Sunlight is one of the most important environmental indicators for plant life. It is absorbed by chlorophyll and used in the construction of primary organic matter. Almost all indoor plants are photophilous, i.e. thrive best in full light, but vary in shade tolerance. Taking into account the relation of plants to light, they are usually divided into three main groups: photophilous, shade-tolerant, shade-indifferent.

There are plants that adapt quite easily to sufficient or excess light, but there are also those that develop well only under strictly defined light parameters. As a result of the adaptation of the plant to low light, its appearance changes somewhat. The leaves become dark green and slightly increase in size (linear leaves lengthen and become narrower), the stem begins to stretch, which at the same time loses its strength. Then the growth gradually decreases, because the production of photosynthesis products, going to the building bodies of the plant, sharply decreases. With a lack of light, many plants stop blooming. With an excess of light, chlorophyll is partially destroyed, and the color of the leaves becomes yellow-green. In strong light, plant growth slows down, they turn out to be more squat with short internodes and wide short leaves. The appearance of a bronze-yellow leaf color indicates a significant excess of light, which is harmful to plants. If prompt action is not taken, burns may occur.

The effect of ionizing radiation is manifested in the effect of radiation on a plant organism at different levels of organization of living matter. The direct action consists in the radiation-chemical ionization of molecules together with the absorption of radiation energy, i.e. puts molecules in an excited state. Indirect exposure is accompanied by damage to molecules, membranes, organelles, cells as a result of exposure to water radiolysis products, the number of which sharply increases as a result of irradiation. The effectiveness of radiation damage depends significantly on the oxygen content in the environment. The lower the oxygen concentration, the lower the damage effect. In practice, it is generally accepted that the limit of lethal oxygen doses characterizes the radioresistance of organisms. In an urban environment, plant life is also affected by the location of buildings. From this we can conclude that plants need light, but each plant is photophilous in its own way.

3. Research part

Plant development is closely related to environmental conditions. The temperatures characteristic of a given area, the amount of precipitation, the nature of soils, biotic parameters and the state of the atmosphere - all these conditions interact with each other, determine the nature of the landscape and the type of plants.

Each contaminant affects plants in a different way, but all contaminants affect some basic processes. First of all, the systems that regulate the intake of pollutants are affected, as well as the chemical reactions responsible for the processes of photosynthesis, respiration and energy production. In the course of my work, I realized that the plants that grow near the roads are significantly different from the plants that grow in parks. Dust that settles on plants clogs pores and interferes with respiration processes, and carbon monoxide leads to yellowing, or discoloration of the plant and dwarfing.

I conducted my research on the example of aspen leaves. In order to see how much dust remains on the plant, I needed sticky tape, which I glued to the outside of the leaf. The leaf from the park is slightly polluted, which means that all its processes are functioning normally. [cm. application, photo No. 1,3]. And the leaf, which was in close proximity to the road, is very dirty. It is smaller than its normal size by 2 cm, has a different color (darker than it should be), and therefore has been exposed to atmospheric pollutants and dust. [cm. application, photo No. 2,4].

Another indicator of environmental pollution is the absence of lichens on plants. In the course of my research, I found out that lichens grow on plants only in ecologically clean places, for example: in the forest. [cm. application, photo No. 5]. It is difficult to imagine a forest without lichens. Lichens settle on the trunks, and sometimes on the branches of trees. Lichens grow especially well in our northern coniferous forests. This testifies to the clean air in these areas.

Thus, we can conclude that lichens do not grow at all in the parks of large cities, tree trunks and branches are completely clean, and outside the city, in the forest, there are quite a lot of lichens. The fact is that lichens are very sensitive to air pollution. And in industrial cities it is far from clean. Factories and factories emit many different harmful gases into the atmosphere, it is these gases that destroy lichens.

In order to stabilize the situation with pollution, we first of all need to limit the release of toxic substances. After all, plants, like us, need clean air to function properly.

Conclusion

Based on the research I have done and the sources I have used, I have come to the conclusion that the plant environment has environmental issues that need to be addressed. And the plants themselves take part in this struggle, they actively purify the air. But there are also climatic factors that do not have such a detrimental effect on plant life, but force plants to adapt and grow in suitable climatic conditions for them. I found out that the environment and plants interact, and without this interaction, plants would die, since plants draw all the components necessary for their life activity from their habitat. Plants can help us deal with our environmental problems. In the course of this work, it became more clear to me why different plants grow in different climatic conditions and how they interact with the environment, as well as how plants adapt to life directly in the urban environment.

Dictionary

Genotype - the genetic structure of an individual organism, the specific set of genes that it carries.

Denaturation is a characteristic change in protein substances in their structure and natural properties when the physical and chemical conditions of the environment change: with an increase in temperature, a change in the acidity of the solution, etc. The reverse process is called renaturation.

