CLASS XII - BIOLOGY

CHAPTER 13 - ORGANISMS AND POPULATION, SESSION 1

FACULTY - Ms. SREEJEENA.G

NOTES

Ecology is the branch of biology that deals with the interactions among organisms
and between the organism and its physical (abiotic) environment. Study of ecology is
important to strike a balance between development and maintenance of natural
environmental and biotic communities, use and conservation of resources, solve
local, regional and global environmental problems.
Organizational level of ecology
 Organism: It is the basic level of ecology. Living component of the
environment at individual level is called organism.
 Population: A population is a group of organisms of the same species that
live in the same area at the same time. Population ecologists study the size,
density, and structure of populations and how they change over time.
 Community: A biological community consists of all the populations of
different species that live in a given area. Community ecologists focus on
interactions between populations and how these interactions shape the
community.
 Ecosystem: An ecosystem consists of all the organisms in an area, the
community, and the abiotic factors that influence that community. Ecosystem
ecologists often focus on flow of energy and recycling of nutrients.
 Biosphere: The biosphere is planet Earth, viewed as an ecological system.
Ecologists working at the biosphere level may study global patterns—for
example, climate or species distribution—interactions among ecosystems, and
phenomena that affect the entire globe, such as climate change.
 Biome: The large unit of environment consisting of a community of plants and
animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in.
  Niche: The ecological niche of an organism represents the range of conditions
that it can tolerate, the resources it utilizes and its functional role in the
ecological system. Each species occupies a distinct niche and no two species
occupy the same niche.

The levels of ecology are listed above from small to large. They build progressively;
populations are made up of individuals; communities are made up of populations;
ecosystems are made up of a community plus its environment; and so forth. Each level
of organization has emergent properties, new properties that are not present in the
level's component parts but emerge from from these parts' interactions and
relationships.
  Ecological hierarchy or ecological level of organization connected with
ecological grouping of organisms
Organism and its Environment
 Environment: The sum total of all biotic and abiotic factors, substances and
conditions that surround and potentially influence organisms without
becoming their constituent part is called environment. At organism level,
physiological ecology tries to understand how different organisms are adapted
to their environment in terms of survival and reproduction.
 Different seasons results due to
a) Rotation of earth around the sun
b) Tilting of the earth on its axis
Formation of a Biome depends upon:
 Annual variations in the intensity and duration of temperature
 Annual variation in precipitation
The major biomes of the world include desert, grassland, rainforest and tundra