Caribbean Area Ecology

Updated June 16, 2008

This page is currently under construction.

At first glance, the world of living things appears to be made up of a bewildering variety of plants and animals, all quite different and each going its separate way at its own pace. Closer inspection reveals, however, that all organisms, whether plant or animal, have the same basic needs for survival, the same problems of getting food for energy, getting space to live, producing a new generation, and so on.

In solving these problems, plants and animals have evolved into a tremendous number of different forms, each adapted to live in some particular sort of environment. Each has become adapted not only to the physical environment—has acquired a tolerance to a certain range of moisture, wind, sun, temperature, gravity, and so on—but also to the biotic environment, all the plants and animals living in the same general region. The study of the interrelations between living things and their environment, both physical and biotic, is known as ecology.

Living organisms are interrelated in two main ways, by evolutionary descent and ecologically. One organism may provide food or shelter for another or produce some substance harmful to the second, or the two may compete for food or shelter. To understand ecology in detail requires knowledge of the structure and functions of a wide variety of plants and animals. In the list of links, you will find some of the details of animal and plant physiology, heredity and evolution, which have made ecology one of the major unifying concepts of biology.

Resource List

Some of these resources require Adobe Acrobat USVI Rapid Ecological Assessment USVI State of the Reefs Report by The Ocean Conservancy NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program 2008 International Year of the Reef Caribbean Fisheries Management: Natural Reserves in Puerto Rico & the U.S. Virgin Islands Caribbean Fisheries Management: Coral Reef Fisheries Uses in Puerto Rico & the USVI Corals & the Endangered Species Act Critical Habitat Proposed for St. Croix Shrub Endangered Species Habitat Conservation Planning USGS Caribbean Coral Reef Conservation USVI Ecological Monitoring Program VI National Park Biosphere Reserve Isla del Coco Fishes National Coral Reef Institute U.S. Coral Reef Task Force The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2005 International Coral Reef Initiative Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change for the US-Affiliate Islands of the Pacific and Caribbean Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies: Research Luquillo Experimental Forest Long Term Ecological Research Project International Institute of Tropical Forestry Ecosystem Research Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: Center for Tropical Forest Science

For additional information related to Ecology, please contact José A. Castro, 787-766-5206 x. 226

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