ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE (TOPIC 2)

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Introduction to Ecology

Ecology – the study of how organisms interact with their environment. All organisms must
interact with both living and non-living things that surround them.

Basic concept of Ecology:

- The fundamental idea behind the study of ecology is that all organisms are
interdependent.
- They interact with one another and the physical environment

Factors of ecology:

1. Abiotic factors – (non-living components), are those inert factors of the ecosystem, as
the light, the temperature, the chemical products the water and the atmosphere. In
terrestrial ecosystem, examples might include temperature, light and water.
2. Biotic factors – (living organisms), are all the living beings in an environment. In a
freshwater ecosystem, examples might include aquatic plants, fish, amphibians, and
algae

Classifications of Ecology

Ecology is a broad discipline comprising many sub-disciplines

1. Ecophysiology – examines how the physiological functions of organisms influence the

way they interact with the environment, both biotic and abiotic.
2. Behavioral ecology – examine the roles of behavior in enabling an animal to adapt to
its environment.
3. Population ecology – studies the dynamics of populations of a single species
 4. Community ecology – focuses on the interactions between species within an ecological
community
5. Ecosystem ecology – studies the flow of energy and matter through the biotic and
abiotic components of ecosystems.
6. Systems ecology – is an interdisciplinary field focusing on the study, development, and
organization of ecological systems from a holistic perspective.
7. Landscape ecology – examines processes and relationships in a spatially explicit
manner, often across multiple ecosystems or very large geographic areas.
8. Evolutionary ecology – studies ecology in a way that explicitly considers the
evolutionary histories of species and their interactions
9. Political ecology – connects politics and economy to problems of environmental control
and ecological change.

Levels of Ecology

1. Biosphere – surface of the earth, it is the whole portion of earth colonized by living
beings
2. Region – group of ecosystems with the same climate and dominant communities
a. Tropical forests – vertical stratification with trees in canopy blocking light to
bottom strata. Many trees covered by epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants)
b. Desert – parse rainfall (<30cm per year), plants and animals adapted for water
storage and conservation. Can be either very hot or very cold.
c. Coniferous forest – largest terrestrial biome on earth, old growth forests rapidly
disappearing, usually receives lots of moisture as rain or snow.
d. Tundra – permafrost (permanent frozen ground), bitter cold, high winds and thus
no trees. Has 20% of land surface on earth.
3. Landscape – a ground of ecosystem that may or may not interact in a given region
4. Ecosystem – a group of communities and the populations within them embedded in a
common physical environment and tied together by physical processes. It refers to all
the abiotic factors (physical and chemical constituents) and all the communities that
established in a specific area. It is a collection of organisms that live in a place with the
non-living environment.
5. Community – a group of populations of different species occurring in a one place.
Individuals of different species may interact with each other.
 6. Populations – a group of individuals of a given species that live in a specific geographic
area. A group of organisms, all the same species which interbreed and live in the same
area.
7. Individual – group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring.

Status of ecology

 Past status
o Calm and quite
o Human don’t disturb the nature
o Ecosystem had been going on its natural cycle
 Present status
o Population increasing
o Negative effect
o Ecological crisis
 The main cause of ecological crisis are over population, environment
pollution, deforestation
 The major ecological crisis which are facing the world includes
Greenhouse effect, global warming, climate changes.

Overpopulation – is a depletion of resources that occurs when too many of at least one kind of
living thing inhabits and ecosystem

Deforestation – is the logging or burning of trees in forested areas

Greenhouse effect – means the change in the thermal equilibrium temperature of a planet by
the presence of an atmosphere containing gas that absorbs infrared radiation.

Global warming – is an increase in the average temperature of the earths atmosphere

Climate change – means a long-term significant change in the average weather that a given
region experiences. Average weather may include average temperature, precipitation and wind
patterns. It causes natural disasters.

ECOSYSTEM

Population – a population is one species living in a specific area. For example, all foxes living
in an area form a population. Another example, all roses growing in area form another
population.
Community – is formed from all living populations found in an area. For example, all the foxes,
roses, grasshoppers, snakes, hawks, deer, and skunks living in one area each form their
individual populations, but together make up a community. Living things in an ecosystem are
called community.

