. Genetic diversity also allows species to better adapt to a changing environment.
Importance of Biodiversity

All species are interconnected. They depend on one another. Forests provide homes for animals. Animals eat plants. The plants need healthy soil to grow. Fungi help decompose organisms to fertilize the soil. Bees and other insects carry pollen from one plant to another, which enables the plants to reproduce. With less biodiversity, these connections weaken and sometimes break, harming all the species in the ecosystem.

Ecosystems with a lot of biodiversity are generally stronger and more resistant to disaster than those with fewer species. For instance, some diseases kill only one kind of tree. In the early 1900s, American chestnut blight killed most of the chestnut trees in the eastern forests of North America. The forest ecosystem survived because other kinds of trees also grew there.
Biodiversity is important to people in many ways. Plants, for instance, help humans by giving off oxygen. They also provide food, shade, construction material, medicines, and fiber for clothing and paper. The root system of plants helps prevent flooding. Plants, fungi, and animals such as worms keep soil fertile and water clean. As biodiversity decreases, these systems break down.
Hundreds of industries rely on plant biodiversity. Agriculture, construction, medical and pharmaceutical, fashion, tourism, and hospitality all depend on plants for their success. When the biodiversity of an ecosystem is interrupted or destroyed, the economic impact on the local community could be enormous.
Biodiversity is especially important to the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Scientists have discovered many chemicals in rain forest plants that are now used in helpful drugs. One of the most popular and safe pain relievers, aspirin, was originally made from the bark of willow trees. Medicines that treat some forms of cancer have been made from the rosy periwinkle, a flower that grows on the African island of Madagascar. Scientists have studied only a small percentage of rain forest species in their search for cures. But every year, thousands of species go extinct, or die out entirely, before scientists can determine whether they might be useful in medicines.

(Retrieved from: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/encyclopedia/biodiversity/)

Glossary

· Fungi – гриб

· Grassland – пастбище, луг

· Pollen – пыльца

· Fiber – волокно

· Extinct – вымерший

· Drug – лекарство

· Pain reliever – болеутоляющее средство

 

Word study

Decreasing Biodiversity

factor, increases, decreased, danger, declines, multiplied, preserve, extinction.

In the past hundred years, biodiversity around the world has 1_______ dramatically. Many species have gone extinct. 2________ is a natural process; some species naturally die out while new species evolve. But human activity has changed the natural processes of extinction and evolution. Scientists estimate that species are dying out at hundreds of times the natural rate.
A major reason for the loss of biodiversity is that natural habitats are being destroyed. The fields, forests, and wetlands where wild plants and animals live are disappearing. Land is cleared to plant crops or build houses and factories. Forests are cut for lumber and firewood. Between 1990 and 2005, the amount of forested land in Honduras, for instance, dropped 37 percent.
As habitats shrink, fewer individuals can live there. The creatures that survive have fewer breeding partners, so genetic diversity 3_______.
Pollution, overfishing, and overhunting have also caused a drop in biodiversity. Global climate change—the latest rise in the average temperature around the globe, linked to human activity—is also a 4_______. Warmer ocean temperatures damage fragile ecosystems such as coral reefs. A single coral reef can shelter 3,000 species of fish and other sea creatures such as clams and sea stars.

Biodiversity can also be harmed by introduced species. When people introduce species from one part of the world to another, they often have no natural predators. These non-native species thrive in their new habitat, often destroying native species in the process. Brown tree snakes, for instance, were accidentally brought into Guam, an island in the South Pacific, in the 1950s. Because brown tree snakes have no predators on Guam, they quickly 5______. The snakes, which hunt birds, have caused the extinction of nine of the island’s 11 native forest-dwelling bird species.
People all over the world are working to maintain the planet’s biodiversity. In the United States, the Endangered Species Act protects about 2,000 organisms that are in 6________ of becoming extinct. Animals and plants are the most familiar types of endangered species, but a fungus, such as the white ferula mushroom can also be threatened. The white ferula mushroom, a delicacy that only grows on the Italian island of Sicily, helps decompose organic compounds such as plants. Some environmental groups are working to create a sustainable mushroom population to satisfy consumers as well as the local ecosystem.
Around the globe, thousands of wilderness areas have been set up to conserve plants, animals, and ecosystems. Local, national, and international organizations are cooperating to 7_______ the biodiversity of regions threatened by development or natural disasters. UNESCO’s World Heritage Site program recognizes areas of global importance, such as the enormous wetland region of the Pantanal in South America. Many national parks, such as Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana, protect biodiversity within the park by restricting extractive activities, such as mining and drilling.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established to preserve sea life. In the marine protected area around Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, no-fishing zones have helped fish populations thrive. People are also working to limit pollution and restore coral reef ecosystems in the area. As ecosystems become healthier, their biodiversity 8_______.

