vEcology Notes - 1

Definitions

• Ecology: the study of the interrelationships of plants and animals with each other and their
environment
• Biosphere: that part of the earth and its atmosphere in which life can exist composed of ecosystems
• Ecosystems: composed of communities of organisms and their environment
• Communities: populations of different species of organisms in an ecosystem
• Population: all the members of one species living in an ecosystem.
• Habitats: is the place where an organism lives and to which it is adapted

Environmental Factors that affect organisms

Abiotic Factors:
● These are non-living (physical or chemical ) factors that affect a community
● E.g. Weather, altitude, aspect. Gas content.
Biotic Factors:
● These are living factors that affect other members of an ecosystem
● E.g. food, predators, disease, competitors, decomposers.
Edaphic Factors:
● Physical chemical and biological characteristics of soil.
● E.g. soil type, particle size, water content humus, microorganisms.
Climatic Factors:
● Abiotic, characteristics of weather or climate.
● Macroclimate – regional or global
● Microclimate – habitat range, much smaller.
Aquatic Factors:
● Physical chemical and biological characteristics of water environments

Energy Flow
● The Sun is the primary source of energy for our planet.
● Energy enters into the living system through photosynthesis
● Energy is passed through the ecosystem through feeding.

Food Chain

● Is a flow diagram that begins with a plant and shows how food/energy is passed through a series of
organisms in a community. The arrows show the direction of energy flow.
● Trophic level is the position of an organism in a food chain.
● Energy is lost at each stage in a food chain and eventually runs out.
● Food chains are rarely more than 5 trophic levels.
Types of Food chains

● Grazing food chain

o Starts with a green plant

Cabbage leaves → caterpillar→thrush

● Detritus food chain

o Begins with dead organic matter

Fallen leaves→earthworms→blackbirds→sparrow
hawk

Food
Web
● This is a chart showing all the feeding connections in the
habitat/ecosystem.
● Constructed by showing the links between all the
interconnecting food chains in the habitat.

Dependence:
● one species relies on another for survival
● e.g. cabbage white caterpillar needs cabbages (brassicas) to eat
Interdependence:
● two species rely on each other for survival
● e.g. bees feed on pollen and nectar and also pollinate the plants.
Pyramid of Numbers:
● Definition: A chart
showing the number of
individuals at each trophic
level
● There are many grass
plants feeding a smaller
number of rabbits, which
support very few foxes.
● This is a normal shape
pyramid of numbers. The
trend/ shape of this pyramid is as a result of two factors:
1) Large energy losses (90%) between each trophic level. Less energy available to the organisms higher up in the
pyramid.
2) The body size of the organisms usually increase as the pyramid increases. Bigger animals tend to feed on
smaller animals.
 Limitations to the Pyramid of numbers
● The Pyramid of numbers may not always take into account the size of the organisms.
● E.g. a single large rose bush can house many greenflies, therefore the rose bush is represented by a single
narrow rectangle.
● This shape often indicates a parasitic relationship between the organisms

Partially inverted pyramid of

numbers:

Ecological Niche
● This is the functional role of an organism in an ecosystem.
● Generally, two organisms (or populations) in an ecosystem cannot occupy the same niche (for long).
One will outcompete the other and eventually be the only one left.

Nutrient Recycling:
● Definition: It is the way in which elements such as carbon and nitrogen are exchanged between the
living and non-living components of an ecosystem.
● We look at how two nutrients are recycled, Carbon and Nitrogen;

1) Carbon Cycle – The process in which carbon from the environment is converted to carbon in living
things.

2) Nitrogen Cycle – How nitrogen is taken from the air made available for used by living things.
Human Impact on Ecosystems:

● Global warming is a big issue. You should expect issues like this to be addressed in this topic.
● Here areas to discuss:
o Pollution
o Conservation
o Waste management

Pollution:
Definition: Any harmful addition to the environment
● There are many types of pollution such as air, fresh water, sea and soil or land.
● We will study an example of air pollution.

Ozone Depletion- Air pollution

● Ozone (03) is a gas that forms a protective layer in the upper atmosphere.
● It helps to absorb and shield the Earth from incoming ultra violet radiation.
● Ozone depletion is caused by a range of manufactured chemical pollutants.
o These include CFC’S (Chlorofluorocarbon’s) used in aerosols, refrigerators and industrial
detergents.
Effects of ozone depletion: (less ozone allows more ultraviolet radiation to penetrate Earth’s Surface)
● Increased number of skin cancers
● Serious damage to crop and plant life
● Plankton depletion
Control of Ozone Depletion:
● Reduction in the use of CFC’s
● Spray or foam products that contain CFC’s should not be used
 ● Fridges should not be dumped in landfill sites. They should be returned to organisations that will
dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way.

Conservation:
● Definition: It is the wise management of the existing natural resources
in an ecosystem.
● Areas of conservation are Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry
Benefits of conservation:
● Prevents organisms from becoming extinct
● Maintains the balance of nature
● Organisms and habitats are enjoyable to see and visit

Fisheries:
Problems with Fisheries:
● Pollution of rivers, lakes and seas may reduce the amount of fish in these waters
● Overfishing has reduced fish stocks at sea.
● The use of small-mesh nets can result in too many young fish being caught.

