Introduction to Ecology
Key Concepts to Ecology
- Ecology is the study of the interactions of living organisms and their environments.
Key Concepts to Ecology
- Population: a group of individuals of the same species that can freely produce and are found in one particular place. Populations are members that are more likely interact with other members of the same population than interact with different population even though they are living in different places.
- Ecosystem: Is a contained ecological place that consists of many different organisms and also includes biotic and abiotic factors in it. An ecosystem is relatively independent and self contained. Members of the ecosystem will more likely interact with other members of the same ecosystem.
- Community: It is the living component of the ecosystem. It consists of a number of populations of different species that are found in a particular ecosystem.
- Biome: It is involved in the linkage of the ecosystem into regions that have similar characteristics.
FOOD WEB AND FOOD CHAINFood Chain:
The trophic level of an organism is the position it holds in a food chain.
- A linear (a straight line) of the passage of energy from one organism to another. How energy is passed from one organism to another.
- Consist of many different food chains combined together.
- Food web is also a system in which it shows the different resources from consumers.
The trophic level of an organism is the position it holds in a food chain.
- Primary producers (organisms that make their own food from sunlight and/or chemical energy from deep sea vents) are the base of every food chain - these organisms are called autotrophs.
- Primary consumers are animals that eat primary producers; they are also called herbivores (plant-eaters).
- Secondary consumers eat primary consumers. They are carnivores (meat-eaters) and omnivores (animals that eat both animals and plants).
- Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers.
- Quaternary consumers eat tertiary consumers.
- Food chains "end" with top predators, animals that have little or no natural enemies.
Ecosystems
Tropical Rainforest:
Temperate Grassland
Temperate Rainforest
Desert
Temperate Deciduos Forest
Tropical Rainforest:
- Tropical rainforest's are usually between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn.
- Rainfall in the tropical rainforest is more than average, around 175 cm to 200 cm average annually.
- The temperature in the rainforests is about 18 degrees Celsius average.
- The amount of organism in the rainforest is abundant, about half of the worlds organisms are in the rainforest.
- Tropical Rainforests are spread in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, and Central America.
- The Rainforest has 4 different layers or strata
- Forest floor - only receives 2% of the sunlight.
- Understory - lies between the canopy and forest floor.
- Canopy layer - the roof of the forest, consists mostly of trees.
- Emergent layer - Contains small number of very large trees.
- Tropoical Grassland
- It is a semi arid, dry, and semi humid climate regions in the tropical latitudes.
- Tropical Grassland have scattered tress and is dominated by shrubs.
- Rainfall in tropical grassland is about 500 to 1300 mm a year and it is only seasonal, which only occurs during the rainy season for a couple of weeks.
- Tropical grasslands are located in Africa, Australia, India, Europe and Hawaii.
- Tropical grasslands have two seasons;
- Dry season - it is usually very dry and will last a really long time.
- Wet season - Very rainy, and will get a lot of rainfall, but it will only last for a couple of weeks.
- The average temperature for Tropical Savannah is about 27 degrees Celsius.
Temperate Grassland
- Located above the equator and below the equator.
- This biome has four seasons.
- It has moderate rainfall
- The grassland is mostly have a composition of grasses, herbs and shrubs and not many trees.
- The major temperate grassland include veldts of Africa, Pampas of South America, and the steppes of Eurasia and the plans of North America.
- Summer temperatures can go up to 100 degrees fahrenheit (40 degrees celsius)
- The rainfall during the rainy season can go up to 1500 mm annually. Puddles becomes lakes.
Temperate Rainforest
- Temperate rainforest have coniferous trees such as Douglas firs, Sitka spruce, Western hemlock, lots of moss and lichens
- Annual Precipitation is 140 cm.
- Average annual Temperature is between 4 - 12 degrees Celsius.
- Temperate rainforests can only be found in Western North America, South America (Chile and Argentina), Northwest Europe (Spain and Portugal), and Southeastern Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.
- The Temperate Rainforests have one of the oldest trees in the world.
- It has a diverse group of animals, because it provides all the essential basic needs for life.
Desert
- Definition of a Desert is a biome that doesn't get a lot of rain annually, average about 5 - 10 mm.
- There is a hot and dry desert, and there is also a cold desert.
- Hot and dry desert have only animals that have the ability to burrow under ground, so that they do not have to live in hot sun and heat, will come out at night when it is cooler.
- Cold desert is a desert that has snow in the winter instead of just dropping a few degrees, it never gets warm enough for plants to grow.
- The animals in the cold desert also burrow the ground, but only to stay warm.
- Hot and dry desert temperature ranges from 20 - 25 degrees celsius, extreme maximum is about 45 to 49 degrees celsius.
- Cold desert temperature ranges from -2 to 4 degrees celsius, while in the summer in can go up to 21 - 26 degrees celsius.
Temperate Deciduos Forest
- Found in Easter part of North America and Middle of Europe.
- It has four distinct seasons and it has leafy trees.
- Annual Temperature is average of 50 degrees fahrenheit or 12 degrees Celsius.
- The animals adapt to the climate by hibernating in the winter and living off the land in the other three seasons.
CLASSIFICATION:
- A way of organizing living things.
- Carolus Linnaeus developed the system of classification that is based on the the structure of their bodies and based on evolutionary fossils.
- Linnaean system uses two Latin name categories, genus and species, to designate their name. Binomial Nomenclature.
- The system of classification is as followed:
- Domain: Bacteria, Archea, Eukarya
- Kingdom: Archea Bacteria, Eubacteria, Protista, Fungi, Animalia, and Plantae.
- Phylum: Animalia kingdom contains around 35 phyla; the kingdom Plantae contains 12 phyla.
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus:
- Species
- Binomial Nomenclature have to follow the following rules:
- formal system of naming species composed of two parts.
- Have to use Latin
- Have to by in Italics or underlined.
- The genus should be written in capital letter, and the
Biogeochemical Cycle
Carbon Cycle:
Carbon Cycle:
- A cycle where carbon is exchanged from the atmosphere to land.
- The four major reservoirs of carbon is atmosphere (gas), land (rocks and soil), underground (coal, fossil, petroleum), and ocean (dissolved gas)
- CO2 in the atmosphere comes from pollution, respiration, decomposition and volcanic activity
- Carbon is important because it is in everything that is living.
Nitrogen Cycle
- Important to make ATP and also part of DNA and RNA.
- 79% of the earths Atmosphere is Nitrogen gas.
- But humans can only use Nitrogen that is eaten and not that is breathed in.
- N2 Gas to Nitrates or nitrites is by the process of nitrogen Fixation
- Nitrates and nitrites to Ammonium and ammonia is nitrate formation.
- Converting it back to N2 gas is called denitrification.
Phosphorous cycle
- Cycle goes as follows
- Weathering cuts the rocks and sediments and releases phosphate into soil and water.
- Phosphorous then gets absorb by producers from soil and water.
- Consumers then eat and get phosphorous from eating other consumers and producers
- Organisms decompose and returns to soil and water.
- This cycle is the only cycle that doesn't go through the atmosphere.
- Phosphorous is very important for animals because it is needed to make DNA and RNA
- also makes phospholipids.