BOT 101: INTRODUCTORY BOTANY 1 (3

UNITS)
FIRST SEMESTER, 2019/2020 SESSION.

TOPIC: ELEMENTS OF ECOLOGY, TYPES OF

HABITAT, AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
LECTURER: Professor J.I. Muoghalu
Department of Botany

LECTURE 2
HABITAT, MICROHABITAT, ECOLOGICAL NICHE.

• Populations occupy specific places within the community.

• The place where a population lives and its surrounding, both living
and non-living, are its habitat.
• Even within a given community the distribution of certain organisms
may be quite localized because of micro differences in moisture, light
and other conditions.
• These localized areas are microhabitat.
ECOLOGICAL NICHE

• More than just occupying space, the population of each species in the
community performs some function.
• What the organism does or to say it somewhat
anthropomorphologically, its occupation in the community is called its
niche.
• Thus, ecological niche is the functional role and position of the
organism in its community.
Some species occupy a very broad ecological niche.

• They may feed on many kinds of food, plant and animal, or if strictly
herbivorous they may feed on a wide variety of plants.
• Other organisms occupy highly specialized niches.
• Organisms have arrived at their respective niches through long
periods of evolution.
• Because no two species in the community occupy the same niche,
each more or less compliments the other.
HABITATS OR ECOSYSTEMS OF THE WORLD
• The concentration of water divides the environment into
aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

• NATURAL HABITATS
Terrestrial Aquatic
(forest, grassland, desert)

Freshwater
Marine Lotic(running water) Lentic(standing water) (ocean,
sea) (River, spring, stream) (Lake, pond,swamp)
TERRESTIAL/LAND HABITATS

• Large easily recognized terrestrial community units are known as biomes.

• In a given biome the life form of the climax vegetation is uniform and is the key to
recognition.
• Thus, the dominant climax vegetation in a grassland biome is grass, although the
species of dominant grasses will vary in different geographical regions where the
grassland biome occurs.
• Other types of vegetation will be included in the biome, as for example, “weedy”
seral stages in succession, forest subclimaxes related to local soil and water
conditions, crops and other vegetation introduced by man.
Terrestrial biomes include: (1) deserts, (2) tundra, (3)
grasslands, and (4) forests.

DESERTS.
• Deserts may be caused by extreme and nearly continual cold (arctic,
antarctic, and alpine area) or by dryness as in the Sahara.

• Annual rainfall/precipitation is often less than 255 mm (10 in) or

sometimes there is more rainfall which is unevenly distributed in the
annual cycle.
 The one characteristic common to all deserts is their
aridity (dryness) throughout most or all of the year.
• There are also extremes of temperature and low
humidity which have adverse effect upon plant and
animal life.

• Strong winds and sand storms are characteristic of

desert climates.

• What life occurs in the deserts must be adapted to

conditions that are marginal to life.

• Four very distinctive plant life forms are adapted to the

desert ecosystem.
(i) The annuals which avoid drought by growing when there is
adequate moisture.
• (ii) the desert shrub with numerous branches arising
from a short basal trunk and small thick leaves that
may be shed during dry periods.

• (iii) the succulents such as cacti which store water in

their tissues; and

• (iv) Microflora such as mosses, lichens and blue-green

algae that remain dormant in the soil but are able to
respond quickly to cool or wet periods.
 • The ultimate stress suffered by desert plants is
the dehydration of their protoplasm.
• Spacing of desert vegetation reduces competition for
scarce resources of water.

• The problems confronting desert animals are concerned

with the necessity to breathe air, to conserve water and
at the same time, to avoid, tolerate or control extremes
of temperature.

• Like plants, many desert animals evade the adverse

conditions of the desert by aestivation in a state of
suspended animation.
• The dormant state or diapause is characterized by temporal
failure of growth and reproduction, the reduced
metabolism and enhanced resistance to heat drought and
other climatic conditions.

• Animals such as reptiles and insects are “pre-adapted” to

deserts for their impervious integuments and dry
excretions enable them to get along on the small amount
of water.
• Mammals as a group are poorly adapted to deserts but
some few species have become secondarily adapted.
• For example, camels must drink periodically but are
physiologically adapted to withstand tissue dehydration
for periods of time.
• Because water is the dominant limiting factor, productivity
of a given desert region is almost a linear function of
rainfall.
• Productivity in all desert ecosystems is low owing to
limiting factor of drought.

• Where soils are suitable, irrigation can convert deserts

into some of the most productive agricultural land.

• Compared to other ecosystems, desert ecosystems

have been relatively unchanged by man because man
is physiologically poorly adapted to it.
 TUNDRA
• Typical tundra is treeless.

• Long bitterly cold winters and short cool summers above

freezing point is the rule.

• During summer the ground is free of snow for a sufficient

period to permit growth of tundra vegetation.