Ecosystem – refers to the things and conditions around the organism which directly or
influence the life and development of the organism and their population. Consist of two words
“eco” means environment and “system” means interactions.

- The ecosystem is the basic functional unit of organism and their environment interacting
with each other and with their own components.
- All the ecosystem of earth are connected to one another. For example; river ecosystem
with ecosystem of ocean

Components of ecosystem:

1. Abiotic component – includes basic inorganic elements and compounds such as soil,
water, oxygen, calcium carbonates, phosphates, and a variety of organic activities or
death. It also includes physical factors and ingredients as moisture, wind currents and
solar radiation.
2. Biotic components – includes all living organisms present in the environmental system.
From nutrition point of view, the biotic component can be grouped into two basic
components:
a. Autotrophic component – includes all the green plants which fix the radiant
energy of sun and manufacture food from inorganic substances through
photosynthesis.
b. Heterotrophic components – it includes green bacteria, non-green plants and
all animals which take food from autotrophs. So biotic components of an
ecosystem can be described under the following three heads.
i. Secondary producers – photoheterotrophs, including most purple
bacteria and green bacteria, produce energy from light and use organic
compounds to build structures. They consume little or none of the energy
produced during photosynthesis. They use radiant energy of sun in
photosynthetic process. Algae and other hydrophytes of a pond, grasses
of a field, trees of the forests are example of producers
 ii. Consumers – those living members of the ecosystem which consume
the food synthesized by producers are called consumers. Under this
category, are included all different kinds of animals that found in an
ecosystem. There are different classes of consumers such as:
1. Primary consumers – these are purely herbivorous animals
(plant eating animals) that are purely dependent on the producers
or green plants for their food. Examples: insects, rabbits, deer,
cows are some of the herbivores in the terrestrial ecosystem and
small crustaceans and molluscs in the aquatic habitat.
2. Secondary consumers – these are carnivores and omnivores.
Carnivores are flesh eating animals that are adapted to consume
herbivores as well as plants as food. Examples are sparrow, crow,
fox, dogs, cats, snakes, etc. On the other hand, omnivores are
animals that eat everything whatever is available.
3. Tertiary consumers – these are top carnivores which prey upon
other carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. Lions, tigers, hawk,
vultures etc. are considered as tertiary or top consumers.
4. Parasites and scavenger – the parasitic plants and animals
utilize the living tissues of different plants and animals. The
scavenger utilize dead remain of animals and plants as their food.
iii. Decomposers and transformer – are the living components of the
ecosystem and they are fungi and bacteria. Decomposers attack the dead
remains of producers and consumers and degrade the complex organic
substances into simpler compounds. Bacteria generally attack on the
animal tissue and fungi on the plant tissue.

Kinds of Ecosystem

 Natural ecosystem – they are capable of operating and maintaining themselves without
any major interference by man.
o Types of Natural ecosystem
 Temporary natural ecosystem – example rainfed pond
 Permanent natural ecosystem
 Terrestrial ecosystem – forest, grassland, and desert ecosystem
o Lotic system – running water (river and spring)
 o Lentic system – standing water (pond, lake, swamp)
 Aquatic ecosystem – freshwater ecosystem and marine
ecosystem (ocean)
 Artificial ecosystem – these are maintained by man. These are manipulated by man for
different purposes. Examples; artificial lakes, reservoirs, townships and cities.
 Incomplete ecosystem – those ecosystem that do not contain all the four basic
components such as abiotic substances, produces, consumers and decomposers are
called as an incomplete ecosystem.

Forest ecosystem – are the natural plant communities with dominance of flowering plants.
Tree, shrubs, flower are present in plenty.

Types of Forest ecosystem:

 Tropical evergreen forest – these forest contain a deep and dense vegetation of tall
tree
 Tropical deciduous forest – these forest have broad leaved trees growing with shrubs,
bushes and creepers in between them.
 Temperate deciduous forest – these occur in the area where well defined winters
alternative with well defined summer with sufficient rainfall.
 Coniferous forest – these forests found in colder regions. The dominant species are
pine, poplar.

