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Chapter - 13: Quick Revision Notes Organisms and Population Important Terms

This document discusses key concepts in ecology and populations. It defines important terms like ecology, homeostasis, population density, and carrying capacity. It describes mechanisms of homeostasis like regulation, conformers, migration, and suspension. It discusses adaptations organisms have to different environments like deserts, Antarctica, and deep sea. It also covers population attributes, growth models, interactions like mutualism, predation, competition, parasitism, and commensalism. Finally, it lists major abiotic factors of the environment like temperature, light, water, and soil and how organisms respond through homeostasis.

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Shaharukh Nadaf
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156 views5 pages

Chapter - 13: Quick Revision Notes Organisms and Population Important Terms

This document discusses key concepts in ecology and populations. It defines important terms like ecology, homeostasis, population density, and carrying capacity. It describes mechanisms of homeostasis like regulation, conformers, migration, and suspension. It discusses adaptations organisms have to different environments like deserts, Antarctica, and deep sea. It also covers population attributes, growth models, interactions like mutualism, predation, competition, parasitism, and commensalism. Finally, it lists major abiotic factors of the environment like temperature, light, water, and soil and how organisms respond through homeostasis.

Uploaded by

Shaharukh Nadaf
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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70

BiologyXII

CHAPTER 13
Quick Revision Notes
ORGANISMS AND POPULATION

Important Terms1) Ecology The interaction between organisms and the physical environment and also the
interactions amongst organisms is called ecology.
2) Eurythermals Those organisms which can tolerate and thrive in a wide range of
temperatures.
3) Stenothermals Those organisms which are restricted to a narrow range of
temperature.
4) Euryhaline Those organisms which are tolerant to a wide range of salinity.
5) Stenohaline Those organisms which are restricted to a narrow range of salinity.
6) Homeostasis It refers to the maintenance of a steady internal environment by an
organism.
7) Population A group of individuals of a species present per unit area or volume at a
given time.
8) Population density Total number of individuals of a species present per unit area or
volume, at a given time.
9) Natality Number of births in a population at a given period.
10) Mortality Number of deaths in a population at a given period.
11) Immigration - Number of individuals of the same species that come into a habitat from
somewhere else.
12) Emigration Number of individuals of the same species that have left the habitat.
13) Carrying capacity The maximum number of individuals of a population that can be
sustained by a given habitat.

Mechanism of homeostasis

Diagrammatic representation of organismic response

Quick Revision

71

(i) Regulation Maintenance of internal body temperature to regulate a constant


temperature. During summers these animals sweat to cool their bodies and in winters,
shiver to produce heat.
(ii) Conformers Osmotic concentration of body fluids of such animals, change with the
external water osmotic concentration.

Also change their body temperature according to the surrounding temperature.

(iii) Migration Migratory birds from cold areas fly away to warmer areas in winters.
(iv) Suspension Organisms undergo summer and winter sleep.

Adaptations Any attribute of an organism that enables the organism to survive and
reproduce in its habitat.
(i) Adaptations to desert conditions are leaves reduced to spines, stems fleshy, stomata
remain closed during daytime and open at night etc.
(ii) Some fishes can survive Antarctic waters with temperatures less than 0C.
(iii) Marine invertebrates tolerate pressure of more than 100 times in deep sea.
(iv) Archaebacteria survive in hot springs.

Populations
(i) Population attributes
a)

Birth rate (natality)

b)

Death rate (mortality)

c) Sex ratio
d) Population density.

A population at any given time is composed of different age group which are
Pre-reproductive, Reproductive and Post-reproductive.

Representation of age pyramids for human population


(ii) Population Growth.

Depending on factors such as food availability, weather, predation pressure etc, size
of any population keeps on changing.
Density of population in a given habitat changes due to
a) Natality b) Mortality c) Immigration d) Emigration.
Equation for population growth - Nt+1 = Nt + [(B+I) (D+E)]
where Nt - population density at time t.
B - Birth rate,
I - Immigration,
D- Death rate,
E - Emigration

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BiologyXII

(iii) Population growth models:


(a) Exponential growth model
(b) Logistic growth model.

Population growth curve


a- When responses are not limiting the growth, plot is exponential
b- When responses are limiting the growth, plot is logistic
(a) Exponential growth model When the resource availability is unlimited in the habitat,
the population grows in an exponential or geometric fashion.

Eqn dN/dt = N

(b) Logistic growth Due to the carrying capacity of the environment no population can
continue to grow exponentially.

Eqn dN/dt = N(K-N)/K

Where K= Carrying capacity.

Population Interactions
Mutualism
Confers benefits
on both the
interacting
species
Examples

Predation
One animal or
predator kills the
other weaker
animal called
prey.

(1) Lichens
between
fungus and
algae

Example

(2)MycorrhizaFungi and
roots of
higher plants

Defence
mechanisms by
preys:

(3) In a fig
species and
wasp.

ii) some are


poisonous

(1) Tiger,
predator of
deer

i) Camouflage

Competition

Parasitism

Commensalism

Occurs between
closely related
species when
they compete
for the same
resources that
are limited.

Interspecific
interaction
where one of the
species depends
on the other for
food and shelter.

Interaction in
which one specis
benefits and the
other is neither
narmed mor
benefited

ExamplesLiver fluke,
Plasmodium in
human beings,
Ticks on dogs.

Examples

Brood parasitism
is seen in
cuckoo.

Catlle egret and


grazing eattle.

Example
Abingdon
tortoise in
Galapagos
islands became
extinct within
a decade after
goats were
introduced.

An orcludglowing
as an epiphyle
on a mango
branch

Quick Revision

(4) Ophrys, an
orchid and
a species of
bee.

73

iii) Distasteful
chemicals
present
(iv) Presence of
thorns.

ORGANISM AND ITS ENVIRONMENT:

Organisms are adapted to their environments, in terms of not only survival but also
reproduction.

Variations in the intensity and duration of temperature which results in seasons as well
as precipitation results in formation of major biomes such as desert, rain forest and
tundra etc.

Biome distribution with respect to annual temperature and precipitation

Habitats are formed by regional and local variations within each biome.

Major Abiotic Factors:

1)

Temperature It varies from place to place and ranges from subzero levels in polar
areas to more than 50C in tropical deserts to 100C in thermal springs and deep sea
hydrothermal vents.

It affects the kinetics of enzymes and through it the basal metabolism, activity and
other physiological functions of the organism.

Accordingly there are eurythermal and stenothermal animals and plants.

2) Light

Plants require light for photosynthesis as well as to meet their photoperiodic


requirement for flowering.

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BiologyXII

3)

Animals require light as cues for timing, their nocturnal, diurnal activities, for
foraging, reproductive and migratory activities.

UV component of light spectrum is harmful to many organisms while for marine


plants, some of the component of the visible spectrum is required.

Water

Productivity and distribution of organisms is dependent on water. Some organisms


are euryhalines and some stenohaline.

4) Soil Characteristics of soil such as soil composition, grain size and aggregation determine
the percolation and water holding capacity of soil. These characteristics determine the
plants or vegetation and indirectly the animals found in the area.

Responses to Abiotic factors -

Homeostasis The function of an organism to maintain the constancy of its internal


environment despite the varying external environment conditions.

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