ECOLOGY

Earth and Life Science.

 What is ecology?
•Ecology is the study of the relationships between living

organisms,including humans,and their physical

environment.Ecology considers organisms at the individual,

population,community,ecosystem,and

biosphere level.
 What is ecology?
•Ecology comes from the Greek words

•Oîkos=House

•λoyia,-logia= Study of Life

•Study of the "house/environment" in which we live.

 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
Ecology is study of interactions
between:
Living organisms...

-Plants

-Animals

-microorganisms in soil, etc.

-Ernst Haeckel.
A German
zoologist coined
the term Ecology
in 1866.
-Eugenius Warming.
Elaborate the idea
of Ecology.
What is ecosystem?
-A system formed by the interaction of a community
of organisms and their environment.Ecosystems are
nested at many scales from a small pond to the
entire planet.The human species,just like any other
species,is entirely interdependent with the
ecosystems in which we live.
Predator-Prey Relationships
Predation-relationship in which one
organism hunts and kills another for
nutrition.

Predator-an organism which hunts and

kills another organism (ex: bear and
snake)

Prey-the organism which is killed

by the predator (ex: fish and frog)
The fundamental principles of the
ecosystem include adaptation and
behavior,organizational
levels,biodiversity,and energy flow.
Adaptation and Behavior.
The environment is constantly changing.Because of its
changes,organisms constantly undergo adaptation — the process of
change to accommodate environmental conditions over a short
period of time.

Organisms are capable of adapting due to their behavior. Behavior

is an organism’s response to biotic and abiotic stimuli.

Abiotic factors in the environment which include climatic

conditions can influence an organism’s adaptation and behavior.
For instance, certain animals undergo hibernation during the winter
season.
Organizational Levels.
The ecosystem is arranged in various levels. The levels of
organization are organized from smallest to largest.

The first level of organization pertains to an organism, which

refers to the individual species.

The second level is the population which refers to a group of

organisms of the same species in the same area.For instance, a
population of green sea turtles in Palawan is different from a
population of green sea turtles in Zambales.However,they can be
under one population if they are grouped as a population of green
sea turtles in the Philippines.
Organizational Levels.
The third level of organization is the community which
involves more than one species or more than one
population. For instance, a live coral houses a community of
multiple aquatic organisms. It is important to note that
both population and community levels only refer to biotic
factors.

The fourth level of organization is the ecosystem which

involves several communities combined with abiotic
factors. For example, an area in Zambales hosts different
community of populations interacting with several factors
in the environment.

The last and final level is the biosphere which encompasses

all ecosystems. The biosphere is essentially the surface of
the Earth.
Biodiversity.
Biodiversity refers to the variability of organisms in an ecosystem.It
has three types—species diversity, genetic diversity,and ecological
diversity.

Species diversity-refers to the abundance and number of different

species in the same area. For example, there is an abundance of
different bird species in a forest.

Genetic diversity-refers to the variation in the genes within a

particular species or within a population.A very good example is the
variability of eye color in humans.
Biodiversity.
Ecological diversity-refers to the diversity in an ecosystem,
habitat, and natural community. It shows how different species
interact with each other and with their environment. It is the
largest type of biodiversity.For instance,the Amazon rainforest
differs from the Congo rainforest based on the different
species found in both ecosystems as well as abiotic factors
such as the amount of rainfall. They are both rainforests but
have a lot of differences which make each of them unique.
Energy Flow.
For an organism to survive,it must be able to acquire energy
from either the environment or another organism.

The food chain shows the feeding relationships of organisms

and depicts the energy flow in an ecosystem. It starts in the
organisms that are able to produce chemical energy derived
from the light energy of sun. They are called producers which
are also known as autotrophs. The organisms that feed on the
producers are called the consumers, also known as
heterotrophs. The consumers get their energy from the
producers that they consume.
Energy Flow.
Consumers are further divided into herbivores that only eat
plants,carnivores that only eat other animals, omnivores that
can consume both plants and animals, and decomposers that
feed on dead organic matter and bring the energy back into the
food web.

The food web is the sum of food chains and shows multiple
pathways of energy flow in an ecosystem. Just like in the food
chain,the energy enters through the producers or autotrophs.
 What is Population Growth?
Population ecology is the study of how populations of plants,animals, and other
organisms change over time and space and interact with their environment.

Populations are groups of organisms of the same species living in the same area at
the same time.They are described by characteristics that include:
 What is Population Growth?
Population ecology is the study of how various factors impact population
growth,rates of survival and reproduction,and risk of extinction.

Population ecology has its most profound historical roots and development in the
study of population growth,regulation,dynamics,or demography.The population can
be open or closed population.
-Closed Population
A closed population is not able to exchange with other people after a while.
The population can grow through the birth of new people.This circumstance is usually seen on
islands as a population might be laid out during a storm or any other influence but no additional
members will be added over time. When a brief period of time is over,a population is bound to be
closed.

A storm event where more turtles are added during a single year than 100 years is less likely to
happen on an island. Animals will not be able to cross the river during a normal year if the river stays
at its full level.The population can grow through birth and decline through death, making it easier to
project growth rates.The growth rate is not determined by the number of organisms or the rate of
reproduction.
The population will be diminished by the death rate. population
growth can be influenced:

⋅Space
⋅Hereditary qualities
⋅Age of individuals
⋅Resources
-Open Population
An open population can acquire and lose different populations over time. The population isn’t
geographically isolated. The longer the period of time, the more probable it is that the population
will open. The typical changes in an environmental system are the reason for this.

After some time, we expect that rivers will experience times of dry weather, mountain passes will
open and close, and bridges will be destroyed.The capacity of new individuals to join an existing
population will be influenced by these things.
1.Population size: The number of individuals in the population.

2.Population density: How many individuals are in a particular

area.

3.Population growth:How the size of the population is changing

over time.
The geometric or exponential growth of all populations is
eventually curtailed by food availability, competition for other
resources,predation,disease, or some other ecological factor. If
growth is limited by resources such as food, the exponential
growth of the population begins to slow as competition for those
resources increases.
Terrestrial ecosystem-is a land-based community of organisms and
the interactions of biotic and abiotic components in a given area.
Examples of terrestrial ecosystems include the tundra, taigas,
temperate deciduous forests, tropical rainforests, grasslands, and
deserts. The type of terrestrial ecosystem found in a particular place is
dependent on the temperature range, the average amount of
precipitation received, the soil type, and amount of light it receives.
This chapter describes some of the major terrestrial biomes in
the world;

Tropical forests
Savannas
Deserts
Temperate grasslands
Temperate deciduous forests
Mediterranean scrub
Coniferous forests
Tundra
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem formed by surrounding a body of
water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems
contain communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on
their environment.The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine
ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems.[1] Freshwater ecosystems may be
lentic (slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes); lotic (faster
moving water, for example streams and rivers); and wetlands (areas where
the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time).[2]
Examples of aquatic ecosystem include oceans, lakes and rivers.An aquatic
ecosystem includes freshwater habitats like lakes, ponds, rivers, oceans and
streams, wetlands, swamp, etc. and marine habitats include oceans,
intertidal zone, reefs, seabed and so on.
How Humans affect
the Ecosystems?
Impacts from human activity on land and in the
water can influence ecosystems
profoundly.Climate change,ocean acidification,
permafrost melting, habitat loss, eutrophication,
stormwater runoff, air pollution, contaminants,
and invasive species are among many problems
facing ecosystems.
A picture is worth
a thousand words