CH. 14 - Ecology

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Keywords

1. General

1. Abiotic - physical environment like water, rock, sunlight, climate, temperature

2. Biotic - living environment like relationship between organisms, tree, other fish, etc

3. Ecology - study of interactions between organisms and their environment

2. Levels of Biological Organization

1. Atmosphere - air we breath got stuff in it

2. Biosphere - all portions of planet that support life, relatively thin zone of life support

3. Community - populations of different plants and animals species interacting in given environment

4. Ecosystem - interaction between biotic communities and non-living environment

5. Hydrosphere - the ocean and etc

6. Lithosphere - rock and soil surface

7. Organism - individual unit of an ecological system

8. Population - a group of organisms of the same species living together in given location

9. Species - group of similar organisms that can reproduce viable offspring

3. The Environment

1. Aphotic zone - bottom layer where light can't reach

2. Humus - amount of decaying plant and animal in soil

3. Loams - a type of soil with high percentage of each type of soil

4. Photic zone - top layer where light can shine through for photosynthesis

4. Interaction within the Ecosystem

1. Autotrophs - make own food

2. Carnivore - consumes other animals

3. Commensalism - one organism benefits, other is not affected

4. Ectoparasite - parasite that lives outside of host

5. Endoparasite - parasites that live within the host

6. Habitat - physical place where an organism lives

7. Herbivore - consume only plants or plant food

8. Heterotrophs - must consume autotrophs or other heterotrophs for food

9. Homeothermic - warm-blooded animals that maintain constant body temperature

10. Hyperosmotic environment - creatures living in sea water

11. Hypoosmotic environment - creatures living in fresh water

12. Interspecific interaction - species competing against one another for resource

13. Intraspecific interaction - specie working together or competing for resource

14. Mutualism - symbiotic relationship where both organisms derive benefit

15. Niche - functional role of an organism in its ecosystem

16. Obligatory symbiosis - one or both organisms cannot survive without the other

17. Omnivore - eat both plant and animals

18. Parasitism - parasite benefit at expense of host

19. Poikilothermic - cold blooded animal that depends on external temperature for activity

20. Predation - free-living organisms that feed on other living organism

21. Saprophytism - protists and fungi that decomposes dead organic matter

22. Scaveger - consumes dead animal

5. Relationship within the Ecosystem

1. Decay Bacteria - releases nitrogen locked in tissue by reducing dead organisms into ammonia

2. Denitrifying bacteria - reduces nitrogen into elemental nitrogen from ammonia

3. Food Chain - Sun > Producer > primary consumer > secondary consumer > tertiary consumer > Decomposers

4. Food pyramid - as the pyramid ascends, energy, mass, and number becomes lower

5. Food Web - the more intricate the web, the more stable the ecosystem

6. Nitrifying Bacteria - oxidizes nitrogen until it becomes usable nitrate

7. Nitrogen Cycle - goes from inorganic to organic and is used by everything

8. Nitrogen fixing bacteria - turns free N2 in atmosphere into usable nitrates

6. Stability in the Ecosystem

1. Climax community - stable, living part of ecosystem where population exists in balance with each other and environment.  Will keep going until major change occurs.

2. Pioneer organism - first living organism in a habitat

3. Sere - community stage that will succeed one another until climax community reached

7. World Biomes

1. Aphotic layer - no sunlight layer of the open sea

2. Benthos - crawling and sessil organisms of the sea

3. Biome - distinct community characterized by vegetation type

4. Desert biome - less than 10" of rain, very few plants and animal types

5. Diatom - algae responsible for most of the autotrophic work

6. Grassland biome - 10-30" of rain, prairies usually

7. Intertidal zone - region of marine where tide comes in or out

8. Littoral zone - contains ocean of up to 600 feet and several miles from shore

9. Nekton - active swimmers of the sea, like fishes and whales

10. Pelagic zone - typical of open sea and divided into photic and aphotic layer

11. Photic layer - sunlit layer of open sea, up to 600 feet

12. Plankton - passively drifting mass of organisms

13. Polar region - nothing growing here

14. Taiga Biome - less rainfall with long cold winters.

15. Temperate deciduous forest biome - cold winters, warm summers, moderate rainfalls with trees that shed its leaves, and various forest animals

16. Temperate coniferous forest biome - cold, dry, and inhabited by fir, pine, and spruce.  Due to year-round dry and cold, needle like tree

17. Tropical Rain forest biome - jungles with dense vegetation, numerous kind of animals

18. Tundra biome - treeless frozen plain with very short summer

  

