Chapter 6

Ecology
 What is Ecology?
 The branch of biology that deals with the study of the
interactions among organisms and with their environment
 Ecosystem is a community of living organisms such as plants,
animals and microorganisms interacting with each other and
their physical environment.
 An ecosystem consists of the physical environment (abiotic
factors) and all the living things (biotic factors) within it.
 Each type of living thing in an ecosystem has a place in which it
lives. This is known as its habitat.
 The combination of the job an organism does and the place in
which it lives is called its niche.
 Plants and algae trap the energy in sunlight and produce their
own food. Because of this, they are known as producers.
 Animals are consumers; bacteria and fungi are decomposers.

6.1.2. Biotic and abiotic components

Abiotic Factors

 Abiotic factors are non-living components of the ecosystem that

influence the distributions of organisms in their environment.
 Examples of abiotic factors include: energy, light, temperature,
water, nutrients, salinity, etc.
 Soil structure, pH, and nutrient content often play major roles
in determining the distribution of plants
 Several abiotic factors are important in aquatic, but not
terrestrial, ecosystems. While terrestrial organisms have a
plentiful supply of oxygen from the air, aquatic organisms must
depend on oxygen dissolved in water.
 Salinity (saltiness), also play a role in many aquatic
ecosystems.
 Some abiotic factors affect terrestrial, but not aquatic,
ecosystems. For example, wind is often an important factor on
land.

Biotic Factors
 Biotic factors are the living components of the ecosystem that
influence the distributions of organisms in their environment.
 Interaction with other organisms

6.1.3.Ecological levels
Individual-population- community-ecosystem- biome- biosphere
What is a population?
 A population is a group of interbreeding organisms that are
members of the same species living in the same area at the
same time
What is a biological community?
 A biological community consists of the different species within
an area, typically a three-dimensional space, and the
interactions within and among these species.
6.1.4. Ecosystems
 The community of organisms in a habitat, plus the non-living
part of the environment (e.g., air, water, soil, light, etc.) makes
up an ecosystem.
 An ecosystem is self-supporting
Types of ecosystems
 There are two major kinds of ecosystems—terrestrial and
aquatic.
 A biome is a major terrestrial or aquatic life zone characterized
by vegetation type in terrestrial biomes and the physical
environment in aquatic biomes
Terrestrial Biomes
Tropical rain forests
 evergreen broad-leaf trees form between latitudes 10° north
and south in equatorial Africa, the East Indies, Southeast Asia,
South America, and Central America
 Regular rains, combined with an average temperature of 25°C
(77°F)
 Plants are vertically layered, and competition for light is intense
 Broad-leaf evergreen trees are dominant in tropical rain forests.
 animal diversity is higher in tropical forests than in any other
terrestrial biome
Desert
 Maximum air temperature in hot deserts may exceed 50°C
while in cold deserts air temperature may fall below –30°C.
 They cover about one-fifth of Earth’s land surface
 The plants include succulents such as cacti or euphorbs, deeply
rooted shrubs, and herbs that grow during the infrequent moist
periods
 Desert plant adaptations include tolerance of heat and
desiccation, water storage, and reduced leaf surface area.
 Many species are nocturnal (animals that primarily active
during night and sleep during the day
Savannas
 occurs in equatorial and sub-equatorial regions.
 Savannas lie between the tropical forests and hot deserts of
Africa, India, and Australia.
 The temperature is warm year-round, averaging 24–29°C.
 The biome is characterized by scattered trees found at different
densities
Temperate grasslands
 Temperate grasslands are warm in summer, but cold in winter.
 Grass roots extend profusely through the thick topsoil and help
hold it in place, preventing erosion by the constant winds.

Boreal Forests
 also known as taiga or coniferous forest, is found south of the
Arctic Circle and across most of Canada, Alaska, Russia, and
northern Europe.
 This biome has cold, dry winters and short, cool, wet summers
 The long and cold winters in the boreal forest have led to the
predominance of cold-tolerant cone-bearing (coniferous) plants.
 soils in boreal forest regions tend to be acidic with little
available nitrogen
 Plant species diversity is less than that seen in temperate
forests and tropical wet forests.
Temperate broad-leaf forest
 Temperate broad-leaf forest is found mainly at mid-latitudes in
the Northern Hemisphere, with smaller areas in Chile, South
Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
 In winter temperatures average 0°C while in summers, with
temperatures up to 35°C, are hot and humid.
 The dominant plants are deciduous trees, which drop their
leaves before winter,
Tundras
 Cover expansive areas of the Arctic, amounting to 20% of
Earth’s land surface
 Winters are cold, with averages in some areas below –30°C
while summer temperatures generally average less than 10°C.
 High winds and low temperatures produce similar plant
communities, called alpine tundra,
 The vegetation of tundra is mostly herbaceous, consisting of a
mixture of mosses, grasses, and forbs, along with some dwarf
shrubs and trees and lichens
 A permanently frozen layer of soil called permafrostrestricts the
growth of plant roots

Aquatic biomes
 which occupy roughly 75% of Earth’s surface, are determined
by their salinity and other physical factors.
 Fresh water less than 1% salinity
 Marine water 5%
Lakes
 The salinity, oxygen concentration, and nutrient content differ
greatly among lakes and can vary with season
 Rooted and floating aquatic plants in lakes live close to shore.
 sunlight penetrates all the way to the lake bottom
 aquatic plants and algae that attach to the bottom are the
primary producers.
 Fishes live in all zones with sufficient oxygen

Wetlands
 are environments in which the soil is either permanently or
periodically saturated with water.
 Wetlands are different from lakes because wetlands are shallow
bodies of water.
 Because of high organic production by plants and
decomposition by microbes and other organisms, both the water
and the soils are periodic low in dissolved oxygen.
 Wetlands have a high capacity to filter dissolved nutrients and
chemical pollutant
 Wetlands are among the most productive biomes on Earth.
streams and rivers
 The most prominent physical characteristic of streams and
rivers is the speed and volume of their flow
 Headwater streams are generally cold, clear, swift, and
turbulent. Farther downstream, where numerous tributaries
may have joined, forming a river, the water is generally warmer
and more turbid because of suspended sediment
Estuaries
 estuary is a transition area between river and sea.
 Often, higher-density seawater occupies the bottom of the
channel and mixes little with the lower-density river water at
the surface
 Salinity varies spatially within estuaries, from nearly that of
fresh water to that of seawater
 Nutrients from the river make estuaries, like wetlands, among
the most productive biomes
 Saltmarsh grasses and algae, including phytoplankton, are the
major producers in estuaries.

6.1.6 Ecological succession

 Ecological succession is the process of change in the species that
make up an ecological community over time.
 The process of succession occurs either after the
initial colonization of a newly created habitat, or after
a disturbance substantially alters a pre-existing habitat
 Succession that begins in new habitats, uninfluenced by pre-existing
communities, is called primary succession,
 whereas succession that follows disruption of a pre-existing
community is called secondary succession
 Climax community: a stable community that undergoes little or no
change

6.2. Ecological relationships

 Interactions include competition, predation, herbivory, parasitism,
mutualism, and commensalism.
 Competition (-/-)

 Competition is interaction that occurs when individuals of

different/same species each use a resource that limits the survival and
reproduction of both individuals

Predation (+/-)
 Predation is interaction in which an individual of one species, the
predator, kills and eats an individual of the other species, the prey
Herbivory (+/-)
 Herbivory is an exploitative interaction in which an organism— an
herbivore—eats parts of a plant or alga, thereby harming it but usually
not killing it

Parasitism (+/-)
 Parasitism is exploitative interaction in which one organism, the
parasite, derives its nourishment from another organism, its host,
which is harmed in the process
 Endoparasites such as parasitic roundworms live and feed inside their
host.
 An ectoparasite such as a tick feeds while attached to a host’s external
surface
Mutualism (+/+)
 Mutualism is interaction that benefits individuals of both of the
interacting species.

Commensalism(+/0)
 Commensalism is interaction that neither benefits the individuals of
one of the interacting species but neither harms nor helps the
individuals of the other species
