Principles of Ecology

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Principles of Ecology

• Organisms and Their Environment

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What is Ecology?

• Scientific study of interactions among organisms
  and their environments
• Includes living and nonliving parts
• Uses all of the following areas of study
• Math
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Geology
• Biology

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Ecologists and their Research

• Ecologists use
• Descriptive Research (Qualitative)
• Observational data
• What something looks like, or what something is
  doing
• Mostly information collected in the field
• Quantitative Research
• Measurements
• Numbers
• Can run statistical analysis on data
• Dan create graphs and tables of data

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Biosphere

• The portion of the earth that supports life
• Bio life
• Sphere circle
• Extends from the upper layers of the atmosphere
  to the bottom of the ocean

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Biosphere

• If the earth were the size of an apple, the
  biosphere would be thinner than the apples peel
• The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen (78),
  oxygen (21), and traces (remaining 1) of carbon
  dioxide, argon, water vapor and other components.
  
• The hydrosphere is the accumulation of water in
  all its states (solid, liquid and gas) and the
  elements dissolved it in (sodium, magnesium,
  calcium, chloride and sulphate). 97 of the water
  forms the oceans, 2 is ice (north and south
  poles) and 1 forms rivers, lakes, ground water
  and atmospheric vapor. It covers around 71 of
  the earth's surface
• The lithosphere is the thin crust between the
  mantle and the atmosphere. Litho rock
• The ecosphere is the set of all living organisms,
  including animals and vegetation.

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The Nonliving Environment

• Nonliving Abiotic
• Air
• Currents
• Temperature
• Moisture
• Light
• Soil
• How do nonliving factors affect living organisms?
• Ex. Lack of rain drought ? decrease grasses
  vegetation
• decrease animals

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The Living Environment

• Living Biotic
• Plants
• Animals
• Fungi
• Monera
• Protista
• How are living things dependent on other living
  things and non living things?

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Levels of Organization
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Organism

• Single individual

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Population

• Group of organisms of same species that
  interbreed and live in the same place at the same
  time
• Compete for resources

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Community

• Many interacting populations
• Change in one population causes changes in the
  others

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Ecosystem

• Interacting populations and the abiotic factors
• Types Terrestrial
• Freshwater
• Saltwater

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Biosphere

• The portion of the earth that supports life

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Organisms in Ecosystems

• Habitat the place where an organism lives out
  its life
• Niche the role and position a species has in
  its environment
• How it meets its needs for food and shelter

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Living Relationships

• Symbiosis living together
• Sym- together
• -biosis living
• Commensalism relationship win which one species
  benefits and the other is neither harmed nor
  benefits
• Mutualism both species benefit
• Parasitism one organism benefits a the expense
  of the other

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Principles of Ecology

• Nutrition and Energy Flow

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How Organisms Obtain Energy

• Producers Autotroph
• Organisms that use energy from the sun or energy
  stored in chemical compounds to manufacture their
  own nutrients
• plants
• some unicellular organisms
• Consumers Heterotroph
• Organisms that feed on other organisms
• Can consume autotrophs or heterotrophs

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Types of Consumers

• Herbivore Heterotroph that feeds only on plants
• Carnivore Heterotroph that feeds only on
  animals
• Omnivore Heterotroph that feeds on both plants
  and animals
• Scavengers Eats animals that have already died,
  they dont kill their own food
• Decomposers Break down and absorb nutrients
  from dead organisms

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Matter and Energy Flow

• Matter and Energy flow through organisms in
  ecosystems
• One way in which energy and matter flow through
  an ecosystem is through the Food Chain

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Food Chain

• Shows how energy and matter move through and
  ecosystem

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Food Chains Cont.

• The direction of the arrow indicates direction of
  energy transfer.
• Most food chains have no more than 5 links due to
  the fact that energy is lost (as heat) at each
  step of the chain

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Food Web

• Shows all the possible feeding relationships in a
  community
• Food webs are more realistic than food chains
  because most organisms depend on more than one
  species for food

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Energy Pyramid

• Shows energy transfer as you move from one
  trophic level to the next

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Energy Pyramid Cont.
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Energy Pyramid/Ecological Pyramid

• Energy decreases at each succeeding trophic level
• Total energy transfer from one trophic level to
  the next is only about 10 because organisms fail
  to capture and eat all the food available at the
  trophic level below them
• When an organism consumes food, it uses some of
  the energy in the food for metabolism, some for
  building body tissues, and some is given off as
  waste.
• When an organism is eaten the energy that was
  used to build body tissue is available as energy
  to be used by the organism that comsumes it
• Energy lost at each level enters the environment
  as heat.

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Cycles in Nature

• Matter is constantly being recycled
• Natures cycles
• Water Cycle
• Carbon Cycle
• Nitrogen Cycle
• Phosphorus Cycle

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Water Cycle

• Life on Earth depends on water
• Evaporation liquid to vapor
• Condensation vapor to liquid
• Transpiration evaporation of water from
  plants
• Natural processes constantly recycle water
  throughout the environment.

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Water Cycle
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Carbon Cycle

• All life on earth is based on the carbon molecule
• Carbon forms the framework for proteins,
  carbohydrates, fats and nucleic acids
• Carbon is the molecule of life

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Carbon Cycle
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Carbon Cycle
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Nitrogen Cycle

• Plants use nitrogen to make important molecules
  like proteins
• We eat the plants and convert the plant nitrogen
  to animal proteins
• Urine (animal waste) contains excess nitrogen.
  When an animal urinates, nitrogen returns to the
  water or soil
• When organisms die, their nitrogen molecules
  return to the soil for plants to use
• Air is 78 nitrogen, however it is not usable for
  plants, it must be fixed
• Plants use nitrogen from the soil that has been
  converted into a more usable form or fixed
• Lightning and certain bacteria have the ability
  to fix the nitrogen in the air

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Nitrogen Cycle
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Phosphorus Cycle

• All organisms require phosphorus for growth and
  development
• Short Term Cycle
• Plants obtain phosphorus from the soil
• Animals get phosphorus by eating plants
• When animals die, they decompose and the
  phosphorus is returned to the soil
• Long Term Cycle
• Phosphates washed into the sea are incorporated
  into rock as insoluble compounds
• Millions of years later, as the environment
  changes, the rock containing phosphorus is
  exposed, is disintegrated and phosphorus again
  becomes partt of the short term cycle

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Phosphorus Cycle
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Phosphorus Cycle