CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Ecology

Definition of Terms:

Ecology - The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one
another and to their physical surroundings.
Homeostasis - The tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent
elements.
Food Chain - A hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of
food.
Food Web - A system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.

Objectives:
 To know the history, historical backgrounds and its branches
 To understand the ecological hierarchy and the basic concepts of ecology

Methods in Ecology

Ecology is more holistic, or all-encompassing, than some other fields of biology. Ecologists study
both biotic and abiotic factors and how they interact. Therefore, ecologists often use methods and data
from other areas of science such as geology, geography, climatology, chemistry, and physics. In addition,

researchers in ecology are more likely than researchers in some other sciences are to use field studies to
collect data.

Homeostasis of the Ecosystem

Ecosystems are huge and complex. They contain networks of animal, from the largest mammals
to the smallest insects, along with plants, fungi, and various microorganisms. All of these life forms
interact and affect one another. An ecosystem maintains a biological equilibrium between the different
components is referred to as a homeostasis. It is also known as a biological equilibrium. This is also
referred as a balance of nature. An ecosystem maintains a biological equilibrium between the different
components and is referred as a homeostasis. It keeps on changing with the time and is not static. The
balance is maintained by the number of factors. These include the carrying capacity of the environment
and the capacity for recycling of the waste. The effect of density on the reproductive potential deals
with the self-regulation. The one component of ecosystem keeps a check on the population of the other
component and this system is referred as a feedback system. The feedback systems are of different
types. They can be positive or negative. The increase in the population of the organisms at the different
levels increases the population of organisms at a lower level and is known as the positive feedback. For
example, when the population of plants increases it leads to increase in the population of herbivore
animals. It increases the population of frogs and birds. Similarly, the increased population of
insectivorous animals acts on the herbivorous insect by the process of predation. This is known as the
negative feedback.

Energy Flow

Energy is the ability to do work. Main source of the energy in aquatic ecosystem is the radiant
energy or light energy derived from the sun. The transfer of energy from one trophic level to another is
called energy flow. This flow of energy is always unidirectional and never returns back, like nutrients,
which cycles in the ecosystem. So energy can be utilized once in the ecosystem and otherwise it will go
as waste heat. Through these series of steps of eating and being eaten, energy flows from one trophic
level to another. Energy flow and energy transformation in an ecosystem obeys the law of
thermodynamics.

First Law of Thermodynamics

States that energy may be transformed from one type into another but is never created or
destroyed. Light, for example is a form of energy, for it can be transformed to work, heat, or potential
energy of food, depending on the situation, but none of it is destroyed. For example, light energy passes
to heat energy of the land to kinetic energy of moving air which accomplishes work of raising water. The
energy is not destroyed by lifting of the water, but becomes potential energy.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

It states that during energy transfer, large part of energy is degraded into heat and
dissipates. When energy is transferred from producers to herbivores about 90% of energy is lost as
heat. The change of energy from one form to another the free energy diminishes and thus it obeys
the second law of thermodynamics.

Concept of Productivity

The basic or primary productivity of an ecological system, community, or any part thereof, is
defined as the rate at which radiant energy is stored by photosynthetic and chemosynthetic activity of
producer organisms (chiefly green plants) in the form of organic substances which can be used as food
materials. It is important to distinguish between the four successive steps in the production process as
follows:

Gross Primary Productivity

It is the total rate of photosynthesis, including organic matter used up in respiration during
the measurement period. This is also known as “total photosynthesis” or “total assimilation”.
 Net Primary Productivity

It is the rate of storage or organic matter in plant tissues in excess of the respiratory utilization
by the plants during the period of measurement. This is also called “apparent photosynthesis” or “net
assimilation”. In practice, the amount of respiration is usually added to measurements of “apparent
photosynthesis” as a correction in order to obtain estimates of gross production.

Net Community Productivity

It is the rate of storage of organic matter not used by heterotrophs (that is, net primary
production minus heterotrophic consumption) during the period under consideration, usually the
growing season or a year.

Secondary Productivity

It is the rates of energy storage at consumer levels. Since consumers only utilize food
materials already produced with appropriate respiratory losses, and convert to different tissues by
one overall process, secondary productivity should not be divided into “gross” and “net” amounts.
The total energy flow at heterotrophic levels which is analogous to gross production of autotrophs
should be designated as “assimilation” and “not production”.

Food Chain & Food Web

Without energy, there would be nothing. Without energy, nothing could walk, fly, swim, bark,
grow, and move. It becomes obvious then why the study of energy is important in the study of ecology.
One way by which organisms relate to their environment is through their need for energy. The energy
from the sun is the ultimate factor that enables an ecosystem to function. Through green plants, solar
energy is converted into chemical energy in the process of photosynthesis.

Energy is needed by all organisms for growth, for maintenance and repair, and for life.
Organisms
obtain energy in two ways: by producing their own food (autotrophy) or by eating other organisms
(heterotrophy). Plants and certain protists and bacteria are the only organisms that can manufacture
their own food. Known as producers, these organisms trap the energy from the sun and convert it to
compounds which they need in order to grow.

Animals, fungi, and many other organisms obtain their energy needs by eating plants and other
animals. Called consumers, they are classified as herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores, depending on
what they eat. This classification determines their places in the trophic or feeding levels.

Food Chain

Feeding levels constitute a food chain. Food chain refers to the transfer of food energy from
the source in plants through a series of organisms with repeated eating and being eaten. At the each
transfer a large proportion, 80 to 90 per cent of the potential energy is lost as heat. Therefore, the
number of steps or links in a sequence is limited, usually to four or five. The shorter the food chain
(or the nearer the organism to the base of the chain) is the greater the available energy. Food chain
is isolated sequences but is interconnected with one another. There are four types of food chains.

