ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY

LECTURE 5-6
DEFINING ECOLOGY

The word ‘ecology’ was first used by Ernest Haeckel in 1869. The word is derived from the
Greek “Oikos”, meaning ‘home’. Ecology might therefore be thought of as the study of the
‘home life’ of living organisms.
Haeckel Definition (1869): Ecology as the scientific study of the interactions between
organisms and their environment (abiotic).

Krebs’ definition (1972): the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms
and the interactions that determine distribution and abundance.

Andrewartha and Birch (1954): “the study of the distribution and abundance or organisms.”

Odum (1971): ”the study of the interactions between/among organisms and the
transformation and flux of energy and matter.”
N E W PA R A D I G M O F ‘ E C O L O G Y

Rio Declaration (1992) Agenda 21:

Sustainability Development is,
according to the Rio Declaration,
defined as follows: “development Rio Declaration emphasized the
that meets the needs of the present importance of ecosystems in Principle
without compromising the ability of 7: States shall cooperate in a spirit of
future generations to meet their own global partnership to conserve,
needs.” And, the contrasting parties protect, and restore the health and
are invited to, “act in a way that is integrity of the Earth’s ecosystems
economically profitable, socially
acceptable, and environmentally
compatible.”
N E W PA R A D I G M
OF ‘ECOLOGY’….

• In this anthropogenic era we need

to focus on “Ecosystem Ecology”.

• Millennium Report (2003) defined

‘Ecosystem’ as---
• “a dynamic complex of plants,
animals and microorganism
communities and the nonliving
environment, interacting as a
functional unit. Humans are an
integral part of ecosystems.”
 HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF
ECOLOGY

• Organism or Individual-ecology deals with how individuals are affected by (and how they affect) their
environment.
• Population- Population refers to a group of individuals of the same species occupying a given area at a given
time and share genetic material. Population ecology is concerned with the presence or absence of particular
species, their abundance or rarity, and with the trends and fluctuations in their numbers.
• Community- Community refers to all the populations of different species that live in an area and interact with
one another. Community ecology deals with the composition and organization of ecological communities.
• Ecosystem-Interactions between populations and their abiotic surroundings
HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF
ECOLOGY
 • A biome is a large geographical area of
distinctive plant and animal groups,
which are adapted to that particular
environment.

• Climate and geography of a region

determines what type of biome exist in
BIOME
that region.

• A biome is a kind of ecosystem, such as

a desert, tropical rain forest, or
grassland.

• There is strong relationship between

climate and biome.
YOUTUBE LINK

• Terrestrial Biomes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQSXIWsUtg&t=2s
• Aquatic Biomes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AopH3SMh818&t=2s
 WHY
ECOSYSTEM
ECOLOGY IS
I M P O RTA N T ?
 • Structure: An ecosystem has both
living (communities of interacting
species) and nonliving (e.g. rocks,
water, air, nutrients) parts
BASIC
• Process: Two basic kinds of processes
CHARACTERIS
must occur in the ecosystem:
TICS OF • A flow of energy (Food web)
ECOSYSTEMS • A cycling of chemical elements
(e.g. nitrogen, oxygen, carbon)
• Change: An ecosystem changes over
time and can undergo development
through a process called succession
PROCESS: ENERGY FLOW IN
ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystem functions: Energy flow at different Level of Ecosystem

PROCESS: ENERGY
FLOW IN
ECOSYSTEM

• The sequence of
organisms, each of which
is a source of food for the
next, is called a Food
chain.
• It determines how energy
and nutrients move from
one organism to another
through an ecosystem.
 P R O C E SS :
ENERGY FLOW
IN ECOSYSTEM

• Autotrophs/Producer: Producers are

autotrophs, or self-feeding
organisms, that make their own food
(i.e. organic molecules from carbon
dioxide). Ex. Plants, algae, and
photosynthetic bacteria act as
producers.

• Heterotrophs/Consumer: are
heterotroph cannot produce its own
food. They are also called consumer.
Consumers rely on the ecosystem's
 PROCESS: CHEMICAL CYCLING IN
ECOSYSTEM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5EOZenSSB8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75NL3gN5yU
P R O C E SS : WAT E R C YC L I N G I N
ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystem functions: Water Cycle

 CHANGES IN ECOSYSTEM:
ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
 an ordered process of community
development including regular
changes of the species compositions.
 changes occuring due to variations of
the species interactions
 changes occuring due to internal
processes within the community
 changes occur due to disturbances
(man made or natural)
 changes in community structure
effecting changes in the physical
ecosystem functions – energy, water,
and nutrients
ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION

Succession is the process by which the component species of a

community change over time. Within any plant community some species
may progressively become more or less abundant over time.
Succession can occur for many different reasons. In most cases, each
species affects their environment in a way that allows other species to
colonize. Over time, this increases the complexity of the environment,
usually increasing species diversity as well.

There are two types of succession, which differ in their starting points.
E.g. Primary succession and Secondary succession.
P R I M A RY
SUCCESSION

• Primary succession: newly

exposed or newly formed
rock is colonized by living
things for the first time.
Certain hardy plants and
lichens with few soil
requirements, called pioneer
species, colonize the area
first.
S E C O N D A RY S U C C E SS I O N

• In secondary succession, an area that was previously occupied by living things is

disturbed, then re-colonized following the disturbance.
• Over a long period of time, and assuming no further disturbances, a climax
community may form when a community reaches a steady, mature state.
• Occurs in disturbed areas that have not lost their soil – the original vegetation has
been removed because of any disturbance. For ex. forest fire.

