What I Learned From Module Two

From this module, I learned that I must further appreciate the environment and every organism
within because each lesson taught me about the importance of preserving nature to sustain life
on Earth. The first lesson I learned is about how energy is the capacity to do work. This is
related to the topic about ecological principles because based on the principle, "everything is
related to everything," it can be observed that different forms of energy depend on one another.
For example, there should be potential enegry that can be transformed into kinetic energy.

Another lesson I learned about is the levels of biological organizations. In this lesson, I
discovered that the atom is the smallest and most fundamental unit of matter. And the simplest
level of organization for living things is a single organelle, while the highest level of organization
for living things is the biosphere. These levels are arranged from least to most complex.

I also learned about adaptation and defense mechanisms. Living things need to learn to adapat
to their enviornments to survive. Adaptation is connected to a process called natural selection,
which is when organisms that are better adapted to their environment have a higher chance to
survive and pass on the genes that aided their success. So organisms can adapt biologically,
meaning they alter their body functions to survive in their environment. For example, the Dorcas
gazelle does not urinate. Instead, they produce uric acid in the form of solid pellets to preserve
water. They do this to survive the harsh environment of the desert.They can also just change
the way they behave to stay safe. For example, the emperor penguins in Antarctica huddle
together to stay warmth in the middle of winter. Aside from organismal adaptation, there are also
different defense mechanisms organisms use to avoid getting eatn by predators. For example,
squids excrete ink when they feel threatened by a predator to confuse them so that they can
escape alive.

This module also taught me that there are different ecological relationships that describe the
interactions between or among organisms. There is predation (where one wins and the other
loses, competion (where both lose), mutualism (where both win), commensalism (where one
wins and the other neither wins nor loses), and interaction amensalism (where one loses and
the other neither wins nor loes). It's important that the organisms living in the environment
interact because they are dependent on the existence of another. This is why biodiversity is
essential in keeping everything balanced; the loss of one species may cause a domino effect
leading to an imbalance or worse, mass extinction because each organism ​has a unique role
that aids in sustaining life on earth. The greater the biodiversity, the higher the likelihood of
survival for all the various life forms on Earth.

Lastly, I learned that there are different types of naturally occuring communities on our planet
where different types of organisms reside. These are called biomes. There are different types of
terrestrial and aquatic biomes. Each type of biome is unique from another. They have different
plants and animals, temperatures, amount of rain received, locations, etc. And I learned that we
must protect these biomes because they are the homes of different flaura and fauna that need
the conditions of that specific biome to survive.