College of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

BIOL 103 GENERAL ECOLOGY

Unit I. Introduction to Ecology

A. Definition

Ecology is the study of structure and function of nature or the study of ecosystems (Odum,
1972). It is the scientific study of interactions which determine distribution and abundance of
organisms (Krebs, 1792).

Ecology deals with the prediction of biomass, productivity and diversity - restricts the interest
to the prediction of operational parameters (how much and how many) (Peters, 1980). It also deals
with the description, explanation and prediction of individuals, populations, and communities in space
and time (Begon, Harper and Townsend, 1986).

Ecology was originally coined in 1866 in General Morphology, a book on biology and
philosophy by Prof. Ernst Haeckel: The economy of nature – the investigation of the total relations of
the animal both its inorganic and its organic environment; including, above all, its friendly and inimical
relations with those animals and plants with which it comes directly or indirectly into contact – in a
word, ecology is the study of all complex interrelations referred to by Darwin as the conditions of the
struggle for existence.

B. Historical Background

a. THEOPHRASTUS - A friend of Aristotle (founded natural history, responsible for

scala naturae history) who wrote about the relations between organisms and the
environment.

b. CARL LUDWIG WILLDENOW (1765-1812) - One of the early plant geographers. He

pointed out that similar climates supported vegetation similar in form, even though
the species were different.

c. THOMAS MALTHUS (1766-1834) - An economist who advanced the principle that

populations grow in a geometric fashion, doubling at regular intervals until the
outstrip the food supply. Ultimately, the population would be restrained by a “strong,
constantly operating force such as sickness and pre mature death”. From this concept
Darwin developed the idea of “the survival of the fittest” as a mechanism of natural
selection and evolution.

Malthusian Theory, stimulated the study of population in two directions:

Population Ecology- Concerned with population growth (including birth rates and
death rates), fluctuation, spread, and interactions. Evolutionary Ecology- is concerned
with the natural selection and evolution of populations. At the same, physiological
ecology arose. Concerned with the responses of individual organisms to temperature
moisture, light, and other environmental ecology.
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d. FRIEDRICH HEINRICH ALEXANDER von HUMBOLDT (1769-1859) - Plant geographers
who spent 5 years exploring Latin America, including the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers.
He correlated vegetation w/ environmental characteristics and coined the term Plant
Association.

e. CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882) - He compared similarities and dissimilarities

among organisms within and among continents. He attributed differences to
geological barriers. He noted how successive groups of plants and animals, distinct
yet obviously related, replaced one another.

f. GREGOR MENDEL (1822-1884) - an Augustinian Monk that was studying the

transmission of characteristics from one generation of pea plants to another in his
garden. Mendel’s work on inheritance and Darwin work on natural selection provided
the foundation for the study of evolution and adaptation, the field of population
genetics.

g. JOHANNES WARMING (1841-1859) - He wrote the first text on Plant Ecology,

Plantesamfund.

h. R. A LINDEMAN – he traced “energy –available” relationship within a lake

community. His 1942 paper, “The Trophic- Dynamic Aspects of Ecology”, marked the
beginning of ecosystem ecology, the study of whole living systems.

C. Sub-disciplines of Ecology

a. Landscape – The landscape can be thought of as being made up of different patches,

characterized by different organisms and environments. Landscape ecology examines the interaction
between this pattern of patches and ecological process – that is, the biological causes and
consequences of a patchy environment.

b. Ecosystem – Ecosystem ecology is the study of the interactions of organisms with the
transport and flow of energy and matter. Ecosystem size and shape depends on the specific questions
being asked about energy flow or chemical cycling. The “system” part of an ecosystem is a description
of how energy or matter moves among organisms and parts of the environment.

c. Physiological – Physiological ecology is the study of how individual organisms interact with
their environment to carry out the biochemical processes and express the behavioral adaptations that
accomplish homeostasis and survival. Homeostasis involves the maintenance of time, matter and
energy budgets that allow for growth and reproduction by the individual.

d. Behavioral – The goal of behavioral ecology is to understand how a plant or animal’s

behavior is adapted to its environment. That is, behavior is understood to be the result of an
evolutionary process.

e. Population – A population is a collection of individuals from the same species that occupy
some defined area. Population ecology focuses on how and why populations change in size and
location over time.
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f. Community – Community ecologists examine the patterns and interactions seen in groups,
or aggregations, of different species. The distribution of species are influenced both by biological
interactions (such as predation and competition) and by environmental factors (such as temperature,
water and nutrient availability).

