Plant-animal interactions

The Veld & Flora centrefold factsheet Sharing the Earth, in the December 2014 issue is about how all living things interact with each other and their surroundings. Ecosystems are a myriad of different plants and animals interacting in order to carry out their life processes. They feed on each other, and try to avoid being eaten, compete for a common resource or co-operate for a common good. Living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) factors combine to create an ecosystem. Plants, animals, fungi, protists and bacteria are living (biotic) factors. Sunlight, the habitat (pond, garden, mountain) and weather (temperature, rainfall) are non-living (abiotic) factors. Plants trap light energy from the sun, and just about all other organisms on earth are dependent on plants for their energy requirements.
   We don’t have to go out into the wilderness to study ecosystems. In a city it is easy to observe invertebrate (worms, insects), birds and plant interactions that mirror the animals and plants in the great ecosystems on Earth. Many of these interactions can be studied in your school garden or a nearby open space. A puddle of water, the school’s vege-garden, a whole city, a desert or a forest are all ecosystems.
  Discover who the Consumers are, and which organisms are the Decomposers. Find out who are the Seed Dispersers and the main Pollinators and who the Controllers of the ecosystem are. Download the factsheet here.

LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM

Grade 10, Strand 3: ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, Topic: Biosphere to Ecosystems, content: Ecosystems: Concept of ecosystem. Structure and ecosystem functioning.

 

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Many articles in past issue of Veld & Flora will be relevant to this topic. Click on the title to download a PDF of the article:
Cocktail antics: Associations between Cocktail Ants and their hosts by Jan Giliomee, Veld & Flora 100(1), pp. 34–35, March 2014.
For the birds ... Or not? Debunking some myths about which plants are popular with the birds by Charles and Julia Botha. Veld & Flora 101(1), pp. 20–22, March 2015.  
Insect hotels: Adding beauty and diversity to our gardens by Megan Griffiths and Friederike Voigt, Veld & Flora 100(4), pp. 165–167, December 2014.
Know your ants: Seed dispersal by indigenous ants by Peter Slingsby and William Bond, Veld & Flora 100(4), pp 162–-164, December 2014.
Little landscapers: Social insects transform landscapes by recycling and releasing nutrients and increasing floral diversity by Mike Picker, Veld & Flora 98(4), pp. 174–177 December 2012.
Painted Ladies I have known: Butterflies that stay out untilsunset when all others have retired by André Claassens, Veld & Flora 100(4), pp. 158–159, December 2014.
Plants fight back by Eugene Moll. Veld & Flora Factsheet on Plant Defences, Veld & Flora 100(2), pp. 120–121, March 2014.
Pollination Veld & Flora Factsheet, Veld & Flora 97(3), pp. 120–121, September 2011.
Sex, lies and the Cape: Spotlight on the sex life of Oupa-met-sy-pyp (Disa spathulata) by John Manning, Veld & Flora 100(4), pp 160–161, December 1014.
The butterfly, the ant and the wasp by André Claassens, Veld & Flora 93(4), 204–209, December 2007.
The Cabbage White by André Claassens, Veld & Flora 100(1), p. 36, March 2014.
The Peninsula Skolly:A tale of skollys, pugnacious foster parents and addiction by André Claassens, Veld & Flora 97(3), pp. 124–127, September 2011.
The Red Copper and the Black Sugar Ant: An unusual insect partnership in the fynbos by André Claassens, Veld & Flora 95(2), 90–93, June 2009.
Whistle-blowers on wetland quality: Dragonflies by Christopher Willis, Michael Samways and Warwick Tarboton, Veld & Flora 99(4), pp. 194–196, December 2013.

Two essential books to have in your school library are The Story of Life and the Environment: An African Perspective by Jo van As, Johann du Preez, Leslie Brown and Nico Smit (Struik Nature) and Table Mountain: A Natural History by Anton Pauw and Steven Johnson (Fernwood Press).
Valuable websites are http://www.ispot.org.za/node, and http://antsofthecape.blogspot.com/.   

Photo: Building an insect hotel in the KwaZulu-Natal National Botanical Garden by Megan Griffiths.