ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ECOLOGICAL HIERARCHY

• Environmental Science
- interaction of physical, chemical, biological
aspects of the environment
- focuses on the impacts of humans on the
environment
- aims to identify internal and external
factors that affect the environment and the
organism

Example of environmental concerns:

- how urban areas drive environmental

changes • Individual organism
- materials for human consumption and the - single living thing
effects on the biodiversity - individual directly influenced by the
surrounding environment
- environmental and global issues
• Population
- assemblage of similar organisms, similar
• Multidisciplinary vs. Interdisciplinary species, living together in one place at a
given time
• Ecology - the species can reproduce (because, sex
- Oikologie (oikos, “household”; logos, baby)
“study)
- study of an organism’s interaction with • Community
another organism and the environment - e.g., farmland community
- distribution, behavior of organisms, as - different populations of species living
affected by the interactions together in an area
- aims to understand life processes,
adaptation, distribution, and diversity of • Ecosystem
organisms - composed of all biotic and abiotic
components in an area
• Some branches of ecology
- Behavioral ecology • Biome
- Eco-physiology - area of Earth that can be classified based
- Eco-toxicology on plants and animals that live in it.
- Terrestrial ecology - e.g., freshwater biome
- Aquatic ecology
 Freshwater ecology • Biosphere
 Marine ecology - total area of Earth where living things are
found
• In the issue of pollution, an
- Environmental Scientist – analyze pollution
levels and other risk factors
- Ecologist – determine the welfare of
certain populations and suggest ways to
protect species
PHILOSOPHERS AND SCIENTISTS THAT HAD
CONTRIBUTION TO ECOLOGY
• Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
- “Historia Animalia” – regards the habits of
animals and prevailing environmental
conditions
• Theophrastus (371 BC – 287 BC)
- Botanist
- wrote a book about plant communities and
distribution of plants in relation to the
environment
- first true ecologist
- also studied diseases of plants due to
weather conditions
Arcadian Ecology Imperial Ecology
- simple, humble life of - man is dominant over
man, in a harmonious nature due to ability to
relationship with nature reason and do hard work
• Carolus Linnaeus (1707 – 1778)
- supports imperial ecology
- “Oeconomy of Nature” – accounts on the
different environmental factors on plant
- father of taxonomy; binomial system of
nomenclature
- “Systema Naturae” – book on plant
classification
❖ Phenology
- the study of cyclic and seasonal natural
phenomena, especially in relation to climate
and plant and animal life
- e.g., how climate affects hibernation
patterns of animals
2OTH CENTURY
• Alexander von Humbolt (1769 – 1859)
- father of ecology
- Nature is dynamic and constantly
changing. Nothing in nature can be studied
in isolation.
- all phenomena are connected
- also contributed to the idea of plant
geography
- described ecological gradient of latitudinal
biodiversity (biodiversity ↓ as we go
poleward; species are denser in tropical
areas)
• Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)
- natural selection
- Theory of Evolution
• Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903)
- coined the term “survival of the fittest”
- early founder of social ecology (role of
humans)
• Karl Mobius (1825 – 1908)
- coined the term “biocenosis” - group of
interdependent organisms living and
interacting in an area
- concept of ecological community
• Ernst Haeckel (1834 – 1919)
- coined the term “ecology” (oikologie)
- German zoologist and evolutionist
- popularizes research links between
ecology and evolution
• Victor Hensen – “plankton”
• Arthur Tansley – “ecosystem”
• Engenius/Eugene Warming –
“biogeography”; ecological plant geography
• Stephen Forbes – Entomology
• Victor Shelford – physiological ecology
• Vladimir Verdnasky – concept of biosphere
• Charles Elton – Father of animal ecology;
niche; food chain/web
• Henry Cowles – pioneer of ecological
succession
• Eugene Odum – wrote the first ecology
textbook; pioneered ecology as a university
course
• James Lovelock
- “Gaia” – book series about the Gaia
Hypothesis
 Earth is a living entity that can
ensure its survival even if humans
destroyed themselves
• Chief Seattle
- “The earth does not belong to man, man
belongs to earth… whatever he does to the
web, he does to himself.”
 • Barry Commoner OROGRAPHIC EFFECT
- Laws of Ecology
- “The Closing Circle”
- ecologist, botanist, physicist, US
presidency candidate
- pioneered studies on virus and plant cell
interactions
- 1953 – fought against nuclear tests

ECOLOGICAL FACTORS

• Biotic – living organisms in the environment

• Abiotic – non-living component

ABIOTIC FACTORS - occurs in mountainous areas near the sea

- considered as selective factors on the survival of - occurs when air masses are forced to flow over
species high topography
1. Resources – can be consumed directly (e.g., - windward side – more moisture
food and water)
- leeward side – drier conditions
2. Conditions – not directly consumed but affect
survival of organisms

• Edaphic Factor LIEBIG’S LAW OF THE MINIMUM

- soil properties
- e.g., pH level, temp., salinity, moisture,
nutrients, texture, organic matter

• Climactic Factor
- contributes to the general and overall
effect of climate by influencing the life
processes of plants which constitute the
vegetation
- e.g., light, temperature, humidity, wind

• Topographic Factor
- physical structure of an area
- e.g., altitude, angle of slope

* There is an inverse relationship between

barometric pressure and altitude (i.e.,
elevation increases, atmospheric pressure
- by German scientist Justus von Liebig, 19th
decreases).
century

- states that if one of the essential plant nutrients is

deficient, plant growth will be poor even when all
other essential nutrients are abundant

- It states that growth is controlled not by the total of

resources available, but by the scarcest resource
(limiting factor)
LIMITING FACTORS ▪ Zones of intolerance – Outermost regions in
which organisms cannot survive (represents
- constrains a population’s size and slows or stops it
extremes of the limiting factor)
from growing
Source: https://ib.bioninja.com.au/options/option-
- e.g., food, water, light, space, shelter, and access c-ecology-and-conser/c1-species-and-
to mates communities/survival-factors.html
• Density-dependent
- depends on the population
- e.g., competition, predation,
diseases/parasites, waste accumulation

• Density-independent
- e.g., storms, wildfires, drought

SHELFORD’S LAW OF INTOLERANCE

- by Victor Ernest Shelford - steno, “narrow”

- the abundance or distribution of an organism can - eury, “wide”

be controlled by certain factors where levels of
LAWS OF ECOLOGY
these exceed the maximum or minimum limits of
tolerance of that organism. * Humans are only a small part of the biotic
component of ecosystem

1.) Everything is connected to everything else

- ya know food chains

- Ecological relationships

• Competition (also occurs in plants, e.g., light

and nutrient competition)
- intraspecific
- interspecific
• Predation

2. Everything must go somewhere

- e.g., water cycle, nutrient cycle

The distribution of a species in response to a - decomposers are important component for the
limiting factor can be represented as a bell-shaped flow of energy in the ecosystem
curve with 3 distinct regions:
3. Everything is always changing/Nature knows best
▪ Optimal zone – Central portion of curve
- e.g., ecological succession - the process by which
which has conditions that favor maximal
the structure of a biological community evolves
reproductive success and survivability
over time
▪ Zones of stress – Regions flanking the
4. There is no such thing as free lunch
optimal zone, where organisms can survive
but with reduced reproductive success 5. Everything has limits