Ecology

1
Ecology

• Lab 18

2
What Is Ecology?

• Ecology is the study of how organisms interact
  with each other and with their environment.
• Ecology also includes the study of the
  distribution and abundance of organisms ecology
  can be studied at progressively more encompassing
  levels of organization.

3
Levels of ecological organization

• 1. Populations individuals of the same
  organism that live together are members of a
  population.
• 2. Species a species consists of all the
  populations of a particular organism.
• 3. Communities populations of different
  species that live together in the same place
  constitute a community.
• 4. Ecosystems a community and the nonliving
  factors with which it interacts is called an
  ecosystem.
• 5. Biomes major terrestrial assemblages of
  plants, animals, and microorganisms that occur
  over wide geographic areas and have distinctive
  physical characteristics are called biomes.
• 6. Biosphere - all the worlds biomes, along with
  its marine and freshwater assemblages, together
  constitute an interactive system called the
  biosphere.

4
Barn Owls Tyto alba

• Barn owls feed on small mammals, birds, insects
  or other small animals.
• Prey is swallowed whole no teeth.

5
Owl Pellets

• Owls cant digest bones, feathers, fur other
  hard parts of their prey.
• Instead, a pellet is produced with hard parts
  inside fur/feathers outside.
• Expelled orally

6
What can we learn?

• What are the owls in a population eating?
• Specialist?
• Generalist?
• Most common prey in area?
• Info helpful for conservation.

7
Food Webs

• Food webs show the flow of energy from organisms
  at lower feeding (trophic) levels to those at
  higher levels.
• Primary producer
• Primary consumer (herbivore)
• Secondary consumer (carnivore)
• Tertiary consumer