Ecology
on the interactions between species within
Ecology is the scientific study of the Interactions
between organisms and
their environment.
 It is the science that seeks to describe and
explain the relationship between living
organisms and their environment
Factors of Ecology
There is two factors that Ecology study:
 The Abiotic Factors (non-living
components) are those inert factors of the
ecosystem, as the light, the temperature,
the chemical products, the water and the
atmosphere.
 Biotic Factors (living organisms) are all the
living beings in an environment.
Ecology is study of interactions between
non-living components in the environment…
 light
 water
 wind
 nutrients in soil
 heat
 solar radiation
 atmosphere, etc.
Living organisms…
 Plants
 Animals
 microorganisms in soil, etc.
Ernst Haeckel, a German zoologist coined
the term Ecology in 1866.
Danish botanist, Eugenius Warming
elaborate the idea of Ecology.
Classification of Ecology
Ecology is a broad discipline comprising
many sub-disciplines. Under this system the
subjects studies:
 Ecophysiology examines how the
physiological functions of organisms
influence the way they interact with the
environment, both biotic and abiotic.
 Behavioral ecology examines the roles of
behavior in enabling an animal to adapt to
its environment.
 Population ecology studies the dynamics of
populations of a single species.
 Community ecology (or synecology) focuses
an ecological community.
 Ecosystem ecology studies the flows of
energy and matter through the biotic and
abiotic components of ecosystems.
 Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field
focusing on the study, development, and
organization of ecological systems from a
holistic perspective
 Landscape ecology examines processes and
relationship in a spatially explicit manner,
often across multiple ecosystems or very
large geographic areas.
 Evolutionary ecology studies ecology in a
way that explicitly considers the
evolutionary histories of species and their
interactions.
 Political ecology connects politics and
economy to problems of environmental
control and ecological change.
“Levels” of Ecology
 Biosphere
 Community
 Ecosystem
 Landscape
 Population
 Individual
Biosphere
 Surface of the earth
 It is the whole portion of Earth colonized by
living beings.
Region
 Group of ecosystems with the same climate
and dominant communities.
 Eg: Tropical Forest, Desert, Coniferous
forest , Tundra
Landscape
 a group of ecosystems that may or may not
interact in a given region.
Ecosystem
 A group of communities and the
populations within them embedded in a
common physical environment and tied
together by physical processes.
 It refers to all the abiotic factors (physical
and chemical constituents) and all the
 communities that established in a specific
area.
 It is a collection of organisms that live in a
place with the nonliving environment.
Community
 A group of populations of different species
occurring in one place; individuals of
different species may interact with each
other
 And all the living beings distributed into a
specific geographical area. A community
includes organisms of different species.
Population
 A group of individuals of a given species
that live in a specific geographic area.
 A group of organisms, all of the same
species, which interbreed and live in the
same area.
 A group of individuals that collectively.
interact to give birth to new individuals and
eventually die.
Individual
 Group of similar organisms that can breed
and produce fertile offspring
Ecosystem
 Ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant,
animal and micro-organism communities
and their non-living environment,
interacting as a functional unit.
 Every element of the environment have
their own ecosystem.
 A dynamic ecosystem makes the
balance of nature.
Eg: Grassland, Forest, Aquarium, Pond, Lake, River
and Ocean.
o Terrestrial ecosystems are exclusively land-
based ecosystems. There are different types
of terrestrial ecosystems distributed around
various geological zones. They are as
follows:
• Forest ecosystems
• Grassland ecosystems
• Tundra ecosystems
• Desert ecosystems
Factors affecting terrestrial ecosystem
 Temperature
 Rain fall
o Aquatic ecosystems are ecosystems
present in a body of water. They can be
further divided into two:
• Freshwater ecosystem:
lakes,ponds,rivers
• Marine ecosystems: sea, ocean
Factors affecting Aquatic ecosystem
 Salinity
 Depth
 Water flow
Ecotone: The zone of transition along the edges
of two adjacent ecological communities.
Edge effect: An “edge” is the boundary or
interface between two biological communities or
between different landscape elements.
- refer to the changes in population or community
structure is that occur at the boundary of two
habitats.
As the edge effects increase, the boundary habitat
allows for greater biodiversity.
Ecological Succesion : the process by which
the structure of a biological community evolves
over time.
Primary Succession - community changes which
occur on an entirely new habitat which has never
been colonized before.
Secondary Succession -community changes which
take place on a previously colonized, but disturbed
or damaged habitat.
Ecological Niche : In ecology, a niche is the role or
job of a species in a habitat. It describes how a
species interacts with, and lives in, its habitat.
Ecological niches have specific characteristics, such
as availability of nutrients, temperature, terrain,
sunlight and predators, which dictate how, and
how well, a species survives and reproduces.
Structure of ecosystem
Biotic components
From nutrition point of view, the biotic
components of ecosystem can be grouped into
three categories:
Function of ecosystem
The components of the ecosystem are seen to
function as a unit when we consider the following
aspects:
Productivity : The rate of biomass production is
called productivity.
Decomposition: The breakdown of complex
organic matter into inorganic substances like
carbon dioxide, water and nutrients and the
process is called decomposition.
Energy flow: The flow of energy is one way
direction from producer to consumers, and ends in
decomposition process.
o However, a part of the energy is lost as heat
and agrees with the phenomenon of second
law of Thermodynamics.
Detritus Food Chain: Detritus is non-living
particulate organic material includes the bodies or
fragments of dead organisms as well as fecal
material.
 Decomposers are heterotrophic organisms also
called saprotrophs. Eg. Fungi and Bacteria.
Food web
o A food webdepicts various feeding
connections in an ecological community.
The trophic level is the position of an organism it Pyramid of numbers: The pyramid of biomass in
occupies in the community or a food chain. sea is also generally inverted because the biomass
of fishes far exceeds that of phytoplankton.

