ECOSYSTEM

ECOLOGY
LECTURE 4
DEFINING ECOLOGY
1
The word ‘ecology’ was first used by Ernest Haeckel in 1869. The word is derived from the Greek
“Oikos”, meaning ‘home’. Ecology might therefore be thought of as the study of the ‘home life’ of
living organisms.
Haeckel Definition (1869): Ecology as the scientific study of the interactions between organisms
and their environment (abiotic).
4
Krebs’ definition (1972): the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and the
interactions that determine distribution and abundance.
2
Andrewartha and Birch (1954): “the study of the distribution and abundance or organisms.”
3
Odum (1971): ”the study of the interactions between/among organisms and the transformation and
flux of energy and matter.”
N E W PA R A D I G M O F ‘ E C O L O G Y

Rio Declaration (1992) Agenda 21:

Sustainability Development is, according
to the Rio Declaration, defined as follows:
Rio Declaration emphasized the
“development that meets the needs of the
importance of ecosystems in Principle 7:
present without compromising the ability of
States shall cooperate in a spirit of global
future generations to meet their own
partnership to conserve, protect, and
needs.” And, the contrasting parties are
restore the health and integrity of the
invited to, “act in a way that is
Earth’s ecosystems
economically profitable, socially
acceptable, and environmentally
compatible.”
N E W PA R A D I G M
OF
‘ECOLOGY’….

• In this anthropogenic era we need to

focus on “Ecosystem Ecology”.

• Millennium Report (2003) defined

‘Ecosystem’ as---
• “a dynamic complex of plants,
4!
animals and microorganism
communities and the nonliving
environment, interacting as a
functional unit. Humans are an
integral part of ecosystems.”
 HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF ECOLOGY

• Organism or Individual-ecology deals with how individuals are affected by (and how they affect) their
environment.

• Population- Population refers to a group of individuals of the same species occupying a given area at a given
time and share genetic material. Population ecology is concerned with the presence or absence of particular
species, their abundance or rarity, and with the trends and fluctuations in their numbers.
• Community- Community refers to all the populations of different species that live in an area and interact with
one another. Community ecology deals with the composition and organization of ecological communities.
HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF ECOLOGY
 • A biome is a large geographical area of
distinctive plant and animal groups, which are
adapted to that particular environment.

• Climate and geography of a region

BIOME determines what type of biome exist in that
region.

• A biome is a kind of ecosystem, such as a

desert, tropical rain forest, or grassland.

• There is strong relationship between climate

and biome.
YOUTUBE LINK

• Terrestrial Biomes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQSXIWsUtg&t=2s
• Aquatic Biomes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AopH3SMh818&t=2s
 WHY
ECOSYSTEM
ECOLOGY IS
I M P O R TAN T ?

MULTIDISCIPLINARY/DIMENSIONAL
 • Structure: An ecosystem has both living
(communities of interacting species) and
nonliving (e.g. rocks, water, air, nutrients)
BASIC parts
• Process: Two basic kinds of processes must
CHARACTERIST
occur in the ecosystem:
ICS OF • A flow of energy (Food web)
ECOSYSTEMS • A cycling of chemical elements
(e.g. nitrogen, oxygen, carbon)
• Change: An ecosystem changes over time
and can undergo development through a
process called succession
PROCESS: ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystem functions: Energy flow at different Level of Ecosystem

PROCESS:
ENERGY FLOW IN
ECOSYSTEM

• The sequence of organisms,

each of which is a source of
food for the next, is called a
Food chain.
• It determines how energy
and nutrients move from one
organism to another through
an ecosystem.
 PROCESS:
ENERGY FLOW IN
ECOSYSTEM

• Autotrophs/Producer: Producers are

autotrophs, or self-feeding organisms,
that make their own food (i.e. organic
molecules from carbon dioxide). Ex.
Plants, algae, and photosynthetic bacteria
act as producers.

• Heterotrophs/Consumer: are heterotroph

cannot produce its own food. They are
also called consumer. Consumers rely on
the ecosystem's producers for energy.
Consumers include herbivores,
carnivores, and decomposers.
PROCESS: CHEMICAL CYCLING IN
ECOSYSTEM

3
1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75NL3gN5yU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5EOZenSSB8
P R O C E S S : W AT E R C Y C L I N G I N
ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystem functions: Water Cycle

 CHANGES IN ECOSYSTEM: ECOLOGICAL
SUCCESSION

 an ordered process of community

development including regular changes
of the species compositions.
 changes occuring due to variations of the
species interactions
 changes occuring due to internal
processes within the community
 changes occur due to disturbances
(man made or natural)
 changes in community structure effecting
changes in the physical ecosystem
functions – energy, water, and nutrients
ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION

Succession is the process by which the component species of a community change

over time. Within any plant community some species may progressively become
more or less abundant over time.
Succession can occur for many different reasons. In most cases, each species
affects their environment in a way that allows other species to colonize. Over time,
this increases the complexity of the environment, usually increasing species diversity
as well.

There are two types of succession, which differ in their starting points. E.g. Primary
succession and Secondary succession.
PRIMARY
SUCCESSION

• Primary succession: newly

exposed or newly formed rock is
colonized by living things for the
first time. Certain hardy plants
and lichens with few soil
requirements, called pioneer
species, colonize the area first.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION

• In secondary succession, an area that was previously occupied by living things is disturbed, then
re-colonized following the disturbance.