• A major physical factor rules tundra as in the deserts, but

it is heat rather than water that is in short supply in terms
of biological function.
• Precipitation is low but water as such is not limiting because
of the low evaporation rate.
• Tundra could be described as a wet arctic grassland or a cold marsh
that is frozen for a portion of the year.

• Tundra ecosystem forms a ring of varying width around the land

masses of the northern hemisphere.

• The vegetation is composed of lichens, grasses and sedges which have

evolved remarkable adaptations to survive the cold.
• Animals that live in the region are able to survive
the change from the cold and darkness of winter to
the warmth and light summer and vice-versa.
• Some of them pass the winter sheltering underground,
others remain in the open taking cover only during the
worst storms.

• Nearly all the birds migrate to warmer clines before the

winter starts.

• Examples of large animals of tundra are musk ox,

caribou, reindeer, polar bears, wolves, and marine
animals to lemmings that tunnel about in the vegetation
mantle.
 FORESTS.
• Forests are vegetations dominated by woody plants at least 5
m high with open or closed canopy from which grass is
virtually absent.

• Most of the trees are not fire-tolerant.

• They are found in areas with high rainfall and occurs both in
temperate (temperate forest) and tropical regions (tropical
forest).

• In the tropics, they range from broad-leaved evergreen

rainforest where rainfall is abundant and distributed
throughout the year to tropical deciduous forests that shed
their leaves during the dry season.
• The main plant components of tropical forests are:
– (a) Forest trees

– (b) Herbs

– (c) Climbers (vines and lianas)

– (d) Stranglers

– (e) Epiphytes

– (f) Saprophytes

– (g) Parasites.
• The animals can be divided into a number of
ecological groups according to their ways of life.

• For instance, some mammals have acquired arboreal

habits and are adapted for climbing trees.
• Others are terrestrial and have to be able to push
through dense undergrowth.
• Subterranean forms are relatively scarce.
• Cusorial birds are naturally less common than in open
country, but arboreal species are well represented.
• Many of the reptiles and amphibians have become adapted
for climbing.
• Shifting cultivation has already destroyed much of the
world’s primary rain forest and in many cases has
changed the entire ecosystem.

GRASSLANDS.
• A grassland is a type of vegetation consisting
predominantly of grasses.

• Forbs (non-grassy herbaceous plants) are important

components and woody plants (trees
 • and shrubs) also occur interspersed or widely
scattered in grassland (savanna) or often in
beltsor groups along steams and rivers in
temperate regions.

• The trees are fire-tolerant.

• The principal grassland types are:
– (i). Savanna which is tropical grassland made up of a grass
stratum that is continuous and interspersed with trees and
shrubs.
– The trees are fire-tolerant
– The savanna is burnt annually.
– They occur in areas where rainfall is concentrated in a wet
season that alternate with a prolonged dry season.
(ii) Temperate grasslands consist of two types:

– (a) the steppes made up of short grasses e.g., steppes of

Eurasia.
– (b) the prairies made up of tall grasses; e.g., the prairies of
North America.
Temperate grasslands are found in temperate regions with hot
summers, cold winters and low annual rainfall.
They also occur in Africa, e.g., the veldt of South Africa and in
south America, e.g. pampas of Argentina.
• Large herbivores are a characteristic feature of grasslands.
These animals are mostly large mammals.
• The large grazers come into two life-forms: running types such as
ground antelopes and kangaroos and burrowing types such as ground
squirrels and gophers.
• When man uses grasslands as natural pastures he usually replaces the
native grazers with his domestic kind –that is cattle, sheep and goats.
• Both savanna and temperate grasslands are subject to fires which
affect the structure of the community.
• Human activities have mostly affected grasslands all over the
world, as a result, much of the area has been converted into
agricultural land.
• Forest and savanna are the dominant terrestrial ecosystems in
Nigeria.

AQUATIC HABITATS
Aquatic habitats are divided into freshwater and marine ecosystems
defined by salinity.
FRESHWATERS
Freshwater ecosystems, the study of which is known as Limnology ,
are divided into two groups: lentic or standing water habitats
(lake, pond, swamp) and lotic or running water habitats(river,
spring, stream).
• Freshwater rivers and lakes comprise innumerable bodies of
water varying in size and depth and spread across the continents
of the world.
• Most of them are comparatively isolated.

• They contain no significant amount of salt.

• The body of water is relatively small compared with oceans.

STREAMS AND RIVERS

• Rivers and streams are the mostly used by man of natural ecosystems.
• In all parts of the world man has so extensively dammed, diked and
channelized rivers that it is getting hard to find a truly wild river of any
size.
 LAKES AND PONDS
• In the geological sense, most basins that now contain freshwater are
relatively young.

• The life span of ponds ranges from a few weeks or months in the case of
small seasonal ponds to several years for larger ponds.

• Generally speaking, the species diversity is low in freshwater

communities and many taxa (species, genera, families) are widely
distributed within continental mass.

