FOREST LIFE~Presented by the National Park Service The Forest is a Complex System
Fungi are important components of a forest too. Both above ground fruiting bodies and below underground mycelia, provide food for wildlife, help trees absorb water and nutrients, and break down dead plants and wildlife (decomposers) into the soil. A healthy forest in the Pacific Northwest also includes a variety, or diversity, of native insects, slugs, spiders, birds, mammals, amphibians, and fish. We will henceforth call this group of living things 'wildlife'.
Wildlife moves according to their needs, and thus, do not always spend their entire lives within one area. In their search for adequate food, water, shelter, space, or mate, wildlife may migrate from a higher to a lower elevation, from a cooler to a warmer climate, from salt water to fresh water. Salmon are a perfect example of a migrating animal: salmon begin life as eggs in a freshwater stream or river; once the egg hatch the fish experience several stages of growth as they migrate to the salt water. Once the fish reach the salt water they consume large quantities of food until they are ready to return to the stream or river of their birth to mate/spawn and die. Forests are places for people too. Within National Parks there are forests where people can camp, hike, fish, canoe, enjoy the quiet, and learn about this beautiful planet. National Parks are places for us to enjoy today and preserve and protect for future generations. Words to know & understand: CARNIVORE: A living thing that eats only other animals. An example of a carnivore is a mountain lion. CONSUMERS: A living thing that eats/consumes, and thus obtains energy from, another living thing. ENERGY CYCLE: The flow of energy from green plants to plants eaters to meat eaters to decomposers to the soil, air, and, water, and back to green plants to plant eaters (& the cycle continues). HERBIVORES: A living thing that eats/consumes only plants. An example of an herbivore is a rabbit. OMNIVORE: A living thing that eats/consumes both plants and other animals. An example of an omnivore is a bear. PHOTOSYNTHESIS: The process by which green plants convert light energy into food energy. In green plant cells, sunlight causes a chemical reaction in which water and carbon dioxide are converted to sugar and oxygen. The plant uses this sugar to grow. The science EALRs, 7th grade level, that are met by the National Park Service's learning station at the Conservation Tours are as follows:
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forest is a complex system. The building blocks of a healthy forest
consist of sunlight, clean air, water and soil. The green plants
of various species, ages, and sizes provide the structure of the
forest. These organisms purify water and air, moderate the climate,
provide food and homes for wildlife, and hold the soil in place.
Dead trees, those that are standing and those which have fallen,
are storehouses for water, provide shelter for wildlife and new
surfaces for plants to grow, and, with the help of decomposers will
be turned into soil.
Within
a forest there are constant interactions among green plants and
wildlife. Photosynthesis provides plants with sugar-energy for their
own growth and oxygen for wildlife use. Wildlife also drinks or
lives in the water that cycles through green plants and the soil.
At the same time that photosynthesis is occurring, wildlife species
search for their own food-energy: some get food-energy from flower
nectar, some consume the fruit and/or foliage of green plants (herbivores),
some consume each other (carnivores), some consume both plants and
wildlife (omnivores), some (along with the fungi) consume dead plants
and dead wildlife (decomposers), while other species may consume
both living and dead wildlife. The consumption (or eating) of living
and dead plants and wildlife cycles nutrients through the forest.