Levels of Biological Organization

1. Organism

1. Individual unit of an ecological system.

1. Composed of organs

1. Composed of tissues

1. Composed of cells

1. Composed of molecules

1. Composed of atoms

2. Population

1. Group of organisms of the same species living together in given location

2. Species - group of similar organism capable of reproducing viable offspring

3. Communities

1. Population of different plants and animals interacting in a given environment

2. Biotic community is only the population and not the physical environment

3. Contains population from all five kingdoms

4. Examples could be

1. Lawn - grass, flower, earthworms, insects, bacteria

2. Pond - dragonflies, algae, minnows, fishes

3. Forest - moss, pine, bacteria, lichen, fern, deer, spider

4. Sea - fish, whale, plankton, etc

4. Ecosystem

1. The interaction between living biotic communities and non-living environment

5. Biosphere

1. The strata where the planet support life

1. Atmosphere (where we are)

2. Lithosphere - rock and soil surface

3. Hydrosphere - the ocean

  

The Environment

1. Physical Environment

1. Water

1. Major component of life

2. If water not readily available, the organism must adapt with storage and conversation of water

2. Temperature

1. Must be maintained at optimal level

2. Animals adapt to the environment (but not sharp changes)

3. Sunlight

1. Ultimate source of energy for life forms

2. Photic zone - top layer of water where light can penetrate

1. Where all photosynthesis take place

3. Aphotic zone

1. Animal life and other heterotrophic life exist

4. Oxygen Supply

1. Air contains 20% oxygen, animals uses it

2. Aquatic plants and animals uses the small amount of oxygen dissolved in water

1. Pollution affects the oxygen content in water

5. Substratum

1. Soil is affected by number of things

1. Acidity - acid rain may make soil pH too low for most plant growth

2. Texture and Clay Content - determine water holding capacity for the soil

1. Plants grow well in loam (contains high percentage of each type of soil)

3. Minerals - nitrates and phosphate content determines type of vegetation that can be supported

1. Beach sand is generally leached of all minerals and unable to support plant life

4. Humus - amount of decaying plant and animal life in the soil

2. Biotic Factors in the Environment

1. Organisms influence each other, whether same species or different.

  

Interactions Within the Ecosystem

1. The Niche

1. Defines the functional role of an organism in its ecosystem

1. What the organism eat

2. What climate it can tolerate

3. Nature of its prey and predator

4. Where and how it reproduces

2. Different from habitat which is just the physical place the organism lives

3. The niche definition is so specific that no two species can ever occupy the same niche

1. Only the same organisms can compete for the same EVERYTHING

2. Species can be identified from the niche definition

4. Competition occurs when similar niche requirement exist for two or more species

1. One species may be superior and drive other to extinction

2. One may be superior in one region, while inferior in other, resulting in differential elimination

3. Rapid divergent evolution to stop competing against one another for food

2. Nutritional Interactions Within the Ecosystem

1. Autotrophs

1. Manufactures own food.

2. Chemosynthetic bacteria obtain energy from oxidation of inorganic minerals

2. Heterotrophs

1. cannot synthesize their own food and must depend on autotrophs or other heterotrophs for nutrition

