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Ecology
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The term ecosystem arose from this dialogue. It was first used by
Arthur Tansely and 1935, in a paper he published in the journal
Ecology. Tansley himself brought a systems perspective. The
underpinnings of the ecosystem have now become established.
However, the introduction of the term was theoretical, lacking
guidance as to how it might be useful as a field of study. A clear
application of the ecosystem concept was Lindeman’s study of Cedar
Bog Lake in Wisconsin. In addition to constructing the food cycle of
the aquatic system, Lindeman developed a metric, which is now called
the Lindeman efficiency. This metric was used to assess the efficiency
of energy movement from one trophic level to the next based on the
ecological feeding relations.
Defining an Ecosystem
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Patten proposed that there are two environments. One is external and
mostly unknowable (other than the input-output interactions) and the
second is internal and measurable (i.e. external to the specific
organismal component within system boundary).
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the existing structure, net production is zero and the system has
reached a steady state regarding the growth of biomass. However, the
ecosystem continues to grow in terms of information capacity and
network organization. In addition to being in a dynamic steady state, it
does not persist indefinitely because disturbances occur which sets the
system to a previous successive state. In this manner, the disturbances
allow the ecosystem to develop along a different path.
Biogeochemical Cycles
Understanding how chemical elements are necessary for life is another
major focus of ecosystem ecology. The biosphere actively interacts
with the three abiotic spheres (hydrosphere, atmosphere, and
lithosphere) to provide the available concentration of each chemical
element for life. This interaction has a significant impact on the
relative distribution of these elements. The products of photosynthesis,
which are simple sugars, are the bases for organic matter. Thus,
oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon dominate the composition of life.
Oxygen is available in the lithosphere and hydrogen in the
hydrosphere. However, carbon is quite scarce in the environment. A
hallmark of life is the disproportionate amount of carbon in the
biomass. There are about 20 elements used regularly in living
organisms, of which 9 are called macronutrients and are major
components of organic matter (hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen,
calcium, potassium, silicon, magnesium, and phosphorous). Some of
these elements are easily available from the abiotic environment, in
which case conserving them through cycling is not important.
However, those that are scarce, such as phosphorous and nitrogen,
must be used many times before they are released from the system.
These biogeochemical cycles provide the foundation to understand
how human modification leads to eutriphica (N and P cycles) and
global climate change (C cycles). Therefore, much effort has been
made to study and understand these cycles, especially that of carbon,
nitrogen, and phosphorous.
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-All three of these growth and development forms imply that the
system is moving away from thermodynamic equilibrium and all
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-The eco exergy storage and energy flow increase during all three
growth and development forms. When an ecosystem evolves, it can
apply all three forms in a continuous Darwinian selection process.
The nested space-time differentiation in organisms optimizes the
thermodynamic efficiency as expressed in this law, because it
allows the organism to simultaneously exploit equilibrium and non-
equilibrium energy transfer with minimum dissipation.
Population Coherence
In evolutionary biology, cost and benefit are measured in terms of
fitness. While mutation and natural selection represent the main forces
of evolutionary dynamics, cooperation is a fundamental principle that
is required for every level of biological organization. For instance,
individual cells rely on cooperation among their components.
Multicellular organisms exist because their cells exhibit cooperation.
Social insects, such as bees, are masters of cooperation. Whenever
evolution constructs something new, such as human language or
multicellularity, cooperation is needed. Thus, evolutionary
construction is based on cooperation. There are five rules for
cooperation.
1. Kin Selection
2. Direct Reciprocity
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3. Indirect reciprocity
4. Graph selection
5. Group Selection
Predator-Prey Interactions
A widespread population process, predation has evolved many times.
It can affect the distribution, abundance, and dynamics of species in
ecoystems. Predator-prey interactions have an inherent tendency to
fluctuate and show oscillary behavior. If predators are initially rare,
then the size of the prey population can increase. As prey population
increases, the predator population also begins to increase, which in
turn leads to a decrease in prey populations. As prey becomes scarce,
they the numbers of predators also decreases, and the cycle stars again.
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Intraspecific Competition
Individuals of the same species have very similar requirements for
their survival, growth, and reproduction. However, their combined
demand for resources may exceed the available supply. The
individuals then compete for the resource. Thus, some individuals
become deprived of resources.
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Species Interactions
Individuals from different species can compete with each other. There
are two general points when considering interspecies competition.
First, careful, separate, ecological attention must be paid to both the
ecological and the evolutionary effects of interspecific competition.
The ecological effects are, broadly, that species may be eliminated
from a habitat by competition from individuals of other species. Or, if
competing species coexist, that at least one individual from the species
undergoes deprivation. The evolutionary effects appear to be that
species differ more from one another that they would otherwise do.
Thus, they compete less.
The second point is that there are important and profound difficulties
in invoking competition as an explanation for observed patterns, and
especially invoking it as an evolutionary explanation.
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individuals from other species more than they ate their own species.
Thus, a crucial mechanism for the interaction of these competing
species is reciprocal predation, and each species was more affected by
interspecific competition rather than intraspecific competition. Mutual
antagonism is strongest when the number of one species is greater than
the other.
There are two main ways through which predators can be classified.
Neither one of these ways is perfect, but they are useful. The most
obvious classification is taxonomic. That is, carnivores consume
animals, herbivores consume plants and omnivores consume both.
True predators kill their prey immediately after attacking them. During
the lifetime of the true predator, it consumes several of many different
prey organisms, often consuming the prey in its entirety. The most
obvious true predators are lions, tigers, etc. However, rodents, ants,
and even plankton-consuming whales are also true predators.
Grazers, on the other hand, attack a large number of prey during their
lifetime. However, they do not consume their prey in its entirety, but
only parts of it. Their effect on the prey organism is rarely lethal in the
short-term, although it is typically harmful. The most obvious grazers
are sheep, cattle, and cows. However, flies that bite vertebrate prey,
and leeches that suck their blood, are also grazers. Thus, grazers are
not limited to herbivores.
Parasites, like grazers, consume parts of their prey. Like grazers, they
are harmful, but they are not lethal in the short-term. Unlike grazers,
however, parasites only attack one or very few individuals during their
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The most substantial and direct effect of human activities that alter
ecosystems is the conversion of land for production of food, fiber, and
other goods used by humans. About 50% of the ice-free land on earth
has been altered by human activities. Agricultural fields and urban
areas cover 10-15% of land areas, whereas pastures cover 6-8% of the
land. Even more land is used for grazing and forestry. All portions of
the earth, except the most extreme environments, can experience
human impact.
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Land use change causes a loss of habitat. It is the primary driving force
for the extinction of species and the loss of biological diversity. There
is also a time lag between ecosystem changes and species loss, which
makes it likely that species will continue to be driven to extinction
even when land use change have stabilized. Homogeneity of the
earth’s biota is also being caused by the transport of species around the
world. The frequency of these invasions is increasing, in large part due
to the globalization of the world’s economy. International commerce
breaks down biogeographic barriers, through both purposeful trade of
live organisms and inadvertent introductions. The former selects
species which are more likely to grow and reproduce in the new
environment. Many of these biological invasions are irreversible
because it is too expensive and difficult to remove species that have
invaded. Some of these species incur large economic losses or cause
damages to human health. Others alter to balance of ecosystems,
leading to further losses of species.
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Glossary
Autecology: the study of organisms or a particular species
Nutrient Cycling
Ecosystem Ecology
References
Gotelli, N. J. (1995). A primer of
ecology. Sinauer Associates
Incorporated.
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