Principles of Ecology

1
Principles of Ecology

• Chapter 2

2
Ecology

• The study of interactions among organisms and
  between organisms and their environment.

3
The Biosphere

• The portion of the planet in which life exists
• Land
• Water
• Air
• 8 km above Earths surface
• 11 km below the surface of the ocean

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Living vs. Nonliving

• Abiotic Factors nonliving factors
• Examples?
• Biotic Factors living factors
• Examples?
• Ecology studies the interaction of biotic and
  abiotic.

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Levels of Organization

• Species group of organisms that interbreed to
  produce fertile offspring

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Levels of Organization

• Population group of individuals that belong to
  the same species and live in the same area
• Example the alligator population of Greenfield
  Lake

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Levels of Organization

• Communities groups of populations that live
  together in a defined area
• Example the Cape Fear River community

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Levels of Organization

• Ecosystem
• Organisms and nonliving environment they inhabit

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Levels of Organization

• Biome group of ecosystems with the same climate
  and similar communities.

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• Niche Organisms occupation (where it lives,
  its place in the food web etc.)

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Ecological Methods

• Observing
• Experimenting
• Modeling

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Community Interactions

1. Competition compete over resources
2. predation one organism feeds on another
3. Symbiosis any relationship where 2 animals live
   closely together

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Types of Symbiosis

• Mutualism both species benefit
• Ex. Flowers insects
• Commensalism one member benefits and the other
  is neither helped nor harmed
• ex. Barnacles
• 3. Parasitism one organism lives on or in
  another and harms it.
• ex. tapeworms

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• Where does the energy from your favorite foods
  ultimately come from?

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Energy Flow

• Producers (autotrophs) harness sunlight to
  produce food

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Energy Flow

• Chemoautotrophs use energy from chemical
  compounds (in hydrothermal vents) to produce food

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• Consumers (heterotrophs)
• Herbivores eat plants

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• Heterotrophs (continued)
• Carnivores eat meat
• Omnivores eat both plants and animals
• Detritivores (Decomposers) eat dead remains
  (detritus)

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Energy Flow

• Food Chain
• Series of steps in which organisms transfer
  energy by eating and being eaten

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Energy Flow

• Food Web
• The depiction of a network of feeding
  relationships

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Energy Flow

• Trophic Levels Each step in a food chain
• Producers make up the bottom level
• Consumers make up the upper levels
• Each level depends on the level below it

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Energy Levels

• Energy Pyramids amount of energy contained in
  each trophic level
• 10 of the energy in one trophic level is
  transferred to the one above.

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Energy Flow

• Biomass Pyramid amount of potential food
  available for each trophic level
• Biomass amount of living tissue
• Pyramid of Numbers based on the numbers of
  individual organisms

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Cycles of Matter

• The water cycle
• All living things require water to survive
• Precipitation, transpiration, evaporation etc

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Cycles of Matter

• The Carbon Cycle
• Carbon is the key ingredient of living tissue
• Respiration, photosynthesis, feeding, erosion etc.

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Cycles of Matter

• The Nitrogen Cycle
• Necessary for amino acids
• Nitrogen fixing bacteria on roots fix
  atmospheric nitrogen to be used by plants.
• Consumers get nitrogen by eating producers

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Limiting Nutrient

• When an ecosystem is limited by a single nutrient
  controls the number of producers
• Fertilizers