2.

1 Species and Population

● Ecology: study of the interactions between organisms and the environment in
which they live in.

biosphere⬇

biomes⬇

ecosystem⬇

communities⬇

population⬇

species⬇

● Ecosystem: a community of interdependent organisms and the physical

environment they interact with.
0 Made up of biotic and abiotic organisms.
● Species: basic units of biological classification
0 Same common ancestor
○ Similar physical characteristics
○ Interbreed and produce fertile offspring
● Species live together in a population and they each have a habitat and a niche.
0 Habitat (where they live)
○ Niche (what they do for a living)
● Each habitat has limiting factors and a carrying capacity.
0 Limiting factors (things that control the population size)
○ Carrying capacity (a maximum number of species that it can support at a
given time) ● Population: a group of individuals of the same species living in the same
area at the same time.
● Abiotic component can operate as limiting factors.
● Habitat: the environmet in which a species usually lives
0 physical/biological resources
■ Food, water, shelter, ates, soil,
predators ○ Parasite's habitat is the host's
body.
 ● Niche: the role an organisms plays and the position it holds in the environment. It
includes all the interactions the organisms has with the biotic and abiotic
environment
0 Fundamental: full range of conditions and resources in which a species
could survive.
○ Realized: the actual conditions and resources in which a species exists.

If species A outcompetes species B then B's realized niche will be smaller than its fundamental
niche. Whereas, A's realized will have the same size as the fundamental niche.

● Limiting factors: the resources in the environment that limit the growth, abundance
and distribution of populations in a ecosystems.
0 Density dependent: affects when population reaches a certain density.
○ Density independent: affects no matter what.
● Carrying capacity: the maximum number of individual of a species that the
environment can support in a given area.

S-shaped population curve (k-strategists)

 J-shaped population curve (r-strategists)

● Predation: the predator hunts and kills the prey in order to provide it with the
energy for survival and reproduction

● Herbivory: the consumption of plant material by herbivores

0 Defence- thorns, pricks, chemicals
 ● Parasitism: the parasite takes nutrients from the host.
0 Lives outside or inside
○ Population curve is similar to prey-predator curve
● Mutualism: two organisms of different species exist in a mutually beneficial
relationship.
0 Bacteria in the intestines of cows helps digestion
○ Corals and algae-algae photosynthesis and give off O2 to coral polyp and
algae CO2 and protection.
● Competition: organisms compete for a resource that is in limited supply ○ Resource
must be limited for competition to occur ○ Intraspecific: members of the same
species.
0 Interspecific: members of different species.
● Community: a group of populations living and interacting with each other in a
common habitat

2.2 Communities and Ecosystems

● Ecosystem includes abiotic components whereas, the community is just the living
components.
● Producers
0 Autotrophs (plants, archaea)
● Consumers
0 Heterotrophs (herbivores, carnivores,
omnivores) ● Decomposers/Detritivores ● Photosynthesis:
● Respiration:
Food chain

Food web
 Food chain Food web

DIFFERENCES DIFFERENCES

Simple single line of animals showing what A number of interconnected food chains so it is a complex
eats what. mass of lines.

Only has one arrow to and from each Several arrows point away from an organism to everything it
organism. eats.

Shows only one trophic level for each Can show organisms at different trophic levels.
organism.

Several arrows point towards an organism to show

everything that eats it.

SIMILARITIES SIMILARITIES

Show feeding relationships.

Show the direction of the flow of energy and

matter.

● Only 10% of the energy is passed onto the next trophic level.

ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
● Pyramids of numbers
○ Number of individuals at each
trophic level ○ Advantages:
■ Non-destructive method of data collection
■ Good for comparing changes in an ecosystem
over time ○ Disadvantages:
■ All organisms are included regardless of their size
■ Numbers can be so big that it is hard to represent them accurately
● Pyramids of biomass
○ Amount of biomass at each trophic level
○ Standing stock of energy storage at each
trophic level ○ Measured in mass per unit area
or gm-2/Jm-2 for energy ○ Advantages:
 ■ It overcomes the problem of counting seen in pyramids of numbers.

● Pyramid of productivity
○ Turnover of biomass at each trophic level
○ Flow of energy over a period of time
○ Jm-2yr-1
○ Always pyramid-shaped (due to the
10% rule) ○ Advantages:
■ Most accurate pyramids as the show actual energy available and
the rate of production over a period of time. ■ Ecosystems can be
compared.

