Transcript

Summary of week 2

NARRATOR

Ecosystems comprise more than habitat, inhabitants, and relationships between organisms, and learning about ecosystems in oak woodland demonstrates how complex ecosystems can be.

DR. DAVID ROBINSON

In woodlands like this, we can see parts of the ecosystem, but there are intricate and complex relationships between the organisms here - far more than we initially see when we walk into the woods. There's layer upon layer of interrelationships between the organisms. For example, like the woodwide web that links the trees here with the fungi under the ground. Understanding ecosystems transforms our view of the natural world, and it makes our own relationship with the natural world much more meaningful. In the next part of our learning journey, we'll be looking at ecosystems in different parts of the world, and in particular, how some organisms survive in extreme conditions through physiological adaptations. Understanding physiological adaptations is part of the process of making sense of ecosystems.

NARRATOR

The learning material in this section explores physiological adaptations like evaporators in the desert and adaptations to fluctuating food supply in the Arctic. In this video, Professor Paul Tett investigates how phytoplankton travel and survive in the sea.

PAUL TETT

The problem for phytoplankton is that they can very rarely get light and nutrients at the same time, because light is at the surface of the sea, and the nutrients are found deep down where organic matter decays in this cold quarter at the bottom of the sea.

NARRATOR

Here, Professor Mimi Koehl demonstrates how some suspension feeders eat.

MIMI KOEHL

3/4 of the Earth's surface is covered with water, and that water is full of particles, and a vast array of different kinds of creatures make their living by filtering those particles out of the water. Some of them, like anchovies and whales, swim around and let the water move through their filters as they go. Other animals, like sea fans and feather duster worms and feather stars sit on the bottom and put their filters up in the current.

NARRATOR

In this audio, Professor Aaron Bernstein describes some of the wonders of the microbial world and how it redefines our understanding of life.

AARON BERNSTEIN

The diversity of genes in the microbial world - we know that that is far greater than the diversity of genes in the rest of the living world. But really, we're utterly ignorant about the microbial world. In fact, it is the last great unexplored frontier.