Lecture 1 & 2: What is Ecology? Flashcards
What is ecology?
The scientific study of the interactions organisms engage in with each other and their physical environment
How do we define an organism/individual
-An organism has an autonomous life in the environment with a boundary/interface across which energy and resources are exchanged with the environment
-The level where internal and external biological processes meet
Levels of organismal complexity
simple prokaryotic cells -> organized and internally specialized eukaryotic cells -> simple multicellular organisms -> complex multicellular organisms with internal specialization -> simple societies -> complex functionally integrated societies
What does organismal complexity and organization determine?
the types of ecological interactions that organisms are involved with
what is the simplest ecological system composed of?
the individual organism and environmental interactions
what are biotic interactions?
when an organism interacts with another organism
what are abiotic interactions?
an organism interacting with its external environment
what are consumer resource interactions?
-one species gains a positive (the consumer) while the other gains a negative (the resource)
-ex: predation/parasitoidism, parasitism, and herbivory
what is predation?
-it is when an organism feeds on another organism
-the organism feeding gains a positive while the organism that is the ‘food’ gains a negative
what is parasitoidism?
-it is when an organism lives inside of a host or feeds off of it, this results in the host dying
-the organism living inside the host gains a positive while the host gains a negative
what is parasitism?
-this is when an organism lives off of a host, the host may or may not die
-the organism living off of the host gains a positive while the host gains a negative
what is herbivory?
-when an organism feeds off of plants
-the organism gains a positive while the plants gain a negative
what is competition?
-when both organisms compete for resources
-both organisms gain a negative because the competition limits resources for both organisms
what is mutualism?
-both organisms work together in their environment
-both gain a positive
what is commensalism?
-one organism gains a positive while the other has no effect
what is the scaling of ecological systems?
Individual -> populations -> communities -> ecological -> biosphere
individual organisms generate what unique process?
-the process of natural selection
-you can track down survival and reproduction
populations generate what unique process?
-the process of evolution
-evolution can only be measured at this level
-can track the number and distribution of one species
communities generate what unique process?
- the processes generating patterns of biodiversity
-can track interactions among species
ecosystems generate what unique process?
-the process of energy flux and nutrient cycling
-can track the exchange of common elements among organisms and the environment
the biosphere generates what unique process?
-global processes of stability and change
-can track global movement and location of life and resources.
what are the three common processes that influence interactions across all ecological systems and scales
- Ecological systems transform and conserve matter and energy.
- Ecological systems exist in dynamic states.
- Ecological systems evolve over time
what is the Metabolic Theory of Ecology?
All organisms share common constraints on their metabolic rate, and this governs all ecological processes
what is Ecological Stoichiometry?
it is focused on how the relative balance of elements and the resulting chemical reactions govern ecological systems.
what is a dynamic steady/stable state?
-continuous gains and losses are balanced so that there is no net change in the ecological system.
-Each ecological scale has different gains and losses
what does the individual organism level balance?
it balances expenditures
what does the population level balance?
it balances births and deaths
what does the community level balance?
it balances species migration, extinction, and speciation
what does the ecosystem level balance?
it balances energy, elements, chemistry, and water
what does the biosphere balance?
it balances the gain and loss of solar energy
how do ecological systems evolve over time?
-ecological interactions drive evolutionary change and evolutionary change drives new changes in ecological interactions
-because evolutionary changes evolve, so does the change in ecological systems
what is an adaption?
a trait of a species that has evolved from generation to generation to improve the fit of the species
what is natural selection?
the evolutionary mechanism that generates adaptations
what is a null hypothesis?
it is the expected outcome if the investigators hypothesis is incorrect (usually no effect of the study)
what is an observational study?
-studying by observing the natural world in a structured way
-advantage: often easy to initiate
-disadvantage: unknown and/or uncontrollable influences might impact your data and conclusions
what is an experimental study?
-allows greater control and greater confidence in results
-disadvantage: harder to do in the natural world and you can only control one variable
what is a natural experiement?
-use naturally occurring differences to better structure observational studies
-example: using an island
what is a microcosm experiments?
-Big ecological systems made small
-example: using a tank to study the ocean
what is mathematical modeling?
components of a complex ecological system represented numerically and manipulated to track changes
