ECOLOGY OF MEXICO 2014, BY CITLALI REYES

                                         States of Mexico

The geographic characteristics on Mexico consist into 31 states and 1 Federal Distric.

Figure 1. Map of Mexico within its states.  Source by Pin Mapa de Los Cayos.

Biomes Present in Mexico

The map below was made by Citlali Reyes according to data obtained from a website called "Biomes and Latin Americans". According to the skecth showed in that website, there are three biomes present in Mexico. The Chaparral and Desert Biome continue up to the U.S., while the Temperate Rain Foresr biome goes down to Belize, Guatenala, and the rest of Central America. I need to mention that this information may differ form other sources, I wrote Temperate Rain Forest because that was exactly the expression on my source, but below I write about Tropical Rain Forest because that's the information I found about.

Figure 1. Map of Biomes in Mexico

Biomes Characteristics in Mexico

Desert

According to the NASA Earth Observatory, the average temperature in the Desert goes from 38°C during the day, and -3.9°C during the night. The precipitation average is about 250mm of rain per year. 

Chaparral

The Chaparral Biome is also known as shrubland biome, its temperature range goes from 30°F in the Winter time and it can be up to 100°F during the summer. The average temperature in this area is 64°C. The precipitation is from 10 to 17 in per year.  The data was collected from Bioexpediton.com in its publication called "Chaparral biome". 

Tropical Rain Forest

Even though in the map is written as Temperate Rain Forest, there was only information about tropical rain forest, which I assume may be another name for this type of biome. The temperature ranges of Rainforest goes from  20°C ( 68°F) to  34°C ( 93°F). For the other site, the annual precipitation is 100 inches normally (Michael G. 2001). The data presented was obatined in a article called Tropical Rainforest.

Highest and Smallest Elevation Points of Mexico

I made this map with images taken from Google Earth, and the data about these elevation points were found in a website called Index Mundi, CIA World FactBook, Dec. 06, 2013.

Figure 2. Location of the highest and lowest elevation point inMexico.

Santa Maria Zacatepec: Latitude and Longitude Coordinates

Latitude: 16°45'44.74'' N
Longitude: 97°59'25.72'' W

Data obtained from Google Earth webpage, in Santa Maria Zacatepec. Mexico

Mexican Principal Ecosystems

The map below shows the distribution of the main ecosystems in Mexico. The map was obtained from a article published by VivaNatura, click on this link to learn more about ecosystems in Mexico.

Figure 3. Map within Mexico's main ecosystems areas.

Images of Each Ecosystem in Mexico

The following images were obtained from a governmental website about biodiversity, and the images include a representative picture of how the area may look, plus some additional information.Click on Mexican Ecosystems to learn more about the images below.

Ecosystem in Santa Maria Zacatepec, Mexico.

My native community consist on mountains that surround it, an semi-urban community that make use of the rivers and the land. Is mostly conformed by deciduous and semi-deciduous forests at the bottom part of the montains such as coconut palms, huanacaste, and a variarity of fruit trees. Because Zacatepec is a 6 hours away from the Pacific Ocean the climate is mostly warm and hot, but in the last 5 years (from my personal experience, and others citizens comments) climate is on constant change, for example, in January was raining when actually the rainy season starts in August! 

There is not fish wildlife in the rivers of Zacatepec now days, and people like to consume animals such as iguana, deer, and fish such as srhimp, crab, etc. that are brought from other communities close by. 

Usually, during the rainy season (August-November more or less) we have storms, or strong rains. And about wildlife, specifically birds, people like to have as pets parakeets, which is sad because they are being threatened and sold to people at high prizes.

So, this is a short description about the ecosystem in my community Zacatepec (which actually means "Hill of Grass" in Tacuate, the native language there), the meaning is because the community used to look really dark green everywhere, and still look like that. 

List of Threatened Species in Zacatepec, Mexico.

