ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their surroundings.
An ecosystem is a distinct, self supporting system of organisms interacting with each other and with a
physical environment.
Examples of ecosystems; pond, mangrove swamp, large forest, deserts, oceans etc.
THE COMPONENTS OF ECOSYSTEMS
The main components of an ecosyetem are:
i. Producers-include plants and other organisms which photosynthesis to produce food.
ii. Consumers- They include animals that eat plants and other animals
iii. Decomposers-They are organisms that break down dead material and help to recycle nutrients.
They are fungi and some species of bacteria.
iv. The physical environment-They are the non- biological components of the ecosystem.
For example: water and soil in the pond or the soil and air in a forest.
Important terms:
Biotic factors- Are the living components of an ecosystem.
Abiotic factors : Are the non-living (physical )components
A habitat –is the place where an organism lives.
Example –Habitat in a pond ,ecosystem include the open water, the mud at the bottom of the pond and the
surface water.
Population-All the organisms of a particular species found in an ecosystem at a certain time.
I.e. all the water lily plants growing in a pond makes up a population of water lilies.
Community- It’s the population of all species (animals, plants and other organisms) found in an ecosystem at
a particular time.
Example;

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Using Quadrats to sample from a habitat
Population estimating is done by taking sample. The more sample one takes the more reliable would be the
data.
A sample is a smaller representative part of the population.
Sampling of plants and animals that do not move fast is done using a sampling square called quadrant.
A quadrat is made from metal, wood or plastic.
The size of the quadrat depends on- the size of the organisms being sampled.ie 0.5m or 1metre in length
Estimating the size of animal population
Why sampling animals is more difficult
✓ Animals tend to move about
✓ Not m any animals will stay in a quadrant.
✓ Many animals only came out at night.
For animals, to estimate population we use mark, release, recapture method.
Total population= Number in 1st catch (M)X Number in 2nd catch (S)
Number of marked animals in second catch (R)
P=MxS
R
A pit fall trap was used to catch 12 ground beetles.
Each was marked with small dot of paint and released after 2 days, a second catch gave 16 beetles.
Of these four were marked – they had been recaptured.
Calculate the estimate population of this habitat.
Rules for population sampling
✓ It's important that sampling in an area is carried out at random, to avoid bias.
✓ Avoid biased sample.
✓ One of the ways you can sample randomly is to place quadrat at coordinates on a numbered grid.
A pair of random numbers is generated, using the random number function on the calculator. This numbers
are used as co-ordinates to position the quadrat in the large square.

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 Quadrat Number of dandelions in each Number of dandelions in each
number quadrat in area A quadrat in area B
1 4 10
2 7 7
3 1 9
4 0 14
5 3 12
6 8 7
7 12 16
8 1 9
9 6 11
10 6 15

The dandelion population in area A is smaller than the dandelion population in area B. The process of
counting is repeated for nine more times to improve the reliability of the results.
The mean number per m2 in each area is calculated.
BIODIVERSITY
The amount of variation shown by species in an ecosystem is called the ecosystem's biodiversity.

Species NO. of individual of each NO. of individual of each

species in community 1 species in community 2
A 10 1
B 10 1
C 10 1
D 10 1
E 10 10

Both communities contain the same number of species (5) and organisms (50) but community 2 is dominated
by one species.
Community 1 contains an even number of each species, so it has a higher biodiversity.
Some ecosystems such as tropical rainforests have a very high biodiversity.
Other ecosystems are dominated by one species. Mainly in pine forest plantation of northern Europe, which
are dominated by one species of tree. The trees produce a very dense cover or canopy. Lack of ligt severely

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restrict the growth of other tree species and ground layer plants. Pine forest also provides a limited variety of
habitat for animals.

A tropical rain forest ecosystem with A pine forest has a low biodiversity.
thousands of different species of plants and
animals. With very high biodiversity.

