Factors Affecting Flora and Fauna Video Lecture - Class 9

natural vegetation and wildlife natural
vegetation refers to a plant community
which grows naturally without human aid
and has been undisturbed by humans for a
long time this is also called virgin
vegetation two key terms used to refer
to natural vegetation and wildlife are
flora and fauna the term flora is used
to denote plants of a particular region
or period the species of animals found
in the particular region or period are
referred to as fauna it would interest
you to know that India is one of the 12
mega biodiversity countries of the world
it has about 47,000 plant species which
takes it to the 10th place in the world
and the fourth place in Asia as far as
biodiversity is concerned there are
about 15,000 flowering plants in India
approximately 90,000 species of animals
and an unbelievably rich variety of fish
and marine life diversity in flora and
fauna is primarily due to three factors
they are relief climate and ecosystem
relief the term relief refers to the
land and soil characteristics of an area
the nature of land influences the type
of vegetation for example fertile land
is generally devoted to agriculture
while undulating land and rough terrains
are areas where grasslands and woodlands
develop and give shelter to a variety of
wildlife soil different types of soils
provide the basis for different types of
vegetation for example sandy soils of
deserts support cactuses and thorny
bushes wet marshy deltaic soils support
mangroves and deltaic vegetation while
soil on the hill slopes support
coniferous trees climate we just saw how
the relief of an area influences the
overall vegetation let's now see how the
climate of a region impacts is flora and
fauna the term climate involves three
factors temperature photo period or
sunlight period and precipitation or
rainfall each of these factors directly
influences the natural vegetation and
wildlife around it how does temperature
impact vegetation in cold areas such as
the slopes of the Himalayas and the
upper regions of the hills of the Deccan
Peninsula fall in temperature effects
the types of vegetation and its growth
so you would find trees such as fir and
spruce which have needle-like leaves
which protect them from the cold rough
weather around them similarly variation
in the duration of sunlight can lead to
a change in the flora and fauna
around that place but why does such
variation happen there are many reasons
differences in latitude altitudes
seasons durations of the day and so on
let's now quickly see how precipitation
or rainfall influences natural
vegetation and Wildlife in India
rainfall is typically brought in either
by the advancing Southwest monsoons from
June to September or the retreating
northeast one zones from October to
December
wherever there is ample rain trees are
evergreen and have broad leaves with
sharp dipped tips to allow the water to
drain off on the other hand in deserts
leaves are spiny
to reduce water loss by evaporation and
stems are fleshy to store more water
ecosystem we just took a brief look at
how relief and climate play a
significant role in determining the
flora and fauna of an area let's now see
how ecosystems affect natural vegetation
and wildlife in an area what is an
ecosystem an ecosystem comprises all the
plants and animals in an area each of
these is dependent on the others for
survival and together form what's known
as an ecosystem thus it's critical for
the survival of an ecosystem that every
plant and animal have characteristics
that enable the ecosystem to thrive
change something or add something new
into the ecosystem and the ecosystem
changes for example if an ecosystem has
peacocks in it you must have snakes this
in turn means that the area must have
frogs because snakes eat frogs
needless to say where there are frogs
there must be wetland remove frogs from
the ecosystem and peacocks will move on
from the ecosystem or die out
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