Metabolism is a metabolism, chemical transformations that occur from the moment nutrients enter a living organism to the moment when the end products of these transformations are released into the external environment.

Osmoregulation is a set of physicochemical and physiological processes that ensure the relative constancy of the osmotic pressure (OD) of the liquids of the internal environment.

Protoplasm - the contents of a living cell, including its nucleus and cytoplasm; the material substratum of life, the living substance of which organisms are composed.

Thylakoids are membrane-bound compartments within chloroplasts and cyanobacteria. The light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis take place in the thylakoids.

Stomata - a slit-like opening (stomatal fissure) in the epidermis of above-ground organs of plants and two cells limiting it (closing).

Phytophages are herbivorous animals, which include thousands of species of insects and other invertebrates, as well as large and small vertebrates.

Phytoncides are biologically active substances formed by plants that kill or inhibit the growth and development of bacteria, microscopic fungi, and protozoa.

Photosynthesis is the formation of organic substances by green plants and some bacteria using the energy of sunlight. During photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere and oxygen is released.

Used information resources when performing educational and research work

1. Akhiyarova G.R., Veselov D.S.: "Hormonal regulation of growth and water metabolism under salinity" // Abstracts of the participants of the 6th Pushchino school - conference of young scientists "Biology - science of the XXI century", 2002.

2. Big encyclopedic dictionary. - 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998. - 1456 p.: ill. Edited by Prokhorov A.M. Ch. editor Gorkin A.P.

3. Vavilov P.P. Crop production, 5th ed. - M .: Agropromizdat, - 1986

4. Vernadsky V.I., Biosphere, vol. 1-2, L., 1926

5. Volodko I.K.: “Trace elements and resistance of plants to adverse conditions”, Minsk, Science and technology, 1983.

6. Danilov-Danilyan V.I.: "Ecology, nature conservation and environmental safety" M.: MNEPU, 1997

7. Drobkov A. A.: "Microelements and natural radioactive elements in the life of plants and animals", M., 1958.

8. Wikipedia: information portal: [Electron. resource] // Habitat [website] Access mode: http://ru. wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat (10.02.10)

9. Everything about the Earth: information portal: [Electron. resource] // Water shell [site] Access mode: http://www.vseozemle.ru/2008-05-04-18-31-40.html (23.03.10)

10.Sbio. info First bio community: information portal: [Electronic. resource] // Biotic factors of the environment and the types of relationships of organisms caused by them [website] Access mode: http://www.sbio. info/page. php? id=159 (04/02/10)

Application

Photo No. 1. Aspen leaf from the park.

Photo #2. A sheet located next to the roadway.

Photo #3. Dust on sticky tape from a leaf from the park.

Photo #4. Dust on sticky tape from a sheet next to the roadway.

Photo #5. Lichen on a tree trunk in a forest park.

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Creating the most favorable growth conditions for each vegetable crop is more available in greenhouses, but even then not always. In the open ground, such conditions can either alternate in periods of growth (months and weeks), or be combined in a random optimal coincidence of several environmental conditions and care methods.

And, nevertheless, despite the obvious unfavorability in individual years, the plants still produce annual yields that generally satisfy the owners of gardens.

The ability of crops to produce crops in almost any combination of climatic factors and any lack of care lies in their biological adaptability to growing conditions.

As examples of such adaptations (adaptive abilities), one can point to rapid growth (early maturity), a very deep or widely branched root system closer to the soil surface, a large number of fruit ovaries, a mutually beneficial community of roots with microorganisms, and others.

In addition to these, there are many other mechanisms of adaptation of plants to the prevailing external conditions and opposition to them.

They will be discussed.

overheat protection

Thirty years ago, Moldovan scientists, having studied 200 species of plants (including the majority of vegetables), came to the conclusion that they have peculiar physiological “refrigerators” in the intercellular spaces of the leaves.

Up to 20-40% of moisture in the form of steam generated inside the leaf, and part of the steam absorbed by the leaf from the outside air, condenses (settles) on the cells of internal tissues and protects them from excessive overheating at high outdoor temperatures.

With a sharp increase in air temperature and with a decrease in moisture supply (insufficient or delayed watering), vegetable coolers intensify their activity, due to which carbon dioxide absorbed by the leaf is involved in the process, leaf temperature decreases and water consumption for evaporation (transpiration) decreases.

With a short exposure to heat, the plant will successfully cope with such an unfavorable factor.

Overheating of the sheet can occur when it absorbs excess thermal solar radiation, which is called near infrared in the spectrum of sunlight. Sufficient content of potassium in the leaves helps to regulate such absorption and prevent its excess, which is achieved by timely periodic feeding of this element.

Sleeping buds - frost protection

In case of death of plants from freezing with a strong root system, dormant buds awaken in them, which under normal conditions would not have shown themselves in any way.

Developing new shoots often allow you to get yields that are not worse than without such stress.

