Stratification

In the past two lessons we have been continuing  to look at patterns in ecosystems. In yesterday's lesson we looked at Stratification.

Stratification  is where we get layers in a forest- e.g. the ground, mid canopy, upper canopy etc. The layers have their own environmental conditions (biotic and abiotic factors) and this means that habitats will vary.

Of course, if trees fall, then we can get succession taking place also.

Today we completed questions in the biozone book, before we moved onto looking at mesophytes and xerophytes. This will be a focus next lesson too.

Patterns in ecosystems

Prior to the Rarangi trip, we were looking at patterns in ecosystems. Today we continued looking at the pattern types. These will be relevant to our coursework when we go to Rotoiti.

Primary and secondary succession is where organisms colonise new areas (and to an extent this was occurring at Rarangi).

Zonation is where the organisms are arranged in particular locations depending upon the abiotic factors (e.g. sea shore zonation)  and attitudinal donation (equator to the poles) as well as up a mountain (vertical zonation).

We discussed this and then answered questions in the biozone book.

Rarangi Kite Diagrams

Today we ensured that we needed to a) label clearly data from the field, b) started creating kite diagrams.

Homework had been set to watch a caption tour (http://zapt.io/tx3vsafj)