 

 

Ecological niche

PRE-READING

  Before reading the passage,answer all the following questions and discuss it with your partner. Then read the passage and find the facts supporting your ideas.

What is ecological niche?

What does it consist of?

3. Who was the founder of the term ‘ecological niche’?

TEXT

Ecological niche

In ecology, a niche is a term with a variety of meanings related to the behavior of a species living under specific environmental conditions. The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey).

The notion of ecological niche is central to ecological biogeography, which focuses on spatial patterns of ecological communities. Species distributions and their dynamics over time result from properties of the species, environmental variation, and interactions between the two — in particular the abilities of some species, especially our own, to modify their environments and alter the range dynamics of many other species. Alteration of an ecological niche by its inhabitants is the topic of niche construction.

The majority of species exist in a standard ecological niche, but there are exceptions. A premier example of a non-standard niche filling species is the flightless, ground-dwelling kiwi bird of New Zealand, which feeds on worms and other ground creatures, and lives its life in a mammal niche. Island biogeography can help explain island species and associated unfilled niches.

Grinnellian niche

The ecological meaning of niche comes from the meaning of niche as a recess in a wall for a statue, which itself is probably derived from the Middle French word nicher, meaning to nest. The term was coined by the naturalist Roswell Hill Johnson, but Joseph Grinnell was probably the first to use it in a research program in 1917, in his paper "The niche relationships of the California Thrasher".

The Grinnellian niche concept embodies the idea that the niche of a species is determined by the habitat in which it lives and its accompanying behavioral adaptations. In other words, the niche is the sum of the habitat requirements and behaviors that allow a species to persist and produce offspring. For example, the behavior of the California Thrasher is consistent with the chaparral habitat it lives in—it breeds and feeds in the underbrush and escapes from its predators by shuffling from underbrush to underbrush. Its 'niche' is defined by the felicitous complementing of the thrasher's behavior and physical traits (camouflaging color, short wings, strong legs) with this habitat.

This perspective of niche allows for the existence of both ecological equivalents and empty niches. An ecological equivalent to an organism is an organism from a different taxonomic group exhibiting similar adaptations in a similar habitat, an example being the different succulents found in American and African deserts, cactus and euphorbia. As another example, the Anolis lizards of the Greater Antilles are a rare example of convergent evolution, adaptive radiation, and the existence of ecological equivalents: the Anolis lizards evolved in similar microhabitats independently of each other and resulted in the same ecomorphs across all four islands.

Eltonian niche

In 1927 Charles Sutherland Elton, a British ecologist, defined a niche as follows: "The 'niche' of an animal means its place in the biotic environment, its relations to food and enemies. "

Elton classified niches according to foraging activities ("food habits"): "For instance there is the niche that is filled by birds of prey which eat small animals such as shrews and mice. In an oak wood this niche is filled by tawny owls, while in the open grassland it is occupied by kestrels. The existence of this carnivore niche is dependent on the further fact that mice form a definite herbivore niche in many different associations, although the actual species of mice may be quite different."

Conceptually, the Eltonian niche introduces the idea of a species' response to and effect on the environment. Unlike other niche concepts the Eltonian niche emphasizes that a species not only grows in and responds to an environment based on available resources, predators, and climatic conditions, a species may also change the availability and behavior of those factors as it grows. In an extreme example, beavers require certain resources in order to survive and reproduce, but also construct dams that alter water flow in the river where the beaver lives. Thus, the beaver affects the biotic and abiotic conditions of other species that live in and near the watershed. In a more subtle case, competitors that consume resources at different rates can lead to cycles in resource density that differ between species. Not only do species grow differently with respect to resource density, their own population growth can lead to different effects on resource density over time.

Hutchinsonian niche

The niche concept was popularized by the zoologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson in 1957. Hutchinson wanted to know why there are so many types of organisms in any one habitat. His work inspired many others to develop models to explain how many and how similar coexisting species could be within a given community, and led to the concepts of 'niche breadth' (the variety of resources or habitats used by a given species), 'niche partitioning' (resource differentiation by coexisting species), and 'niche overlap' (overlap of resource use by different species).

An organism free of interference from other species could use the full range of conditions (biotic and abiotic) and resources in which it could survive and reproduce which is called its fundamental niche. However, as a result of pressure from, and interactions with, other organisms (i.e. inter-specific competition) species are usually forced to occupy a niche that is narrower than this, and to which they are mostly highly adapted. This is termed the realized niche. Hutchinson used the idea of competition for resources as the primary mechanism driving ecology, but overemphasis upon this focus has proved to be a handicap for the niche concept. In particular, overemphasis upon a species' dependence upon resources has led to too little emphasis upon the effects of organisms on their environment, for instance, colonization and invasions.

