Chapter 1 Flashcards
slides base
study of the relationships between organisms and the environment
Ecology
How to study ecology?
Scientific method
Why do we need to study ecology?
Developing sustainable practices and increase conservation efforts
Ecology: Greek word
oikos (family household) + logy (study of)
The scientific study of the interactions between the organisms and their environments.
ecology
The study of the relationships, distribution, and abundance of organisms, or groups of organisms, in an environment.
ecology
What is Ecology not?
Environmental Science Environmentalism
Resource management
Why study ecology?
Intellectual curiosity (explain phenomena)
Ecology has important impacts on everyone’s daily lives
ecology holds key to predicting our future
To understand some of the natural laws that impose limitations on the interaction of organisms (including humans) with their living and nonliving environment
group of individuals of a species
Populations
a system of observation that is “formalized”, which means that it is done in such a way that one can reproduce the observations under the same conditions
Scientific method
an inherent feature of science
uncertainty
Levels of biological Organization
Atom > Molecule > Macromolecule > Organelle > Cell > Tissue > Organ > Organ system > Organism
> Population > Community > Ecosystem > Biome > Biosphere
Biotic component of the forest ecosystem
plants, animals, microbes that inhabit the forest
Some elements in common with experiment
treatment group
control group
randomization
replication
living organisms, fundamental units of populations and communities
Individuals
an assemblages of species populations occurring together in space and time
Communities
a collection of two related (interacting) components (biotic or living and abiotic or physical) that function as a unit
Ecosystems
the study of environment influence on the evolution of organisms (e.g. natural selection)
Evolution ecology
forms the basic unit in ecology. It is the individual that respond to the environment
Individual organism
Abiotic component of the forest ecosystem
atmosphere, climate, soil, and water
the set of phenomena that can be explained only by looking at a particular hierarchical level
Emergent properties
the study of how groups of individuals (belonging to the same species) grow (or shrink) and reproduce. Depending on the nature of the species, many factors (food availability, competition, predation, etc.) may affect population growth
Population ecology
the study of how behavior of individuals affects their ability to survive and reproduce (e.g. population growth rate)
Behavioral ecology
the study of how physical factors affect the survival and reproduction of individual organisms
Physiological ecology
the study of how populations from different species interact to mutually affect each population’s growth and survival, community structure and dynamics
Community ecology
the study if whole living systems, with focus on the flow of energy and biomass in large scale living systems
Ecosystem ecology
Importance of Ecology
- Maintain a healthier and more productive biosphere
- Provide principles for rational use of natural resources (conservation)
- Provide bases for the formulation of good conservation policy
study spatial patterns and underlying mechanisms (patches in landscape, fragmented landscape, corridors); uses GSIS and the goal is to predict the responses of different organisms to change in landscape, to ultimately facilitate ecosystem management
Landscape ecology
