Ecology Lecture

• Ecology is a branch of biology that studies the relationships between organisms and their environment.
• Living organisms, their relationships and interactions with other organisms, and their relationships and interactions with the environment are three things that are studied in ecology.
• Humans have the ability to modify the environment through the use of technology, and through overexploitation of natural resources.
• Ecology also has social, political, economic and technological dimensions.
• Ecology is a study of evolutionary development of organisms, the biological productivity and energy flow in the natural system.
• Mathematical models are developed in ecology to relate interaction of parameters and to predict the effects.
• Autecology deals with the study of an individual species of organisms and its population, also known as Species ecology.
• Synecology deals with the study of communities, their composition, their behavior and relation with the environment, also known as Ecology of communities.
• Aquatic ecology is the study of interaction of organisms in the water, including marine water ecology which covers deep bodies like the ocean and shallow ones like the sea or an estuary.
• Freshwater Ecology is the study of interaction of organisms in the water, including lentic (standing water like lakes and ponds) and lotic (running water like streams and springs).
• Fitness is measured by an organism's ability to survive and reproduce, which determines the size of its genetic contribution to the next generation.
• Adaptation also refers to a trait that is important for an organism's survival.
• Survival of the fittest is a principle stating that organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce.
• Adaptation is the process that makes organisms better suited to their habitat.
• Terrestrial Ecology is the study of interaction of organisms on land, including grassland ecology, forest ecology, and desert ecology.
• Environmental Science is the systematic study of our environment and our proper place in it, with Ecology forming the core.
• The Major Biological Components of Ecosystem include Producers (Autotrophs) who make their own food from compounds that are obtained from their environment, Consumers (Heterotrophs) who get their energy and nutrients by feeding on other organisms or their remains, Decomposers who recycle organic matter in ecosystems by breaking down dead organic material to get nutrients and releasing the resulting simpler inorganic compounds into the soil and water, and Omnivores who have a mixed diet that includes both plants and animals.
• Biotic factors are all the living things that directly or indirectly affect the ecosystem.
• Ecology consists of non-living chemical & physical components such as water, air, nutrients in the soil or water & Solar Energy.
• Physical & chemical factors that influence living organisms in land (terrestrial) ecosystem & aquatic life zones are known as climatic factors and edaphic factors respectively.
• Biotic factors interact with other living organisms and the physical environment.
• Sustainable development means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs, providing progress in real human well-being that can last for many generations.
• The human development index evaluates quality of life based on social and environmental factors as well as income.
• Environmental science addresses many serious environmental problems, but progress is being made in many areas toward finding sustainable solutions to these dilemmas.
• Environmental Science is interdisciplinary, integrating natural and social sciences with humanities to study both the natural world and the social, cultural, and technological world that humans create.
• Productive ecology is a sub-discipline of ecology that studies the rate of generation of biomass in an ecosystem.
• Microbial ecology is a sub-discipline of ecology that studies the relationship of microorganisms with one another and with their environment, including the three major domains of life —Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria — as well as viruses.
• Radiation ecology is a sub-discipline of ecology that studies the effects of radioactive materials on living systems and on the pathways by which they are dispersed through ecosystems, including their dispersal through the abiotic environment.
• Biotic factors such as predation, herbivory, parasitism, and interspecific and intraspecific competition, are also limiting factors; these tend to be density dependent factors.
• The absorption of water as a resource is vital for plant growth and other functions, so lack of rainfall can lead to wilting, scorching and damaged cells.
• Cordyceps fungus is a prominent parasite, and has many strains specialized on different species and is present within tropical ecosystem.
• Removal of predators has disturbed the balance of natural biotic, cycle of predators and prey; in some cases, prey animals have been able to thrive in the absence of predators.
• Density independent factors include leaking of pollutants and other habitat destruction has destroyed entire ecosystems.
• Density dependent limiting factors such as decreased availability of space due to deforestation is a global issue, causing decline and extinctions in many populations.
• Above the optimum temperature, enzymes are catalyzed at an increased rate, which can lead to denaturing of the enzymes.
• Resources are increasingly scarce due to hunting and leaching of nutrients from soil, which causes intraspecific and interspecific competition within and between populations.
• Maintaining a correct body temperature is vitally important for almost all organisms in order to perform metabolic functions effectively.
• Increased temperature also leads to desiccation of leaves, as it causes increased evapotranspiration and removes too much water from the plant.
• If temperatures fall too low, frost may form on leaves, which damages the cell walls and cell contents.
• The onset of climate change as a result of burning fossil fuels, is rapidly increasing global temperatures, as well as changing weather patterns and increasing the rate of natural disaster events, such as hurricanes, floods, fires and more.