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green layer a few millimeters thick although the vast majority of life on earth lives in mesophyllic moderate environments a few organisms most of them microbes have managed to colonise extreme environments that are unsuitable for more complex life forms there are bacteria for example living in lake whillans half a mile below the ice of antarctica in the absence of sunlight they must rely on organic material from elsewhere perhaps decaying matter from glacier melt water or minerals from the underlying rock 29 other bacteria can be found in abundance in the mariana trench the deepest place in the ocean and on earth marine snow drifts down from the surface layers of the sea and accumulates in this undersea valley providing nourishment for an extensive community of bacteria 30 other microbes live in environments lacking in oxygen and are dependent on chemical reactions other than photosynthesis boreholes drilled 300 m 1 000 ft into the rocky seabed have found microbial communities apparently based on the products of reactions between water and the constituents of rocks these communities have not been studied much but may be an important part of the global carbon cycle 31 rock in mines two miles deep also harbour microbes these live on minute traces of hydrogen produced in slow oxidizing reactions inside the rock these metabolic reactions allow life to exist in places with no oxygen or light an environment that had previously been thought to be devoid of life 32 33 the intertidal zone and the photic zone in the oceans are relatively familiar habitat types however the vast bulk of the ocean is inhospitable to air breathing humans with scuba divers limited to the upper 50 m 160 ft or so 34 the lower limit for photosynthesis is 100 to 200 m 330 to 660 ft and below that depth the prevailing conditions include total darkness high pressure little oxygen in some places scarce food resources and extreme cold this habitat is very challenging to research and as well as being little studied it is vast with 79 of the earth s biosphere being at depths greater than 1 000 m 3 300 ft 35 with no plant life the animals in this zone are either detritivores reliant on food drifting down from surface layers or they are predators feeding on each other some organisms are pelagic swimming or drifting in mid ocean while others are benthic living on or near the seabed their growth rates and metabolisms tend to be slow their eyes may be very large to detect what little illumination there is or they may be blind and rely on other sensory inputs a number of deep sea creatures are bioluminescent this serves a variety of functions including predation protection and social recognition 35 in general the bodies of animals living at great depths are adapted to high pressure environments by having pressure resistant biomolecules and small organic molecules present in their cells known as piezolytes which give the proteins the flexibility they need there are also unsaturated fats in their membranes which prevent them from solidifying at low temperatures 36 dense mass of white crabs at a hydrothermal vent with stalked barnacles on right hydrothermal vents were first discovered in the ocean depths in 1977 37 they result from seawater becoming heated after seeping through cracks to places where hot magma is close to the seabed the under water hot springs may gush forth at temperatures of over 340 c 640 f and support unique communities of organisms in their immediate vicinity 37 the basis for this teeming life is chemosynthesis a process by which microbes convert such substances as hydrogen sulfide or ammonia into organic molecules 38 these bacteria and archaea are the primary producers in these ecosystems and support a diverse array of life about 350 species of organism dominated by molluscs polychaete worms and crustaceans had been discovered around hydrothermal vents by the end of the twentieth century most of them being new to science and endemic to these habitat types 39 besides providing locomotion opportunities for winged animals and a conduit for the dispersal of pollen grains spores and seeds the atmosphere can be considered to be a habitat type in its own right there are metabolically active microbes present that actively reproduce and spend their whole existence airborne with hundreds of thousands of individual organisms estimated to be present in a cubic meter of air the airborne microbial community may be as diverse as that found in soil or other terrestrial environments however these organisms are not evenly distributed their densities varying spatially with altitude and environmental conditions aerobiology has not been studied much but there is evidence of nitrogen fixation in clouds and less clear evidence of carbon cycling both facilitated by microbial activity 40 there are other examples of extreme habitat types where specially adapted lifeforms exist tar pits teeming with microbial life 41 naturally occurring crude oil pools inhabited by the larvae of the petroleum fly 42 hot springs where the temperature may be as high as 71 c 160 f and cyanobacteria create microbial mats 43 cold seeps where the methane and hydrogen sulfide issue from the ocean floor and support microbes and higher animals such as mussels which form symbiotic associations with these anaerobic organisms 44 salt pans that harbour salt tolerant bacteria archaea and also fungi such as the black yeast hortaea werneckii and basidiomycete wallemia ichthyophaga 45 46 ice sheets in antarctica which support fungi thelebolus spp 45 glacial ice with a variety of bacteria and fungi 47 and snowfields on which algae grow 48 habitat change edit twenty five years after the devastating eruption at mount st helens united states pioneer species have moved in whether from natural processes or the activities of man landscapes and their associated habitat types change over time there are the slow geomorphological changes associated with the geologic processes that cause tectonic uplift and subsidence and the more rapid changes associated with earthquakes landslides storms flooding wildfires coastal erosion deforestation and changes in land use 49 then there are the changes in habitat types brought on by alterations in farming practices tourism pollution fragmentation and climate change 50 loss of habitat is the single greatest threat to any species if an island on which an endemic organism lives becomes uninhabitable for some reason the species will become extinct any type of habitat surrounded by a different habitat is in a similar situation to an island if a forest is divided into parts by logging with strips of cleared land separating woodland blocks and the distances between the remaining fragments exceed the distance an individual animal is able to travel that species becomes especially vulnerable small populations generally lack genetic diversity and may be threatened by increased predation increased competition disease and unexpected catastrophe 50 at the edge of each forest fragment increased light encourages secondary growth of fast growing species and old growth trees are more vulnerable to logging as access is improved the birds that nest in their crevices the epiphytes that hang from their branches and the invertebrates in the leaf litter are all adversely affected and biodiversity is reduced 50 habitat fragmentation can be ameliorated to some extent by the provision of wildlife corridors