Sleeping buds also help plants recover when part of the leaf mass is poisoned (ammonia, etc.). To protect against the toxic effects of ammonia, the plant produces an additional amount of organic acids and complex nitrogen compounds, which help restore vital activity.

With any abrupt changes in the environment (stressful situations), systems and mechanisms are strengthened in plants that allow them to more rationally use the available biological resources.

They allow you to hold out, as they say, until better times.

A little radiation is good

Plants turned out to be adapted even to small doses of radioactive radiation.

Moreover, they absorb them for their own benefit. Radiation enhances a number of biochemical processes, which contributes to the growth and development of plants. And an important role in this is played, by the way, ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

Plants adapt to the rhythms of the environment

The change from daylight to darkness, the alternation during the day of light intensity and its spectral characteristics (due to cloudiness, dustiness of the air, and the height of the sun) forced plants to adapt their physiological activity to these conditions.

They change the activity of photosynthesis, the formation of proteins and carbohydrates, create a certain daily and daily rhythm of internal processes.

Plants are “used” to the fact that with decreasing light the temperature decreases, to the alternation of the air temperature during the day and at night, while maintaining a more stable soil temperature, to different rhythms of absorption and evaporation of water.

With a temporary lack of a number of nutrients in the plant, the mechanism of their redistribution from old leaves to young, growing and tops of the shoots operates.

The same happens with the natural death of the leaves. Thus, there is a saving of food resources with their secondary use.

Plants adapted to produce crops in greenhouses

In greenhouses, where light conditions are often worse than in open ground (due to shading by the coating, the absence of certain parts of the spectrum), photosynthesis is generally less intense than in open ground.

But greenhouse plants have adapted to compensate for it due to a more developed leaf surface and a high content of chlorophyll in the leaves.

Under normal growth conditions, to increase plant mass and form crops, everything happens in concert and is adapted to ensure that the receipt of substances from photosynthesis is greater than their consumption for respiration.

Plants want to live too

All adaptive systems and reactions of plants to certain conditions of existence serve one goal - to maintain a constant internal state (biological self-regulation), without which no living organism can do.

And the proof of the best adaptability of any crop is its yield at an acceptable level in the most unfavorable year.

E. Feofilov, Honored Agronomist of Russia

Other articles in the "Interesting Facts" section:

1. How do plants adapt to adverse conditions?
2. Plants predict weather and disasters
3. Cold porcelain flowers.

   Unfading Miracle

4. 8 herbal aphrodisiacs to improve your sex life
5. The magical properties of plants
6. Unusual uses of banana peel
7. Interesting facts about flowers 2
8. Orchid is a ghost. Interesting Facts
9. About cacti. You don't have to flip through an encyclopedia
10. Plants that help cope with stress

Yet: 010203

The study of methods and methods of adaptation of various plants to environmental influences, which allow them to spread more widely and survive in various environmental conditions.

Genetic inheritance of organisms to the possibility of adaptation.

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

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You can download the archive of the work by clicking on the link below.

Human adaptation to environmental conditions.

Scientific bases of hygienic regulation of environmental factors

Characterization of the processes of human adaptation to environmental conditions.

Study of the main mechanisms of adaptation. The study of general measures to increase the resistance of the body. Laws and patterns of hygiene. Descriptions of the principles of hygienic regulation.

presentation, added 03/11/2014

Adaptation of organisms to the environment

Types of adaptation of living organisms to the environment.

Camouflage, protective and warning coloration. Features of the behavior and structure of the body of animals to adapt to the way of life. Mimicry and caring for offspring. Physiological adaptations.

presentation, added 12/20/2010

The indicator role of plants and animals

Indicator plants are plants that are characterized by a pronounced adaptation to certain environmental conditions.

Adaptation of plants to the environment

The reactions of living organisms to future changes in weather conditions. Examples of using the indicator properties of plants and animals.

presentation, added 11/30/2011

The main factors of the aquatic environment and their influence on organisms

General characteristics of the aquatic environment. Analysis of the adaptation of organisms to various factors - water density, salt, temperature, light and gas regimes.

Features of adaptation of plants and animals to the aquatic environment, ecological groups of hydrobionts.

term paper, added 12/29/2012

The study of the adaptability of organisms to the environment

Habitat for plants and animals. Fruits and seeds of plants, their fitness for reproduction.

Adaptation to the movement of different creatures. Adaptation of plants to different methods of pollination. Survival of organisms in adverse conditions.

laboratory work, added 11/13/2011

Adaptation to low temperatures in animals

The variety of ways in which living organisms adapt to the effects of adverse environmental conditions on earth. Adaptation of animals to low temperatures.

Use of the specific properties of the organism to life in difficult climatic conditions.

presentation, added 11/13/2014

Microorganisms as indicators of environmental pollution

Priority environmental pollutants and their impact on soil biota. Effect of pesticides on microorganisms. Bioindication: concept, methods and features. Determination of soil moisture. Accounting for microorganisms in various media.