• Over a long period of time, and assuming no further disturbances, a climax community may form
when a community reaches a steady, mature state.
• Occurs in disturbed areas that have not lost their soil – the original vegetation has been removed
because of any disturbance. For ex. forest fire.

Forest succession over time. Image modified from Wikimedia CC BY 3.0

 • Community structure describes Species richness
and species diversity.

• Community structure also refers to the patterns of

COMMUNITY interaction between different species.
STRUCTURE
IN • Community structure is influenced by many factors,
including abiotic factors, species interactions, level
ECOSYSTEM of disturbance, and chance events.

• Some species, such as foundation species and

keystone species, play particularly important roles
in determining their communities' structure.
KEYSTONE SPECIES: SHAPES COMMUNITY
STRUCTURE

• Keystone species The species on which the

ecosystem stability depends – removing it leads to
instability:
1. Food supply species (e.g. Figs)
2. Predator-mediated competition – the predator
keeps the numbers of the superior competitor in
check. Without the predator, the competitor over-
populates the ecosystem (e.g. Tiger)

3. Ecosystem engineers – create habitat for other

species (e.g. beavers)
SPECIES
RICHNESS
How many species in the survey area?

• Species richness is the number of

species that has been recorded for a
specific group of organisms during a
specific time period.
• Species richness could be for a plot or
sampling unit, or an assemblage of
sampling units.
Ecologists describe distribution of diversity on a spatial scale in three classifications. Diversity can be
described as alpha, beta, and gamma diversity (note: for simplicity, in our usage here diversity means
only richness, the number of species):

α Alpha (or local) diversity expresses the number of

species within a given habitat.
ONE/SINGLE

β Beta (or turnover) diversity expresses the difference, or

turnover, in species from one habitat to another.
TWO HABITATS

γ Gamma (or regional) diversity- total number of species

observed in all habitats within a geographic area.
OVERALL
Global species richness as
calculated for mammal species.
Image credit: "Community ecology:
Figure 14," by OpenStax College,
Biology, CC BY 4.0. Modification of
work by NASA, CIESIN, Columbia
University.
ECOLOGICAL
NICHES AND
COMPETITION

The Niche Concept

• A species' niche is its ecological role or "way
of life," which is defined by the full set of
conditions, resources, and interactions it
needs.
• Each species fits into an ecological
community in its own special way and has its
own tolerable ranges for many environmental
factors.
• Two organisms with exactly the same niche
can't survive in the same habitat.
• species whose niches only partly overlap may
be able to co-exist.
NICHES OF HILSHA FISH
COMPETITIVE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE

• The competitive exclusion principle tells us

that two species can't have exactly the
same niche in a habitat and stably coexist.

• Species with identical niches also have

identical needs, which means they would
compete for precisely the same resources.
 COMPETITIVE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE

1: A smaller (yellow) species of bird forages

across the whole tree.
2: A larger (red) species competes for resources.
3: Red dominates in the middle for the more
abundant resources. Yellow adapts to a new
niche restricted to the top and bottom of the tree,
avoiding competition.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_exclusion_principle
R E S O U R C E PA R T I T I O N I N G

• Two species divide the resource based on differences in behavior or morphology

• This can lead to natural selection which over time will increase the differences between the 02
species

Three possibilities:

1. Temporal resource partitioning – use the same resource but at different times.

2. Spatial resource partitioning – use different locations (plants with shallow roots vs. deep
roots)

3. Morphological resource partitioning – evolution of different body plans to use different parts of
the resource
 • All of the Earth’s organisms, air,
water, and soil, as well as materials
such as oil, coal and minerals that
W H AT A R E are removed from the ground.

N AT U R A L • Separated into two broad categories:

RESOURCES? 1. Renewable resources

2. Non-renewable resources
NON-
R E N E WAB L E
RESOURCE

• Any resource that cannot be

replaced during the time of a human
life span.

• Took thousands of years to form and

exist in fixed amounts in the Earth.

• They need to be conserved before

they become depleted.
R E N E WAB L E
RESOURCE

• Are any resource that cycles or can

be replaced within a human life span.

• Examples include: water, crops,

wind, soil, sunlight, animals, etc…
W H Y B I O C APA C I T Y ?

Biocapacity as a lens: Capacity of biosphere to regenerate and provide for life.

Competition for productive surfaces: basic ecological principle – allows to add up the
competing human demands.

Demands include natural resources, waste absorption, resources renewal, productive areas
dedicated to human uses etc.

Biocapacity is the aggregate (or nexus) of food-water-energy-fiber-etc. As an aggregate, it

allows us to answer how big the material metabolism of human economies is compared to
what nature can renew.
THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
F O O T P R I N T AN D B I O C APA C I T Y
ACCOUNTING
 • Point source pollution is from an
easily identifiable source such as a
pipe from industry or water treatment
plant entering the water at one point.

• Nonpoint source is a general source

POLLUTION of pollution coming from many
sources over a wide area. With
nonpoint source of pollution you are
not able to identify the precise source
of the pollution. Soil washed down
into the water is an example of
nonpoint source of pollution; it comes
from many sources over a wide area
R E A D I N G M AT E R I A L S

• Chapter 8. Biological Diversity and Biological Invasions

- Competition and Ecological Niches, page 154
• Chapter 8. Biological Diversity and Biological Invasions
– Biomes, page 161
• Chapter 5. Ecosystems: Concepts and Fundamentals,
-Basic Characteristics of Ecosystems, page 83-84.
-Ecological Stability and Succession, page 95-96