BIOL 371 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Non-Vascular Plant, Ecosystem Services, Desiccation
Document Summary
Water to land transition: strategies for survival in a non-aquatic environment. Desiccation: protection from drying out- (a coat or skin to prevent body fluids from evaporating) Respiration: in water dissolved oxygen and co2 are exchanged. Organisms had to invent new structures to breath (ie stomata, lungs) Reproduction: in water, eggs and sperm are released into the water. Land organisms had to evolve to become successful reproducers under desiccating conditions (ie alternation of generations in plants, evolution of amniotes) Locomotion: needed to get new structures for locomotion in animals and to defy gravity in plants (ie roots, limbs/appendages) Senses: organisms on land had to adapt to the changes in light, sound, and smell which were perceived very differently in water. Algal mats were the first to come out and lived on the water edge for a long time. The first true fully terrestrial organisms were the non-vascular plants.