This interactive Story Map is an offshoot of a long-time field laboratory exercise in Foundations of Plant Biology, BPSC 104, offered by the UCR Botany & Plant Sciences Department. In this class students learn about plant ecology using the UCR Botanic Gardens as their outdoor laboratory. Ecology is the study of the interactions between organisms and their environment. Environment is the summation of the biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) factors that surround and potentially influence an organism. Biotic factors are organisms, including everything from single celled bacteria, viruses and fungi to plants and animals. Abiotic factors include physical and chemical aspects such as climate (temperature, light, water, wind) and soil factors, which influence plant growth and distribution, as well as disturbance imposed by humans. In this interactive tour through the Botanic Gardens you will see a number of different recreated ecosystems including desert, temperate forest, and Mediterranean shrubland, and you will be guided to identify a diversity of ecological adaptations that plants have evolved to cope with their environments: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5bf2fafff85d4ae3beeda2e2e3ba18d5