Food chains – shows where energy is transferred. In transfer some energy is lost, therefore the
shorter the food chain the greater the energy available to that population. The producers,
consumers and decomposers of each ecosystem make up a food chain.

Two basic type of food chain:

 The grazing food chain – this type of food chain starts from the green plant base goes
to grazing herbivores and on carnivores
 The detritus food chain – which goes from non-living organic matter into
microorganism and then to detritus feeding organism and their predators (an organism
that lives by preying on other organism.
Food web – is the network of food chains where different types of organisms are connected at
different trophic levels, so that option of eating and being eaten at each trophic level.
Segments of Environment (The Earth)

 The hydrosphere is the zone of water that covers over three-quarters of the earth.
 The atmosphere is the gaseous layer near the earth. The atmosphere is concentrated is
lowest 10 kilometers; extend thinly out to 1,000. Major gasses are nitrogen, oxygen and
carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is necessary for photosynthesis.
o 4 layers of atmosphere
 Troposphere – starts from earth and extend across 18km. All weather
change took place here. Clouds are form here
 Stratosphere – starts just above troposphere. Here atmosphere is dry
and dense. Ozone layer is present here.
 Mesosphere – just above stratosphere. It extends up to 85km. Meteorites
burns and disintegrates here.
 Thermosphere – starts just above mesosphere. It extends up to 600km
high.
 The lithosphere is a rocky substratum that extends about 100 kilometers deep.
 The biosphere is the thin layer where life is possible between the outer atmosphere and
the lithosphere.

POST TEST NUMBER 2

1. These are top carnivores which prey upon other carnivores, omnivores and herbivores.
Lions, tigers, hawk, vultures etc. are considered as tertiary or top consumers.
a. Secondary consumers
b. Tertiary consumers
c. Primary consumers
d. Parasites and scavenger
2. Includes all living organisms present in the environmental system.
a. Autotrophic component
b. Abiotic component
c. Biotic component
d. Heterotrophic component
3. Means a long-term significant change in the average weather that a given region
experiences.
a. Climate change
b. Global warming
c. Deforestation
d. Overpopulation
4. A ground of ecosystem that may or may not interact in a given region.
a. Ecosystem
b. Community
c. Landscape
d. Population
5. A group of populations of different species occurring in a one place. Individuals of
different species may interact with each other.
a. Ecosystem
b. Community
c. Landscape
d. Population
6. Largest terrestrial biome on earth, old growth forests rapidly disappearing, usually
receives lots of moisture as rain or snow.
a. Coniferous forest
b. Tropical forests
c. Desert
d. Tundra
7. Studies the flow of energy and matter through the biotic and abiotic components of
ecosystems.
a. Systems ecology
b. Landscape ecology
c. Political ecology
d. Ecosystem ecology
8. examines how the physiological functions of organisms influence the way they interact
with the environment, both biotic and abiotic.
a. Behavioral ecology
b. Ecophysiology
c. Population ecology
d. Community ecology
9. The following are examples of lotic system, except.
a. River
b. Pond
c. Falls
d. Spring
10. The following are examples of lentic systems, except.
a. Pond
b. Lake
c. Swamp
d. River
11. These occur in the area where well defined winters alternative with well defined summer
with sufficient rainfall.
a. Tropical evergreen forest
b. Tropical deciduous forest
c. Temperate deciduous forest
d. Coniferous forest
12. these forests contain a deep and dense vegetation of tall tree.
a. Tropical evergreen forest
b. Tropical deciduous forest
c. Temperate deciduous forest
d. Coniferous forest
13. Where can you find the ozone layer?
a. Stratosphere
b. Mesosphere
c. Troposphere
d. Thermosphere
14. Is a rocky substratum that extends about 100 kilometers deep.
 a. Biosphere
b. Atmosphere
c. Lithosphere
d. Troposphere
15. Living component of the ecosystem.
a. Fish
b. Biotic
c. Both a and b
d. abiotic