Energy flow in different Trophic Levels

Pyramid of biomass: The pyramid of biomass in

sea is also generally inverted because the biomass
of fishes far exceeds that of phytoplankton.

An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation

of trophic levels in a given ecosystem.

Pyramid of energy : Pyramid of energy is always

upright. It can never be inverted.
 Systems ecology focuses on interactions
and transactions within and between
biological and ecological systems, and is
especially concerned with the way the
functioning of ecosystems can be
influenced by human interventions. It uses
and extends concepts
from thermodynamics and develops other
macroscopic descriptions of complex
systems.

Nutrient cycling
o Nutrient – a substance (element or
compound) that promotes growth and health in
living things.
o Plants and animals absorb nutrients from
gas or soluble salts

Ecological system theory

URIE BRONFENBRENNER Urie Bronfenbrenner (29
April 1917 – 25 September 2005) was an American
developmental psychologist—but born in the
Soviet Union—who is most known for his ecological
systems theory of child development.
Bronfenbrenner's research and his theory was key
in changing the perspective of developmental
psychology by calling attention to the large number
of environmental and societal influences on child
development.
Ecological Process Ecological systems theory, also called development
in context or human ecology theory, identifies five
1. Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field environmental systems with which an individual
of ecology, a subset of Earth system
interacts.
science, that takes a holistic approach to
the study of ecological systems,  Microsystem
especially ecosystems.[1][2][3] Systems ecology  Mesosystem
can be seen as an application of general  Exosystem
systems theory to ecology. Central to the  Macrosystem
systems ecology approach is the idea that  Chronosystem
an ecosystem is a complex
1. Microsystem Refers to the institutions and
system exhibiting emergent properties.
groups that most immediately and directly
 impact the child's development including:
family, school, religious institutions,
neighborhood, and peers.
2. Mesosystem Interconnections between the
microsystems, interactions between the
family and teachers, relationship between
the child’s peers and the family.
3. .Exosystem Involves links between a social
setting in which the individual does not
have an active role and the individual's
immediate context.
4. Macrosystem Describes the culture in
which individuals live.
5. hronosystem The patterning of
environmental events and transitions over
the life course, as well as sociohistorical
circumstances.
ecosystem services
A wide range of conditions and processes through
which natural ecosystems and the species that are
part of them, help sustain and fulfill human system.
Examples: Such ecosystems include, for example,
agro ecosystems, forest ecosystems, grassland
ecosystems and aquatic ecosystems.
Collectively, these benefits are becoming known as
'ecosystem services', and are often integral to the
provisioning of clean drinking water, the
decomposition of wastes, and the natural
pollination of crops and other plants.
Provisioning services are the products obtained
from ecosystems such as food, fresh water, wood,
fiber, genetic resources and medicines. There,
ecosystem services are grouped into four broad
categories:
 Provisioning, such as the production of food and
water.
 Regulating, such as the control of climate and
disease.
 Supporting, such as nutrient cycles and oxygen
production.
 Cultural, such as spiritual and recreational
benefits.
Supporting services . These include services such as
nutrient recycling, primary production, soil
formation, habitat provision and pollination. [16]
These services make it possible for the ecosystems
to continue providing services such as food supply,
flood regulation, and water purification.
Provisioning services.
• Food (including seafood and game), crops, wild
foods, and spices
• Raw materials (including lumber, skins, fuel
wood, organic matter, fodder, and fertilizer)
• Genetic resources (including crop improvement
genes, and health care)
• Water
• Biogenic minerals
• Medicinal resources (including pharmaceuticals,
chemical models, and test and assay organisms)
• Energy (hydropower, biomass fuels)
• ornamental resources (including fashion,
handicraft, jewelry, pets, worship, decoration and
souvenirs like furs, feathers, ivory, orchids,
butterflies, aquarium fish, shells, etc.)
Population Dynamics
A group of organisms of the same species that
occupy an area
 One of the characteristics of living things is the
ability to reproduce.
 If environmental conditions are “favorable” then
the number of individuals in population should
increase from one generation to the next.
Characteristics of Population
 Geographic Distribution
 Density
 Growth Rate
Factors Effecting Population Size
 Births-
 individuals born each year
 Deaths- that die each year
 individuals Immigration –
 Movement of individuals INTO a population
 Emigration-
 Movement of individuals OUT of a population
Population Size-Growth Rate
 Birth rate- # individuals born
 Death rate- # individuals die
 Immigration- # of individuals move in
 Emigration- # of individuals move out IF:
BR + I = DR + E Equilibrium
BR + I > DR + E Increasing
BR + I < DR + E Decreasing
Factors Effect Growth Rate Size of Population
 “limiting factors” stop population from
reaching biotic potential. (keeping the
population in check)
 The number of individuals in a population
for a certain area is called population
density.