...With reference to one plagioclimax that you have studied, assess the impact of human activity on plant succession. (10 marks) Plant succession is the process by which one plant community replaces another over time. Human activity can have an impact on the succession of plants in a number of ways these are known as arresting factors. A plagioclimax community is a habitat in which the impact of humans has subsequently meant that the ecosystem has been prevented from developing further. The plagioclimax with which I will give reference in this essay is heather moorland. It must be noted that much of the present vegetation in the UK is a plagioclimax as a result of clearance. Heather moorland provides a choice example of a plagioclimax in the UK. The areas where heather moorland is most prominent are the North York Moors, the Pennines and Eastern Scotland. Much of the land where Heather moorland now exists was once covered by deciduous woodland, the UK’s climatic climax, yet humans have had a critical impact on the way in which heather moorland has manifested itself in these areas. One must acknowledge that heather had featured in these areas prior to the suspension of succession. Humans removed deciduous woodland in these areas to make way for farmland as a result of the need to increase food production. By chopping down vast swathes of deciduous woodland, the soil in these areas began to deteriorate without the much needed nutrients associated with the deciduous woodland biome...
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...World Religion Report Your Name here HUM/130 University of Phoenix The Catholic Church has become so recognizable that there have been movies made about it. Some of the movies would include scandals that were about priest themselves or about the church hiding some secretive group that had the power to control governments. Some of the stories that have been told, included Bishops and or Cardinals that were the true governing entities over Kings in the times of old. Some of these stories talked about demonic possessions' that only the Catholic church could exorcise. Whatever the story or movie, the Catholic church has influenced millions. It is also known that the Catholic church owns many valuable items such as, ancient texts, various artwork, a library that can not be rivaled, and arguably, loads of money. Even with the "Hollywood fame" and valuables that the Catholic church may have, the Catholic religion has been rocked by scandals and persecution. Nonetheless, the church has stood their ground and continues to strive and its followers, still hold their faith to the church as sacred as ever. For the first thousand years of Christianity there was no Roman Catholicism (Roman Catholicism, religionfacts.com). There was no other denomination at that time to distinguish Roman Catholicism from other denominations. If you were Christian, you were considered catholic. Catholic which means "universal", meant that if you were Christian...
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...survivorship curves common in nature. Explain what k and r selection are and which of the three types of survivorship curves they correspond to. Which curve corresponds to increased quality of offspring? Which corresponds to increased quantity? 3. Species relationships: discuss competition, predation, mutualism, herbivory and parasitism. Give an example of each relationship and explain the benefit or harm that the organism is receiving. 4. Explain the competitive exclusion theory and give an example of what this theory suggests. What is the ultimate outcome of competitive exclusion? Explain how resource partitioning allows organisms to overcome competition. 5. Explain primary succession in plants. What plants are pioneer species? What plants dominate each stage of succession? What is the climax community? 6. Explain the 10% rule of trophic efficiency. Use a food chain as an example. If we start with 1,000 J of energy in producers, how much energy is available to primary consumers? How much would be available to secondary consumers? To tertiary consumers? Where does the “lost” energy go? 7. Define biodiversity and explain three major threats to biodiversity. Describe why the threats exist. What can we do to protect biodiversity? Why should we care? 8. Explain global climate...
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...Royal Bodies "Royal Bodies" is a speech by Hilary Mantel, an award winning and bestselling English writer. Hilary Mantel, born in 1952, is particularly famous for her historical novels. On February 21 2013, at a book lecture at the British Museum, she held a speech, in which she commented on the British monarchy. Hilary Mantel starts her speech by telling how she, last summer, was asked to name a famous person and choose a book to give them. She chose Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, "a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung". This is a good way to start the speech because Hilary Mantel has now introduced her real purpose with the speech: to discuss the effect of monarchy. Hilary tells how she at a book trade event at Buckingham Palace met the queen. She was surprised how people acted around the queen, as if the queen was made out of glass. The following quote shows how the queen acted when Hilary looked at her: "... Her Majesty turned and looked back at me, as is she had been jabbed in the shoulder and for a split second her face expressed not anger but hurt bewilderment". After this quote Hilary explains her own feelings under this meeting with the queen: "And I felt sorry then. I wanted to apologise. I wanted to say: it's nothing, it's monarchy I'm staring at". Right here, in these two quotes, Hilary uses pathos, because she appeals to the audience's emotions. This makes you feel sorry for the queen. Hilary Mantel uses pathos as a rhetorical device several times...
