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Ecology term

Page history last edited by Charles Forstbauer 13 years, 9 months ago

Totaled 6/8 DONE!

 

The importance of grass land ecosystems is extremly significant to the well being of the world as almost one fifth of the worlds population lives on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFIMWyo8P_4&feature=related

 

This video displays how herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores are different based on how the teeth in their mouth makes them more suitable for their food.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VejLXTsJrJc

 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GfxlP_t26c

 

The video above demonstrates the predator vs prey aspect in the wild between killer whales and sea lions

 

 

Eclogy is the study of the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.

A component in ecological study usually focuses on the ecosystem of an area. An ecosystem is the unique network of animal and plant species who depends on the other to sustain life. The interactions between and among organisms at every stage of life and death can impact the system.

 

How do scientists study ecology?

Regardless of the tools they use, scientists conduct modern ecological research using three basic approaches: observing, experimenting, and modeling.  All of these approaches rely on the application of scientific methods to guide ecological inquiry.

 

Here is a video on the ecology of a pond:

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The six Levels of Organization include:

 

  • Species-Similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring.

Species- a taxonomic rank (the basic rank of Biological classification) or

a unit at that rank (in which case the plural is "species" 

  • Population- The number of the same species, interbreed, and are in the same area.
  • Community-an assemblage of different populations that live together.
  • Ecosystem-Collection of organisms that live in a place with the non-living enviroment. YouTube plugin error

This video accurately descibes an ecosystem.  

  • Biome-group of ecosystems with the same climate and dominant communities.
  • Biosphere-The part of the earth where life exists including land, water, air, and the atmosphere.

 

Some important terms about population include:

Population Density: the number of individuals per unit area. 

Population Growth: how fast or slow a population grows, and it is affected by numerous factors such as the number of births, the number of deaths, immigration and emigration. 

 

Autotrophs- Make their own food, also called the producers.

  • Two forms of energy include sunlight and chemicals.

Some autotrophs include trees, flowers, algae and seaweed. 

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This is a humorous student made video that shows the differences between autotrophs and heterotrophs

 

Heterotrophs- Get their food from another source, also called the consumers. 

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This video discusses the adaptations that animals make to obtain thier food

  • Types of Heterotrophs include: Omnivores, Carnivores, Herbivores, and Decomposers.

 

Carnivore=  an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging

 

Omnivore= species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source

 

Herbivores= animals that are adapted to eat plants

 

Decomposers= organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, and in doing so carry out the natural process of decomposition

 

Example of Carnivore:

 

 

Example of Omnivore:

 

Example of Herbivore:

 

Example of a Decomposer:

 

 

 

 

 

Heterotophs such as this cheetah, must work for their food by consuming either autotrophs or omnivores to obtain their energy

 

FOOD WEB
* shows the interactions and interconnections among the different food chains of a community

 

 

The food web is very important. I researched a little about the effects of removing one organism from the food change would have. This is what I discovered-->
It depends on what organism you remove. If you remove an herbivore, then all the carnivores will starve and have to move to a different area with more food. If you removed a carnivore, there will be too many herbivores and the plants won't be able to grow back fast enough to provide them food. So, they would have to move to a different area with more food too. Either way, the animals would have to move. 

 

Energy flows through an ecosystem in one direction, from the sun or inorganic compounds to autotrophs (producers) then to various heterotrophs (consumers).  This should strengthen one's understanding of how food webs and food chains work.  They visually demonstrate how even carnivores, purely meat-eaters, get their energy (indirectly) from the sun.

 

Like many of the natural sciences, a conceptual understanding of ecology is found in the broader details of study, including:

  • life processes explaining adaptations
  • distribution and abundance of organisms
  • the movement of materials and energy through living communities
  • the successional development of ecosystems, and
  • the abundance and distribution of biodiversity in context of the environment

 

Here is a video made by Bill Nye (so its interesting and funny/fun to watch) about the food web.

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Related terms:

 

Abiotic,Nonliving or not containing any living organisms.

Abiotic factors, Environmental influences produced other than by living organisms; for example, temperature, wind patterns, humidity, pH, substrate rock type, and other physical and chemical influences.

Aerobe,An organism that utilizes atmospheric oxygen in its metabolic pathways. An organism that must have oxygen in order to survive is an obligate aerobe .

Anaerobe, 1: An organism capable of living in the absence of free oxygen. 2: Obligate anaerobe: An organism that must live without oxygen, for whom oxygen is toxic.

 

Biodegradable, Able to be broken down into simpler substances (elements and compounds) by naturally occuring decomposers. Essentially, anything that can be ingested by an organism without causing that organism harm. 2. Nontoxic and able to be decomposed in relatively short period even on a human time scale.

Biodiversity, The variety of biotic factors found within a specified geographic region. 2. The combined differences of living things, generally classified in four broad categories:

  • Genetic Diversity: Variety among individuals within a species -- or, more specifically, the variety in the DNA of a species.
  • Species Diversity: Variety of different organisms at the species taxonomic level.
  • Cultural Diversity: Variety of learned behaviors among individuals of a species.
  • Ecosystem Diversity: Variety of biomes and habitats occuring in the biosphere.

 

Carrying capacity, The amount of animal or plant life that can be supported indefinitely on available resources; the number of individuals that the resources of a habitat can support. Also called biological carrying capacity.

Ecological efficiency, The percentage of energy in biomass produced by one trophic level that is incorporated into biomass by the next highest trophic level.

Ecological succession, Process in which communities of plant and animal species in a particular area are replaced over time by a series of different and often more complex communities.

Emergent, A tree with a canopy that forms about the general upper most continuous canopy.

