Blogpost #4: An Ecological Analysis of the Garden and your Plants

   Abiotic factors that that our plant depends on for survival is the weather. Like the sunlight, and rain, soil, and climate. The plant needs sunlight to be able to perform photosynthesis to create food and energy for itself, and it needs rain so that it can get water and stay alive.  The soil need to be able to support the plant with its minerals and absorb water. Climate has to have lots of sunlight and have rain with proper temperatures. Biotic factors affect the growth of the plants with things such as Herbivory, Parasitism, and Mutualism. Herbivores are animals that eat and feed off of the plants for survival, for example there are certain bugs and animals that feed off of our plant to stay alive. Parasitism is when the plant is harmed by another organism but the organism benefits. For example if there were aphids on our plant eating away at it that benefit them but not our plant. Also Mutualism which is when both plant and organism would benefit. For example if the bacteria Rhizobium lived within the roots of our plant, the bacteria gets its energy from the roots and it also provides the plant with nitrogen it can absorb. I also know my plant is engaged in competition because its near other plants. It is competing for sunlight. Our plant needs sunlight to make and store food so it can survive. Everyone who is growing plants around ours is in competition with our plant. The winner is determined by who grows the best. It can be sometimes hard to tell who wins and who loses because there is limited amount of essential ingredients to start with. This forces the plants to have to have a head-to-head competition, which forces them to share the resources as possible. Other interactions among plants are when a plant is growing off another. Where one plant uses the other to grow. The one that grows off the other one benefits from its nutrients and sunlight, the one that is being grown off of is being negatively affected because it is losing resources. Evidence in the garden that is is succeeding is that all of the plants are growing and look healthy. They all get sunlight, have proper soil, water, and resources for survival. This is secondary succession because the plants were planted by us in the garden after they had already grown for a while as well.