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...How significant lifestones are marked in different cultures In our lifetime we will celebrate a range of different milestones or rites of passage. These events are celebrated in various different ways in various cultures or religions. In this essay I will explore a range of different milestones or right of passage such as birth, puberty, marriage death etc. amoung the different cultures and religions. I will also compare and contrast the religious beliefs in 2 different religions/cultures/socieities. The first milestone is birth. Birth is a milestone that is celebrated in every culture. The birth of a child can be marked with a family gathering after the mother has given birth. A welcoming home party may also be carried out. Birth can also be celebrated later on in life with Birthdays. Birthdays also mark a significant date in a persons life. For example, birthdays can effect the person and the legal system. Examples of this are when a person turns 18 they are considered an adult, legal to vote, legal to purchase alcohol, consent to sex, to marry and to obtain a drivers license. The next milestone is puberty. Puberty is marked in various different ways in different cultures. Puberty marks the change of when a child becomes a teenager and matures. Puberty in a vary of different ways in different cultures. For example, puberty in the Irish catholic culture is celebrated with a ceremony called '' Confirmation ''. Confirmation marks the person as having completed...
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...Early October 2015, in Rome, every news station in the country picked up on the story of Charamsa, a gay priest who announced his homosexuality in the Italian Corriere della Sera newspaper. Along with announcing his homosexuality, he also admitted to having a partner. Charamsa was then told he will no longer be able to carry out his priesthood and duties at the Vatican (Borghese, 2015). On the eve of a major three-week assembly with the Synod of Bishops, an assembly of the clergy and sometimes also the laity in a diocese or other division of a particular church, Charamsa came out with the hopes of changing the Church’s stance on homosexuality. The timing of the announcement was intended to put the topic before the Synod of Bishops (Borghese, 2015), being that homosexuality has been a hot-button issue which has drawn the attention of the bishops as well as the media in the recent past. Animated by the spirit of Christ, this sacred Synod is fully aware that the desired renewal of the whole Church depends to a great extent on the ministry of its priests (1965). With the reliance of their morality, the Bishops referred back to the Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved (Ratzinger& Amato). Following his dissolution of his post and priesthood, Charamsa...
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...Biology Biome: the largest division of the biosphere. Biosphere: the thin layer of air, land, and water on or near Earth’s surface in which all living things on Earth exists. Climatograph: A graph of climate data for a specific region. Ecosystem: a part of a biome in which abiotic components interact with biotic components. Biodiversity: the variety of all living species of plants, animals, and micro-organisms on Earth. Niche: The special role an organism plays in an ecosystem, including the way in which it contributes to and fits into environment. Structural adaptations: a physical feature of an organism’s body having a specific function that contributes to survival of the organism. Physiological: a physical and chemical event that occurs within the body of an organism that enables survival. Behavioral: what an organism does to survive in the unique conditions of its environment. Species: a group of closely related organisms. Population: all members of a particular species. Community: all the population of the different species. Bioremediation: the use of organisms (micro or plants), to break down chemical pollutants in water or soil to reverse/lessen environmental damage. Decomposition: breaking down of organic wastes and dead organisms. Biodegradation: action of living things such as bacteria to break down dead organic matter. Decomposer: change wastes and dead organisms into usable nutrients. Detrivores: consumers that obtain their energy by eating bodies...
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...What were the criticisms that the humanists made of the Catholic Church? The Catholic Church faced many criticisms from the humanists; the humanists were a group of intellectuals who supported the reform of the church, but did not propose new policies but rather a change to improve he intellectual and moral standards of the clergy. Despite affecting the church and the faith in the church there was not much impact on the ordinary people they were not interested in the corruption within the church providing it I did not affect their everyday worship. Their criticisms affected not only the church but also the followers of the religion, the impact on how it was preached and practised. One of the key criticisms were indulgences, these were pieces of paper signed by the people that could be purchased by the laity, this meant the recipient of the sin was cleansed an often saved their souls. However there was opposition against them as he believed the faith was the only true saviour of their souls. While these were helpful toward the church in the sense that there was an increase popularity of the catholic faith and people saw an escape route to a way to amend their mistakes, it had major negative effects on the church, from the humanists c criticisms, it meant many people saw corruption and truly religious people would have the same views as martin Luther, that only faith could ensure salvation and that it could not be achieved through Christians own effort. This meant that there...