D. Techniques/Equipment Specific to Different Kinds of Ecology

These are the different techniques/equipment that is being used in the different sub-discipline
of ecology:
a. Landscape – Satellites, photos, maps, and computers are essential, especially for
geographic information system (GIS).
b. Ecosystem – Calorimeter pressure bomb, quantitative chemical analysis.
c. Physiological – Respirometer, treadmill, infrared gas analyzer (IRGA), stable isotope
chemistry, light sensors, thermocouples.
d. Population and Community – Sampling traps, computers.
e. Behavioral – Video equipment, event recorder, binoculars, radiotags, geographic position
satellites, computer, DNA fingerprinting.
f. Community – Quadrat sampling, species identification book, enclosures.
E. Basic Concepts in Ecology

a. Physical and Chemical Processes

Physical and chemical processes are present globally, and these processes significantly
affect the environment and biotic components.

INTEGRATED PLATE TECTONIC THEORY

Earth had one massive continent 300 million
years ago; it is called Pangea, which was surrounded by a
single ocean named Panthalassa.
Scientists believe that the Earth's outer shell is
broken up into several plates that slide over its mantle.
Thus, these explain the modern plate tectonic theory.
According to Brendan Murphy, a geology
professor in Antingonish, Nova Scotia, the evolution of the
planet through time is driven by the breakup and
formation of these plates. Recently, this phenomenon is
popularly known as the "Integrated Plate Tectonic
Theory".

GLOBAL WIND AND CURRENT PATTERNS

Earth's rotation, its shape, and the sun's heating
Integrated Plate Tectonic Theory by Alfred power are the main drivers for the global wind and
Wegener. current patterns.
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These abiotic processes significantly affect the climate of the earth, which are distributed
latitudinally. Thus, they are the main reasons for the biodiversity, distribution, and dispersal of
organisms.

Global wind and current patterns.

NUTRIENT CYCLING
Biogeochemical cycles can be local or global. Soil is the main reservoir for nutrients in a local
cycle, such as phosphorus. In contrast, for those chemicals that exist primarily in gaseous form—
carbon and nitrogen are examples—the cycling is mostly global. Some of the carbon a plant acquires
may have been released into the atmosphere by the respiration of an organism.
The carbon cycle depends on photosynthesis and respiration. The phosphorus cycle depends
on the weathering of the rock, and the nitrogen cycle depends on bacteria.

A B C
The different bio-geochemical cycles (A) Carbon, (B) Phosphorous and (C) Nitrogen Cycles.

CARRYING CAPACITY
This basic concept where an ecosystem has a limitation on available resources that can supply
a population was derived from Thomas Malthus. It will depend on many abiotic and biotic factors in
the ecosystem. For example, the available necessities (e.g., water and shelter) will dictate the number
of individuals who can live in that ecosystem. Therefore, in the logical term, carrying capacity is the
point at which the population growth reaches zero.

(K)

Law of Carrying capacity.

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The image shows a graph on carrying capacity where X is the number of population, time is T,
and carrying capacity is K. It is shown in the figure that the growth of the population over time was
stopped when it reaches its carrying capacity.

b. Biomes of the Earth

A biome is a group of plants and animals cohabitating in the same environment over the
range of continents. It is a distinct biological community that has formed in response to a shared
physical climate. "Biome" is a broader term than "habitat"; any biome can comprise a variety of
habitats. It is subdivided into major biomes, the land or terrestrial, and the water or aquatic biomes.

TERRESTRIAL BIOMES
Terrestrial biomes occupy 55,660,000 mi² (144,150,000 km²), or 28.26% of Earth's surface.

A B

C D

The different terrestrial biomes: (A) Mountain, (B) Desert, (C) Grassland and Forest.