Hutchinson's "niche" (a description of the ecological space occupied by a species) is subtly different from the "niche" as defined by Grinnell (an ecological role, that may or may not be actually filled by a species).

A niche is a very specific segment of ecospace occupied by a single species. On the presumption that no two species are identical in all respects (called Hardin's 'axiom of inequality') and the competitive exclusion principle, some resource or adaptive dimension will provide a niche specific to each species. Species can however share a 'mode of life' or 'autecological strategy' which are broader definitions of ecospace. For example, Australian grasslands species, though different from those of the Great Plains grasslands, exhibit similar modes of life.

Once a niche is left vacant, other organisms can fill that position. For example, the niche that was left vacant by the extinction of the tarpan has been filled by other animals (in particular a small horse breed, the konik). Also, when plants and animals are introduced into a new environment, they have the potential to occupy or invade the niche or niches of native organisms, often outcompeting the indigenous species. Introduction of non-indigenous species to non-native habitats by humans often results in biological pollution by the exotic or invasive species.

The mathematical representation of a species' fundamental niche in ecological space, and its subsequent projection back into geographic space, is the domain of niche modelling. (Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_niche)

 

Glossary

· Predator – хищник

· Competitor – конкурент, соперник, противник

· Distribution – распределение, распространение

· Prey – жертва, добыча

· Offspring – потомство

· Indigenous – врожденный, природный, коренной

 

Word study

Implications

Niche construction has many implications for the human sciences, more specifically human sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, and human behavioral ecology. Standard evolutionary theory only allows for cultural processes to affect genetic evolution by influencing the individual, and depends on the ability of that individual to survive and pass on its genes to the next generation. Cultural processes are viewed merely as an aspect of the human phenotype and are not believed to be consequential to human evolution. 2____ This theory overlooks the fact that humans can modify their selective environments through cultural activity, thus feeding back to affect selection. "Cultural processes add a second knowledge inheritance system to the evolutionary process through which socially learned information is accrued, stored, and transmitted between individuals both within and between generations."

With the addition of language to the human culture came an increased mental capacity. This allowed for human adaptation of the environment to be a learned process, unlike nonhuman species, whose adaptive process is instinctual. 3____ As niche construction advocate Derek Bickerton writes, "We could construct our niches without having to wait on interminable rounds of feedback between genes and behavior."

A theory on gene-culture coevolution calls for a more integrated relationship between genetic evolution and cultural processes than standard evolutionary theory. In this model, cultural activities are believed to affect the evolutionary process by modifying selection pressures. 4_____ Mathematical and conceptual models including investigations of language, handedness, the emergence of incest taboos, the coevolution of hereditary deafness and sign language, and sexual selection with a culturally transmitted mating preference demonstrate this theory. However, this theory is still dependent on standard evolutionary theory because it requires that cultural processes only affect genes directly, not allowing for any intermediate factors in the environment to interact with these processes at an evolutionary level. This theory exists on a dual inheritance system consisting solely of genes and cultural activity. "The dual inheritance system is a way to include interactions between nature and nurture in a tractable system." In most cases this theory works smoothly, however there are instances where cultural activities create changes in the abiotic environment that then affect selection pressures.

The speed at which humans are able to construct niches modifies the selection pressures and either genetic evolution or further niche construction can result. An example of genetic evolution through niche construction with the inclusion of an abiotic factor: Yam cultivators in West Africa cut clearings in forests to grow crops, but resulted in much standing water which attracted mosquitoes and increased the rate of malaria. This caused a modification to the selection pressure for the sickle-cell allele that protects against malaria. Evolutionary change is thus furthered. Example of further niche construction: Humans change the environment through pollution. The effects of pollution are alleviated by the innovation and use of a new technology. This cultural response to a constructed niche allows for a change in environment and a lack of change in genetics. Only if a new technology is not created or effective will evolutionary change occur. Humans are able to sustain adaptiveness by responding to ancestral niche construction through further cultural niche construction.

The addition of niche construction to the study of evolutionary processes forces scientists to accept that cultural activity is not the reason that humans are able to modify their environments, but is simply their primary means of doing the same thing that other species do. 5_____ "Most of the time, cultural processes can be regarded as a shortcut to acquiring adaptive information, as individuals rapidly learn, or are shown, what to eat, where to live, or how to avoid danger by doing what other more knowledgeable individuals do."

 

Consequences

As 1.___ creatures move into new niches, they can have 2.___ significant effect on 3.___ world around them. 4.___ first consequence that arises from niche construction is that the organisms have changed 5.___ environment on which they live. 6.___ good example of this is the leafcutter ants mentioned above. Leafcutter colonies can grow to massive sizes and contain millions of 7.___ individuals. Such 8.___ large amount of ants require a large food supply. In order to obtain this, 9.___ ants need to stockpile a large amount of foliage clippings to feed their crop of fungi. This can devastate surrounding plant life, especially young saplings that need to obtain all the sunlight they can in the rainforests.