Ecosystems with a high biodiversity are often more stable than one a low biodiversity which can be affect by
any sort of ecological disaster. If a new disease arose that wiped out the dominant tree species, this would
have an impact on other species that relied on the tree for food and shelter.
In a more diverse ecosystem other tree species might supply this resource.
Practical : using quadrats to compare the biodiversity of plants in two habitat
Student sampling with quadrat

Field C and D contain different numbers of various plant species. The biodiversity of plants in area C is higher
than in area D.

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 Plant species Total from 10 Total from 10
quadrats in area C quadrats in area D
Dandelion 69 12
Ribwort plantain 78 188
Broad-leaved plantain 38 99
Daisely 95 22
Yarrow 44 12
creeping buttercup 30 5
White clover 48 7
Common cat's ear 8 0
Groundsel 5 0

Plot the results as two bar charts (total number of each species against species name). use the same axis
scales for each bar chart. Describe biodiversity in the two areas. Do the results support the hypothesis that?
INTERRACTIONS IN ECOSYSTEMS
How organisms in ecosystem are continuously interact with each other and with their physical environment.
✓ Feeding among the organisms-Plants, animals and decomposer are continuously recycling the same
nutrients through the ecosystem.
✓ Competition among the organisms-animals compete for food, shelter,mates,nesting sites.
Plants compete for carbon dioxide, mineral ions, light and water.
✓ Interactions between organism and the environment-
Plants absorb mineral ions, carbon dioxide and water from the environment
Plants give out oxygen and water vapour to the environment. Plants take in carbon dioxide
Animals use materials from the environment to build shelter
Temperature from the environment can affect the processes occurring in the organisms.
Processes occurring in the organisms can affect the temperature in the environment.
BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC FACTORS
There are two factors that influence the distribution of organisms in an ecosystem namely;
Biotic and Non biotic factors.
Biotic factors are biological –factors that involve mainly (but not all) feeding relationships. They include;
• Availability of food and competition for food resources
• Predation
• Parasitism
• Disease

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 • Availability of nest sites
Abiotic factors are physical or chemical factors. They include;
✓ Climate, such as light intensity, temperature and water availability.
✓ Hours of daylight
✓ Soil condition such as clay content, nitrate level, particle size, water content and pH
✓ Factors specific to a particular habitat i.e. salinity (salt content) in estuary, flow rate in a river or
oxygen concentration in a lake.
✓ Pollution
In river ecosystem
i) abiotic factors are;
➢ Depth of water
➢ Flow rate
➢ Type of material at the bottom of the stream (stones, sands, mud, etc)
➢ Concentration of minerals in the water.
➢ pH
➢ Oxygen concentration
➢ Cloudiness of the water
➢ Presence of any pollution
ii) Main Biotic factor affecting animals in the river are
either animals or plants.
The main factor affecting large ecosystems is climate, particularly temperature and rainfall.ie tropical rain
forest restricted to a strip near the equator of the earth while pine grow in the higher latitudes of the
northern hemisphere.
More important terms

i)Biomes-a large area of the earth dominated by a specific type of vegetation.

ii) Predator – it's an animal that kill and eats another animal(prey)

iii) Parasite –Is an organism that lives in or on another organism called host. Mosquitoes are parasites of
human while human is the host of the mosquitoes.

Inter relationship

Ways to show feeding relationship in organisms

i) food chain

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ii) food web

iii) ecological pyramid

Food chain is a chart showing the flow of energy (food) from one organism to the next beginning with a
producer. Examples: mahogany tree ---> caterpillar ---> song bird ---> hawk.

it’s the simplest way to show feeding relationship.

