bio326 : Individual

When you look at the landscape, you notice that there are grasslands in some places and forests in others.

Grassland	Forest

Environmental factors, such as temperature, moisture, and soil are critical in determining whether individual grasses or trees can survive at a particular location. It is the interaction between the organism and its environment that results in success or failure and leads to adaptation.

In this section, we will identify some of the environmental factors that are important to organisms. We will look at the ways in which the environmental factors affect organisms. We will see how some organisms are adapted within a range of environmental factors.

• Environmental Factors
• Environmental Variation
• Adaptation to Environment

Ecology, like the other sciences, uses a technical vocabulary. For each lesson, useful terms will be identified for you to learn to help you better understand the principles and examples of ecology. Most are explained in the textbook (and many are included in the glossary in the back of the textbook), and some are linked to glossaries on the web, e.g., like ecology. In addition, there are various on-line dictionaries and glossaries that may provide definitions of some terms, for example:

• AGRIPEDIA Glossary
• BIO 372 Glossary
• Bioenergy Glossary
• CANSIS/GLOSSARY
• Encyberpedia(tm)

After completing this module, you should be able to:

• List the environmental factors that are relevant to organism survival and success
• Explain how each of the environmental factors influences organisms
• Predict the response of an organism to a particular environmental factor

To complete this module, you should:

• Read the indicated pages of the textbook, The Economy of Nature by Robert E. Ricklefs.
• Open and read the hyper-text lessons for each topic in the unit, including the links in the body of each lesson.
• Submit assignments by the dates indicated on their respective pages.