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...GENETIC ENHANCEMENT: CUSTOM KIDS AND CHIMERAS By Marilyn E. Coors, Ph.D. I am going to analyze Dr. Coors paper “GENETIC ENHANCEMENT: CUSTOM KIDS AND CHIMERAS” in a attempt to identify fallacies and mistaken assumptions, while checking for accuracy of factual claims and determining if there is enough evidence on Dr. Coors’s claim to support her conclusion. Dr. Coors’ conclusion, which can be located at the paper’s final paragraph on the last sentence, “Our impending power to alter our genetic heritage, coupled with a limited ability to predict the consequences of those alterations, cries out for a cautious and humble approach” is clearly a behavioral conclusion, which attempts to tell us how to feel, or which moral values to embrace in reference to genetic enhancement. In other words, Dr. Coors’ conclusion prescribes that “genetic enhancement should be approached with caution and reservation.” Now that we have identified the conclusion we can try to identify the Minor Premise report, which is the factual claim Dr. Coors is using to justify why we should approach genetic enhancement with caution and reservation. Dr. Coors states this Minor Premise at the middle of her final paragraph: “For these reasons genetic enhancement of human embryos is immoral under Catholic teaching.” Accordingly, we can frame the conclusion and the minor premise of Dr. Coors’ paper as follows: Minor Premise report: Genetic enhancement of human embryos is immoral under Catholic teaching...
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...Ultima The old healer Ultima lives and teaches the moral system that the novel espouses. Antonio’s relationship with Ultima is the most important bond in the novel. Ultima acts as Antonio’s mentor and helps him cope with his anxieties and uncertainties. Ultima claims a spiritual connection to Antonio that manifests its power in Chapter 1, when Antonio dreams of Ultima burying his afterbirth to keep his destiny secret from the arguing families of his parents. By presenting herself as the keeper of his destiny, Ultima immediately establishes a central role in Antonio’s psyche. Ultima uses her unique position of influence with benevolence, preferring to teach Antonio to think for himself rather than indoctrinating him with her own sense of morality. Like Antonio, Ultima is grounded in both the indigenous and Catholic traditions. She understands that life and spirituality can be viewed in many different and equally valid ways. Although the Catholic church does not recognize her mystical powers, Ultima respects the wisdom of the Catholic faith and attends mass regularly. Her appreciation for multiple faiths and perspectives bolsters her conviction that each person must make independent moral decisions, rather than blindly trust any single authority. Ultima tries to instill in Antonio the same tolerance, independence, and open-mindedness that define her faith and outlook. This view compels Ultima to treat Antonio with understanding and respect, even when he is a small and obedient...
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...After viewing the succession of the ecosystem in the Succession animation I have determined it is an example of a secondary succession. A secondary succession is defined as a change in species composition after a disturbance destroys the existing vegetation in an area that contains soil (Wiley, 2000-2012). The Succession animation was about a forest that contained a small creek. The natural flow of this creek was disturbed by a dam built by beavers thus creating a flood in the forest, the death of the current trees and plants and the new growth of trees and plants in later years. That is why it is a secondary succession. Evolution takes place in the process of natural selection. This process is one where necessary and successful characteristics and traits are passed on to future members of the species for survival. All traits and characteristics that are unnecessary cease to exist in future offspring. The hypothesis I’ve formed in regard to the aquatic salamander, who is missing hind limbs and has small forelimbs, is it came from a line of salamanders that migrated to a new area where they no longer needed their hind limbs. It is possible their new home had smaller areas for them to swim through and their limbs were proving to be a hindrance. Through the process of natural selection, the offspring of these salamanders were born with smaller limbs until their hind limbs were no more. This would be an example of their struggle for existence. References: • Wiley, J. (2000-2012)...