The arrow ( ) means 'is eaten by'

A simple food chain

• A food chain shows the transfer of energy from one organism to the next, starting with a producer
• The source of all energy in a food chain is light energy from the Sun
• The arrows in a food chain show the transfer of energy from one trophic level to the next
• Energy is transferred from one organism to another by ingestion (eating)
• In the food chain below;

Grass grasshopper lizard Snake Eagle

✓ Grass is referred to as the producer. It photo syntheses to produce food material

✓ Grass hopper is the primary consumer-It feeds on the producer and its herbivore.
✓ The lizard is the secondary consumer and feeds on the primary consumer. It's also referred to as
carnivore.
✓ The snake is the tertiary consumer-It feeds on secondary consumer. It’s on the 4th tropic (feeding)
levels.
✓ Eagle is the quaternary consumer-It’s the top carnivores as no other animal feeds on it.

Features of a food chain

1. Food chain shows how energy is moved from one organism to another as a result of feeding.
2. The arrow shows the direction of energy flow.

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 3. They show feeding relationship between a few organisms in an ecosystem.
4. They imply that there is only one type of organism in each trophical (feeding)level.
5. It doesn't give indication of the interrelationship that exist between food chains in any ecosystem.

Food web

A food web consists of all the food chains in a single ecosystem.

Generalised food web in aquatic ecosystem

Features of a food web

• A food web is a network of interconnected food chains

• Food webs are more realistic ways of showing connections between organisms within an ecosystem
as animals rarely exist on just one type of food source
• Food webs give us a lot more information about the transfer of energy in an ecosystem
• They also show interdependence – how the change in one population can affect others within the
food web
• For example, in the food web above, if the population of insects decreased:
o The population of grass plants would increase as there are now less species feeding off them
o The populations of frogs and voles would decrease significantly as insects are their only food
source
o The population of thrushes would decrease slightly as they eat insects but also have another
food source to rely on (slugs)
• Most of the changes in populations of animals and plants happen as a result of human impact –
either by overharvesting of food species or by introduction of foreign species to a habitat

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Due to interdependence, these can have long-lasting knock-on effects to organisms throughout a food chain
or web

Pyramids

Ecological pyramids are diagrams that represents the relative number of organisms at each tropical level in a
food chain.

The population of each organism in a food chain can be shown in a type of bar chart called a pyramid of
numbers. The bars are drawn to scale – the more organisms it represents, the wider the bar.

The producer in the food chain always goes at the bottom of the pyramid of numbers

Main types of pyramids;

i)Pyramids of numbers-Which represent the numbers of organisms in each tropic level in a food chain,
irrespective of their mass.

ii) Pyramids of biomass- which shows the total mass of the organisms in each tropical level, irrespective of
their numbers.

Pyramids of Numbers

Think about these food chains:

grass → grasshopper → frog → bird

Oak tree → aphid → ladybird → bird

Grass and oak tree are producers in these food chains. Their bars go at the bottom of the two pyramids.

birds birds

frogs Lady birds

grasshoppers aphids

grass Oak tree

B
A

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The two pyramids of numbers, A and B look different. In pyramid A , The number of organisms at each
tropical decreases while in pyramid

Sometimes the pyramid of numbers does not look like a pyramid at all. This could happen if the producer is a
large plant such as a tree, or if one of the animals is very small. Remember that the producer always goes at
the bottom of the pyramid.

Here are two examples of this:

An oak tree is very large so many insects can feed on it.Fleas are very small so lots of them can feed on a
rabbit

A pyramid of numbers shows how many organisms we are talking about at each level of a food chain.

The width of the box indicates the number of organisms at that trophic level.

Energy is lost to the surroundings as we go from one level to the next, so there are usually fewer organisms at
each level in this food chain. A lot of clover is needed to support the snail population. A thrush eats lots of
snails, and a hawk eats lots of thrushes, so the population of hawks is very small.