connecting the fragments these can be a river ditch strip of trees hedgerow or even an underpass to a highway without the corridors seeds cannot disperse and animals especially small ones cannot travel through the hostile territory putting populations at greater risk of local extinction 51 habitat disturbance can have long lasting effects on the environment bromus tectorum is a vigorous grass from europe which has been introduced to the united states where it has become invasive it is highly adapted to fire producing large amounts of flammable detritus and increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires in areas where it has become established it has altered the local fire regimen to such an extant that native plants cannot survive the frequent fires allowing it to become even more dominant 52 a marine example is when sea urchin populations explode in coastal waters and destroy all the macroalgae present what was previously a kelp forest becomes an urchin barren that may last for years and this can have a profound effect on the food chain removal of the sea urchins by disease for example can result in the seaweed returning with an over abundance of fast growing kelp 53 fragmentation edit this section is an excerpt from habitat fragmentation edit predicted fragmentation and destruction of great ape habitat in central africa from the globio 54 and grasp projects in 2002 areas shown in black and red delineate areas of severe and moderate habitat loss respectively deforestation in europe france is the most deforested country in europe with only 15 of the native vegetation remaining deforestation in bolivia 2016 habitat fragmentation is the emergence of discontinuities fragmentation in an organism s preferred environment habitat causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay 55 causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes that slowly alter the layout of the physical environment 56 suspected of being one of the major causes of speciation 56 and human activity such as land conversion which can alter the environment much faster and causes the population fluctuation of many species more specifically habitat fragmentation is a process by which large and contiguous habitats get divided into smaller isolated patches of habitats 57 58 destruction edit this section is an excerpt from habitat destruction edit map of the world s biodiversity hot spots all of which are heavily threatened by habitat loss and degradation habitat destruction also termed habitat loss occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species the organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere or are dead leading to a decrease in biodiversity and species numbers 59 60 habitat destruction is in fact the leading cause of biodiversity loss and species extinction worldwide 61 humans contribute to habitat destruction through the use of natural resources agriculture industrial production and urbanization urban sprawl other activities include mining logging and trawling environmental factors can contribute to habitat destruction more indirectly geological processes climate change 60 introduction of invasive species ecosystem nutrient depletion water and noise pollution are some of the examples loss of habitat can be preceded by an initial habitat fragmentation fragmentation and loss of habitat have become one of the most important topics of research in ecology as they are major threats to the survival of endangered species 62 habitat protection edit main article habitat conservation the protection of habitat types is a necessary step in the maintenance of biodiversity because if habitat destruction occurs the animals and plants reliant on that habitat suffer many countries have enacted legislation to protect their wildlife this may take the form of the setting up of national parks forest reserves and wildlife reserves or it may restrict the activities of humans with the objective of benefiting wildlife the laws may be designed to protect a particular species or group of species or the legislation may prohibit such activities as the collecting of bird eggs the hunting of animals or the removal of plants a general law on the protection of habitat types may be more difficult to implement than a site specific requirement a concept introduced in the united states in 1973 involves protecting the critical habitat of endangered species and a similar concept has been incorporated into some australian legislation 63 international treaties may be necessary for such objectives as the setting up of marine reserves another international agreement the convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals protects animals that migrate across the globe and need protection in more than one country 64 even where legislation protects the environment a lack of enforcement often prevents effective protection however the protection of habitat types needs to take into account the needs of the local residents for food fuel and other resources faced with hunger and destitution a farmer is likely to plough up a level patch of ground despite it being the last suitable habitat for an endangered species such as the san quintin kangaroo rat and even kill the animal as a pest 65 in the interests of ecotourism it is desirable that local communities are educated on the uniqueness of their flora and fauna 66 monotypic habitat edit not to be confused with monotypic a monotypic habitat type is a concept sometimes used in conservation biology in which a single species of animal or plant is the only species of its type to be found in a specific habitat and forms a monoculture even though it might seem such a habitat type is impoverished in biodiversity as compared with polytypic habitat types this is not necessarily the case monocultures of the exotic plant hydrilla support a similarly rich fauna of invertebrates as a more varied habitat 67 the monotypic habitat occurs in both botanical and zoological contexts some invasive species may create monocultural stands that prevent other species from growing there a dominant colonization can occur from retardant chemicals exuded nutrient monopolization or from lack of natural controls such as herbivores or climate that keep them in balance with their native habitat types the yellow starthistle centaurea solstitialis is a botanical monotypic habitat example of this currently dominating over 15 000 000 acres 61 000 km 2 in california alone 68 the non native freshwater zebra mussel dreissena polymorpha that colonizes areas of the great lakes and the mississippi river watershed is a zoological monotypic habitat example the predators or parasites that control it in its home range in russia are absent 69 see also edit altitudinal zonation natural layering of ecosystems by elevation ecological niche concept in ecology habitat conservation management practice for protecting types of environments habitat destruction process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species the loss of habitat habitat fragmentation discontinuities in an organism s environment causing population fragmentation landscape ecology relationships between ecological processes in the environment and particular ecosystems list of life zones by region overview of life zones notes and references edit wohlschlag donald e 1968 fishes beneath antarctic ice pdf australian natural history 16 australian museum 45 48 archived pdf from the original on 12 april 2021 retrieved 19 july 2021 ...