Another important consequence is that they can affect natural selection pressures put on a species. The common cuckoo bird is an excellent example of such 10.___ consequence. This species of bird parasitizes other birds by laying their eggs in the other species' nests. This had led to several adaptations among 11.___ cuckoos, one of which is a short incubation time for their eggs. The eggs need to hatch first so that the chick can push the other species' eggs out of the nest, ensuring it has no 12.___ competition for the parents' attention. Another adaptation it has acquired is that the chick mimics the calls of multiple young chicks, so that the parents are bringing in food not just for 13.___ one offspring, but a whole brood.

(Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niche_construction)

 

Ecosystem

PRE-READING

  Before reading the passage,answer all the following questions and discuss it with your partner. Then read the passage and find the facts supporting your ideas.

What is ecosystem?

What does it consist of?

TEXT

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life. Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or nonliving parts. Biotic factors include plants, animals, and other organisms. Abiotic factors include rocks, temperature, and humidity.

Every factor in an ecosystem depends on every other factor, either directly or indirectly. A change in the temperature of an ecosystem will often affect what plants will grow there, for instance. Animals that depend on plants for food and shelter will have to adapt to the changes, move to another ecosystem, or perish.

Ecosystems can be very large or very small. Tide pools, the ponds left by the ocean as the tide goes out, are complete, tiny ecosystems. Tide pools contain seaweed, a kind of algae, which uses photosynthesis to create food. Herbivores such as abalone eat the seaweed. Carnivores such as sea stars eat other animals in the tide pool, such as clams or mussels. Tide pools depend on the changing level of ocean water. Some organisms, such as seaweed, thrive in an aquatic environment, when the tide is in and the pool is full. Other organisms, such as hermit crabs, cannot live underwater and depend on the shallow pools left by low tides. In this way, the biotic parts of the ecosystem depend on abiotic factors.

The whole surface of Earth is a series of connected ecosystems. Ecosystems are often connected in a larger biome. Biomes are large sections of land, sea, or atmosphere. Forests, ponds, reefs, and tundra are all types of biomes, for example. They're organized very generally, based on the types of plants and animals that live in them. Within each forest, each pond, each reef, or each section of tundra, you'll find many different ecosystems.

Threats to Ecosystems

For thousands of years, people have interacted with ecosystems. Many cultures developed around nearby ecosystems. Many Native American tribes of North Americas Great Plains developed a complex lifestyle based on the native plants and animals of plains ecosystems, for instance. Bison, a large grazing animal native to the Great Plains, became the most important biotic factor in many Plains Indians cultures, such as the Lakota or Kiowa. Bison are sometimes mistakenly called buffalo. These tribes used buffalo hides for shelter and clothing, buffalo meat for food, and buffalo horn for tools. The tall grass prairie of the Great Plains supported bison herds, which tribes followed throughout the year.
As human populations have grown, however, people have overtaken many ecosystems. The tallgrass prairie of the Great Plains, for instance, became farmland. As the ecosystem shrunk, fewer bison could survive. Today, a few herds survive in protected ecosystems such as Yellowstone National Park.
In the tropical rain forest ecosystems surrounding the Amazon River in South America, a similar situation is taking place. The Amazon rain forest includes hundreds of ecosystems, including canopies, understories, and forest floors. These ecosystems support vast food webs.
Canopies are ecosystems at the top of the rainforest, where tall, thin trees such as figs grow in search of sunlight. Canopy ecosystems also include other plants, called epiphytes, which grow directly on branches. Understory ecosystems exist under the canopy. They are darker and more humid than canopies. Animals such as monkeys live in understory ecosystems, eating fruits from trees as well as smaller animals like beetles. Forest floor ecosystems support a wide variety of flowers, which are fed on by insects like butterflies. Butterflies, in turn, provide food for animals such as spiders in forest floor ecosystems.

Human activity threatens all these rain forest ecosystems in the Amazon. Thousands of acres of land are cleared for farmland, housing, and industry. Countries of the Amazon rain forest, such as Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador, are underdeveloped. Cutting down trees to make room for crops such as soy and corn benefits many poor farmers. These resources give them a reliable source of income and food. Children may be able to attend school, and families are able to afford better health care.
However, the destruction of rain forest ecosystems has its costs. Many modern medicines have been developed from rain forest plants. Curare, a muscle relaxant, and quinine, used to treat malaria, are just two of these medicines. Many scientists worry that destroying the rain forest ecosystem may prevent more me