Ecology 1 Flashcards
Who coined ecology
Ernst Haeckel in 1870
Explain ecology briefly
- A branch of biology
- Looks at the higher levels of organisation, including the population; community; ecosystem and biosphere
What is the level of organisation order
- Atom
- Molecule
-Organelle - Cell
- Tissue
- Organs
- Individual organism
- Population
- Community
- Ecosystem
- Biosphere
What is ecology
- Interactions among organisms
- Interactions between organisms and their physical environment
- How these interactions influence the distribution and abundance of organisms
Definition of ecology
The scientific study of how the distributions and abundances of populations (and species) are determined by the interactions of individual organisms with their physical and biological environments
What is meant by “ scientific study “
- Explain certain aspect of natural world
- Make observations
- Based on observations construct a falsifiable hypothesis
- Conduct experiemnts to test hypothesis
What is a falsifiable hypothesis
A hypothesis that can be disproved through experimentation
- You can never prove anything directly, only indirectly through falsification
How do we study ecology
- Observation
- observe natural world - Experiments
- test hypotheses using scientific method - Mathematical model
- use equations to describe ecosystems and predict their response to certain situaitions
What is meant by environment
The environment includes both the physical (abiotic) and biological (biotic) environment
What does the physical environment include
- Rocks
- Soil
- Water
- Sunshine
- Minerals
- Pollution
Explain environmental condition
The environment includes both the physical (abiotic) and biological (biotic) environment
eg ) Temperature, salinity, moisture, elevation, depth, nitrogen concentration of water, beach grain size etc etc etc
Explain biological environment
- Includes an organism’s: Food, Parasites, Mates, Offspring, Competitors,
Predators
i.e. All of the other organisms it ever encounters, including its own and other species
What is a resource
- Something that is required or used by an organism, the quantities of which can be reduced by the organism
eg ) Dissolved oxygen, sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, mineral nutrients, organisms as food
What are abiotic factors
- Non-living
- Make up the physical environment
What are biotic factors
- Living or once living, Make up the biological environment
- Abiotic and Biotic factors are not independent; they work hand in hand