i3williamnau's Journal

At the River to Sea Preserve there are many different types of ecological factors displayed. Species show how the interact with abiotic and biotic factors. They have symbiotic relationships with other species. Species even show how they have adapted throughout time. There are three main types of adaptations, those are: to accommodate the environment, to secure food and avoid being eaten, and to ensure successful reproduction. Without these adaptations, many many species would have never survived.
The first type of adaptation is accommodation to the environment. This type of adaptation is used by species when the environment changes and they need to change as well. When crabs inhabit rocks, and the rocks start being eroded, then the crabs must accommodate this and find a new place to live. If you look around docks, piers, seawalls, and other man-made structures that are partially in water, you will see that many crabs inhabit the pilings and such. They have found these areas to be long lasting and inhabited by other creatures that they benefit from, either symbiotically or from predation.

The next type of adaptation is to secure food and avoid being eaten. Again, we can look at the crab once more. To avoid being eaten, crabs have adapted to their surroundings. The level of camouflage is nearly unmatched. Crabs are able to hide from predators by blending in with their surroundings. This camouflage also allows them to hide from their prey until the last moment and strike at them. Crabs that do not have as good of camouflage as others have lose in the natural selection game.

The final type of adaptation is to ensure successful reproduction. A good species to use as an example of a unique and assured reproduction is turtles. Sea Turtles drag themselves up on the coast and bury their eggs in the sand. This keeps them safe from predators during incubation and it helps to regulate temperature. Once hatched, turtles make their way to the ocean and will return to the same beach to lay their eggs.

Symbiotic relationships can be found anywhere in nature. In the marine environment, it is especially common to see plants and animals/plants and plants/animals and animals interacting with one another. This type of relationship can exist at a microscopic level to relationships with whales and barnacles. There are three types of symbiotic relationships; Mutualism, Parasitism, and Commensalism.

In mutualism, each species involved benefits from the other species. This can be seen when looking at the relationship between Drews Cleaning Shrimp and reef fish. The Drews Cleaning Shrimp will go in an animal's mouths, crawl around their bodies, and pick in nooks and crannies around corals and plants. In this example of a large scale mutualistic relationship, the shrimp gets food, and the other species are cleaned.

In a parasitic symbiotic relationship, one species gains from the other, while the other species is being harmed. This can be seen with the Cymothoa exigua, also known as the Mouth Louse. This arthropod eats the tongues of fish, and takes its spot. It sits in the fish's’ mouth and eats what would have been the fishes meal. The host fish usually suffers and dies. So you can see how in the relationship, the fish suffers, but the Mouth Louse benefits.

Finally, in a commensalistic symbiotic relationship, one organism benefits, and the other does not. The difference between parasitic and commensalistic is that in commensalistic, there is not a species that is being harmed. A good example of this is the Remora and a shark. The Remora stays with the shark and eats leftovers from the sharks kill. The shark is not benefited by the Remora, but it is not harmed either.

In nature, there are two groups that factor how the environment functions. These two different groups are abiotic, and biotic. Abiotic factors are “things,” that affect the ecosystem/environment, that are not living. Some abiotic factors include temperatures, present chemicals, terrain, etc. Biotic factors on the other hand are living organisms that affect the ecosystem/environment that they live in. These biotic factors can be as small as bacteria or as large as a Redwood.
In the River to Sea Preserve, biotic and abiotic factors are rather sanctioned. Near the Matanzas river, you have the coastal factors, like plant growth. When there is a large amount of growth near the shore lines, more animals can thrive. Clams, crabs, snails, small fishes, and other tiny organisms start to thrive with this growth. This is because more vegetation allows for these animals to thrive and creates an ecosystem within itself. This growth is caused by some abiotic factors. The amount of sunlight, the temperature of the water, the temperature of the air, the pH of the water, and the nutrients of the soil all contribute to whether or not the vegetation thrives, which in turn affects the other animals that live in that ecosystem.
Heading further from the inland, the coastline has a completely different type of ecosystem. With a lot of coquina rock near the water, there are a lot of molluscs, crabs, algae, and other crustaceans and small fishes. One of these crustaceans is the Perna viridis(Identified by Jose Nunez.) This muscle attaches to the rock and stays there. Many different types of algae live of of the viridis, this is a mutualistic symbiotic relationship because the algae get a safe place to live, and the muscle gets camouflage.