Fundamentos

de Ecologia

Source Molles, Manuel C., Jr., (2016)

Ecology : concepts and applications /
Manuel C. Molles, Jr., University of New
Mexico. —Seventh edition. ISBN 978-0-07-
Ulisses M Azeiteiro
783728-0
ADAPTATIONS TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Energy and Nutrient Relations
Whether on coral reef, rain forest, or abandoned urban lot,
organisms engage in an active search for energy and
nutrients. For most organisms, life boils down to converting
energy and nutrients into descendants. Nutrients are the raw
materials an organism must acquire from the environment to
live. The energy used by different organisms comes in the
form of light, organic molecules, or inorganic molecules.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
Ulisses M Azeiteiro
ADAPTATIONS TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Energy and Nutrient Relations
How do we group organisms? We generally group them on the basis of shared evolutionary histories, creating taxa
such as vertebrate animals, insects, coniferous trees, and orchids. However, we can also classify organisms by their
trophic (feeding) biology . Organisms that use inorganic sources of both carbon and energy are called autotrophs
(“self-feeders”). Photosynthetic autotrophs use carbon dioxide (CO2 ) as a source of carbon and light as a source of
energy to synthesize organic compounds, molecules that contain carbon, such as sugars, amino acids, and fats.
Chemosynthetic autotrophs synthesize organic molecules using CO2 as a carbon source and inorganic chemicals,
such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), as their source of energy. Heterotrophs (“other-feeders”) are organisms that use
organic molecules both as a source of carbon and as a source of energy.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
Ulisses M Azeiteiro
Photosynthetic autotrophs synthesize organic
molecules using CO2 as a source of carbon and
light as an energy source.

Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) diminishes

substantially with passage through the canopy of a
boreal forest.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
Ulisses M Azeiteiro
ADAPTATIONS TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Energy and Nutrient Relations
• Chemosynthetic autotrophs synthesize organic molecules using CO 2 as a carbon source and inorganic molecules
as an energy source (chemosynthetic bacteria: sulfur-oxidizing bacteria);
• Other chemosynthetic bacteria oxidize ammonium (NH4+), nitrite (NO2 -), iron (Fe 2+ ), hydrogen (H2 ), or carbon
monoxide (CO). Of these, the nitrifying bacteria, which oxidize ammonium to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate, are
undoubtedly among the most ecologically important organisms in the biosphere;

The chemosynthetic and photosynthetic autotrophs opened the way for the evolution of organisms that could meet
their energy and carbon needs using organic molecules. And this way of making a living did indeed evolve. We call
these organisms heterotrophs.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
Ulisses M Azeiteiro
 Hydrogen sulfide as an energy
source for chemoautotrophic
bacteria in the deep sea

Fundamentos de Ecologia
Ulisses M Azeiteiro
Heterotrophic organisms use organic molecules both as a source of carbon and as an energy source. They depend,
ultimately, on the carbon and energy fixed by autotrophs. Heterotrophs have evolved numerous ways of feeding.
This trophic variety has stimulated ecologists to invent numerous terms to describe the ways heterotrophs feed. A
full list of the trophic categories proposed by ecologists would be impossibly long and not especially useful to this
classes. So, we will concentrate on three major categories: herbivores, organisms that eat plants; carnivores,
organisms that mainly eat animals; and detritivores, organisms that feed on nonliving organic matter, usually the
remains of plants

Fundamentos de Ecologia
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 Herbivores
Herbivores must overcome the wide variety
of defenses evolved by plants, including
physical defenses, such as the
spines on these acacia branches that a giraffe
must delicately negotiate as it feeds, and,
often, an arsenal of potent chemical
defenses.
Digestion-reducing substances are generally
phenolic compounds such as tannins that
bind to plant proteins, inhibiting their
breakdown by enzymes and further reducing
the already low availability of nitrogen in
plant tissues.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
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 Detritivores
Because they play key roles in the cycling of nutrients, detritivores are essential to sustaining life on earth. These
organisms consume food that is rich in carbon and energy but very poor in nitrogen.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
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 Carnivores
Carnivores consume animal prey. Most
prey species are masters of defense.
One of the most basic prey defenses is
camouflage. Predators cannot eat prey
they cannot find. Other prey defenses
include anatomical defenses such as
spines, shells, repellents, and poisons,
and behavioral defenses such as flight,
taking refuge in burrows, banding
together in groups, playing dead, fighting,
flashing bright colors, spitting, hissing,
and screaming at predators.

Birds and other predators act as agents of natural selection for

improved prey defense.
Fundamentos de Ecologia
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 Carnivores
Aposematic, or warning, coloration generally consists of sharply contrasting patches of orange or yellow and black. Many
noxious organisms, such as stinging bees and wasps, poisonous snakes, and butterflies, seem to mimic each other. This form
of comimicry among several species of noxious organisms is called Müllerian mimicry.
Batesian mimicry. In Batesian mimicry, the noxious species serves as the model and the harmless species is the mimic.

( a ) Poisonous Mullerian (honeybee) and ( b )

nonpoisonous Batesian (hoverfly) mimic.
Fundamentos de Ecologia
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 Carnivores
In summary, predators consume nutritionally rich but elusive and often well-defended prey. As a consequence, predators and
their prey appear engaged in a coevolutionary race. In this race, predators eliminate poorly defended individuals in the
population and average prey defenses improve. As average prey defenses improve, the poorer hunters go hungry and leave
fewer offspring. Consequently, improved hunting skills evolve in the predator population, which exerts further selection on
the prey population.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
Ulisses M Azeiteiro
Optimal foraging theory models feeding behavior as an optimizing process. Evolutionary ecologists predict that if organisms
have limited access to energy, natural selection is likely to favor individuals within a population that are more effective at
acquiring energy. This prediction spawned an area of ecological inquiry called optimal foraging theory.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
Ulisses M Azeiteiro
Summary
• Photosynthetic autotrophs synthesize organic molecules using CO2 as a source of carbon and light as an energy
source;
• Chemosynthetic autotrophs synthesize organic molecules using CO2 as a carbon source and inorganic molecules as
an energy source;
• Heterotrophic organisms use organic molecules both as a source of carbon and as an energy source;
• The rate at which organisms can take in energy is limited;
• Optimal foraging theory models feeding behavior as an optimizing process.

Fundamentos de Ecologia
Ulisses M Azeiteiro