Introduction to the Placerita Canyon Ecosystem
A living community of plants and animals is far more complex than most people realize. When one begins to ask questions, the hidden complexities become apparent. Where does the community get its energy to operate? How does it keep going year after year in a relatively stable condition? How is food for the plants and animals produced? What happens to the plants and animals when they die? Questions like these help probe the depths of the interdependencies and interrelationships found in any living system.
To help answer these questions and to formulate a deeper understanding of the maintenance of life on this planet, ecologists have devised a way to study whole life systems. They have called this the ecosystem approach.
An ecosystem can vary in size from a jar containing soil, water, plants and air, to the entire surface of the earth. Ecosystems have two major components which are really operating together to produce a functioning living-system. The first component consists of the physical environment and includes sunlight, soil, air and water in all of their forms. The second component includes the living organisms.
The ecosystem operates as a cycle. Sunlight strikes the earth and is used by the green plants to produce food. Water, air and the minerals of the soil are also used in the process called photo-synthesis. Animals consume either plants or each other and in the process much of the sunlight stored as energy in the plants is dissipated.
All of the plants and animals eventually must die and decompose. The microscopic bacteria and fungi then return the organic substances back to the soil as inorganic material, so that future living organisms will be assured nutrients for their development. After decomposition, all of the sunlight (energy) originally stored in the green plants is lost. The ecosystem, therefore, is like a machine which operates on sunlight and is renewed by decomposition.
Use the links below to view some of the plants and animals in the Placerita Canyon ecosystem.
Placerita Canyon has many beautiful wildflowers