Ashby and Hutchinson Wednesday.

term paper, added 11/12/2014

Problems of using genetically modified organisms

Storage and transmission of genetic information in living organisms. Ways to change the genome, genetic engineering. Human health and environmental risks associated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), possible adverse effects.

term paper, added 04/27/2011

Leaf blade morphometry as an indicator of environmental pollution (on the example of the city of

Types of trees used in landscaping, introduced plants. Features of woody plants. Features of the use of plants as bioindicators. Biological indices and coefficients used in indicator studies.

term paper, added 09/19/2013

Adaptation of organisms to the water factor

Adaptation of plants to maintain water balance.

Type of branching of various root systems. Ecological groups of plants in relation to water: (hydato-, hydro-, hygro-, meso-, xero-, sclerophytes and succulents). Regulation of water metabolism in terrestrial animals.

abstract, added 12/26/2013

Adaptability of plants to the environment

The harsher and more difficult the living conditions, the more ingenious and diverse the adaptability of plants to the vicissitudes of the environment. Often the adaptation goes so far that the external environment begins to completely determine the shape of the plant. And then plants belonging to different families, but living in the same harsh conditions, often become so similar in appearance to each other that it can be misleading about the truth of their family ties - hotcooltop.com.

For example, in desert areas for many species, and, above all, for cacti, the shape of the ball turned out to be the most rational. However, not everything that has a spherical shape and is studded with prickly thorns is cacti. Such an expedient design, which makes it possible to survive in the most difficult conditions of deserts and semi-deserts, also arose in other systematic groups of plants that do not belong to the cactus family.

Conversely, cacti do not always take the form of a ball or column dotted with thorns. One of the most famous cactus experts in the world, Kurt Backeberg, in his book The Wonderful World of Cacti, talks about how these plants can look like, placed in certain habitat conditions. Here is what he writes:

“The night in Cuba is full of mysterious rustles and sounds. Large bats, like shadows, silently rush past us in complete darkness, only the space around the old, dying trees glows, in which myriads of fireflies perform their fiery dance.

The impenetrable tropical night with its oppressive stuffiness tightly enveloped the earth. The long journey we made on horseback took away our last strength, and now we, climbing under the mosquito nets, are trying to at least get some rest. The ultimate goal of our expedition is the land of amazingly beautiful green cacti of the Ripsaliaceae group. But now the time has come to saddle the horses. And although we do this simple operation in the early morning, sweat literally floods our eyes.

Soon our small caravan sets off again. After several hours on the road, the greenish gloom of the virgin forest begins to gradually dissipate.

Our eyes open up to the horizon full of sunshine, completely covered with shrubs. Only in some places the tops of stunted trees rise above it, and sometimes you can see single powerful trunks crowned with huge crowns.

However, how strange the tree branches look!

They seem to have a double veil: swaying from the breaths of a warm surface breeze, long thread-stems of one of the species of bromeliads (Tillandsia usneoides) hang from the branches almost to the ground, somewhat similar to long fabulous beards strewn with silver gray hair.

Between them hangs a mass of thin rope plants intertwined into balls: this is the habitat of colonies of leafless epiphytes, cacti related to ripsaliaceae. As if fleeing from the lush terrestrial vegetation, they tend to climb higher into the crowns of trees, closer to the sunlight. What a variety of forms! Here are thin thread-like stems or bulky fleshy outgrowths covered with delicate fluff, there are strongly overgrown shoots resembling ribbed chains in appearance.

The complex interweaving of climbing plants of the most bizarre forms: spiral, jagged, twisted, wavy - seems like a bizarre work of art. During the flowering period, all this green mass is hung with elegant wreaths or decorated with a variety of colors of the smallest specks. Later, the plants put on colorful necklaces of bright white, cherry, golden yellow and dark blue berries.

Cacti, which have adapted to live in the crowns of forest giants and whose stems, like vines, hang down to the ground, are widespread in the tropical forests of Central and South America.

Some of them even live in Madagascar and Ceylon.

Climbing cacti is not a striking example of the ability of plants to adapt to new living conditions? But he is not the only one among many hundreds of others. Common inhabitants of the tropical jungle are climbing and climbing plants, as well as epiphytic plants that settle in the crowns of woody plants.

All of them strive to get out of the eternal twilight of the dense undergrowth of virgin tropical forests as soon as possible. They find their way up to the light without creating powerful trunks and support systems that require huge building material costs. They calmly climb up, using the "services" of other plants that act as supports - hotcooltop.com.

In order to successfully cope with this new task, plants have invented various and quite technically advanced organs: clinging roots and leaf petioles with outgrowths on them, thorns on branches, clinging inflorescence axes, etc.

