The first video shows the history of the emergence and development of life on earth. The various main stages of the appearance of the first organisms that played an essential role in the evolutionary process are highlighted. This video is quite clear to divide by the main periods, highlighting the key points that influenced the emergence of a diverse ecological system of the earth. Much attention is paid to the Cambrian explosion, the explosion of skeletal fauna. It should also be noted that this video demonstrates concepts reflected in the textbook, namely prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The rest of the terms are mainly the names of the main periods that influenced the formation of life.
The second video demonstrates the features of the population growth process. All this is demonstrated by a detailed example of a sharp increase in the population of the Texas mosquito. Thus, various terms appear in this video, demonstrated in the textbooks. These concepts are demonstrated in a very visual and detailed way. Density-dependent or density-independent population growth constraints are shown in this video. Disease, competition, and predation are all density-dependent issues (Wright, 2021). Factors dependent on population density might have a positive or negative relationship with population size.
The third video demonstrates the principles of community formation and the competition they must face. It also uses various terms reflected in the textbook (competitive exclusion Principles, resource partitioning, character displacement, mutualism, commensalism). The most crucial concept in ecology is the concept of an ecological niche. A niche is a set of environmental factors within which a given species can develop and reproduce. For example, a plant’s niche may include the amount of precipitation, sunlight, and soil minerals needed for its growth. The Competitive Exclusion Principle states: if two species compete for the same niche, there are only two possible outcomes. Either these two species will change slightly, occupy a slightly different niche (niche differentiation), or one of the species is doomed to extinction.
The fourth video demonstrates such a phenomenon as predation. In particular, the various ways that organisms use to avoid this are reflected. This video describes the terms inherent in various organisms and plants reflected in the textbook (herbivory, parasitism, cryptic coloring). However, concepts such as Mullerian Mimicry are also described in more detail. A form of mimicry in which several different poisonous or inedible species of living organisms have similar warning coloration.
The fifth video reveals such an essential phenomenon as the change of ecological communities. Here the narrator uses some terms described in the textbook (primary succession, secondary succession). Thus, these phenomena are considered in sufficient detail in the video. The concept of ecological succession arose out of a desire to understand how large and complex ecosystems, such as forests, can exist in places that are known to have recently formed, for example, on volcanic islands. Different types of ecological sequences exist at different phases of an ecosystem and depend on how developed this ecosystem is.
Reference
Wright, R. W. (2021). Environmental science: Towards a sustainable future (13th ed.). Pearson.