The Ecology of Bellarmine

The Ecology of Bellarmine 

    If we decided to take a trip around the school, we would be amazed with how many different species of animals and plants.  This is exactly what we did one fine morning.  There were many great things in our wonderful community, so immerse yourself in these images that I have provided you about the ecosystem of Bellarmine.

This stuff is what we call grass.  (Poaceae) It is a producer as it absorbs sunlight for food.

Apis Mellifera (Western Honeybee) These guys are herbivores.  They eat pollen from flowers.  Some bees in Hawaii are threatened and endangered so try to protect before they are all gone.

These are chickens (gallus gallus domesticus).  They are secondary consumers as they eat bugs.

This is a palm tree (Arecaceae).  They are non-native trees brought in Spain.

These are fruit flies (Drosophila).  They are decomposers, eating and breaking apart an orange.

This is trash (notbelong junko).  They are a source of pollution, so throw these guys away if you see them lying around.

At this very moment, my phone decides to run out of batteries, but I can still tell you what we saw.


Spiders (araneae) are a great example of carnivores as they eat they eat any bugs or insects trapped in their nest.  They've even been known to eat birds too, but not the ones at our school.

Lastly, we (homo sapiens) are tertiary consumers as well as omnivores.  We eat the animals that eat animals that eat the plants (unless you're vegetarian, sorry).


There's much more, but I would probably bore you to death if I listed them out, so I'll start wrapping things up.  Here are a few pointers to take away from this.

1. Ecology focuses on the study of plants and animals and they interact with one another.  Environmental science, however, focuses more generally on earth and life science.  Here at Bellarmine, animals eat plants (ecology) and we throw away trash (environmental).

2. Here, we find a variety of animals and plants, specifically at our school garden.  Chickens and plants are thriving, as well as insects, that are feeding from the plants.  These are the biotic factors.  Abiotic factors are the soil the plants live in or the house in which the chickens live.

3. In our community, flowers absorb sunlight.  Insects eat from these flowers.  Spiders eat the insects trapped in their web.  Chickens will eat spiders.  And we, humans, eat chickens.  This is a food chain in which energy is passed down from one entity to another.  However, only 10% of the energy is passed on to the next, which explains why we would eat more than a bug would.

4.  The bees are endangered and threatened due to pesticides, which are harming these bees. and mutating the eggs, so that they will die.  Palm tree seeds were shipped to America from Spain and were planted, making them invasive species.

5.  Pollution doesn't just come from trash, which chokes animals if they eat it, but air pollution affects the quality of air, making it bad to breathe in.  There is also water pollution in which we pollute the water, making it unsafe to drink.

Thanks for reading!