Mountains are a common feature of the Earth, easily recognized by ordinary people and
scientists alike. Everywhere, mountains capture the imagination as places of geological, biological, and
climatic diversity and as places with a view. A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the
surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than
a hill. Desert is a dry region, lacks precipitation, and has little or no plants or animals. It covers about
1/5 of the earth's surface and has specific types of plants and animals that have adapted to the
environment. Grasslands are flat areas of grass that are open and continuous. They are located
between temperate forests and deserts. Grasslands vary in sizes due to the amount of rain it receives.
It receives about 500-900 mm of rain per year and temperature ranges from -20°C to 30°C.
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Forest has a wide area of land covered with trees or other woody vegetation. It has a plant
community, predominantly of trees or other woody vegetation, occupying a vast space of land. It
remains in a relatively fixed, self-regulated condition over a long period. It is a complex ecosystem
consisting mainly of trees that buffer the earth and support a myriad of life forms.

AQUATIC BIOMES
An aquatic ecosystem is a vast ecosystem in a body of water which is divided into two main
types, the marine, and freshwater ecosystems, which cover 71.74% of the earth's surface.

A B

The different marine biomes: (A) Freshwater and (B) Marine.

Freshwater has a low salt concentration (>1%), where plants and animals living in this biome
would not survive in higher salt concentration areas.
Marine biome, on the other hand, is much larger than freshwater, with 71% of the earth's
surface. It also stores most of the human needed resources.

c. Basic Life Processes

Also, for the organisms to be able to survive in the environment, listed below are the
essential life processes that they must need to undergo.
1. COMPETITION – of limiting resources of space and food. It will lead to dominance by a single
species in a given habitat.
2. PREDATION– domination by a superior competitor.
3. DISTURBANCES – disastrous phenomenon (e.g., tsunami, storms, etc.) and anthropogenic
disturbances (human intervention).
4. PARASITISM AND DISEASES – organisms that will get their food from their host, thus,
harming their hosts. Diseases can cause a swift decline in population
5. FACILITATION – a community that will formerly thrive in a particular habitat.
6. SUCCESSION – it is where another community will invade the facilitative community, and it
may lead to the extinction of the latter.
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F. Scientific Methods

The scientific method, a logical problem-solving approach used by biologists and many other
scientists. When conducting research, scientists use the scientific method to collect measurable,
empirical evidence in an experiment related to a hypothesis (often in the form of an if/then
statement), the results aiming to support or contradict a theory.

Even though the scientific method is a series of steps, keep in mind that new information or
thinking might cause a scientist to back up and repeat steps at any point during the process. A process
like the scientific method that involves such backing up and repeating is called an iterative process.
Once your experiment is complete, you collect your measurements and analyze them to see
if they support your hypothesis or not. Then you have to communicate your research outputs to
others. Professional scientists do almost exactly the same thing by publishing their final report in a
scientific journal or by presenting their results on a poster or during a talk at a scientific meeting or
conference.

Steps in scientific method:

1. Make an observation.
2. Ask a question.
3. Form a hypothesis (statement that can be tested by scientific research), or testable
explanation.
4. Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.
5. Test the prediction.
6. Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions.
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REFERENCES:

[1] C. Lalli and T. Parsons, Biological oceanography: an introduction, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1993.
[2] N. Campbell and J. Reece, Biology. 7th ed., San Francisco: Pearson, 2005.
[3]"University of California Museum of Paleontology," [Online]. Available:
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/index.php. [Accessed 2019].
[4] M. Cain, W. Bowman and S. Hacker, Ecology (Third ed.), Massachusetts: Sinauer, 2014.
[5] D. E. Alexander, Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, Springer, 1999.
[6] J. Levinton and B. Allen, "The paradox of the weakening combatant: trade-off between closing
force and gripping speed in a sexually selected combatant structure.," Functional Ecology, vol. 19, pp.
159-165, 2005.
[7] "World Development Indicators - DataBank", [Online]. Available: www.databank.worldbank.org.
[8]Online Sources:
a. https://www.livescience.com/38218-facts-about-pangaea.html
b. https://www.slideshare.net/renurajbahak/global-wind-patterns
c. http://www.pixoto.com/images-photography/landscapes/mountains-and-hills/mount-mayon
d. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Experiments/Biome/biograssland.php
e. http://www.feow.org/background
f. https://thenanitesolution.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/the-big-blue-planet-oceans-an-introduction