SZL202: BASIC ECOLOGY

Ecology is a branch of biology concerned with interrelationships among living organisms,

encompassing the relations of organisms with each other, to the environment, and to the energy
balance within a given ecosystem. Ecology includes the study of interactions organisms have with
other organisms, and with abiotic components of their environment.
Ecosystems and their components
The Ecosystem: A fundamental unit in ecology comprising the living organisms and the nonliving
elements that interact in a defined region. An ecosystem is a community of living and non-living
things that work together– it consists of abiotic (soil, water, air) and biotic parts (flora, fauna).
Ecosystems have no particular size. An ecosystem can be as large as a desert or as small as a tree. The
major parts of an ecosystem are: water, temperature, plants, animals, air, light and soil. They all work
together. If there isn't enough light or water or if the soil doesn't have the right nutrients, the plants will
die. If the plants die, animals that depend on them will die. If the animals that depend on the plants die,
any animals that depend on those animals will die. All the parts in an ecosystem work together to
achieve balance. A healthy ecosystem has lots of species and is less likely to be damaged by human
interaction, natural disasters and climate changes. Every species has a niche in its ecosystem that helps
keep the system healthy. Plants and animals form highly organized and remarkably efficient
communities. We generally think of communities in terms of their living, or biotic components.
However, organisms do not exist apart from their chemical and physical environment. Trees cannot
be separated from the air that surrounds them or from the water and minerals in the soil. To express
the fact that the living (biotic) and the nonliving (chemicophysical) components make up a natural
entity or ecological system, the term ecosystem was proposed by the British ecologist Sir Arthur
George Tansley in 1935.
The ecosystem brings together the community of animals and plants and also the chemical and
physical components of the immediate environment in which the community exists. The ecosystem is
a self-contained unit characterized by an orderly flow of energy and materials between the
organisms and their environment.
Not only are we part of the various ecosystems of the world, but we exert a dominant influence on
all of the ecosystems. Our attitude and actions are oriented toward monopolizing and manipulating
other species of organisms and exploiting the environment as well. We view nature as existing for
no other reason than to serve our wants and needs. We have managed to disturb or stress many of
the components of various ecosystems. The disturbance of one component of an ecosystem almost
invariably results in changes, often unwelcome, in other aspects of the system.
Components of the ecosystem. Despite its apparent complexity, four basic components may be
recognized in the ecosystem: producer organisms, consumer organisms, decomposer organisms,
and abiotic substances. The producers are the green plants that convert the flow of solar energy into
stored chemical energy. Since the producers can trap light energy and manufacture carbohydrates
from simple inorganic substances, they are said to be autotrophic (self-nourishing). The organic
materials synthesized by the plants are utilized, directly or indirectly, by the consumers. The
consumers are heterotrophic (other-nourishing), lacking the ability to manufacture their own
organic nutrients.
The organisms of decay are the decomposers, the bacteria and fungi that break down the complex
compounds of dead plants and animals. Their nutrition is termed saprophytic (sapros, ‘rotten’) since
they live on dead or decaying organic matter. These organisms return chemicals to the soil, water or
air, from which these chemicals become available again as vital nutrients for the green plants. These
chemicals are the abiotic substances, which include a wide array of basic elements, such as
carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus. Chemicals in an ecosystem flow
continually between the organisms and the environment in circular pathways that are known as

1
biogeochemical cycles (bio for ‘‘life’’, geo signifying ‘‘earth, ground, soil,’’ and chemical,
pertaining to the composition of substances). Chemicals pass back and forth in an ecosystem,
whereas energy follows a one-way route into and out of the system. Energy cannot be transferred
from one organism to another without some of the energy at each transfer being dispersed into
unavailable heat energy.
Ecosystem Dynamics
When new biotic or abiotic elements enter into an ecosystem, they cause an interruption. This can also
lead to death of certain species within the ecosystem. But often ecosystems can protect themselves from
intruders, depending on the toxicity of the new element and the resiliency of the original ecosystem.
