Ecology and Ecosystems:

Basic Concepts
• Ecology is a broad and diverse field of
study. One of the basic distinctions in
ecology is between autecology and
synecology

• In which autecology is considered the

ecology of individual organisms and
populations, mostly concerned with the
biological organisms themselves
Synecology
•Ecology of relationships among the
organisms and populations, which is mostly
concerned with communication of material,
energy, and information of the entire system
of components.
 Basic Example
• The year was 1955, and MacArthur was studying
the ecology of five species of warblers that live
together in the spruce forests of northeastern
North America.
• Ecological theory predicted that two species with
identical ecological requirements would compete
with each other and that, as a consequence they
could not live in the same environment indefinitely.
• MacArthur predicted that these warblers might be
able to coexist and not compete with each other if
they fed on the insects living in different zones
within trees.
 What is an ecosystem?
• System = regularly interacting and
interdependent components
forming a unified whole
• Ecosystem = an ecological
system;
= a community and its physical
environment treated together as a
functional system
 Ecosystem Services
• The human economy depends upon the services
performed for free by ecosystems.
• moderate weather extremes and their impacts
• disperse seeds
• mitigate drought and floods
• protect people from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays
• cycle and move nutrients
• protect stream and river channels and coastal shores
from erosion
• detoxify and decompose wastes
 Ecosystems Services

• control the vast majority of agricultural pests

• maintain biodiversity
• generate and preserve soils and renew their
fertility
• partially stabilize climate
• purify the air and water
• regulate disease carrying organisms
• pollinate crops and natural vegetation

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 WHAT ARE ECOSYSTEM
SERVICES WORTH?
• Natural ecosystems and the plants and animals
within them provide humans with services that
would be very difficult to duplicate.
• While it is often impossible to place an accurate
monetary amount on ecosystem services, we can
calculate some of the financial values.
• Many of these services are performed seemingly
for "free", yet are worth many trillions of dollars.

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 Ecosystems:
Fundamental Characteristics
• Structure:
– Living (biotic)
– Nonliving (abiotic)
• Process:
– Energy flow
– Cycling of matter (chemicals)
• Change:
– Dynamic (not static)
– Ecological Succession, etc.
 Abiotic components:
• ABIOTIC components:
• provides practically all the energy for
ecosystems.
• Inorganic substances, e.g., sulfur, potassium,
and phosphorus tend to cycle through
ecosystems.
• Organic compounds, such as proteins,
carbohydrates, lipids, and other complex
molecules, form a link between biotic and abiotic
components of the system.
 BIOTIC components
• The biotic components of an ecosystem can be
classified according to their mode of energy
acquisition.
• In this type of classification, there are:
• Autotrophs and Heterotrophs
• Organisms that produce their own food from an
energy source, such as the sun, and inorganic
compounds called Autotrophs.
• Organisms that consume other organisms as a
food source called Hetertrophs.
Trophic level: All the organisms that
are the same number of food-chain steps
from the primary source of energy

Modified from: General Ecology, by David T. Krome

 Trophic Levels
• A trophic level is the position occupied by an organism in
a food chain.
• Trophic levels can be analyzed on an energy pyramid.
• Producers are found at the base of the pyramid and
compromise the first trophic level.
• Primary consumers make up the second trophic
level.
• Secondary consumers make up the third trophic
level.
• Finally tertiary consumers make up the top trophic
level.
 Trophic Levels Found on an
Energy Pyramid
• The greatest amount of energy is found at the base of
the pyramid.
• The least amount of energy is found at top of the
pyramid.

Source: corpuschristiisd.org/user_files/91702/Ecosystem.ppt
 Trophic Structure Reminder

• Eltonian pyramids
• Number of individuals per species
• Is this pyramid stable?
 Trophic Structure Reminder
• What if we transformed each species into
biomass instead of absolute numbers?
 Food Chains
• The producers, consumers, and
decomposers of each ecosystem make up
a food chain.
• There are many food chains in an
ecosystem.
• Food chains show where energy is
transferred and not who eats who.
Example of a Food Chain
 Food Webs
• All the food chains in an area make up the food web of the area.
Food web of a hot spring

© 2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Fig 6.5 Food web of the harp seal.

© 2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Trophic Structure Reminder
 Biomass
• Energy is sometimes considered in terms of
biomass, the mass of all the organisms and
organic material in an area.
• There is more biomass at the trophic level of
producers and fewer at the trophic level of
tertiary consumers. (There are more plants on
Earth than there are animals.)
• Bio=life Mass=weight
• Bio + Mass = Weight of living things within an
ecosystem.
 Human activities that disrupt, impair,
or reengineer ecosystems:
• Runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and animal
wastes
• Pollution of land, water, and air resources
• Introduction of non-native species
• Overharvesting fisheries
• Destruction of wetlands
• Erosion of soils
• Deforestation
• Urban sprawl
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 Endangered Species
• 735 U.S. species of plants are listed.
• 496 U.S. species of animals are listed.
• 11 U.S. species of plants are currently
proposed for listing.
• 74 U.S. species of animals are currently
proposed for listing.

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Endangered
Florida
panther

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 Exotic Species
• "Exotic" species—organisms introduced
into habitats where they are not native
– are severe world-wide agents of habitat
alteration and degradation.
– a major cause of biological diversity loss
throughout the world, they are considered
"biological pollutants."

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• Invasive species can change the food
web in an ecosystem by destroying or
replacing native food sources.

• The invasive species may provide little to

no food value for wildlife. 

• Invasive species can also alter the

abundance or diversity of species that are
important habitat for native wildlife.
• Invasive species threaten biodiversity, habitat
quality, and ecosystem function.
– second-most important threat to native species,
behind habitat destruction
• contributed to the decline of 42% of U.S. endangered and
threatened species.
– introduced species also present an ever-increasing
threat to food and fiber production.
– In the United States, the economic costs of nonnative
species invasions reach billions of dollars each year.

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 What We Can Do
• Learn about the natural environment and
endangered species
• Make your home wildlife friendly
• Plant an indigenous garden
• Recycle and only buy from sustainable
sources
• Slow down when driving
• Never purchase goods made from
endangered species
• Protect Wildlife Habitats
 Ecology
is
The study of the distribution and
abundance of organisms,
AND
the flows of energy and materials
between abiotic and biotic
components of ecosystems.