Module 2 Flashcards
Introduction
In the Philippines today as well as all over the world, the alarming rate of environmental degradation poses a very serious problem. The adverse environmental issues and problems the world is experiencing nowadays necessities a drive toward environmental conservation and sustainable development. This means that the people must collaborate, cooperate, and work hand-in-hand to save Mother Earth from environmental havoc. Environmental awareness, consciousness, and understanding require the adoption of new values and change of habits and lifestyles towards the preservation and conservation of the environment. The people must provide solutions to the environmental problems of their community and inculcate in their minds the need to love, care, and nurture the environment. Thus, environmental education, information, and advocacy activities are deemed necessary to provide solutions to environmental crises.
is the study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment.
Ecology
Two types of ecology
- Autecology
- Synecology
deals with the relationships between an organism or population and the environment.
Autecology
focuses on the relationship between communities and their environment.
Synecology
It is a group of organisms belonging to the same species living together in a certain area or habitat.
Population
It is a group of organisms belonging to different species living together and interacting in a certain area or habitat.
Community
It is a group of organisms and their interaction or interrelationships with the nonliving environment.
Ecosystem
It is composed of all living organisms on or around the earth.
Biosphere
It is the physical space occupied by an organism and its functional role in the ecosystem.
Ecological niche
It is the place where an organism lives.
Habitat
is the interaction of the living organisms and the nonliving environment.
ecosystem
Two compositions of ecosystem
- Biotic or Living components
- Abiotic or nonliving components
such as plants, animals, and microorganisms.
Biotic or Living components
includes air, water, soil, inorganic substances (carbon, nitrogen,etc.), organic substance (protein, carbohydrate etc.)
Abiotic or nonliving components
Two components of ecosystem
- Autotrophs
- Heterotrophs
these are the organisms that fix light energy and use simple inorganic substances to build up complex substances which include plants.
Autotrophs
these are the organisms that utilize, rearrange, and decompose complex materials, particularly animal, bacteria, and fungi.
Heterotrophs
Three components of the litosphere
- Soil
- Rock
- Sediments
It is a complex mixture of rock fragments, highly altered minerals, organic debris, and living organisms that support plants in the terrestrial environment.
Soil
These are consolidated units of the earth’s crust which consist of minerals that have come together by hardening or lithification of sediments, by solidification from a molten mass, or by alteration of a preexisting rock.
Rocks
These are rock fragments that may or may not be chemically altered by weathering which are carried by wind or water.
Sediments
is the transfer of energy and material through a series of organisms as each one is fed upon by the next (Nobel and Wright, 1998,2000).
The Food Chain
The sun’s energy causes water to evaporate and rise into the atmosphere as water vapor. Most evaporation occurs over the cycle’s greatest reservoir, the ocean. A smaller proportion of evaporation takes place over land from lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water.
Evaporation
Water stored in plant tissues diffuses through the cell membrane, escapes mostly from the leaves, and enters the atmosphere as water vapor.
Transpiration
Biogeochemical cycles can be divided into two basic types:
Gaseous Nutrient Cycle
Sedimentary Nutrient Cycle
in which the reservoir of the nutrients is the atmosphere.
Gaseous Nutrient cycle
in which the nutrient reservoir is sedimentary rock, soil and minerals.
Sedimentary Nutrient cycle
is a typical gaseous nutrient cycle. The major reservoir of nitrogen is the earth’s atmosphere.
Nitrogen Cycle
is a typical sedimentary nutrient cycle. The major reservoir of phosphorus is sedimentary rock, which is only available to the basic cycle in small amounts as a result of weathering.
Phosphorus cycle
Five Interactions of Organisms
Mutualism
Competition
Parasitism
Predation
Commensalism
is a biological interaction in which the growth and survival of both interacting species are enhanced.
Mutualism
is a type of interaction between two populations in which they vie for the same limited resources.
Competition
is a type of interaction between a host and a parasite.
Parasitism
is the relationship between the prey and the predator.
Predation
is a type of interaction between two species population benefits and the other is unaffected.
Commensalism
is an ecosystem which is modified or regulated by man in order to produce food. It is self-sufficient where the living organisms and nonliving components of the environment interact to exchange energy and matter in a continuing cycle.
Agroecosystem
The agroecosystem is characterized by the following features:
- The farmer decides the plant (species and variety) to grow.
- It is composed of one or few species only, simple flora.
- The age and status of growing plants is uniform.
- The farmer supplies water and fertilizer uniformly.
- The farmers harvest the products and remove them all away from the yield (continuity is short).
- Insect fauna is simple, comprising of their pests and natural enemies.
- There is an order of arriving of organisms: crops, pests and natural enemies.
- It is ecologically unstable due to simple flora and fauna and low natural control effect.
- The chances of pest outbreak is high.
Properties of Agroecosystem
- Productivity is the desired output of a system or output of valued product per unit resource input. It is measured in terms of crop yield or net income.
- Stability is the property of short-term homeostasis or the consistency of productivity in the face of small, disturbing forces arising from the normal fluctuations and cycles in the surrounding environment.
- Sustainability is the ability of the system to persist in the face of repeated stress or major perturbation or it is the ability of the agroecosystem to maintain productivity when subjected to major disturbing forces.
- Equitability is the evenness of distribution of the productivity of the agroecosystem among the human beneficiaries.
- Autonomy is the extent to which a social system is able to function at a normal level, using only resources derived from the ecosystem over which it has effective control.
- Solidarity is the ability of the social system to make and implement decisions in managing the ecosystem.
is the desired output of a system or output of valued product per unit resource input. It is measured in terms of crop yield or net income.
Productivity
is the property of short-term homeostasis or the consistency of productivity in the face of small, disturbing forces arising from the normal fluctuations and cycles in the surrounding environment.
Stability
is the ability of the system to persist in the face of repeated stress or major perturbation or it is the ability of the agroecosystem to maintain productivity when subjected to major disturbing forces.
Sustainability
is the evenness of distribution of the productivity of the agroecosystem among the human beneficiaries.
Equitability
is the extent to which a social system is able to function at a normal level, using only resources derived from the ecosystem over which it has effective control.
Autonomy
is the ability of the social system to make and implement decisions in managing the ecosystem.
Solidarity
