ecological organisation Flashcards
ecological hierarchy
- organelle
- cell
- organ
- individual
- population
- species
- community
- ecosystem
- biosphere
population
group of individuals of a particular species occurring in a particular location at a particular time
- an understanding of the population dynamics such as age, sex, fecundity is important in conservation
communities
a particular grouping of species occurring in a predictable manner at a specific location
pyriform eggs, guillemots
- guillemots live in crowded sea cliff communities and have pear shaped eggs
- originally thought to prevent rolling off cliffs
- now thought to minimise risk of impact damage and reduce muck contamination
artificial communities
e.g. vegetated motorway banks
- muffles sound
- prevents erosion
- captures rubbish
ecosystem
a number of communities occurring together and the physical environment/processes
satellite images
- false colours = wavelengths reflected from different vegetation types and other surfaces
- can be used to map out distribution of individual species in a landscape
sand dune ecosystem
- strandline community of annual plants at high tide mark
- these plants and other objects intercept blown sand
- yellow dunes community, marram grass
- grey dune community, marram still present, build up of organic matter, grazed by rabbits and often sheep when rabbits decline over winter
- dune slack, water build up, drains in summer, orchids
- expected succession to dune woodland communities
biome
grand scale of ecosystems
biosphere
earth’s biome, all the earth’s ecosystems
guild
involves different species which all seem to have similar ecological characteristics
geology
acidic soils
basic soils
waterlogged soil
soil
vegetation