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...CONCEPTUAL LITERATURE "Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward". - Psalm 127:3 About once in every 28 days, ovulation occurs within human females. If the ovum released is not quickly fertilized by a sperm cell from a man, it will die and pass out of the uterus during abnormal menstrual period. But if intercourse takes place and the ovum is fertilized, conception occurs. The woman becomes pregnant, and nine months later, a baby will be born. Now, on the occasion that the parents of the unborn child do not want to have a baby, the parents may decide to use abortion, which expels the fetus from the womb via drugs, either oral or through injection. But if a couple decides early in a relationship to ultimately avoid having an offspring, they may practice birth control or contraception. The first time birth control was introduced to history was in the 1900’s. Population had increased rapidly. Margaret Sanger, a nurse, believed that the poor needed to control the size of their families. In 1916, Sanger established the first birth control clinic and in 1917, founded the National Birth Control League. Although widespread use of birth control is visible throughout the world, particularly in Europe and the United States, where birth control methods are legally available, not everyone is in favor of contraception. The Roman Catholic Church forbids artificial methods of birth control, upholding the belief that sexual love in marriage should never be...
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...1. Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship and both partners benefit whereas commensalism benefits only one and the other gets nothing. 2. A negative externality is a when a third party effects someone or something in a bad way and there is no compensation. 3. Gathered from my readings in the book negative feedback can be a great thing for nature. It allows a system to stabilize itself. Positive feedback can cause an ecosystem to destabilize. This is usually a bad thing but sometimes good things come from all of the chaos. 4. Isotopes are atoms of an element with different number of neutrons. 5. Entropy describes the chaos that is brought forth when energy transforms. 6. I believe that yes the term carrying capacity can apply to both the ecosystems and human beings. The definition is explained in the book using human population growth. But I also believe that many ecosystems can destroy themselves with over population so in order for them to survive they need a equal “birth” rate and death rate. This carrying capacity would allow an ecosystem to survive. 7. CFC’s are Chlorofluorocarbons. They are used in refrigerators, aerosol, and air conditioning. They have to do with the ozone hole because they are one of the main causes of it. Over the years uses of CFC’s started to grow and with it the hole in our ozone. 8. The Little Ice Age lasted between 1300 and 1870. It was a time when Europe and Northern America endured a much colder temperature then they were used to, and mountain...
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...Early successional forest is habitat caused by disturbance and requires careful management to be maintained. These can include old fields, grasslands, or early forests. Early successional forest provides countless benefits not only to wildlife, but to sportsmen, bikers, hikers, photographers, as well as conservationists and naturalists everywhere. It also contributes to the overall diversity and health of the forest. To wildlife, ESH provides many necessities for survival. The rapid growth of young vegetation provides avid cover and nesting habitat for game and song birds, as well as small and large mammals-- such as the american woodcock, ruffed grouse, whitetail deer and more. Regeneration forests produce a multitude of diverse foods. ESH bears a plethora of insects-- preyed on by nearly all bird species--fruits from berry plants, stems and shoots of new trees, and other young vegetation eaten by wildlife. This diversity of plants also benefits forest health, creating a rejuvenation of old forest, transition zones, and mature forests. Sportsmen recognize the benefits of ESH too. Populations of game in areas managed for regeneration forests tend to be much higher, and it is no coincidence. Fifty six to sixty percent of mammals use early successional habitat. However, many species that depend of this habitat populations are declining. Pennsylvania forests have roughly twelve percent less early successional habitat than the estimated outlook of twenty percent. You may be wondering...
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...James Shin Per 7b/8 Ecology Take Home Test 1) In the given info, there were two groups, an experimental and control group of flowers and sagebrush in a desert landscape that were identical except that the experimental group had a fence enclosed around it. Also, there was a predation relationship between the wildflowers and the kangaroo rats because the kangaroo rats eat wildflowers. Assuming that the fence was limiting the space of the experimental plot, competitive exclusion caused the extinction of the 4 other wild flowers. To begin, there was some interspecific competition, which happens when individuals of different species compete for a resource that limits their survival, between the 5 flower species in the experimental plot because they had their space limited to the fence that they were enclosed in. this competition was a density dependent factor in that the death rate rose when population density in the plot rose. Also, some of the specie’s ecological niches (like what nutrients they needed and how many branches would form) would have had to been the same or else they could coexist together. Then, one of the species of wildflower might have had a reproductive advantage like thorns to repel the kangaroo rats which would have allowed them to prosper and the other species to die out. This is the principle of competitive exclusion. On a tangent, the kangaroo rats would have learned to stay away from the wildflower with thorns by classical conditioning because they...
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