AN INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGY AND THE BIOSPHERE

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AN INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGY AND THE BIOSPHERE
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Ecology

• What is ecology?
• Study of interactions between organisms and their
  environment.
• The environment includes both biotic and abiotic
  factors.
• Biotic living, abiotic non-living
• Ecology therefore will incorporate biotic and
  abiotic interactions

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Four Levels of Inquiry1. Organismal Ecology

• Ways the individual meets challenges posed by the
  environment.
• What is this area of ecology concerned with?
• Behavioral, morphological and physiological
  developments in the organisms that allow them to
  interact with their environment.

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2. Population Ecology

• What is a population?
• Group of individuals of the same species living
  in the same area.
• What is this area of ecology concerned with?
• Factors that affect population size and
  composition.

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3. Community Ecology

• What is a community?
• All of the organisms that occupy a particular
  area.
• What is this area of ecology concerned with?
• Involves predator/prey relationships, competition
  and disease.

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4. Ecosystem Ecology

• What is an ecosystem?
• Includes all of the biotic and abiotic factors
  plus the community that exists in a specific
  area.
• What is this area of ecology concerned with?
• Energy flow, chemical cycling, primary
  productivity.

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Abiotic factors of the biosphere

• Biosphere - global ecosystem
• temperature
• water
• sunlight
• wind
• rocks and soil
• periodic disturbances (e.g. tornadoes,
  hurricanes)

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Seasonal effects on climateFor example turnover
in a lake
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Biomes

• What is a biome?
• A major community that is classified by the
  predominant vegetation and characterized by the
  adaptations of organisms that live there.

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Aquatic Biomes

• Vertical stratification is important in aquatic
  biomes
• Zonation in a Lake

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Lake classification

• What is an oligotrophic lake?
• Deep water and nutrient poor, water is very
  clear.
• What is a eutrophic lake?
• Shallower water, nutrient rich, murky water.

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Wetlands

• What are wetlands?
• Area covered with water that supports aquatic
  plants.
• Very rich biome with diverse birds,
  invertebrates, mammals, etc.

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Estuary

• What is an estuary?
• The area where freshwater merges with salt water.
• River nutrients enrich the estuary.
• Salinity varies throughout the estuary.
• Important source of oysters, crabs and fish.

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Marine Community

• Zonation in a marine environment

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Intertidal Zone

• Rocky Shores
• What challenges are faced by organisms that live
  here?
• Rough waves pounding the rocks
• Salinity changes
• Hard rocky substrate

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Coral Reef

• Where are the producers in this community?
• Symbiotic algae live in the coral, and are
  producers for this community.
• Waves bring constant supply of nutrients
• Water is shallow enough to allow for light
  penetration, and photosynthesis.

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Oceanic Pelagic Biome

• Temperate oceans have seasonal turnover of
  nutrients like in lakes
• Some tropical areas have stratification and no
  turnover of nutrients.
• Photic zones have phytoplankton as producers.
• Large animals move up to photoic zone to feed.

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Benthos

• Ocean bottom of neritic and pelagic zones
• Neritic benthic communities are very productive
• Deep benthic communities - abyssal zone - are
  adapted to cold water, no light, and low nutrient
  levels.
• Deep sea vents found here, producers are
  chemoautotrophs not photoautotrophs.

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Terrestrial biomes
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Review the characteristics of the different
biomes and identify which biome is seen in the
following slides...
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Desert biome
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Benthos
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Deciduous Forest
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Grasslands
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Tundra
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Desert
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Deciduous forest
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Tundra
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Coniferous forest
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Temperate grassland
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Savanah
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Tropical rain forest
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Chaparral
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Taiga/Tundra
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Wetlands
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Where would this creature live? What adaptations
does it have for life here?
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Where would these animals be found?
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Where would these short flowers be found?
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Regulators/Conformers

• Cost benefit analysis of homeostasis
• What is a regulator?
• Organisms that can survive fluctuations in the
  environment through physiological regulations
• What is a conformer?
• Organisms that conform to their environment.

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Principle of Allocation

• What is the principle of allocation?
• Organisms have limited supply of energy that they
  can allocate to living.
• The way they spend their energy will affect
  what sort of organism they are.

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Responses to Envoronmental Variations

• Physiological responses
• regulation and homeostasis are physiological
  responses
• acclimation shifts an organisms tolerance to the
  environmental change
• For example people who attempt to climb Everest
  must acclimate to the higher altitude.

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Morphological Responses

• Responses that change the form or anatomy of the
  organism.
• Mammals grow heavier coats n the cold months
• plants are more morphologically plastic than
  animals.

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Behavioral Responses

• Instantaneous response that can be easily
  reversed.
• Moving away from unfavorable environment.

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Concept Check

• What is the difference between biotic and abiotic
  factors?
• What characterizes the following biomes?
• Desert
• Tropical rain forest
• Tundra
• Coral reef
• Estuary
• What are the differences between oligotrophic and
  eutrophic lakes?
• What is the difference between a regulator and a
  conformer?