Plant and animal partnership - Research Paper Example

? Plant and Animal Partnership Table of Contents Introduction 3 Exploring Plant-Animal Partnerships 5 References 9 Introduction This paper explores the partnership between plants and animals in the context of an ecosystem where both benefit from the partnership and are indispensable partners to each other. This is being done in the context of discussing in detail some of the core themes that have been the subject of intense focus in class, including plant ecology in the context of human culture and the interplay of the following- plants, their domestication, the impact of domestication on ecosystems, the impact of plant characteristics on cultural evolution, and the utility of plants in the culture of people. In the most fundamental relationship, animals need plants in order to get the most basic sustenance, outside of which animal life is not possible. This is because plants are able to manufacture their own organic matter to grow themselves, from sunlight and owing to their ability to make use of sunlight to do so with photosynthesis. On the other hand, such distinctions in roles between plants and animals are not clear cut and absolute, owing to the fact that some organisms, such as fungi, do not rely on chlorophyll to thrive, and yet are able to thrive as well, and can form the basis of life for some animals. Moreover, as early literature on plant and animals partnerships observe, some sponges and hydras, among others, are animals that also contain chlorophyll. Meanwhile it has been observed that where animals have chlorophyll and are able to grow their own food within, that chlorophyll eventually is traced to plant life. Fungi also thrive on organic materials that are based on plants, meanwhile. In general, therefore, the most fundamental relationship is that of plants being the providers of the organic matter on which animals and the rest of life rely on to survive. On the other hand, plants need carbon dioxide from animals to be able to perform the photosynthesis that is the originator of this relationship chain, and which allows plants to make the organic substance, glucose, on which the whole of the animal kingdom stands on (BBC, 2013; Farabee, 2007; Wilson, 2013; Reckitt Benckiser, n.d.; Brandt, 1882; Columbia University Press, 2013; Schulze et al., 2005, p. 602-605). The literature notes that a formal term used to denote the partnership relationship between plants and animals as symbiosis. In the examples above, where animal life is able to incorporate chlorophyll from plants and grow their own sustenance, the partnership is made evident by the fact that it is plants that are the ultimate source of the chlorophyll, and plants themselves benefit from the expiration of carbon dioxide from animals which they then need to perform photosynthesis. (Brandt, 1882; Schulze et al, 2005, pp. 602-605). On the other hand, the hallmark of true symbiotic relationships is that of two organisms that need each other in a fundamental way, without which both parties cannot survive, but the definition also extends to other kinds of relationships, but the distinguishing mark is that of mutual derived benefits and good from each other’s existence and fundamental ways of living and acting in their environments. For instance, in herbivores such as cockroaches and cows, the cows benefit from intestinal bacteria that allow for the breaking down of the cellulose that they eat. The bacteria meanwhile are able to thrive from that cellulose. Without the other, neither party is able to survive. On the other hand, both bacteria and cows rely on the plants to survive, even as the plants that they consume benefit from the respiration activities of both. More obvious examples are the relationships between the fig and the fig wasp, where the fig wasps provide fertilizers that the fig thrives on, while the fig meanwhile provides food for the fig wasp larva. The same is true for the yucca moth and the yucca plant, where the same symbiotic relationship between plant and animal is observed (Columbia University Press, 2013; Schulze et al., 2005; pp. 602-605; Hamilton, 2006, pp. 48-50; Schmidt- Nielsen, 1997; Walter, 1994, pp. 299-302; Krebs, 2008, pp. 173-178l; Margulis and Fester, 1991, pp. 1-7). Exploring Plant-Animal Partnerships The introduction touched off on the partnership relationship that exists between animals and plants as being something that is fundamental, inescapable, and forms the basic bond that makes life possible on earth. As discussed above, the partnership on one level is one where animals need the oxygen that plants produce from its photosynthetic process, while plants need the carbon dioxide that animals breathe out in order for plants to perform photosynthesis. Also on a fundamental level the produce of plants, such as its fruits, are needed by animals in order to live, as food, even as plants need animals to disseminate the seeds of thousands of plant types and pollen types in order to thrive and to continue to evolve via the diversification of its gene pool. Pollination is something that plants are often unable to accomplish without assistance from some animals, even as animals need the specific products of the flowers, such as pollen, in order to have food for their basis sustenance as well. Animals need plants as food in the various parts of the plants, including the leaves and the barks, as well as the roots for specific animals, even as plants benefit from the decomposition of dead animal bodies into the soil, to bring back the nutrients that the animal used up and retained in their bodies while alive. The specificity too, of the interactions of plants and certain animals form a kind of lock and key relationship or partnership that make each other indispensable to each other in specific cases. For instance, in one perfect lock and key symbiosis, certain species of bats are able to feed on the nectar of some species of jasmine flowers that only open up during the night time. These bats, through evolution, have been able to evolve the kind of tongues that are necessary to reach the nectar from the long tubular sections that contain them in the jasmine plant, even as the bats’ fur are especially designed for the jasmine pollen to be able to latch onto and make their way unto other jasmine flowers, enabling the complicated pollination process for the flower species (Hamilton, 2006, pp. 48-49). As discussed above, the partnership between plants and animals is best characterized as a