Bonus Episode! Ecology 101 with Jesslyn Shields

researcher for your show. I love it. And you've been adding such a wonderful segment about wildlife and ecology and really helping us learn and understand the nuances that each national park is facing. Um, when it comes to that, the importance of each of those ecosystems and the wildlife. Yeah, well, it's fascinating stuff and I love diving into it with you guys. So we have to start off, what are some of the things that ecologists study? Well, Um, it

depends on the ecologists that you ask. Um. Ecologists would probably say they study the interaction of organisms with their environment. But the truth is this is such a huge complicated thing to focus on that most ecologists look at ecology through a specific lens. Oh, like a population ecologist. That's exactly right, um. Population ecologists study the population of a single organism, So how they're distributed over ecosystem. What factors

contribute to a population growing or shrinking? Um? Why the organism does what it does? So that could be an elk, or it could be mushroom. Interesting. Um. Can you give us another example of this, um? Yeah. For instance, UM, salmon dies after it reproduces UM. So when you're studying all the salmon and what they're doing together that a population ecologist would do at um. Or you know, there might be a huge explosion to mosquitoes in a certain

place and population ecologists would study that too. Wow. So these are the type of questions that population ecologists try to answer. That's right. And actually there is one step up from a population, which is a community. So community ecologists look at how different organisms within the ecosystem interact. So this would be like how the wolves and yellow stones suddenly change the interactions between the other animals and plants in the ecosystem totally. That's a great example Yeah.

So the existence of top predators that impacts change the interaction of all the other organisms in the ecosystem. So, for example, you get elk acting different leak when you introduce wolves. Um, so that means that riverside willows grow bigger, which attracts beavers because they make these dams, which makes more habitat for otters and fish and ray waiting birds. Um. And the wolves go after coyotes, and coyotes sort of um compete with things like hawks and foxes, so they

do their thing. Yeah. So basically, community ecologists are interested in why and how these behaviors affect those interactions. Sure, yeah, that's and you know, however, the interactions between like the plants and the micro rise in the soil everything, Um, how they all interact and why. Wow. Yeah. Another thing I find fascinating is ecosystem ecology and how it takes all that population and community ecology can teach us and add the layer of non living things like whether soil chemistry,

how energy flows. Yes, so, an ecosystem is an area that houses a specific set of organisms and also non living elements like you know, dirt water that work together to create its own special thing. Whether it be what you find in the Mohabi desert or among the giants a quiz. So the borders that contain an ecosystem are really blurry though, and they are mostly defined by humans. So organisms find little places to live and work. And even in the borders of ecosystems. Um, like in a

tide pool on the beach. It's in the water and it's not really that much like the forest that's just ten ms away, but they still affect each other. Um.

They bleed into each other more than you might think. Also, because ecosystem science takes into consideration a biotic or non living stuff that impacts the system, ecologists who study them often examine how ecosystems are changing due to things like climate change or um how we change the use of the land, like a forest that turned into an agricultural field,

for instance. Right, So it college to study populations of organisms, communities of organisms, and ecosystems, which include both living and non living things interacting in a particular place. Is the ecosystem of the largest unit of ecology. If ecosystems bleed into each other, it seems like there might be even bigger systems to study. That's a great question. Um. Yes, one thing the science of ecology teaches us is that there is no disconnecting one thing from another thing on

this whole planet. So if we use our current climate situation as an example, decisions made by one nation state regarding something like coal fired power plants can affect both living and non living things thousands of miles across the ocean in really big ways. So ecologists talk about two other levels or units of space and interaction, right, Yeah, So they talked about the a biome, which is confused

with an ecosystem a lot of times. It's just a general term to describe habitat type where organisms in their environment interact and generally the same way, but it's not specific to any one place on the globe. Um. For instance, a desert is always going to have plenty of extreme temperature fluctuations and not much water and not very many

large plants. So the organisms in a desert are going to be adapted to those conditions, and there's a good chance they've evolved to act and looked look like organisms and other desert biomas all over the world, So like animals that we talked about earlier in this season, like that life exclusively in caves, who are generally small, with slow metabolisms and sightless, but with good hearing, touch and smell. Yes, they got that way because their surroundings required them to

evolve in this direction. Another example is like in North America, we have that North American kangaroo rat, which um is an Arches National park. Um. So it evolved under the same or similar conditions to this little mouse in Austria called the Australian hopping mouse in the out back. Oh yeah, I really wish we saw one of those in the Arches. That would have been such a great thing to Yeah. Yeah,

they're really they're really adorable. Um. And so there's also this little jumping rodent in North Africa and Asia and the Middle East called the Jeroba and it's very very similar to those and so they you know, evolved similar ways of being through just living in similar types of places. That's really fascinating. So what would be the next level up from a BioMA, Well, basically it's Earth. One level

up from there. It's the last level that you call it just concerned themselves with, and it's called the bias sphere, which is Earth. Um, it's atmosphere the geology and everything that hangs out on this planet. Um. Although Earth isn't like entirely a closed system. Yeah, because my beloved Jurassic Park dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor. Right, I'm sorry,

I'm not over condolence this, um exactly. And so a lot of water got here to our planet, um through just being brought here by asteroids when the planet was being formed. Um. The biosphere, like an ecosystem, has to draw a sort of artificial boundary around what we call this planet, um. And that's what ecologists got. We've got this planet, and so that's what that's what they call the biosphere. Huh. So, what are some aspects of an ecosystem or a biome that make it is what it is?

