Ecology

• Ecology


  How organisms interact with other organisms and their environment, if you study this you are an ecologist
• Population


  The same species in the same place at the same time
• Community


  All populations of organisms that interact in a certain area
• Ecosystem


  Consist of living and nonliving things interacting with one another
• Biosphere

  All ecosystems on earth, includes climate change
• What do all organisms recycle

  Water, carbon dioxide, oxygen
• Photosynthesis and plants use CO2 to produce glucose. Animals and plants breakdown the glucose releasing CO2 for respiration. Photosynthesis releases oxygen, plant animals take it for inspiration
• Ecosystem size

  Size is not defined in terms of area but rather by the interactions that occur inside it
• Symbiosis


  Two different species living together in the same community interact over a long period of time
• Competition


  When two species need to share a valuable resource like food
• Feeding

  Different species in an ecosystem are related and interact when one species can use the other as a food source
• Parasitism (symbiosis)


  One species benefits while the other is harmed
• Commensalism (symbiosis)


  One species benefits while the other is unaffected by the relationship
• Mutualism


  Both species are benefited and gain something from the other
• Producers


  Produce their food on their own and don’t need to eat organisms to do this.

  Autotrophic
• Consumers


  Can produce food on their own and need to eat organisms.

  Heterotrophic. herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, decomposers
• energy transfer


  all energy in food webs come from the sun
• Organisms use 90% of its food energy for life processes
• Food webs


  Shows the different feeding relationships between different species
• What to look at to see if ecosystem is balanced

  Population growth
• Riverine rabbit


  200 left in South Africa, endangered because of human intervention
• The main goal of any species

  To reproduce and ensure the survival of the species
• 2 factors that disrupt a balanced ecosystem

  Natural & human
• Natural


  Natural disasters (floods, hurricanes) can cause disruptions to ecosystems, which they will recover from, but change over long periods (climate change, global warming) ecosystems may not recover
• Human


  Modern man- has a huge impact on nature

  we:

  clear lands to build cities, roads, farms

  pollute the environment

  produce waste and litter

  poach endangered animals

  over harvest marine animals
• Which 4 factors force organisms to adapt

  Competition, predation, paratism, human influence
• How can adaption occur

  structural, functional, behavioural , which take place over a long period lf t8me passed down generations
• Structural


  The physical characteristics of a species
• Functional


  Species way of carrying out its life processes
• behavioural


  species behaviours that are instinctive
• Migration


  When animals move between different areas at different times
• Hibernation


  Some animals that don’t migrate hibernate some sleep through the winter.
• Umbrella thorn tree in African Savannah

  Can survive 50°C to below freezing.

  It’s deep roots store water and small leaves prevent dehydration
• Baobab tree

  Survives in dry areas as it stores water in the thick trunk
• Conservation of the ecosystem

  South Africa’s beauty attracts tourist every year, but under the influence of poaching, pollution.
• Human interferences

  1. Habitat destruction (deforestation, burning)
  2. Pollution causing global warming
  3. Alien invasive planets taking over ecosystem
  4. Hunting, poaching leads to the killing of wildlife