Chapter 2 Principles

of Ecology
Section 1 Organisms and Their Relationships
 What Is Ecology?
• Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions of living things with each other
and their relationships with their environments.
• Ecology is usually considered to be a major branch of biology.
• However, ecology has a broader scope because it includes both organisms and
their environments.
• Regardless of the challenges associated with conducting research in natural
environments, ecologists often carry out field experiments to test their
hypotheses.
 The Biosphere
• The highest level of ecological organization is the biosphere.
• It is the part of Earth, including the air, land, surface rocks, and water, where life
is found.
• Parts of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere make up the biosphere.
 The Biosphere 2
• The lithosphere is the outermost layer of the Earth's crust; essentially land is
part of the lithosphere.
• The hydrosphere is composed of all the areas that contain water, which can be
found on, under, and over the surface of Earth.
• The atmosphere is the layer of gas that surrounds the planet.
 The Biosphere 3
• The biosphere includes the area from about 11,000 meters below sea level to
15,000 meters above sea level.
• It overlaps with the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
• Land plants and animals are found on the lithosphere, freshwater and marine
plants and animals are found in the hydrosphere, and birds and other flying
animals are found in the atmosphere.
 Is the Biosphere Living?
• The Gaia hypothesis states that the biosphere is its own living organism.
• The hypothesis suggests that the Earth is self-regulating and tends to achieve a
stable state, known as homeostasis.
 Is the Biosphere Living? 2
• For example the composition of our atmosphere stays fairly consistent, providing
the ideal conditions for life.
• When carbon dioxide levels increase in the atmosphere, plants grow more quickly.
• As their growth continues, they remove more carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere.
• In this way, the amount of carbon dioxide stays fairly constant without human
intervention.
 Biotic factors
• The living factors in an organism’s environment are called the biotic factors.
• These biotic factors include all of the organisms that live in the water, such as
other fish, algae, frogs, and microscopic organisms.
 Abiotic factors
• The nonliving factors in an organism’s environment are called abiotic factors
• The abiotic factors for different organisms vary across the biosphere, but
organisms that live in the same geographic area might share the same abiotic
factors.
• These factors might include temperature, air or water currents, sunlight, soil type,
rainfall, or available nutrients.
 Levels of Organization
• To study relationships within the biosphere, ecologists look at different levels of
organization or smaller pieces of the biosphere.
• The levels increase in complexity as the numbers and interactions between
organisms increase.
• The levels of organization are
• 1.Organism 2.Population
• 3.Biological Community 4.Ecosystem
• 5. Biome 6.Biosphere.
 Organisms, populations, and biological
communities
• 1. Organism: An individual living thing, such as one striped fish, is an organism.
• Individual organisms of a single species that share the same geographic location at
the same time make up a population.
• 2. Population: A group of organisms of the same species that interbreed and live in
the same place at the same time, such as the school of striped fish, is a population.
• 3. Biological Community: All of the populations of species—fishes, coral, and
marine plants—that live in the same place at the same time make up a biological
community.
 Ecosystems, biomes, and the biosphere
• Ecosystem: A biological community and all of the abiotic factors that affect it.
• Biome: A biome is formed by a group of ecosystems, such as the coral reefs off the
coast of the Florida Keys, that share the same climate and have similar types of
communities.
• Biosphere: The highest level of organization is the biosphere, which is the layer of
Earth—from high in the atmosphere to deep in the ocean—that supports life
 Community Interactions
• Competition: Occurs when more than one organism uses a resource at the same
time.
• Ex: During droughts, animals compete for water; when water is plentiful, organisms share this
resource.
• Predation: Consuming another organism for food
• The organism that pursues another organism is the predator.
• The organism that is pursued is the prey.
 Symbiotic Relationships
• Symbiosis: The close relationship that exists when two or more species live together
• Three Types: Mutualism, Commensalism, And Parasitism.
• Mutualism: Two or more organisms that live closely together and benefit from each
other
• Commensalism: A relationship in which one organism benefits from another and
the other organism is neither helped nor harmed.
• Parasitism: Relationship in which one organism benefits at the expense of another
organism
 Habitat & Niche
• Habitat: is an area where an organism lives
• A habitat might be a single tree for an organ-ism that spends its life on one tree.
• If the organism moves from tree to tree, its habitat would be a grove of trees
• Niche: The role or position that an organism has in its environment.
• An organism’s niche is how it meets its needs for food, shelter, and reproduction.
 Chapter 2 Section 1 Organisms and Their
Relationships Review
• Ecology is the branch of biology in which interrelationships between organisms and
their environments are studied.
• Levels of organization in ecological studies include individual, population, biological
community, ecosystem, biome, and biosphere.
• Abiotic and biotic factors shape an ecosystem and determine the communities that
will be successful in it.
• Symbiosis is the close relationship that exists when two or more species live together