L3.1 what is ecology Flashcards
What is ecology?
Ecology is the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their physical environment.
biosphere
consists of all life on Earth and all parts of the Earth in which life exists, including land, water, and the atmosphere.
how long does the biosphere extend?
8 km above Earth’s surface to as far as 11 km below the surface of the ocean
how are economics and ecology connected?
Economics is concerned with interactions based on money.
Humans live within the biosphere
and depend on ecological processes to provide such essentials as food and drinkable water that can be bought and sold for money.
Individual organism
a single animal
Population
a group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area
Community
an assemblage of different populations that live
together in a defined area
Ecosystem
All the organisms that live in a place, together with their physical environment
Biome
A group of ecosystems that share similar
climates and typical organisms
What are biotic and abiotic factors?
The biological influences on organisms are called biotic factors.
Physical components of an ecosystem are called abiotic factors.
What methods are used in ecological studies?
observation, experimentation, and modeling.
Observation
Observation is often the first step in asking ecological
questions.
Questions may form the first step in designing experiments and models.
Experimentation
Experiments can be used to test hypotheses.
An ecologist may set up an artificial environment in a laboratory or greenhouse, or carefully altered conditions in selected parts of natural ecosystems.
Modelling
Many ecological events occur over such long periods of time or over
such large distances that they are difficult to study directly.
Ecologists make models to help them understand these phenomena.