Environmental degradation,  A reduction of an ecosystem's or habitat's ability to support its natural biota. 2. Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife by using it at a faster rate than it is naturally replenished. If such use is continued, the resource can become nonrenewable (on a human timescale) or nonexistent. 3. Pollution, toxification, or other alteration of an environment that makes it less productive, hospitable, usable, or enjoyable.

 

Community Interactions: community interactions such as competition, predation and various forms of symbiosis can powerfully affect an ecosystem. 

Competition: This occurs when organisms of the same or different species compete to use the same ecological resource in the same place at the same time. 

Predation: An interaction in which one organism captures and feeds on another organism. 

Symbiosis: A relationship in which two species live closely together. 

     Different forms of symbiosis include mutualism, commensalism and parasitism. In mutualism, both species benefit from the relationship, like flowers and bees for example. In commensalism, one species is helped and the other isn't bothered by the relationship. For example, barnacles which grow on whales don't harm the whale, but they benefit from the movement of the whale because it carries them to food. Finally, parasitism is when one organism harms another organism by living inside of it. Tapeworms and Ticks are two examples of parasites. 

 

This video gives and explains examples of the relationships between different species living within the same ecosystem (competition, predation, and symbiosis, as definded above).  This video is helpful because it shows real-life examples of these interactions in the animals natural habitats. 

 

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Extant,  A species that is still alive and reproducing. All species that currently live on earth are extant.

First law of human ecology,We can never do merely one thing. Any intrusion into nature has numerous effects, many of which are unpredictable. For example, one classic dilemma is the case of behavioral biologists who observe their study subjects at close range: Are the observed behaviors truly natural or are they influenced by the researcher's presence?

Food chain, Figure of speech describing the dependence of heterotrophs on other organisms for food, progressing in a series beginning with primary producers (plants) and ending with the largest carnivores. The food chain is used as a figurative image for educational purposes only... real trophic systems resemble webs rather than chains.

Example of a food chain: In a prairie ecosystem there’s grass (autotroph) that is fed upon by an herbivore, such as a grazing antelope.  The herbivore is in turn fed upon by a carnivore- such as a coyote.  In this situation, the carnivore is only two steps removed from the producer.

Food web,The combination of all the feeding relationships that exist in an ecosystem. Most prey species are eaten by many differet predators, and most predators eat more than one prey item. As a result, a picture of a trophic system with lines (representing ecological relationships) drawn between predators and prey soon resembles an intricate web.

 

Forest Outlier: a patch of forest separated from the main body.

Fragmentation: breaking up of a forest into islands of trees.

Free-Living: a mobile organism that does not depend on other organisms for food or other resources.

Frequency Dependence: an interspecific equivalent of density-dependence in which a species grows when its population is low compared to another species and stops growing when the population is high.

Frugivore: an animal whose main diet is fruit. Many birds and bats are frugivores.

 

Fundamental Niche: for a given species, the ideal range of suitable conditions without competition or predators.

Gap Dynamics: the ecological effect of a canopy gap opened when a tree dies or is otherwise removed from a section of forest.

Geomorphic Threshold: the limit beyond which changes to a landform accelerate into a new state (e.g., a creeping slope suddenly falls over).

Hydrophyte: organisms that live in water habitats.

Hygrophyte: organisms that live in moist places.

 

Indicator Plant: a plant whose presence and health give clues about soil quality. Moss sometimes means a lot of acid in the soil, for example, although to a seasoned eye, most plants can serve as indicators.

Indicator Species: a species that works like an indicator plant: its population and health reveal much about its ecosystem.

Insolation: solar energy received by the Earth.

Krummholz: the twisty, shrubby islands of trees near a tree line (which marks the climatic boundary beyond which they will not grow).

 

Latent Heat Flux: the transformation of heat energy through cycles of air and water.

Liana: a woody vine that climbs on trees to spread its leaves above the canopy.

Life Pyramids: niche diagrams of the organisms living there.

Mesophytes: organisms living in habitats of moderate moisture.

Mesotrophic: moderately nutrient-rich habitats.

 

http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/facilities/multimedia/uploads/alberta/Ecosystem.swf - This link will bring you to an interesting animation that shows how abiotic and biotic factors affect an ecosystem. You can identify the factors as well as specific relationships in the particular ecosystem

 

Relationship between Evolution and Ecology:

     Ecology and evolution are considered sister disciplines of the life sciences.  Natural selection, life history, development, adaption, populations, and inheritance are examples of concepts that thread equally into ecological and evolutionary theory. Morphological, behavioural and/or genetic traits, for example, can be mapped onto evolutionary trees to study the historical development of a species in relation to their functions and roles in different ecological circumstances

 

http://www.backyardnature.net/ecodefin.htm ---> This website gives a very good general overview of the topic of ecology, and suggests books that people can look into if they want to further their knowledge of the study of ecology.

 

http://www.bcb.uwc.ac.za/Sci_Ed/grade10/ecology/introduction.htm ---> This website goes into great detail in describing what ecology actually is. It explains how ecology is linked to evolution, and how it contributes to the study of evolution.

 

http://geologyecology.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_science_of_ecology ---> This link explains the relationship between ecology in communities and ecology in ecosystems, as well as giving an excellent definition of the term ecology itself.

 

This video is really interesting because I didn't know that fungi were heterotrophic.  I didn't know that they actually get their food from other organisms, and they rely on other organisms for food.  I always assumed that they were autotrophs because they looked like plants. 

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I found this video to be very helpful since it explains the different levels of energy in the food chain.  It also explains what primary consumers and decomposers are.  It goes a little beyond what we learned in class about calories, but it also incorporates some of our learning from earlier on in the year, like parasites and chloroplasts.  I hope this helps!

 

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