Forest succession over time. Image modified from Wikimedia CC BY 3.0

 • Community structure describes Species richness
and species diversity.

• Community structure also refers to the patterns

COMMUNITY of interaction between different species.

STRUCTURE
• Community structure is influenced by many
IN factors, including abiotic factors, species
ECOSYSTEM interactions, level of disturbance, and chance
events.

• Some species, such as foundation species and

keystone species, play particularly important
roles in determining their communities'
structure.
KEYSTONE SPECIES: SHAPES COMMUNITY
STRUCTURE

• Keystone species The species on which the

ecosystem stability depends – removing it
leads to instability:
1. Food supply species (e.g. Figs)

2. Predator-mediated competition – the predator

keeps the numbers of the superior competitor
in check. Without the predator, the competitor
over-populates the ecosystem (e.g. Tiger)
3. Ecosystem engineers – create habitat for other
species (e.g. beavers)
SPECIES
RICHNESS
How many species in the survey area?

• Species richness is the number

of species that has been recorded
for a specific group of organisms
during a specific time period.
• Species richness could be for a
plot or sampling unit, or an
assemblage of sampling units.
Ecologists describe distribution of diversity on a spatial scale in three classifications.
Diversity can be described as alpha, beta, and gamma diversity (note: for simplicity, in
our usage here diversity means only richness, the number of species):

α Alpha (or local) diversity expresses the number of

species within a given habitat.

β Beta (or turnover) diversity expresses the

difference, or turnover, in species from one habitat
to another.

γ Gamma (or regional) diversity- total number of species

observed in all habitats within a geographic area.
Global species richness as
calculated for mammal
species. Image credit:
"Community ecology: Figure
14," by OpenStax College,
Biology, CC BY 4.0.
Modification of work by NASA,
CIESIN, Columbia University.
ECOLOGICAL
NICHES AND
COMPETITION

The Niche Concept

• A species' niche is its ecological role or "way
of life," which is defined by the full set of
conditions, resources, and interactions it
needs.
• Each species fits into an ecological
community in its own special way and has its
own tolerable ranges for many
environmental factors.
• Two organisms with exactly the same niche
can't survive in the same habitat.
• species whose niches only partly overlap
may be able to co-exist.
NICHES OF HILSHA FISH
COMPETITIVE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE

• The competitive exclusion principle

tells us that two species can't have
exactly the same niche in a habitat
and stably coexist.
• Species with identical niches also have
identical needs, which means they
would compete for precisely the same
resources.
 COMPETITIVE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE

1: A smaller (yellow) species of bird

forages across the whole tree.
2: A larger (red) species competes for
resources.
3: Red dominates in the middle for the
more abundant resources. Yellow adapts to
a new niche restricted to the top and
bottom of the tree, avoiding competition.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_exclusion_pri
nciple
R E S O U R C E PA R T I T I O N I N G

• Two species divide the resource based on differences in behavior or morphology

• This can lead to natural selection which over time will increase the differences
between the 02 species

Three possibilities:

1. Temporal resource partitioning – use the same resource but at different times.

2. Spatial resource partitioning – use different locations (plants with shallow roots vs.
deep roots)

3. Morphological resource partitioning – evolution of different body plans to use

different parts of the resource
 • All of the Earth’s organisms, air,
water, and soil, as well as
materials such as oil, coal and
minerals that are removed from
W H AT A R E the ground.

N AT U R A L • Separated into two broad

categories:
RESOURCES?
1. Renewable resources
2. Non-renewable resources
NON-RENEWABLE
RESOURCE

• Any resource that cannot be

replaced during the time of a
human life span.

• Took thousands of years to form

and exist in fixed amounts in the
Earth.

• They need to be conserved

before they become depleted.
RENEWABLE
RESOURCE

• Are any resource that cycles or

can be replaced within a human
life span.

• Examples include: water, crops,

wind, soil, sunlight, animals,
etc…
W H Y B I O C A PA C I T Y ?

Biocapacity as a lens: Capacity of biosphere to regenerate and provide for life.

Competition for productive surfaces: basic ecological principle – allows to add up

the competing human demands.

Demands include natural resources, waste absorption, resources renewal,

productive areas dedicated to human uses etc.

Biocapacity is the aggregate (or nexus) of food-water-energy-fiber-etc. As an

aggregate, it allows us to answer how big the material metabolism of human
economies is compared to what nature can renew.
THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
F O O T P R I N T A N D B I O C A PA C I T Y
ACCOUNTING
 • Point source pollution is from an
easily identifiable source such as
a pipe from industry or water
treatment plant entering the
water at one point.

• Nonpoint source is a general

POLLUTION source of pollution coming from
many sources over a wide area.
With nonpoint source of pollution
you are not able to identify the
precise source of the pollution.
Soil washed down into the water is
an example of nonpoint source of
pollution; it comes from many
sources over a wide area
R E A D I N G M AT E R I A L S

• Chapter 8. Biological Diversity and Biological Invasions

- Competition and Ecological Niches, page 154
• Chapter 8. Biological Diversity and Biological Invasions
– Biomes, page 161
• Chapter 5. Ecosystems: Concepts and Fundamentals,
-Basic Characteristics of Ecosystems, page 83-84.
-Ecological Stability and Succession, page 95-96