3. Herbivores

1. Consumes only plants or plant foods

1. Developed special structure for crushing and grinding tough cellulose food

2. Have symbiotic bacteria that help digest cellulose

2. Adept in defense because they're often prey

4. Carnivores

1. Consume only eat other animals

1. Possess pointed teeth and fang-like canine teeth for tearing flesh

2. Shorter digestive tract due to easy digestibility of animal food

5. Omnivore

1. Eats both plants and animals

3. Interspecific Interactions

1. Community is an integrated system of species dependent on each other for survival

2. Major types of interspecific interactions are symbiosis, predation, saprophytism, and scavenging

3. Symbiosis

1. Both participants living together in permanent association with each other

2. Some are obligatory where one or both organisms cannot survive without the other

3. Commensalism

1. One organism benefited by the association while the other is not affected

1. Remora and Shark

2. Barnacle and Whale

4. Mutualism

1. Both organism derive some benefit

1. Tick bird and rhinoceros - bird removes ticks

2. Lichen - fungus and algae association

1. Algae produces food for itself and fungus

2. Fungal thread provides support and conserve rain water.  Also provide nitrogenous waste and carbon dioxide.

3. Nitrogen0fixing bacteria and legumes

4. Protozoa and termite - protozoan digests the cellulose from termite

5. Intestinal bacteria and humans - bacteria helps digestion

5. Parasitism

1. Parasite benefits at expense of host

1. Bacteria, fungi, leeches, ticks, sea lampreys

2. Ectoparasites - latches onto the external surface like skin and sucks out what they need

3. Endoparasites - lives within the host

4. Predation

1. Free living organism that feed on other living organism

2. Predator controls the number of prey

3. Usually, the community evolve toward a balance where prey's existence is not threaten by the predator

5. Saprophytism

1. Protists and fungi that decomposes dead organic matter externally

6. Scavenger

1. Animals consume dead animals

1. Bacteria of decay may be considered scavenger

2. Vulture and hyena

4. Intraspecific Interactions

1. Competition within species and cooperation as well

5. Interactions Between Organisms and Their Environment

1. Osmoregulation

1. Adaptation to converse internal osmolarity and conservation of water

2. Hyperosmotic environment

1. constantly in danger of dehydration

2. must constantly excrete salt to survive

3. Hypoosmotic environment

1. constantly in danger of excess water and excessive salt loss.

2. Seldom drinking, absorbing salt through gill, and excreting dilute urine

4. Insect - Excrete solid uric acid crystal to conserve water

5. Desert Camels - Got a lot of water storage and fat for tolerating temperature changes

6. Horned toad - thick scaly skin to prevent water loss

7. Plants - thick cuticles to prevent water loss.

8. Desert Plant - fleshy stems to store water, spiny leaves to limit water loss

2. Thermoregulation

1. Roughly 60% of energy is given off as heaet

2. Poikilothermic - cold blooded animals/plants where body temperature similar to environment

3. Homeothermic - warm blooded animals with physical mechanisms that allow them to maintain constant body temperature

Relationships within the Ecosystem

1. Energy Flow

1. Food chain

1. Energy enters from the sun through photosynthetic organisms

2. Producers

1. autotrophic green plants and chemosynthetic bacteria

2. Utilizes sun or chemical raw material to manufacture organic goods

3. Primary Consumer

1. Animals which consumes green plants

4. Secondary Consumer

1. Animals that consume the primary consumers

1. Tigers, frogs, lions, ants eating a primary consumer

5. Tertiary Consumer

1. Animals caught in the act of consuming secondary consumers

6. Decomposer

1. saprophytic organisms that decomposes organic wastes

2. Food Web

1. Intricate web of who eats who and etc

2. The more intricate the web, the more stable the community

3. Food pyramid

1. As food is transferred from one level to the next, transfer of energy occurs

1. Every energy transfer causes significant loss in energy

2. Pyramid of energy

1. Producer at the bottom contains the greatest amount of energy

2. Smallest amount of available energy is at the top of the pyramid

3. Pyramid of Mass

1. Each level supports successively smaller biomass

4. Pyramid of Number

1. Each level contains less and less organisms

5. In general, as pyramid ascend, there are less energy content, less mass, and fewer number of organism

2. Material Cycles

1. Material passes from inorganic to organic in an endless cycle

1. Accomplished largely through the actions of scavenger and decomposers

2. Nitrogen Cycle

1. Starting from elemental nitrogen (N2)

1. Cannot be used by anything and is chemically inert

2. Through lightning and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, it is turned into usable soluble nitrates

2. Nitrates (NO₃^-)

1. Absorbed by plants to make nucleic acid and plant proteins

2. Animals consume the plant protein and make their own from these protein

3. Both animal and plant would excrete ammonia or when dead, the nitrogen are locked up in tissue

4. Bacteria would then decompose the tissue down and turn nitrogen locked into ammonia

3. Ammonia (NH3)

1. It can be turned into nitrites by nitrifying bacteria via chemosynthesis

2. It can be turned into free elemental nitrogen in the atmosphere by denitrifying bacteria

1. Goes back to #1

4. Nitrites (NO2)

1. Turns into nitrates via nitrifying bacteria

3. Carbon Cycle

1. Starts from carbon dioxide (CO2)

2. Plant takes the carbon dioxide and fix it into glucose

3. Animals take the glucose and through respiration, burns the glucose back into CO2.

4. When dead, animals and plants are decomposed by bacteria into CO2

5. Cycle starts over

4. Other Cycles

1. Many other cycles exist, but it's all the same

Stability in the Ecosystem

1. Conditions for stability in an ecosystem

1. Self-sustaining ecosystem require a stable physical environment (abiotic) and a relatively stable biotic community

2. Requires a constant energy source (sun)

3. Requires material recyling pathway

2. The Climax community

1. A stable living (biotic) part of the ecosystem where populations exist in balance with each other and with the environment

2. Will persist until a dramatic change that disturbs the abiotic environment so much that biotic community must change (and die)

1. Or the biotic community changes (diseases?)

3. Ecological Succession

1. Orderly process by which one biotic community replaces another until climax community is established

2. Each community stage is called sere

1. Each stage has its dominant species

1. Each dominant species would change the environment so much that eventually, the environment will be more suitable for the successor dominant specie

2. Eventually, a population will alter the environment that the original condition that give rise to THIS population, are recreated.

