Ecology Lecture 1

10/29/2015

Lecture 1:
- What is ecology?
The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to
one another and to their physical surroundings/environment
The political movement that seeks to protect the environment,
specifically from pollution
Is essential for the survival of the human species
o For arriving at practical decisions concerning the management
of natural resources
Why is ecology so important?
Mass culture where humans are not concerned about their impact
on the environment
Air pollution is ridiculous in china
Climate change is impacting every organism in the planet
Environmental science is not environmentalism
Environmental science
o The pursuit of knowledge about the natural world
o Objective
Environmentalism
o Activism
o Dedicated to protecting the natural world
Nature of ecology study of the household
Body of knowledge concerning the economy of nature
Ecosystem: can be a tiny little puddle or a massive ocean
What are the components of an organisms environment?
All organisms acquire nutrients form the surround environment
o Make a living
Use these resources to protect and reproduce
Levels of organization

 Individual
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biome
Biosphere
Birth and Death
The effect of birth and death can be studied at multiple levels
1) individual birth and death are discrete events and happen only
once
2) population birth and death are continuous, measured as rates or
probabilities
3) community focus shifts to relative abundance of species within the
community
ecology has its root in plant geography and natural history from the
1800s
plant geographers noticed similar climates had similar vegetation
Plant association: correlation of vegetation with environmental
characteristics
o Realization that the form and function of their physical
environment
CONVERGENT EVOLUTION
Evolutionary ecology: focuses on studying the role of natural
selection in adaptations and speciation
Physiological ecology: concerned with the responses of individual
organisms to environmental conditions
Principle of Tolerance limits
As the climate is changing, is vital to understand how species adapt
to a changing climate
Landscape ecology: explores spatial processes that link adjacent
communities and ecosystems; uses remote sensing data;
geographical information system
o Maps with layer upon layer of information and understand
aspects of the environment in a visual way
Conservation ecology: applies principles from different fields,
including ecology, economics, and sociology to preserve
biodiversity, protecting the environment and its habitants
o Humans: habitat loss (fragmentation) and shipping
Restoration ecology: uses principles of ecosystem function to
restore and manage disturbed areas environmental engineering
o Protect the soil!!!!

Systems ecology
Ecosystem emphasis shifts from species to the flows of energy and
nutrients
Energy and nutrients are converted into biomass and then are
broken down and decomposed
Earths Carbon Cycle:
o Humans disturbance at the fossil fuels
Moving carbon sinks into the atmosphere
Hydrocarbons burn hydrocarbons and release carbon into the
atmosphere
Get CO2, Water, and Energy
Nitrogen Cycle issues: nitrogen as the building blocks of protein, its
limiting element
People have figured out to take nitrogen-carrying bacteria and take
that and make it available to plants and organisms
Haber Process reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen
o N2 + 3H2 2NH3
o Facilitated invention of synthetic fertilizers incredible yield
of food
o However, fertilizers leads to leaching and get into the water
Phosphorous Cycle
Usually obtained either through leaching through rainstorms and
water
Or from decomposers (fungi)
All the reserves of phosphorous is in morocco or the saharas
We may have reached peak phosphorous; demand keeps rising but
the supplies is diminishing
Ecologists investigate nature using scientific method
1. Make observation
2. Form a question based on that observation
o ex. In north American prairie grass lands have different levels
of productivity biomass
3. Hypothesis: an educated guess, cause and effect statement
o ex. Nitrogen could be the reason why one of the ecosystem is
productive and the other isnt
4. test the hypothesis involves testing the predictions to see if it
holds true

o field study: can eliminated temperature, soil quality, etc and

only add more nitrogen to some field plots and not in others
o be careful not to add too much nutrient because it becomes
toxic and you can kill your plants
ammonium toxicity
these data do not prove that nitrogen is the only factor influencing
plant productivity
other factors, such as soil moisture or acidity, could also be
responsible for the observed relationship
Tried to grow the grasses in a greenhouse or more control; but
greenhouse conditions are different than those in a field, so
response may be different than the real environment
Uncertainty is an inherent feature of science
The scientific method is a continuous process of testing and correcting
explanations to refine our understanding of the world around us
As a result, only part of the picture is seen
We are limited to inspecting only a part of nature because to
understand we must simplify
Today, many ecologists are studying the dominant role that humans
are playing in earths ecosystems
Exponential Growth = resources are unlimited and a population
experiences exponential growth when the size increases at an ever
increasing rate
Go into a singularity infinity
Resources become limited and graph turns sigmoidal
Invasive species in San Francisco is also increasing J curve
o human population is a J curve; making more habitat and
more extinction