Plants have lasso loops at their disposal; special disks with the help of which one plant is attached to another with its lower part; movable cirriform hooks, first digging into the trunk of the host plant, and then swelling in it; various kinds of squeezing devices and, finally, a very sophisticated gripping apparatus.

We have already given a description of the structure of banana leaves given by G.

Haberlandt. No less colorfully he describes rattan - one of the varieties of climbing palms:

“If you get off the footpath of the Botanical Garden in Bogor (Java Island) and go deeper into the thickets, then after a few steps you can be left without a hat. Dozens of hooks scattered everywhere will cling to our clothes and numerous scratches on the face and hands will call for greater caution and attention. Looking around and looking closely at the “grasping” apparatus of plants, in the zone of action of which we found ourselves, we found that the petioles of graceful and very complex rattan leaves have long, up to one or two meters, exceptionally flexible and elastic processes, dotted with numerous hard and, moreover, the same semi-movable spikes, each of which is a hook-hook bent and tilted back.

Any palm leaf is equipped with such a fearsome hook-shaped thorn, which is not so easy to part with what is hooked on it. The elastic limit of the "hook", consisting almost entirely of strong bast fibers, is extremely high.

ADAPTABILITY OF PLANTS TO THE ENVIRONMENT

“You can hang a whole bull on it,” my companion remarked jokingly, drawing attention to my attempts to at least approximately determine the weight that such a “line” is able to withstand. In many palm trees related to rattan, the elongated axes of inflorescences have become such tools for capturing.

The wind easily throws flexible inflorescences from side to side until a support tree trunk is in their way. Numerous hooks-hooks allow them to quickly and securely hook on the bark of a tree.

Firmly fixed with the help of overgrown leaves on several trees standing next to each other (often spikes in the lower part of the leaf petiole or even in the leaf sheath serve as additional means of retention), the completely smooth, snake-like trunk of the rattan, like a loach, climbs up, pushing through numerous branches , sometimes spreading to the crowns of neighboring trees, in order, in the end, to break through with young leaves to the light and rise above the crown of the supporting tree.

There is no further way for him: in vain his shoots will seek support in the air. Aging leaves gradually die off, and the palm gets rid of them. Deprived of "anchors-hooks", palm shoots slide down under the weight of their own weight until the uppermost leaves with their thorns again catch on any support.

At the foot of the trees, one can often see numerous shoots of a palm tree, twisted into loops, completely bare, without leaves, often as thick as the arm of an adult. It seems that the shoots, like snakes, are crawling around in search of a new support. In the Bogor Botanical Garden, the longest rattan trunk reaches 67 meters. Rattans 180 meters long, and sometimes even up to 300 meters long, are found in the impenetrable wilds of tropical rainforests!

The adaptability of plant ontogenesis to environmental conditions is the result of their evolutionary development (variability, heredity, selection). During the phylogenesis of each plant species, in the process of evolution, certain needs of the individual for the conditions of existence and adaptability to the ecological niche he occupies have been developed. Moisture and shade tolerance, heat resistance, cold resistance and other ecological features of specific plant species have been formed in the course of evolution as a result of long-term exposure to appropriate conditions. So, heat-loving plants and plants of a short day are characteristic of the southern latitudes, less demanding for heat and plants of a long day - for the northern ones.

In nature, in one geographical region, each plant species occupies an ecological niche corresponding to its biological characteristics: moisture-loving - closer to water bodies, shade-tolerant - under the forest canopy, etc. The heredity of plants is formed under the influence of certain environmental conditions. The external conditions of plant ontogenesis are also important.

In most cases, plants and crops (plantings) of agricultural crops, experiencing the action of certain adverse factors, show resistance to them as a result of adaptation to the conditions of existence that have developed historically, which was noted by K. A. Timiryazev.

1. Basic living environments.

When studying the environment (the habitat of plants and animals and human production activities), the following main components are distinguished: the air environment; aquatic environment (hydrosphere); fauna (human, domestic and wild animals, including fish and birds); flora (cultivated and wild plants, including those growing in water); soil (vegetation layer); subsoil (upper part of the earth's crust, within which mining is possible); climatic and acoustic environment.

The air environment can be external, in which most people spend a smaller part of their time (up to 10-15%), internal production (a person spends up to 25-30% of their time in it) and internal residential, where people stay most of the time (up to 60 -70% or more).