Organisms have survived despite continuous changes, natural selection and intruders, but they had to
adapt to new conditions. Changes are always gradual. Some species even disappear and new ones move
in. Usually the population remains within limits of the food supply within an ecosystem. In general,
ecosystems are more resilient to sudden or great changes than each species individually.
Energy flow in biotic communities. A biotic community is an organized assemblage of different,
mutually dependent species. There is a flow of energy through the succession of diverse organisms
in the community. The flow of energy within a community is not cyclical; it is a one-way sequence
in which usable energy becomes progressively less available to the higher level of organisms.
Energy flow in a community would cease in the absence of a continuous inflow of energy.
Communities do not readily fade away, so there must be an uninterrupted energy input from an
outside source. There is such an ultimate source –the radiant energy from the sun. All organisms
ultimately rely on solar energy. More immediately, organisms rely on the primary producers, the
green plants, to capture and convert the solar energy into the chemical energy of organic
compounds.
Food chains. The sequence of organisms through which energy is channeled is called a food chain.
The green plant constitutes the producer at the base of the food chain, since it furnishes chemical
energy in a form (sugars) that consumers can use. Those animals that feed directly on plants are the
primary consumers, or herbivores, such as the snowshoe hare, deer, and seed eating birds.
Carnivores that feed on the herbivores are the secondary consumers; the frog that consumes the
grasshopper is a secondary consumer. Higher categories of carnivorous animals may exist in a
community, in which case we may speak of them as tertiary and quaternary consumers. An
example of different categories of consumers would be the hawk feeding on a snake that, in turn,
preys on a frog. We may thus envision a food chain in a meadow community as follows: clover-
grasshopper-frog-snake-hawk. The hawk would represent the final consumer, or the top carnivore.
The feeding interrelations of organisms are better depicted in terms of more or less discrete
functional trophic levels. Thus all organisms that share the same general source of nutrition belong
to the same trophic level. We may consider a community as having four or five trophic levels, each
level containing a variable number of species. The first trophic level is represented by the
producers, or the variety of green plant species. Herbivores, the plant feeders, compose the second
trophic level (and, as earlier stated, may be called primary consumers). Carnivores that feed on the
herbivorous animals constitute the third trophic level (and may be called the secondary consumers).
Still higher categories of carnivores that prey on the secondary consumers would occupy the fourth
and even the fifth trophic levels.
As a general rule, the further removed an organism is from the initial source of nutrients (the
producer), the less likely it is to depend solely on the preceding trophic level for subsistence.
Indeed, many consumers do not restrict their feeding activities to one trophic level alone. As
examples, the red fox, bear and human occupy herbivorous and carnivorous levels. They are
omnivorous, eating everything, as the term implies. The food chain is also linked to decomposers.
Decomposers are organisms of decay- the bacteria and fungi- that break down the organic
molecules of dead plants and animals to simpler inorganic components. These simpler substances

2
are cycled back to the community as vital nutrients (nitrates, phosphates, and sulfates) for the
development and growth of new plant producers. The decomposers are typically microscopic and
occur in countless numbers. They exhibit a high degree of specialization; specific types of bacteria
and specific kinds of fungi are involved in particular reactions in the total process of organic
decomposition.
Food Webs. In a biotic community, numerous food chains are interwoven in a complex food web.
A food web may be defined as a network of interlocking food chains. The greater the diversity of
the species in a food web, the greater the stability of the food web. A highly diversified biotic
community is less vulnerable to disruptive influences. It may be compared roughly to an industrial
organization that has diversified its products; depressed sales of one product can be offset by
augmented sales of another product. If one herbivorous species in a heterogeneous biotic
community should decline because of some adverse factor, another herbivorous species with
comparable nutritional requirements would most likely, in the resulting absence of direct
competition, consume more of the common food sources. Accordingly, it can be expected that the
same amount of harvest of the producers would be utilized. Moreover, the lowered numbers of the
decimated herbivorous species would be augmented by the increased numbers of the flourishing
herbivorous species.