• These ecosystems have well-defined boundaries- the shoreline, the sides

of the basin, the surface of water, and the bottom sediment.

• Within these boundaries gradations of light, oxygen, and temperature

profoundly influence life in the lake, its distribution and its adaptation.
• Distinct zonation and stratification are
characteristic features of lakes and large ponds.

• (i) Littoral zone or shallow water zone, is the one in

which light penetrates to the bottom-containing
rooted vegetation along shore.
• (ii) Limnetic zone of open water dominated by
plankton (phytoplankton and zooplankton). There are
also free-swimming organisms, or nekton such as fish.
• (iii) Profundal zone-deep water zone containing only
heterotrophs.
FRESHWATER MARSHES.
• A marsh is a lowland habitat which is flooded at all
times, and in which grasses and shrubs grow.

• It represents a transition habitat between aquatic and

terrestrial habitats.

• Marshes are usually formed near rivers or other bodies

of water such as lagoons.

• The decay of organic matter takes place on a large

scale in a marsh and this causes a decrease in oxygen
content of water.
• Marshes are valuable in maintaining water tables in
adjacent ecosystems.
• Plants found in freshwater marshes include algae, water lettuce,
lemna and salvinia.
• Animals in marshes include frogs, toads as well as fishes and birds
that wade into water to feed on fish.
MARINE HABITATS
• The marine habitats contain saltwater and mainly are the
oceans. They also include inland brackish and estuarine
habitats.

• The total salt concentration of water is known as its

salinity.
• Salinity is a measure of the concentration of dissolved
salts within a body of water, usually expressed in parts per
million (ppm) by volume.

• Seawater usually has a salinity of around 35,000 ppm,

about 30,000 ppm is sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt).
• The major oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic)
and their connectors and extensions cover approximately
70% of the earth’s surface.

• Physical factors dominate life in oceans.

• Waves, tides, currents, salinities, temperatures,

pressures and light intensities largely determine the
make up of biological communities that in turn, have
considerable influence on the composition of bottom
sediments and gases in solution.
• The food chains of the sea begin with smallest autotrophs
(phytoplankton) and end with the largest animals (giant fish,
squid and whales).

ESTUARIES AND SEASHORES.

• The word “estuary” (from latin aestus –tide) refers to a semi-enclosed
body of water, such as a river mouth or coastal bay where salinity is
intermediate between the sea and freshwater, and where tidal action
is an important physical regulator and energy subsidy.
• In estuary sea water mixes with freshwater to produce
brackish water.
• Estuary is a part of a band of diverse ecosystems that are transition
zones between the seas and the continents.
• The four kinds of marine inshore ecosystems are a rocky shore, a
sandy beach, an intertidal mudflat and tidal estuary.
• Thousands of adapted species that are not to be found in the open
sea, on land or in freshwater live in these ecosystems.
• Estuaries and inshore marine waters are among the most
naturally fertile in the world.
• Three major life forms of autotrophs are often intermixed in an
estuary and play varying roles in maintaining a high gross production
rate.
• These are:
– (i)Phytoplankton;
– (ii) Benthic microflora –algae living in and on mud, sand, rocks or other hard
surfaces and bodies or shells of animals; and
– (iii) Macroflora- large attached plants- the seaweeds, submerged eel grasses,
emergent marsh grasses, and in the tropics mangrove plants.
• An estuary is often an efficient nutrient trap which
enhances the capacity to absorb nutrients in wastes
provided organic matter has been reduced by
secondary treatment.

• Estuaries provide the nursery grounds (that is place

for young stages to grow rapidly) for most coastal
shellfish and fish that are harvested not only in the
estuary but offshore as well.
• Organisms have evolved many adaptations to cope
with tidal cycles, thereby enabling them to exploit the
many advantages of living in an estuary.
• Some animals, such as fiddler crabs, have internal
‘biological clocks’ that help to time feeding activities
to the most favorable part of the tidal cycle.

• Estuaries occur in Rivers Ogun and Osse. River Niger

has a delta and there is an extensive lagoon system in
Lagos State.

DELTAS
• Many rivers flow eventually into the sea or a lake,
where they deposit sediment when velocity falls
below that required to keep particles in motion.
• This sediment often builds up into a delta composed of fine-
grained deposits.
• The large delta at the mouth of the river Niger is a classic example.
• Deltas are usually very fertile areas and are extensively used for
agriculture.
• They contain good soils, have abundant water supplies available for
irrigation and –in natural rivers that are not controlled upstream –are
frequently flooded, which brings regular inputs of nutrients and fertile
silt.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
• Environmental pollution is the unfavourable alteration of our
surrounding wholly or largely as a by-product of man’s actions,
through direct or indirect effects of changes in energy patterns,
radiation levels, chemical and physical constitution and the
abundance of organisms.
• Biologists define pollution more broadly as ‘ the addition to an
environment of any