Outside air at the earth's surface contains by volume: 78.08% nitrogen; 20.95% oxygen; 0.94% inert gases and 0.03% carbon dioxide. At an altitude of 5 km, the oxygen content remains the same, while nitrogen increases to 78.89%. Often the air near the surface of the earth has various impurities, especially in cities: there it contains more than 40 ingredients that are alien to the natural air environment. Indoor air in dwellings, as a rule, has

increased content of carbon dioxide, and the internal air of industrial premises usually contains impurities, the nature of which is determined by the production technology. Among the gases, water vapor is released, which enters the atmosphere as a result of evaporation from the Earth. Most of it (90%) is concentrated in the lowest five-kilometer layer of the atmosphere, with height its amount decreases very quickly. The atmosphere contains a lot of dust that gets there from the surface of the Earth and partly from space. During strong waves, the winds pick up water spray from the seas and oceans. This is how salt particles get into the atmosphere from the water. As a result of volcanic eruptions, forest fires, industrial facilities, etc. air is polluted by products of incomplete combustion. Most of all dust and other impurities are in the ground layer of air. Even after rain, 1 cm contains about 30 thousand dust particles, and in dry weather there are several times more of them in dry weather.

All these tiny impurities affect the color of the sky. Molecules of gases scatter the short-wavelength part of the spectrum of the sun's beam, i.e. purple and blue rays. So during the day the sky is blue. And impurity particles, which are much larger than gas molecules, scatter light rays of almost all wavelengths. Therefore, when the air is dusty or contains water droplets, the sky becomes whitish. At high altitudes, the sky is dark purple and even black.

As a result of the photosynthesis taking place on Earth, vegetation annually forms 100 billion tons of organic substances (about half is accounted for by the seas and oceans), while assimilating about 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide and releasing about 145 billion tons into the environment. free oxygen, it is believed that due to photosynthesis, all the oxygen in the atmosphere is formed. The role of green spaces in this cycle is indicated by the following data: 1 hectare of green spaces, on average, purifies the air from 8 kg of carbon dioxide per hour (200 people emitted during this time when breathing). An adult tree releases 180 liters of oxygen per day, and in five months (from May to September) it absorbs about 44 kg of carbon dioxide.

The amount of oxygen released and carbon dioxide absorbed depends on the age of green spaces, species composition, planting density and other factors.

Equally important are marine plants - phytoplankton (mainly algae and bacteria), which release oxygen through photosynthesis.

The aquatic environment includes surface and ground waters. Surface waters are mainly concentrated in the ocean, with a content of 1 billion 375 million cubic kilometers - about 98% of all water on Earth. The surface of the ocean (water area) is 361 million square kilometers. It is about 2.4 times the land area - a territory that occupies 149 million square kilometers. The water in the ocean is salty, and most of it (more than 1 billion cubic kilometers) retains a constant salinity of about 3.5% and a temperature of about 3.7 ° C. Noticeable differences in salinity and temperature are observed almost exclusively in the surface layer of water, and also in the marginal and especially in the Mediterranean seas. The content of dissolved oxygen in water decreases significantly at a depth of 50-60 meters.

Groundwater can be saline, brackish (lower salinity) and fresh; existing geothermal waters have an elevated temperature (more than 30ºC).

For the production activities of mankind and its household needs, fresh water is required, the amount of which is only 2.7% of the total volume of water on Earth, and a very small share of it (only 0.36%) is available in places that are easily accessible for extraction. Most of the fresh water is found in snow and freshwater icebergs found in areas primarily in the Antarctic Circle.

The annual global river runoff of fresh water is 37.3 thousand cubic kilometers. In addition, a part of groundwater equal to 13 thousand cubic kilometers can be used. Unfortunately, most of the river flow in Russia, amounting to about 5,000 cubic kilometers, falls on the marginal and sparsely populated northern territories.

The climatic environment is an important factor determining the development of various species of flora and fauna and its fertility. A characteristic feature of Russia is that most of its territory has a much colder climate than in other countries.

All considered components of the environment are included in

BIOSPHERE: the shell of the Earth, including part of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the upper part of the lithosphere, which are interconnected by complex biochemical cycles of matter and energy migration, the geological shell of the Earth, inhabited by living organisms. The upper limit of the life of the biosphere is limited by the intense concentration of ultraviolet rays; lower - high temperature of the earth's interior (over 100`C). Its extreme limits are reached only by lower organisms - bacteria.

Adaptation (adaptation) of a plant to specific environmental conditions is ensured by physiological mechanisms (physiological adaptation), and in a population of organisms (species) - due to the mechanisms of genetic variability, heredity and selection (genetic adaptation). Environmental factors can change regularly and randomly. Regularly changing environmental conditions (change of seasons) develop in plants genetic adaptation to these conditions.

In the natural conditions of growth or cultivation of a species, in the course of their growth and development, they often experience the influence of adverse environmental factors, which include temperature fluctuations, drought, excessive moisture, soil salinity, etc. Each plant has the ability to adapt to changing conditions. environmental conditions within the limits determined by its genotype. The higher the ability of a plant to change metabolism in accordance with the environment, the wider the reaction rate of this plant and the better the ability to adapt. This property distinguishes resistant varieties of agricultural crops. As a rule, slight and short-term changes in environmental factors do not lead to significant disturbances in the physiological functions of plants, which is due to their ability to maintain a relatively stable state under changing environmental conditions, i.e., to maintain homeostasis. However, sharp and prolonged impacts lead to disruption of many functions of the plant, and often to its death.