Energy Flow. Organisms at successfully higher trophic levels pass on to others less energy than
they received. In other words, the organisms at one trophic level have available to them less energy
for growth, reproduction, and self-maintenance than the organisms at the preceding level. This
follows from the two basic laws of thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics relates to the
conservation of energy: energy on earth is neither created nor destroyed. Energy can be transformed
from one form to another-from light energy to chemical energy to heat energy – and there is no net
gain or loss in the total energy. As applied to living organisms, the second law of thermodynamics
informs us that at each energy transformation, a certain proportion of the available energy is
inevitably dissipated as heat. Although the total amount of energy for the earth remains constant,
there is a progressive loss of useful, or usable energy from lower to higher trophic levels. Thus, as
previously mentioned, the flow of energy within a community is not cyclical but unidirectional.
Most of the solar radiation reaching the earth’s atmosphere is either absorbed by the earth’s surface
or reflected into space by clouds and dust. Only a very small fraction (0.023 percent) of the
incoming solar energy is trapped by the leaves of green plants. Moreover, plants are less than 1
percent efficient in converting solar energy into chemical energy. With subsequent energy
transformations in the community, only about 10 percent of the energy absorbed by one trophic
level can be transmitted to the next trophic level. About 90 percent of the energy at a given level is
lost through respiration or is not assimilated at all. Although carnivores tend to be more efficient
than herbivores in using energy, it is generally conceded that the energy available to one trophic
level averages one-tenth of the energy available to the preceding level. About 0.02 percent of the
original energy fixed by the producers manages to reach the top carnivore at the highest trophic
level.
Given these considerations, we find that the biomass, the total amount of living matter (in terms of
total dry weight, or caloric value, or other measure), tends to decrease from lower to higher trophic
levels. The top carnivores generally are individually larger, but their numbers are less abundant than
organisms at preceding levels. It should be evident that the shorter the food chain, the greater the
total mass that the terminal species can attain. A three-linked food chain, provides more energy for
growth and reproduction of the third order consumer population than the five-linked chain to the
fifth order consumer.
Human Communities. The loss of energy at successive levels in a food chain has obvious
implications for human population growth. The most terminal member of an extensive food chain is
least abundant in a population. One important factor that contributes to the small population size of

3
Eskimos is that they exist as top carnivores of a relatively elaborate food chain; marine algae-
zooplankton- fish- seals- whales- humans. In densely populated countries, such as those in the Far
East, humans have intentionally eliminated the intermediate consumers and have reduced the food
chain to its simplest terms: rice- humans. Replacement of the herbivores (cow, sheep, or pig)
circumvents the energy loss that ordinarily would occur between trophic levels. If humans were the
only link in the food chain, over a hundred times more energy would be available to us than we now
receive as the terminal member of the more elaborate chain: plankton- small aquatic animal (e.g.
copepods)- smelt-trout- humans. For this reason, research has been directed in recent years to
cultivating the single-celled alga Chlorella in a controlled manner in the laboratory. However,
practical algal culture on a large scale for food purposes is still a vague hope rather than a present
reality. A short food chain is especially susceptible to an ecologic catastrophe. With a food chain
oversimplified to its barest components (rice-humans), any interruption (such as the destruction of
the rice crop by disease and erratic monsoons) would abruptly decimate the whole chain.
The potential for increasing the world’s food supply by cultivating the open oceans is limited. Just
as high-yield varieties of rice and wheat have required enormous amounts of industrial fertilizers,
greater growth of plankton and fish would entail tremendous investment of nutrient salts. Moreover,
most of the marine fishes of economic importance to humans occupy the higher trophic levels,
which are subject to the reduction in energy that the second law of thermodynamics upholds. To
obtain more food from the sea we require oversimplification of the food chain- the removal of
zooplankton and small fish. Then humans would be placed in more direct competition with the
birds, whales, and seals. Most likely, gross instability of the marine community would ensue;
humans have already demonstrated their capability in causing demise, or near extinction, of one of
the higher members of the marine pyramid, the blue whale. As a result of commercial exploitation,
the blue whale population is but a small remnant of a once great assemblage. Moreover, when the
population density becomes too low, the chance of meeting and mating of a bull and cow becomes
increasingly unlikely. Several years ago, the International Whaling Commission, represented by
many nations, voted into effect a worldwide ban on the killing of blue Whales. Despite our highest
resolve and best collective efforts, nations have persisted in the hunting of the blue whale.