1. Indefinite cycle is produced

3. The start of everything is a pioneer organism, first living thing in the ecosystem

World Biomes (Major communities)

1. Terrestrial Biomes

1. General

1. Everything trace back to sea, so adaptations must happen

1. Relative lack of water

2. Relative lack of food and supporting medium

3. Varying temperature extremes

4. Varying composition of the soil with different salinity

2. Each geographic region is a distinct community called biome

3. Land biomes are characterized and named after the climax vegetation of the region

1. Becomes dominant and stable after years of evolution

2. Since plants are the producer, they determine the nature of the animal population and everything else

3. Thus, climax vegetation determines the climax animal population

2. Desert Biome

1. Less than 10" of rain each year.

2. Small plants and animals inhabit the desert

3. Plant life includes: Cactus, sagebrush, mesquite

4. Animal life includes: insects and lizards

3. Grassland Biome

1. Low rainfall (10-30" per year)

2. No shelter for herbivorous mammals from carnivorous predators

3. Animals inhabit here developed long legs and hoofs

4. Tropical Rain Forest biome

1. Jungles characterized by high temperature and torrential rains

2. Dense vegetation which does not shed leaves

1. Vines

2. Epiphytes - plants growing on other plants

3. Numerous animals

4. Floor inhabited by saprophytes

5. Temperate Deciduous Forest biome

1. Cold winters, warm summers, and moderate rainfall

2. Trees like beech, maple, oaks, and willows

1. Leaves during warm time

2. Shed leaves during cold time

3. Various animals

6. Temperate Coniferous Forest Biome

1. Cold, dry, and usually no warm time

2. Inhabited by fir, pine, and spruce

1. Adapted for water conservation with needle-shaped leaves

7. Taiga Biome

1. Less rainfall than temperate forests with long cold winters

2. Inhabit only by spruce

3. floors having moss and lichens

4. Chief animals is the moose, with black bear, wolf, and some birds

8. Tundra Biome

1. Treeless, frozen plain with very short growing summer

2. Lichen, moss, polar bear, musk oxen, and arctic hen found here

9. Polar region

1. Frozen with no vegetation and animals

2. Penguins live near water!

2. Terrestrial Biome and Altitude

1. From the equator to the polar region, the same can be found with from base of mountain to the top

3. Aquatic Biomes

1. General

1. 70% of Earth surface is covered by water

2. Most of Earth's life is found in water

3. 90% of Earth's food and oxygen production takes place in water

4. Nothing changes drastically in water, so really only two major aquatic biomes, marine and fresh water

2. Marine Biome

1. Relative constant amount of nutrient and dissolved salts

2. Not a great deal of temperature change

3. Intertidal zone

1. region exposed during low tide

2. Algae, sponges, clams, snails, sea urchins, starfish, and crabs

4. Littoral Zone

1. On continental shelf with depths up to 600 feet

2. Algae, crabs, crustaceans, many different kinds of fish

5. Pelagic Zone

1. Typical open sea, divided into two parts

2. Photic zone

1. Sunlit layer extending up to 600 feet

2. Chief autotroph is diatom, type of algae

3. Contains plankton

1. Drifting masses of microscopic photosynthetic and heterotrophic organisms

4. Contains nekton

1. Active swimmers such as sharks, fish, or whales

3. Aphotic zone

1. No sunlight here

1. No photosynthesis plant here

2. Deep-sea organisms have adaptation enabling them to survive in very cold water, high pressures, and complete darkness

1. Nekton - fishes, eels, etc

2. Benthos - crawling and sessil organisms

3. Most living things here are scavengers or predators, competition is fierce

3. Freshwater biome

1. Rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes, in between ocean and land

2. Temperature, transparency, depth of water, CO2 availability, and oxygen are important factors

3. Salt concentration can also be a big factor (closer to ocean)

4. Fresh water organisms must always be removing excess water

1. Contractile vacuoles of protozoa

2. Excretory system of fish

3. Plants with rigid cell wall

5. Strong currents, fishes must have strong muscles to swim against, and plants must have root-like holdfast to stay in place

6. Temperature of fresh water bodies may freeze up, dry up, and muddy

So… the fish must adopt to frozen lake!