Under the influence of unfavorable conditions, the decrease in physiological processes and functions can reach critical levels that do not ensure the implementation of the genetic program of ontogenesis, energy metabolism, regulatory systems, protein metabolism and other vital functions of the plant organism are disrupted. When a plant is exposed to unfavorable factors (stressors), a stressed state arises in it, a deviation from the norm - stress. Stress is a general non-specific adaptive reaction of the body to the action of any adverse factors. There are three main groups of factors that cause stress in plants: physical - insufficient or excessive humidity, light, temperature, radioactive radiation, mechanical stress; chemical - salts, gases, xenobiotics (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, industrial waste, etc.); biological - damage by pathogens or pests, competition with other plants, the influence of animals, flowering, fruit ripening.

Task 1. Plant adaptation to seed dispersal

Establish how plants adapted to seed dispersal through insects, birds, mammals, and humans. Fill the table.

Plant adaptations for seed dispersal

What properties do the seeds of the plants listed in the table have that contribute to the spread of seeds by the methods you found? Give specific examples.

The interaction of two populations can theoretically be represented as paired combinations of the symbols "+", "-", "0", where "+" denotes a benefit for the population, "-" - the deterioration of the population, that is, harm, and "0" - the absence significant changes in the interaction. Using the proposed symbolism, define the types of interaction, give examples of relationships and make a table in your notebook.

Biotic relationships

1. Using the handout didactic material, make up the food web of the lake ecosystem.

2. Under what conditions will the lake not change for a long time?

3. What actions of people can lead to the rapid destruction of the lake ecosystem?

Individual task for the module "From the ecology of organisms to the ecology of ecosystems" Option 6

Task 1. Adaptation of living organisms to extreme living conditions

Many organisms during their life periodically experience the influence of factors that are very different from the optimum. They have to endure extreme heat, and frosts, and summer droughts, and drying up of water bodies, and lack of food. How do they adapt to such extreme conditions, when normal life is very difficult? Give examples of the main ways of adapting to the transfer of adverse living conditions

Task 2. Biotic relationships.

Determine from the graphs what consequences the relationship between two closely related species of organisms living in the same ecological niche can lead to? What is this relationship called? Explain the answer.

Fig.11. The growth in the number of two types of ciliates-shoes (1 - tailed slipper, 2 - golden slipper):

A - when grown in pure cultures with a large amount of food (bacteria); B - in mixed culture, with the same amount of food

Task 3. Natural ecosystems of the Southern Urals

1. Make up the food web of a river ecosystem.

2. Under what conditions will the river not change for a long time?

3. What actions of people can lead to the rapid destruction of the river ecosystem?

4. Describe the trophic structure of the ecosystem using the ecological pyramids of abundance, biomass, and energy.

Very rarely, the seeds germinate on the plant itself, as is the case with the so-called viviparous representatives of the mangroves. Much more often, seeds or fruits with seeds enclosed in them completely lose contact with the mother plant and begin an independent life somewhere else.

Often, seeds and fruits fall close to the mother plant and germinate here, giving rise to new plants. But most often, animals, wind or water carry them to new places, where, if conditions are right, they can germinate. This is how resettlement occurs - a necessary stage in seed reproduction.

To refer to any parts of the plant that serve for settlement, there is a very convenient term diaspora (from Gr. diaspeiro- scatter, distribute). Such terms as "propagula", "migrula", "disseminula" and "germula" are also used, and in Russian literature, in addition, proposed by V.N. Khitrovo the term "rudiment of settlement". In world literature, the term "diaspora" has become widespread, although it may not be the best one. The main diaspores that we will deal with in this section are seeds and fruits, less often - the purpose of the seed, or, on the contrary, only parts of the fruit, very rarely the whole plant.

Initially, the diaspores of flowering plants were individual seeds. But, probably, already in the early stages of evolution, this function began to pass to the fruits. In modern flowering plants, diaspores are in some cases seeds (especially in primitive groups), in others - fruits. In plants with opening fruits, such as leaflet, bean or boll, the diaspore is the seed. But with the emergence of juicy fruits (berries, drupes, etc.), as well as indehiscent dry fruits (nuts, seeds, etc.), the fruit itself becomes a diaspora. In some families, for example in the buttercup family, we can observe both types of diaspores.

In a relatively very small number of flowering plants, diaspores spread without the involvement of any external agents. Such plants are called autohoras (from the Greek. autos- himself and choreo- departing, advancing), and itself obviously - autochory. But in the vast majority of flowering plants, diaspores are spread by means of animals, water, wind, or, finally, man. These are allochores (from the Greek. allos- another).