1. Grazing food chain - starting from a green plant base, goes to grazing herbivores
(i.e. organisms eating living plants) and on to carnivores (i.e. animal eaters).
 2. Predator food chain - one animal captures and devours another animal. The animal
which kills other animals for food is called a predator. Animals that are caught and eaten
by a predator are called prey. Predators that only eat the meat of prey are carnivores.
This act of hunting is called predation.

3. Detritus food chain- goes from dead organic matter into microorganisms and then to
detritus-feeding organisms (detritivores and their predators)
4. Parasitic food chain- plants and animals of the grazing food chain are affected by
parasites. Parasites derive their energy from their hosts. The parasitic chain is formed
with
in the grazing food chain.

Food Web

You have learned from the study of food chain that energy is transferred in a single series of
organisms. But the transfer of energy is not simple as this. It is more realistic that a plant is eaten by
many herbivores which in turn may be eaten by several consumers. This transfer of energy involving
several pathways is called a food web. Food web is an important ecological concept. Basically, food
web represents feeding relationships within a community. It also implies the transfer of food energy
from its source in plants through herbivores to carnivores. Normally, food webs consist of a number
of food chains meshed together. Each food chain is a descriptive diagram including a series of
arrows, each pointing from one species to another, representing the flow of food energy from one
feeding group of organisms to another.

Trophic Structure & Ecological Pyramids

The Trophic Structure

It is an arrangement of autotrophs and succeeding such of heterotrophs in which each

successive consumer level is called a trophic level. It is also called as feeding levels.

Trophic levels are:

 Autotrophs (producers synthesis their own food by themselves)

  Herbivores (consumers of only plants)
 Carnivores (consumers of only animals)
 Omnivores (consumers of both plants and animals)
 Decomposers (decomposers of dead and decaying matters)

Each step of the food chain is called as trophic level. Each food chain contains many trophic
levels.

 Autotrophs (Trophic level 1)

 Herbivores (Trophic level 2)
 Carnivores (Trophic level 3)
 Omnivores (Trophic level 4)
 Decomposers (Trophic level 5)

The Ecological Pyramid

The ecological pyramid (trophic pyramid) is the graphical representation of the trophic structure
such as number, biomass and energy of an ecosystem. The use of ecological pyramid was first proposed
by Charles Sutherland Elton (1927) and hence these ecological pyramids are called Eltonian pyramid.

Ecological pyramids begin with producers on the bottom and proceed through the various
trophic levels, the highest of which is on top. There are three types of ecological pyramids viz. pyramid
of numbers, pyramid of biomass and pyramid of energy.

Pyramid of Number (No/m2/day)

A pyramid of numbers shows the number of organisms at each trophic (relating to nutrition)
level. In pyramids of numbers, the numbers of individuals at the trophic level decreases from the
producer level to the consumer level. In an ecosystem, the number of producers is far high and the
number of consumers in the subsequent trophic levels is lesser than that of the producers.

Example: In a pond, the number decreases in the following order

Phytoplankton → Zooplankton → Small fishes → large predatory fishes

Pyramid of Biomass (g/m2/day)

Biomass refers to the total weight of living organisms in a unit area. An ecological
pyramid of biomass shows the relationship between biomass and trophic level by quantifying the
amount of biomass present at each trophic level. In the pyramid of biomass, there will be a clear cut
decrease in the biomass from the lower to the higher trophic levels. Generally, the pyramid of biomass is
an upright one (the apex is pointed upwards) in all terrestrial ecosystems. In certain ecosystems like
pond ecosystem, the pyramid of biomass is an inverted type of pyramid (apex is pointed downwards). In
this type of ecosystem which contain less amount of biomass of producers and more amount of biomass
of consumers
(fishes).

Example: An Ocean Food Pyramid: It takes about 2500 pounds (1136 kg) of phytoplankton to
support 0.5 pound (0.227 kg) of tuna. The decrease from 2500 to 500 is 80%. The other trophic levels in
this pyramid are decreased by 90%. It is an upright pyramid of biomass.

Pyramid of Energy (Calories)

At each trophic level in the food chain, energy that was originally stored by the autotrophic
plants is dissipated along the food chain. When the trophic links or levels in the food chain are more, the
dissipated or unusable energy loss will also be more. There is generally a 90% loss at each level of the
food chain, creating a pyramid shaped diagram that is wider at the bottom and the narrow at the top.

Example: In a pond, maximum energy is stored by the phytoplankton. Then, the energy
decreases when it is transferred to the subsequent consumer level.

Metabolism and Size of Individuals

The standing crop biomass (expressed as the total dry weight or total caloric content of
organisms
present at any one time) which can be supported by a steady flow of energy in a food chain depends to
a considerable extent on the size of the individual organisms; the smaller the organisms, the greater its
metabolism per gram (or per calorie) of biomass; consequently, the smaller organism, the smaller the
biomass which can be supported at a particular trophic level; and conversely, the larger the organism,
the larger the standing crop biomass. Thus, the amount of bacteria present at any one time would be
very much smaller than the “crop” of fish or mammals even though the energy utilization was the same
for both groups.

The metabolism per gram of biomass of the small plants and animals such as algae, bacteria,
and
protozoa is immensely greater than the metabolic rate of large organisms such as trees and vertebrates.
This applies to both photosynthesis and respiration. In many cases, the important parts of the
community metabolically are not the few great conspicuous organisms but the numerous tiny organisms
which are often invisible to the naked eye. The rate of metabolism of organisms or association of
organisms is often estimated by measuring the rate at which oxygen is consumed (or produced, in the
case of photosynthesis). Metabolic rates are usually greater at higher temperatures than at lower
temperatures.