symbiotic relationship. In the literature, the relationships between two sets of organisms can be either parasitic, mutual, or characterized by commensalism, with the latter being a relationship where one organism is able to benefit without the other organism incurring a detriment or harm as a consequence. In this partnership, as discussed above, the two parties in the partnership are able to benefit mutually and live off each other. In the most fundamental sense, plants need animals and animals need plants, so that it is a positive interaction where the two are concerned. This is something that is intuitive too, and is said to be evident in the very workings of nature. Bacteria that fix nitrogen are able to live in the roots of plants for instance, where they are able to find an abode and are able to also make use of the carbohydrates from the plants in order to live, by feeding on that as a primary sustenance. On the other hand, plants benefit from the nitrogen that such bacteria capture and fix unto the soil, enabling them to thrive. Another fundamental plant-animal partnership is that of the bee and the flower. Bees circulate pollen through flowers when they move and so cross-pollinate and allow for the interflow of genes among flowers. In return, bees are able to source their food needs from the flower pollen (Krebs, 2008, p. 173). Elsewhere in the literature, other fundamental plant-animal partnerships include the partnership between ants and so-called plants that are myrmicophilous. The leaves of the plants provide cover and abode for some species of ants, which then are able to act as guards against other ants that cut the leaves. In so doing both parties are able to mutually benefit from each other’s existence. Meanwhile, specific bacteria have been identified as being responsible for fixing nitrogen into the soil while leaving off the food provided by the roots of plants, essentially effecting the nitrogen cycle by the mutual dependence of bacteria and plants to each other (Walter, 1994, pp. 299-301). There are other symbiotic relationship dynamics that are possible between plants and animals, that do not have the involvement of animals basically destroying the plant cells through digestion in order to get through to the food source that is in the plant cells. For instance, there are animals with no vertebrates in the sea that are able to incorporate algae that are symbiotic into their own organisms, allowing the algae to live within the animal’s wall. The algae is able to thrive by feeding off the ammonia that the animal secretes. The algae uses this ammonia to synthesize its protein requirements. On the other hand, the algae, as plant, is able to provide nutrition to the animal in a direct fashion, from within the animal itself. Examples of animals that are able to accomplish such a symbiotic relationship with algae include clams, flatworms, some sponges, corals, hydras, and some protozoa-creatures (Schmidt-Nielsen, 1997, pp. 133-134). Still elsewhere in the literature there are discussions on the contexts in which the partnerships between animals and plants occur. The communities that house their interactions are called biocenoses, and within these communities their actions influence each other in profound ways. Apart from the discussion on nutrition and exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide already undertaken above, the relationship also includes the provision and the gathering of information off of each other, plants and animals on either side. The plants provide the framework within which information on places for meetings as well as on the nutrition information available are gathered. On the other hand, plants also evolve to make sure that they are able to sustain themselves to growth without animals over-feeding on them to the point of becoming extinct. Plants develop mechanisms to enable this, including mechanisms to make sure that only certain animals are able to feed on them, while fending off the rest, and many other such similar mechanisms that keep the balance between animals and plants in such biocenoses. (Schulze et al., 2005, p. 603). Elsewhere still in the literature, we see that the mutual benefit extends to plants that on the surface do not need animals to pollinate, such as in cases where plants are able to self-pollinate with no external actor. This is the case with coffee Arabica, a species of coffee that has been found to benefit from the presence of bee pollination agents in terms of having coffee fruits that are heavier and thicker in their growth, in comparison to situations where coffee Arabica is left to self-pollinate without bees (Krebs, 2008, pp. 175-176). References BBC (2013). Photosynthesis. BBC.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_gateway/green_world/photosynthesisrev1.shtml Brandt, K. (1882). A Partnership of Animal and Plant Life. Popular Science Monthly 21. Retrieved from http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_21/October_1882/A_Partnership_of_Animal_and_Plant_Life Columbia University Press (2013). Symbiosis. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Symbiotic+Relationships Farabee, M. (2007). Photosynthesis. Maricopa.edu. Retrieved from http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookps.html Hamilton, G. (2006). Kingdoms of Life- Animals. Lorenz Educational Press/Google Books. Retrieved from http://books.google.com Krebs, C. (2008). The Ecological World View. University of California Press/Google Books. Retrieved from http://books.google.com Margulis, L. and Fester, R. (1991). Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation: Speciation and Morphogenesis. MIT Press/Google Books. Retrieved from http://books.google.com Reckitt Benckiser (n.d.). Rate of photosynthesis: limiting factors. RSC: Advancing the Chemical Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/content/filerepository/CMP/00/001/068/Rate%20of%20photosynthesis%20limiting%20factors.pdf Schmidt-Nielsen, K. (1997). Animal Physiology: Adaptation and Environment. Cambridge University Press/Google Books. Retrieved from http://books.google.com Schulze, E. et al. (2005). Plant Ecology. Springer/Google Books. Retrieved from http://books.google.com Walter, S. (1994). Principles of Plant Physiology. Discovery Publishing House/Google Books. Retrieved from http://books.google.com Wilson, T. (2013). How the Earth Works: Basic Photosynthesis. How Stuff Works. Retrieved from http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/earth3.htm Read More