● Bioaccumulation: the increase in the concentration of the pollutant in an organism

as it absorbs or it gets it from its environment.
● Long Lasting
● Nonpolar
● Biologically active compound
 ● Biomagnification: the increase in the concentration of the pollutant in an organism
as it moves up through the food chain.

Pharies leaf monkey

2.3 Flows of Energy and Matter

● Productivity: the conversion of energy into biomass for a given period of time. ●

Unit- Jm-2yr-1

Productivity

● NPP (Net Primary Productivity)

● GPP (Gross Primary Productivity)
● R (respiratory losses, fecal losses)

NPP = GPP - R

NPP = light - initial

GPP = light - dark

R = initial - dark
● GSP (Gross Secondary Productivity)
○ Gm-2yr-1/Jm-2yr-1
GSP = food eaten - fecal loss

● NSP (Net Secondary Productivity)

NSP = GSP - R

Stock management – statistical models, implement top management – strand of sustainable

yield whereby the population size is not threated by killing the females.

Salmon – Predators

Bald Eagle

Grizzly Bear

Sink – point from which the matter is stored in

Carbon that is in the air has a higher concertation so the interaction is higher with the ocean
body hence more carbon will react with the surface of the body which will lead to more
dissolved CO2 in the water
Formation of the fossil – fossilization

Mrs gren

Nitrogen fixing bacteria –

Monosaccharides

Protein is made of amino acids – broken down – ammonia

2.4 Biomes, Zonation, and Succession

○ R-strategist and K-strategist

Characteristic r-strategists K-strategists

Example Invertebrates, fish, small mammals, Humans, elephants, trees,

annual plants, bacteria. albatrosses.

Size Small Large

Offspring Vast numbers of small offspring with Very few larger offspring with high
low chances of survival. survival rates.

Parental care None Large amounts of time and energy.

Succession Colonize new unstable habitats early Later stages with stable
in succession (pioneer). environment where they out-
compete r-strategists (climax).

Reproduction Mature young and reproduce quickly Mature late and reproduce slowly –
– multiple offspring/birth. 1 or 2 per birth.
 Population Regulated by external factors so boom Regulated by internal factors so
or bust scenario where carrying population numbers stay below
capacity often exceeded. carrying capacity.

Life span Short Long

Growth rate Fast Slow

Niche Generalists Specialists

Food chain Prey/low trophic levels. Predator/higher trophic levels.

○ Succession: the process in which an area changes through time.

■ Predictable change
■ Stage = seres
■ Leads to higher biodiversity
○ Biomes: a major association of predominant vegetation that share similar
climate characteristics

■ Aquatic
■ Forest
■ Grassland
■ Desert
■ Tundra

Riverine habitat

➢ Each biome has a particular set of abiotic, limiting factors, productivity and
biodiversity.
➢ Insolation, precipitation, and temperature are the main factors affecting the
distribution of biomes

○ Tricellular Model: explains how thermal energy is distributed around the

planet and why the major biomes are where they are.

■ Three cells:
■ Haldey cell
■ Ferrel cell
■ Polar cell
 ○ Zonation: spatial change in vegetation community in response to changing
contributions.

2.5 Investigating Ecosystems

● Estimating non-motile organisms:
○ Use of quadrats for making actual counts.
○ Measuring population density
○
Percentage cover ○
Percentage
frequency ●
Estimating motile
organisms:
○ Direct:
■ Actual counts
■
Sampling
○
Indirect:
■ Capture - mark - recapture (Lincoln index)
Identifying organisms in ecosystems
● Dichotomous key: a stepwise tool for identification where there are two options
based on different characteristics at each step. The outcome of each choice leads to
another pair of options.
○ Written key
○ Tree diagram
Measuring abiotic components of the ecosystem
● Abiotic factors that can be measured within an ecosystem include:
0 Marine: salinity, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, wave action
○ Freshwater: turbidity, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, flow velocity
○ Terrestrial: temperature, light intensity, wind speed, particle size, slope, soil
moisture, drainage, mineral content