English Name                                Spanish Name                                               Scientific Name

Elephant ear tree                           Huanacaste, Parota                                    Enterolobium cyclocarpum

Montezuma cypress                       Ahuehuete                                                  Taxodium mucronatum

Armadillo                                       Armadillo                                                    Dasipodydae family

Iguana                                           Iguana                                                        Iguanidae Family

Map of Types of Soils in Mexico

The map below was obtained from Mapas de Mexico website.

References

Biomes and Native Americans, Author Unknown, year unknown. (http://www.homewood.k12.al.us/edgewood/staff/fwoodruff/biomes/biomes.html)

Lab No. 6 - Evolution and Adaptations

1. Explain adaptive radiation and how the different paper forms made by “finches” helped or hurt that particular finch species.

          On last class, I learned that Charles Darwin collected birds that were very similar when he went on a trip. Even though these birds look a little different from each other, they came from the same family species. The reason why they became different was because they adapted for different diets: seeds, insects, flowers, etc. according to the different places they where at. When a family is separated from a phisically form of barrier and over a long period of time they adapt to different habitats until they become two different species, it is called adaptive radiation.

2. With the" prey" survival data you collect, graph survivorship over time by each species.

         

         3. Explain how behavioral adaptations may lead to genetic changes in a population.

         Depending on the ecosystem a individual lives, its instic may help to adapt not just to survive, also to mantain its species population. For example, if there is a family of birds that share the food from the same tree, if they all eat from the center of the tree, none fo them are going to survive, but the one that finds a way to adapt to another part of the tree, has more chances to survive. Animal species does not just need to be the strongest one, they also have to count on flexibility skills to survive by adapting to a new environment. The results of this type of adaptations over long periods of time may lead to evolution (which comes with genetics changes in a population aver million years).

4.  A species that has a behavioral adaptation that may allow its predator not to be able to eat it or find it. Explain what this behavioral adaption is.

       Behavioral adaptation refers to what an animal does, how it acts or response to something from the outside, its environment. For example, Shinook salmon from the Pacific Northwest that can migrate to colder waters in the ocean, live there for a while, adapt to the salty water to later on go back to the place they were born (up in rivers). 

Source:Bin Hen. Chinook Salmon. Lake Creek. Oregon Fish & Wildlife

 5. A species that has a physical characteristic that allows it to survive in cold weather.

   Deciduos trees can drop their leaves and stop to produce more leaves in winter, so they do not waste energy. In fact, they save enough energy so they can survive in cold temperatures.

Reyes, Citlali. Deciduos trees at Leach Botanical Garden.

6. An example of mutualism in nature. Explain what mutualism is this case.

   Mutualism is when to different species make a deal: they both share, both benefit from each other to survive. An example is a process called symbiosis, that is when fungi absorbs water and share it with a tree that does not have enough root hairs to reach water, while the tree produces sugar to feed itselff and the fungi.

Symbiosis between a tree and a mushrom

7. An example of commensalism in the nature. Explain how your picture represents commensalism.

A simple example of commensalism is a bird living on a tree, the bird has a place to live without harming or helping the tree. So, commensalism refers to a individual that obtains a benefit from another one, but without harming this other individual.

Reyes, Citlali. Bird observed during SEED students OR Trip

8. An example of mimicry in nature. Explain what the mimicry is this case.

If you observe carefully in the image below, a owl looks really similar to the bark of that tree, this makes hard to see the owl, and hide him from another predator around there by using a type of camouflage. So, mimicry is the ability of the owl to look similar in appereance to the bark of that tree, which gives him an adventage to survive.

Mimicry performed by an owl, with a great camouflage of the tree bark.

 9. One species of insect from Mexico that has an adaptation to survive. Explain.

The Monarch Butterfly hibernate in Mexico during spring, then find a mate. Then they migrate north (U.S.) to lay their eggs. This is an adaptation to survice because they cannot survive in the North during the winter time, they look for warmer places such as Mexico.

Adult Monarch Butterflies

   

Graphing Assignment

These are the three graphs I created on Excel: