12th hacker series

Organism and populations

Ecology

O
-
ockos

T g
Habitat
study
environment
organism =>

• ecology is the study of interaction among organism and interaction of

organism with its environment

Biotic components
• plant
• Animals
• Microbes

Abiotic components
• water
• Light
• Soil
• Air
• Temperature
• term ecology was given by- Ernst Hachet
• Father of ecology- Alexander
Reiter von Humboldt
• Indian father of ecology- Prof. Ram Deo Missa

Atoms >
- Molecules >
- Biomolecules + Sub-cellules

component

de
d

Tissue

organism 7 organ
&
organ
te

Organism
• unit of ecology
• Unicellular/ multicellular
• Small/ big
Population
• group of organisms of same species in particular area
 Community
• group of population in particular area is community
• Group of plant- plant community
• Group of animal population- animal community
• Group of microbial population- micro community
Ecosystem
• a single large ecosystem, minor variation
• Example- tropical rainforest, ocean

Biosphere
• largest ecosystem
• Global ecosystem
• Consist of atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere
population
• group of organisms
• of same species
• in a particular area
• Sharing or competing same resource
• Interbreed
• a sexually reproducing organisms are also included in population

Attributes of population
 Organism level Population level
• birth rate
• birth
• Death rate
• Death
• Sex ratio
• Sex (male, female)
• Age distribution
• Age

Birth rate and death rate

• change a number of individual in member of population of particular
area in given time
• is measured per capita
• Symbol - birth rate= b , death rate= d

ie a
noofindividual
bord-y

Sex ratio
• number of female per thousand male in particular area
=
final
nof male
Age distribution
• distribution of different age group categories studied with the help of age
pyramid
• Three different categories
• 1) pre-reproductive
• 2) reproductive
• 3) post reproductive

Age pyramid
• describe age distribution in given area

Population density
• size of population in given area
• Symbol= N
• used to estimate
• 1) competition among species
• 2) effect of predation
• 3) effect of pesticides

Different method to calculate population density

• 1) total number
• 2) relative density
• 3) bio mass/ percent cover
• 4) pugmarks/ faecal matters
 Total number
• example- 10, siberian cranes in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, millions of
chlamydomonas in pond water
• to calculate total number is not possible, useless in many cases-
example- fish in pond, bacteria in petridish dish

Relative density
• to calculate bacteria
• Fish in pond
Biomass /percent cover
• there are 200 plants of carrot grass
• One Banyan tree
• by mass one Banian is more than 200 carrot grass

Pugmarks/ feacal matter

• indirect census
• Used, calculate number of tiger ,lion etc

Population growth
• population is not stable
• Population is affected by
• 1) availability of food
• 2) effect of predation
• 3) weather condition

Four processes which affect population density

Mortality
• number of individual degree in a population in particular area in
particular time of estimation

Natality
• number of individual increase in the population in particular area in
particular time of estimation
 Immigration
• number of individual come to particular area due to unfavourable
condition

Emigration
• number of individual born from particular area due to unfavourable
condition

Population growth
Unlimited resources
-
Limited resource
• exponential growth curve • logistic growth curve
• J shaped curve • Sigmoid curve

Exponential growth
• when resources are unlimited each species as the ability to realise fully
its innate potential to increase a number
 Logistic growth
• when resources are limited, population growth shows initially a lag
phase followed by phase of acceleration and deacceleration, and
finally asymptote
• it will result in sigmoid curve
• This type of population growth is called- verhulst pearl logistics
growth

Life History of variation

Darwinian Fitness
raMATION-
>
-
Reproductifitness
Population Fitness
-

• under a particular set of selection pressures, organism, evolve

towards the most efficient reproductive strategy
• Time of reproduction- once in lifetime , eg - bamboo tree
-
Many times, eg - majority of mammals

• organism- reduce small size and large number of offspring, eg-

oyster
ItReduce large size and small number of offspring, eg -
mammals
• ecologist suggest that life history traits of organism have you walked
in relation to constraints, impose by abiotic and biotic components of
the habitat

Population interaction
• there is no species which can survive in isolation
• Every plant require other microbes ,insects
• 1) for pollination
• 2)mycorhiza
• 3) for nitrogen fixation

• + = positive/ benefit
• - = negative/ loss
• O = neutral

Mutualism
• this interaction confers benefit to both species
Mycorrhizae
• interaction of fungi and root of higher plants
• Both are benefited

Root
• provide shelter to fungi
 Fungi
• increase surface area, more absorption of water and minerals
• Make soil resistant, drought resistant
• Protect from soil borne disease

Fig and wasp

• female wasp lay its egg into ovary of fig, This results in pollination of
fig by wasp
• Which is pollinated by its partner wasp only and wasp use fig only
• it involves co- evolution
• Female wasp use fig not only for oviposition , also use its developing
seed for nourishing it’s Larvae
• they co- exist ,co-evolute and co-extinct

Yucca and moth

• yucca is pollinated by moth
• Yucca provide oviposition site
• moth Pollination by yucca plant

Cheaters/pollen nectar robbers

• try to steal Pollen and nectar, but do not help in pollination

Ophrys orchids and bee or bumble bee

• ophrys orchid is found in Mediterranean forest
• It’s petal, show mimicry of female bee
• Male bee show pseudocopulation with petal and it is a sexual deceit
• petal Change itself according to change in female Bee thus it shows co-
evolution
 Lichens
• close association between fungi and algae
• Fungal component- it is called as mycobiont, it provides shelter to
algae, absorption of water and mineral
• algal Component- it is called as phycobiont , it perform photosynthesis
thus provide food

Commensalism
• in this interaction, one of the species is benefited and other one is
neither harmed or benefited
1)epiphytes on mango branch
• orchids grow as epiphyte on mango branch, so as to come in exposure to
sunlight to perform photosynthesis
• thus orchid is benefited and mango plant is neither benefited nor
harmed

2) barnacle on whale
• Barnacle found on whale
• Benefits for barnacle- shelter, transportation, protection from predators
• Whale is neither harmed or benefited

3) cattle egrets and cattle

• when cattle move while grazing grass, small insects, come out of grass
and egret bird eat those insects
• egrets benefits
 4) sea anemone and clown fish
• plant fish is found in tentacles of sea anemone, thus it gets shelter
and is protected from predators
• Clownfish benefits

Parasitism
• in this interaction, parasite feed on host
• Parasite= +
• host = -
• Small parasite, live on/ inside host body
• Get free lodging and free food

Adaptation
• loss of unnecessary sense organs
• Digestive system is absent
• High population density
• Presence of suckers to suck nutrition from host body

Effect of parasite on host

• reduce survival rate
• Reducegrowth and reproduction
• Reduce population density
• Make host more vulnerable to predators as it make host body weak
• Parasites are simple in morphology and internal structure, but have
complex life-cycle
• Require more than one host to complete their life cycle

Co evolution
• if any change occurs in host, its parasite evolve itself accordingly

Good parasite
• which feed on host in proper way, does not harm host
 Parasite

Endoparasite
oparasite
>
- Inside host - on host

dog
>
-
>
-
Ascains Tile on

live huma
liver fluke
inerfene
on

plasmodiu copepods
on
fish
entanorda
histolytice
Brood parasitism
• special parasitism, which is not a true parasitism
• crow and cuckoo
• cuckoo Lay its egg in nest of crow
• Breeding season= spring to summer

Competition
• two closely related species compete for same resource
• Resources should be limited
• But these two conditions are not always true
• Totally unrelated species can also compare for same resources
 • example- shallow South American lake
• Flamingo, and fish= compete for same resources
• Competition also occurs when resources are unlimited

Interference competition
• feeding efficiency of members are affected because of presence of other
species, even if resources are unlimited

Gause competition exclusive principle

• to closely related species, competing for same resource cannot coexist
superior one will eliminate the inferior one
• Example- Galapagos island
• Abingdon tortoise- extinct within a decade, as browsing efficiency
of goat was high
Competitive release
• inferior species has narrow distributional range, because of presence of
competitively superior species
• if experimentally superior species were removed from that area, species,
expand dramatically
• Eg- connell’s elegant field experiment
• Superior species of balanus
• inferior species of chthamalus
• When superior species, ballanus was removed from low tide,
competition release, chthamalus expanded
 Resource partitioning
• closely related species can avoid competition by choosing
• Different feeding time
• Different pattern of foraging

Mac Arthur experience experiment

• five warbler bird, feed on same tree, to avoid competition, distribution of
foraging pattern

Amensalism
• in this interaction, one of the species is harmed and other one is
neither harmed or benefited
• The antibiotic released by fungi, kills bacteria
• Fungi, neither harmed or benefited

Predation
• in this interaction, one of the species is benefited and other one is
harmed
• Catch, kill, eat
• Predator catch, kill, eat prey
• Even seed eating bird is predator
• Herbivores eating plants are predators

Significance of predator
• energy flow-
groeshopper- Frog
Grasshopper
gres -

snake
predators act as conduit for energy transfer from one tropic level to next
• predators keep prey population under control- prickly pear cactus
introduced in Australia in 1920, cause havoc in absence of natural
predator, was controlled by natural predator ( moth)
• Biocontrol agents- natural production is used to keep it’s prey at
manageable level
gambusia fish feed on mosquito larva and control mosquito population
• predators, maintain species diversity- by reducing competition
among prey species, example- rocky intertidal area of Pacific coast
of America, experimentally remove 10 species of invertebrates got
extinct due to interspecific competition

Defence mechanism shown by prey

promotes
Thank you!!