● Light
0 A light-meter is used to measure the light intensity
○ It is repeated several times to increase reliability
 ● Temperature
0 An electronic thermometer with probes (datalogger)
● pH
0 Measured using a pH meter or a datalogger pH probe
● Wind
0 Measured by observing the effects of wind on objects (related to
Beaufort scale) ● Particle size
○ Measured using a series of sieve with increasingly fine mesh size
○ Optical techniques that is examining the properties of light scattered by a
suspension of soil in water
● Slope
0 Calculated using a clinometer ● Soil moisture
○ Weighing samples before and after heating
(evaporated water) ● Mineral content
○ The loss of ignition test can
determine ● Flow velocity
○ Timing how long it takes a floating object to travel a distance (calibrated
propeller) ● Salinity
○ Electrical conductivity (datalogger)
○ Or by the density of water (the higher the slat content, the higher
the density) ○ Expressed in parts per thousand (ppt) ● Dissolved oxygen
○ O2 sensitive electrodes connected to a meter can be used to measure it
○ Or a more labour intensive method is
Winkler- titration ● Wave action
○ Measured using a dynamometer, which measures the force in the waves
because waves have high levels of O2
● Turbidity
0 Cloudy water clear water
○ Affects the penetration of sunlight into water
○ Measured using a Secchi disc or a nephelometer or a turbidimeter

Measuring biotic components of the

ecosystem ● Lincoln index
○ Estimate the total population size of a motile animal
○ Mathematics is also used (formula used)
○ "capture - mark - release - recapture"
N1 X N2 / Nm
N1- caught in the 1st round and marked
N2- caught in the 2nd round
Nm- caught in the 2nd which were
previously marked ● Population
density:
Population density = total number of a species in all quadrats/area of one quadrat X
total number of quadrats

● The sampling system used depends on the areas being sampled

○ Random sampling is used if the same habitat is found throughout the area.
○ Stratified random sampling is used in two area different in habitat quality
○ Systematic sampling is used along transect where there is an
environmental gradient ● Estimating the biomass of trophic levels:
○ Measurement of dry mass
○ Controlled combustion
○ Extrapolation from samples
● Biomass: total energy within a living being or trophic level.
● Extrapolation: mass of organisms one / average mass of a few organisms, is
multiplied by the total number of organisms.

● Species richness if the number of species in a community.

● Species diversity is the number of species and their relative abundance in a given
area or sample.

QUESTIONS
➢ How do EVSs influence the choice and implementation of pollution management
strategies? Environment value system is a particular worldview which shapes the
mindset and the way one perceives and evaluate an environment problem. It is not
necessary that everyone has a same perspective and approach a problem in a same
way. So people who live in different cultural and social backgrounds who are
provided with different education; who are exposed to different media outlets; will
have different methods and opinions about certain environmental issues.

➢ How does your own value system compare with others we have learned about in
chapter I? How does it influence your opinion and course of action in regards to
pollution management? People from different socio-cultural backgrounds will have
different value towards the environment. So it is not appropriate to expect the
same thing from everyone. But some might have a combination of two value
 systems or all three of them. I think I am more of a anthropocentric person because
I believe both environment and technology is important for a sustainable future.
They both go hand in hand. But it is up to us how we utilize it. There should be a
balance.

➢ What is a model?
A model is a simplified representation or overview of something. It can be a chart, or a
3D model.

➢ What are the strengths and weaknesses of models?

Strengths:
❏ Allows for predictions
❏ Make complex concepts more simple to understand
❏ Overview of inter-relations
❏ Accessible to diverse audience
❏ Allows us to consult with
experts Limitations:
❏ Lack of detail leads to assumptions and hence inaccurate data
❏ Open to interpretation
❏ Rely on skill and experience of model makers

➢ What is your vision for a sustainable future?

If I close my eyes, take a long breath, and get at peace, like Dana Meadows says, I can
feel happiness and calmness. A sense of responsibility towards the nature, and
towards yourself. A future where there is no dispute for land or water, where
everyone's need is satisfied and no one is greedy, where the atmosphere is clean and
there is no need to use masks and purifiers, where people no only think about
themselves but they also think about the future as well.

➢ What is global warming? Explain how it happens in as much detail as possible.

Global warming is the increase in the temperature of the earth due to carbon
emissions. Earth has a capacity to capture heat and light from the sun. When the sun
sets, it starts to radiate the heat back to the atmosphere but because there is a layer
of carbon-dioxide. The heat stays inside the atmosphere and thus, it makes the earth's
temperature to increase.