It seems like deserts end up with strangely, strangely familiar features like animals and plants, regardless of where you are in the world. Ecology seems pretty complicated. But can you built it down to a couple of elements that make an ecosystem what it is? That's a tough question, um, And you're right. Ecology is difficult to study because everything you look at within the discipline of ecology is so tangled up and interconnected and everything is affecting everything else.

There are biotic factors that decide what specific place is going to be like, so, um, what kind of predators hang out? What kind of animals and plants provide competition or some sort of benefit for each other like food or shelter. Wow, So these biotic factors are part of what makeup who can live and survive there? Yes? Um, And then there's also a biotic factors like nonliving things,

which include temperature, moisture, sunlight, elevation. So these are the elements that have nothing to do with organisms in the ecosystem right, Um, but they influence them just as much as living things do. And on top of that, sometimes it's even hard to know where one organism ends and the other begins, or where an organism ends and the environment begins. Um. But yeah, I think you can generalize very broadly and say there are two elements that drive ecology,

that make an ecosystem what it is. Can you guess what they are? M? No, But that's why we wanted you on to help exactly. And I can't wait to get to this after a really quick short break. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Landia and today we're talking with our researcher Jesslyn Shields about ecology. So right before the break, you asked us what two elements drive ecology? You left us stumped because we're trying

to retain this and really really pack it in. Well, I'm going to give you a hint and I bet you're going to guess what they are on like the next fifteen seconds. Perfect. Let's take a really extreme place like the Majabi Desert where Death Valley National Park is. Have you ever driven through Death Valley? Um? We haven't driven through Death Death Valley, but my predeployment training took

place in Twin Palms in California, also own as the Stumps. Um, Well, what do you think of when you think of twenty nine Palms or Death Valley National Park? Exactly? You basically just cracked half the ecology code. So temperature, right, Um, Because animals and plants have biological requirements, mostly having to do with the enzymes that act as catalysts that make

their bodies work. Never underestimate the power of chemistry, y'all. Um. These enzymes only work within a range of temperatures, so the chemical reactions that make an American pike as body work crap out, like when the temperature gets above seventy five degrees faheit. Um. Other animals like grizzly bears and yellow stone don't have internal chemistry that functions that well in the cold, so they pack on the pounds during the summer to insulate them and then they find a

nice warm place to hibernate over the winter. UM. So you'll notice that most of the bid diversity in the world, so bidovers means um, the most of the different types of living things on this planet and live in one place, which um is the tropical places on the equator. And that's because the tropics stay nice and warm. It's a good temperature for most plants and animal animal ends times

to function. Wow, what do you think the other element that drives an ecosystem is Well, if we're talking about a desert like Death Valley, which is really hot but it's also really dry, that's exactly right. Water and temperature are the two main things that decide what type of ecosystem is going to be in a particular place. UM.

So the water situation also has to do with chemistry. Actually, because plants are at the base of basically every food chain on the entire planet, and because plants require both sunlight and water to photosynthesize, that's where they make their own food exactly. Um. See I paid attention in school. Yea, yeah, I mean animals need water are to make a t P um, and so do plants. UM. A t P is an enzyme found in all living things that carries

energy around on ourselves. So in biomas with very little water, like the desert and the tundra, the plants will be smaller and fewer and farther between UM, and as a result, so all the animals. So what about like rainforest type environments like Olympic National Park. Well, Olympic National Park is a temperate rainforest. Um, so you're gonna have like lower temperatures than you would like in the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon is real warm and um. Olympic National Park has

like a like plenty of water. So um, A lot of animals and plants and fungi and all kinds of things are gonna want to live there, but not quite as many as like around the equator. Gotcha, Um, there's not enough room in the tropical rainforests for all the animals and plants to live there. So organisms adapt to the place where there's some space open. And the crazy thing about this planet is there's literally something living and

almost every nook and cranny on this planet. UM. I think that there's one place that there was a paper that just came out that there is a geothermal spring in Ethiopia that they couldn't find anything, not even little extreme of file micro organisms. UM. If you think about the way that our planet, life on the planet evolved, like it was pretty crappy place to live for a

really long time. So you know, like things are good at living all sorts of places, like even in Yellowstone and those like crazy UM and that crazy volcanic environment is just like things are living everywhere. That's um. And speaking of you'll notice when you look at a globe, the three four of the planet is covered with salty water. Um.

You really don't want to live there, but some things do. UM. Since water availability is an issue in the ocean, marine biomas differ in things like temperature, pressure, oxygen content, light availability, all kinds of things like that, UM, but water is not generally a problem for them. UM. So basically that's ecology. Insert shrucking emoji from me. That's a lot to go over. I mean that was just like a what a role

one of knowledge and excitement. Um, yeah, for sure. We went over so many amazing lessons and this is just psychology one o one, Yeah, this is just the beginning. You've been listening to park Landia, a show about national parks. Park landis a production of by Heart Radio, created by Matt Carouac, Brad Carouac and Christopher has e otis produced and edited by Mike John's. Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis.

Our researchers Jecelyn Shield. A special thing goes out to Gabrielle Collin's Crystal Waters and the rest of the Parklandia crew and Hey listeners. If you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other people like you find our show. You can keep up with us on social media as well. Check out our photos from our travels on Instagram at parkla India pod and join in on the conversation in our Facebook group Parklandia Rangers.

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