Example of conservation in fisheries:

● Fishing with large nets that do not remove young, small fish
● Controlling the release of nutrients into rivers and lakes to improve the quality of the water
1) Storing slurry in leak proof pits
2) Spreading the slurry on dry land in the summer- nutrients can be absorbed by plants and
nutrients can be recycled

Waste Management:
● Definition: It is the way we as a society deal with our waste. It involves preventing pollution and
conserving the environment.
Waste management in fisheries:
● Accumulation of fish waste (fish heads, tails, fins, intestines) leads to unpleasant odours, infestation
of rats and low oxygen levels (due to decomposition of waste by bacteria)
Solutions:
● Establish recognised fish cleaning areas
● Implement fish composting
● Recycling the solid waste as pig feed
Problems associated with waste disposal:
● Wastes may contain micro-organisms which may causes diseases. These micro-organisms could
enter drinking water
● Nutrients released from waste can cause eutrophication of water supplies, leading to death of
plants and animals
● Waste in landfill sites can attract rats, gulls and produce unpleasant smells
● Dumping waste at sea can lead to pollution of the sea
Suggestions for waste minimisation:
● Reduce, re-use , recycle and repair
Role of micro-organisms in waste management and pollution control:
Landfill sites:
● Bacteria and fungi in the landfill sites break down the organic materials

Sewage: (waste from toilets, bathrooms)

● Primary sewage treatment- physical screening/ filtering waste, this removes large objects and solids
● Secondary sewage treatment- waste is acted on by bacteria and fungi. This biological treatment
breaks down most of the organic matter
● Tertiary sewage treatment- removes mineral nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates.

Factors that Control Populations

● These factors help maintain population numbers and bring about a ‘balance of nature’

1. Competition
2. Predation
3. Symbiosis
Animals compete Plants compete
for for:

Food Light
Water Water
Territory Minerals
mates space

Competition
● Can be: intraspecific:
o Between members of the same species i.e. within a species
o Most common
● Or interspecific:
o Between members of different species
o Two different species don’t usually have the same niche
Types of Competition
● Contest competition - involves an active physical confrontation between two organisms – one wins (All or
nothing)
● Scramble competition - This is where each organism tries to acquire as much of the resource as possible –
both get some

Effects of competition
● Restricts population size
● Driving force for evolution by natural selection. (Adaptation to aid survival)

Techniques to avoid (or survive) competition

Organisms adapt to their environment to optimize their interactions

Animal adaptive techniques Plant adaptive techniques

● Changing their feeding habits • They produce large numbers of seeds
● Camouflage
● Producing protective coats • Seeds germinate quickly, even in poor soil
● Moving away from over-populated areas • Plants thrive even in poorer soil conditions

Reproductive strategies

Adaptations can be behavioral, structural, or coloration.

Predation
● predation: the act, of some animals (predators), of capturing and
killing other animals for food.
● predator: animal that hunts, captures and kills other animals
(prey) for food. (ladybird)
● Prey: an animal that is caught and killed for food (aphid)
Positive effect of predation
● stabilises the community
● prevent overgrazing
● improving the populations overall health

Predators Prey
Keen senses Keen senses
Sharp teeth or claws Protective coatings (structural)
 Variable diet Nasty taste (chemical)
Pack hunting (cooperative behavior) Live in herds (cooperative behavior)
Migration Camouflage
Camouflage
Adaptations of predators and prey

Symbiosis (‘living together’)

Definition: where two organisms of different species have a close, specific relationship with each other where at
least one of them benefits.

● Parasitism – two species live in close association and one species causes harm to the other (liver fluke)
● Mutualism – both benefit (bees and plants/bacteria in gut)
● Commensalism – one species benefits the other is not affected. (barnacles on a whale)

Predator – Prey Relationships

● The numbers of predator and prey
are inter-related. Example;
relationship between a fox and a
rabbit.
Graph:
● As the number of prey build up, the
number of predators will rise.
● This will result in more of the prey
being killed, and so their number of prey will fall.
● This in turn will result in fewer predators so their numbers will then fall.
● Due to low predation, the numbers of prey will rise again, starting the cycle over again.

Factors that contribute to predator-prey interactions:

Availability of food:
● A large number of prey causes an increase in the number of predators.
● As the prey is killed off there is less food available for the predators so the number of predators
declines.
● This in turn allows the number of prey to rise again.
Concealment:
 ● The prey are prevented from being totally wiped out because, when their numbers are low, they
may successfully conceal/ camouflage themselves so that predators can no longer locate them
easily.
● This allows a small number of prey to survive and re-establish themselves.
Movement of predators:
● If the number of prey is low, the predator will move area where the prey is more numerous, to get
sufficient food to survive.
● This allows the prey in the old location to increase in number.
It is the balance in factors such as these that results in a repeated cyclical change in the numbers of
predator and prey.

Human Population Growth

Factors affecting human population growth:
1. War
● War reduces population numbers as a result of death. However, these results can be temporary if a
increase in birth rate (baby boom) follows.

2. Famine
● A lack of food leads to malnutrition and death due to disease or starvation
● Advances in agricultural techniques have allowed food supplies to match population growth

3. Contraception:
● Increased availability of contraceptives has reduced birth rates since the 1960’s.

4. Disease:
● The use of vaccines has reduced the incidence of diseases such as typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, TB
and polio.
● Improved sanitation has helped control diseases such as malaria, yellow fever.

These disease control methods have helped to reduce the death rate and increase human numbers.