Depending on the agent involved in the distribution of seeds and fruits, allochory is divided into zoochory (from the Greek. zoon- animal), anthropochory (from Greek, anthropos- man), anemochory (from the Greek. anomos- wind) and hydrochoria (from the Greek. hydro- water) (Fedorov, 1980).

Autochory is the spread of seeds as a result of the activity of any structures of the plant itself or under the influence of gravity. For example, the wings of beans often twist sharply when the fruit is opened and discard the seeds. The fall of diaspores under the influence of gravity is called barochory.

Ballistochory - scattering of diaspores as a result of elastic movements of plant stems caused by gusts of wind, or when an animal or person touches a plant during movement. In the ballistochore carnations, the diaspores are the seeds, and in the umbrellas, the mericarps.

Anemochory - the spread of diasporas with the help of wind. Diaspores can then spread in the air column, on the surface of the soil or water. For anemochore plants, an increase in the windage of diaspores is adaptively beneficial. This can be achieved by reducing their size. Yes, the seeds Pyroloideae(grushankovyh, one of the subfamilies of heather - Ericaceae) and orchids are very small, dusty and can be picked up even by convective air currents in the forest. Wintergreen and orchid seeds contain insufficient nutrients for the normal development of the seedling. The presence of such small seeds in these plants is possible only because their seedlings are mycotrophic. Another way to increase the windage of diaspores is the appearance of various hairs, tufts, wings, etc. Fruits with winged outgrowths, which are developed in a number of woody plants, rotate in the process of falling from the tree, which slows down their fall and allows them to move away from the mother plant. The aerodynamic properties of the fruit of the dandelion and some other Compositae are such that they allow it to rise in the air under the influence of the wind due to the fact that the overgrown tuft of hairs in the form of an umbrella is separated from the heavy seed-containing heavy part of the achene, the so-called nose. Therefore, under the influence of the wind, the fruit tilts, and a lifting force arises. However, many other Compositae do not have a nose, and their hairy fruits are also successfully dispersed by the wind.

Hydrochory - the transfer of diaspores with the help of water. The diaspores of hydrochora plants have devices that increase their buoyancy and protect the embryo from water ingress.

Zoochory is the distribution of diaspores by animals. The most important groups of animals distributing fruits and seeds are birds, mammals and ants. Ants usually spread single-seeded diaspores or individual seeds (myrmecochory). Diaspores of myrmecochore plants are characterized by the presence of elaiosomes, nutrient-rich appendages that can also attract ants by their appearance and smell. The ants themselves do not eat the seeds of the dispersed diaspores.

The distribution of diaspores by vertebrates can be divided into three types. With endozoochory, animals eat whole diaspores (usually juicy) or parts of them, and the seeds pass through the digestive tract, but are not digested there and are excreted. The contents of the seed are protected from digestion by a dense shell. This may be the spermoderm (in berries) or the inner layer of the pericarp (in drupes, pyrenaries). The seeds of some plants are not able to germinate until they pass through the animal's digestive tract. With synzoochory, animals eat directly the contents of the seed, rich in nutrients. Diaspores of synzoochoric plants are usually surrounded by a fairly strong shell (for example, nuts), which requires effort and time to crack. Some animals store these fruits in special places or carry them to their nests, or simply prefer to eat them away from the producing plant. Animals lose or do not use part of the diasporas, which ensures the resettlement of the plant. Epizoochory is the transfer of diaspores to the surface of animals. Diaspores may have outgrowths, spikes, and other structures that allow them to cling to the fur of mammals, bird feathers, etc. Frequent and sticky diasporas.

Anthropochory is understood as the spread of diasporas by man. Although most plants of natural phytocenoses have practically no historically developed adaptations to the distribution of fruits and seeds by humans, human economic activity has contributed to the expansion of the range of many species. Many plants were introduced for the first time - partly deliberately, partly by accident - to continents where they had not previously been found. Some weeds, in terms of the rhythm of development and the size of diaspores, are very close to cultivated plants, the fields of which they infest. This can be seen as an adaptation to anthropochory. As a result of improved agricultural techniques, some of these weeds have become very rare and deserve protection.

Some plants are characterized by heterocarpy - the ability to form fruits of various structures on one plant. Sometimes it is not the fruits that are heterogeneous, but the parts into which the fruit breaks up. Heterocarpy is often accompanied by heterospermia - the heterogeneity of seeds produced by one plant. Heterocarp and heterospermia can manifest themselves both in the morphological and anatomical structure of fruits and seeds, as well as in the physiological characteristics of seeds. These phenomena are of great adaptive significance. Often, one part of the diaspores produced by the plant has adaptations for spreading over long distances, while the other part does not have such adaptations. The former often contain seeds capable of germination for the following year, while the latter often contain seeds that are in a deeper dormancy and are included in the soil seed bank. Heterospermia and heterocarpia are more common in annual plants (Timonin, 2009).