What Do You Know about Ecology

Ecology's main preoccupation is to study the interactions between organisms and the environment they live in, meaning that 1… is also the study of ecosystems. Ecology as the sole study derived from the natural sciences at the end of the 19th century.

Since ecology mostly tracks changes in 2…, it often needs quite of time to reach certain conclusion because serious changes in ecosystems can be seen only after longer period of observation and studying. Ecology doesn't have easy job in getting the answers since organisms on our planet 3… with each other in numerous, complex ways. This is why ecology often needs long time for valid 4… conclusions.

Ecology is interested in both biotic as well as abiotic components of certain ecosystem, as well as the 5… and interaction between these two elements. Since the time of Darwin ecology and evolution are considered sister disciplines. The ecologists study the abiotic and biotic factors that influence the 6… process. Ecology studies not only present ecosystems but also includes past data which helps make future predictions about different ecosystems on our planet.

Since ecosystems are constantly changing ecology needs to grow as the science and adapt to these 7… in ecosystems all the time. Without adapting ecology people wouldn't be able to see many changes in ecosystems, and many processes couldn't be understood.

Exercise 7. Using the text write a short paragraph about ecology (50-70 words). Ideas for writing: What is ecology? What does it study? Is it easy to study interactions and connections in an ecosystem? Does ecology study present or past? What other sciences is ecology connected with? Why is ecology changing and growing? Is ecology a useful science or not?

Unit 1.2 Did You Say Taiga?

The words to be studied in 1.2:

desert пустыня; пустынный to increase возрастать; расти

marine морской to feed кормить

freshwater пресная вода species виды

to destroy разрушать, уничтожать insect насекомое

to exploit эксплуатировать, использовать harsh жёсткий, суровый

to pollute загрязнять wildfires пожары

decrease уменьшение, убывание, спад predator хищник

to decrease уменьшаться, убывать herbivore травоядное животное

increase возрастание, рост precipitation атмосферные осадки

Exercise 1. Do you remember what a biome is? How many biomes are there in Figure 1? What biome do you live in?

Exercise 2. Read the places and define them either as biomes or ecosystems, for example: Tundra is a biome.

tundra, the Yenisey river, taiga, the Sahara desert, a lake, your grandmother’s garden, the Red sea, the reserve Stolby area, evergreen forest.

Exercise 3. Read facts about biomes. While reading try to answer the question: how many biomes are there on the Earth exactly?

Fast Facts about Biomes

1. Biomes are the world's major communities where insects, animals, plants and people live in a certain type of climate.

2. The climate and geography of an area determines what type of biome can exist in that region.

3. Each biome consists of many ecosystems.

4. Here are the commonly grouped biomes: Desert, Deciduous Forest (trees that usually lose their leaves in the autumn), Coniferous (evergreen) Forest, Tundra, Tropical Rainforest, Grasslands, Taiga. Though there is some debate among scientists as to exactly how biomes should be classified.

5. There are also Marine and Freshwater ecosystems that could be considered the water biomes.

6. The Marine and Freshwater biomes are extremely important because water is the basis of all life.

7. The earth's coldest biome is the tundra which has permanently frozen subsoil, called permafrost.

8. All of the biomes need to be protected. Over the past several years, human activity has destroyed, exploited, or polluted many of the biomes.

9. All living things are closely related to their environment and any change in a part, like an increase or decrease in one type of plant or animal, can cause a ripple effect of change through the entire biome.

10. Biomes have moved and changed many times throughout the history of the Earth.

Exercise 4. Read the text about taiga. Use a dictionary to look up the unknown words. Fill in the chart with the necessary information:

The Taiga Biome
Place	Climate	Temperature, precipitation	Vegetation	Animals, birds, insects
Below the tundra biome…

Figure 3