Succession. The gradual, predictable changes in the composition of a community as it progresses in
the direction of greater stability is called succession. Biotic communities undergo an orderly series
of changes as they evolve into biologically richer and more complex communities. The succession
is referred to as primary when it starts from a bare rock, a sand dune, or a new volcanic island. It
is said to be secondary when the event proceeds from an environment that had earlier been
colonized but has been disrupted by fire, storms, or human activity. In both primary and
secondary succession, the community is re-established by opportunistic pioneer organisms, which
yield to successively better adapted inhabitants. The final outcome is a relatively stable climax
community, which, unless disturbed, tends to be self-sustaining. At the terminal climax stage, one
or two plant species predominantly determine the biotic characteristics of the region. The biotic
community bears the name of the dominant species, such as the Douglas fir community or the
mixed oak-hickory association. In essence, a climax forest community has approached a state of
equilibrium with its environment, perpetuating itself without major change.
A fire can spoil a large stretch of an oak-hickory forest and convert it into cropland. Over a period
of many years, one community of plants will replace another until a relatively stable forest
eventually is established again. In the first year following the fire, the open, burned spaces will be
invaded by opportunistic weed plants, chiefly ragweed and evening primrose. Native annual pant
species will establish themselves, germinating quickly. In the second year, longer-lived perennial
herbs will choke out the annuals. Goldenrods and wild asters will come into prominence and lay
claim to the site for many years. In the fifth year, woody plants (bayberry and dogwood) will begin

4
to take over, and red cedars will crowd in. At about the 15th year, the red cedars will be about 8 feet
high, intermixed with elm, red maple, and apple seedlings. At this point, the woods have an open,
park like appearance, with many small trees rising above the shrubs.
After more than six decades, the first seedlings of the original dominants (oak and hickories) will
reappear. The long delay in their reappearance drives from the fact that their seeds are not wind
disseminated but are transported by squirrels and chipmunks. The oaks and hickories will
eventually shade out the cedars and attain their former stature as climax trees. It should be noted
that a mature forest has several strata or layers, including a layer of ground herbs, a layer of wood
shrubs, a layer of understory trees, and a canopy layer. Each layer receives a different amount of
sunlight and harbors its own unique assemblage of plant and animal life.
Ecosystem Homeostasis. The functioning of a natural ecosystem, depends on the breakdown of the
organic remains and the turnover of chemical materials so that they can reenter the system. There is
no waste in a natural ecosystem. The organic products of any one species are the raw materials of
other species. Each constituent organism is important. There is a balanced interplay among the
producers, consumers, and decomposers. The ecosystem as a whole tends to be balanced and self-
contained. A homeostatic condition exists in an ecosystem. Faced with disturbing conditions, the
ecosystem can self-regulate. However, there are limits in its capacity to adjust and to endure. The
capacity of an ecosystem to adapt to an environmental catastrophe (such as fire or drought) or to a
sudden increase in numbers of one species is largely a function of its diversity. The greater the
diversity of species, the greater the stability of the ecosystem. When a given species (a particular
insect, for example) begins to multiply excessively and assume pest proportions, the outbreak of
that species will tend to be controlled by a natural predator of that species- if, and only if, the
ecosystem is diverse enough to contain the suitable predator species in the food chain or web. In the
absence of species diversity, the ecosystem is vulnerable to a disturbing change and may be unable
to adjust to the change. As a striking example, Australia became drastically and massively
colonized by rabbits primarily because there were no effective predators. The Australian
ecosystem remained markedly unstable for many years until humans intervened by inoculating
rabbits with a deadly virus. In this case, our action was beneficent; more often than not, however,
we adversely disturb the internal self-regulation of ecosystems.