Other pyramid shapes

For example, consider the following food chain:

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 • Ask yourself the following questions:
o Is it likely that there would be more voles in an area than grass plants?
o How many voles might one barn owl need to eat per day? If it’s more than one, is it likely
that there are more barn owls in an area than voles?
• So, a pyramid of numbers for this food chain would look like this:

• Despite the name (and the example above), a pyramid of numbers doesn’t always have to be
pyramid-shaped, for example:

Pyramids of numbers are not always pyramid-shaped

• This is because the size of the organism is also important – one large organism, like the oak tree in
the pyramid above, contains enough energy to support many smaller organisms (the insects)

Rules to remember when drawing a pyramid of numbers:

• You cannot change the trophic level of the organisms – they must stay in the same order as in the
food chain with producers on the bottom, followed by primary consumers, then secondary
consumers, then tertiary consumers
• Generally, the larger an individual organism is, the less of them are there

Pyramids of Biomass

Biomass –is the total mass of organisms.

Types of biomasses

i) flesh biomass-refers to the mass of living organisms.

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ii) dry biomass – It’s the mass of plants and animals material after water has being removed, by drying in an
oven.

Its more reliable measure, since water content of organisms varies with environmental conditions.

• A pyramid of biomass shows how much mass the creatures at each level would have without
including all the water that is in the organisms (their ‘dry mass’)
• Pyramids of biomass are ALWAYS pyramid-shaped, regardless of what the pyramid of numbers for
that food chain looks like
• This is because the mass of organisms has to decrease as you go up a food chain – if we take our first
food chain as an example, it’s impossible to have 10kg of grass feeding 50kg of voles feeding 100kg of
barn owls

• Pyramids of biomass provide a much better idea of the quantity of the plant or animal material at
each level of a food chain and therefore are a better way of representing interdependence within the
food chain

Think about these food chains:

grass → grasshopper → frog → bird

Oak tree → aphid → ladybird → bird

birds birds
frogs Lady birds
grasshoppers aphids

grass Oak tree

The biomass of one oak tree is much greater than that of the thousands than that of aphids. The total
biomass of all aphids is greater than that of the lady birds, which is greater than that of the birds.

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Why do energy decrease up the feeding level.

i) Some part of the organisms is not eaten i.e. roots, hooves, horns, shells etc.
ii) Some parts are not digested and so are not absorbed
iii) Some of the materials absorbed form excretory products.
iv) Energy is lost through respiration, with the loss of carbon dioxide and water.

Explain why food chains usually have fewer than five trophic levels.
The most energy is available for producers, so there are a large number of them. Less energy is available for
primary consumers, so there are fewer primary consumers, and even fewer secondary consumers, etc.

Due to the loss of energy along the food chain, it makes it very difficult for a fifth consumer (the sixth trophic
level) to exist.

Only small amount of energy is transferred to the next energy level and it's for this reasons that most tropical
level doesn’t go beyond the 5th level.

Diagram showing how energy is lost in a rabbit

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The flow of energy through ecosystems

It tends to focuses more on energy transfer between trophic levels (producers, consumers and decomposers)
in the whole ecosystem.

Aspects (key idea) involved

i) Photosynthesis fixes sunlight energy into chemical energy such as starch and glucose.

ii) Respiration releases energy from organic compound such as glucose

iii) Most biological processes such as growth, reproduction, excretion, active transport, and muscle
contraction, use energy. released from respiration.

iv) some of the energy is used to produce new cells and being fixed in biological molecules is passed over to
the next trophical level.

v) Some energy is lost as heat energy from organisms in food chain or web.

Cycling nutrients through ecosystems

It’s the constant recycling of substances in all part of the recycle of life, death and decay.

Micro-organisms called decomposers play a great role in recycling complex organic molecules in the bodies of
dead animals and plants into simpler substances.

The carbon cycle

Carbon is a major element in all organic molecules namely; carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, DNA

and vitamins.

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Important processes in cycling carbon

➢ Photosynthesis- fixes carbon atoms from carbon dioxide into organic compound
➢ Feeding and assimilation- Pass carbon atoms already in organic compounds along food chains.
➢ Respiration produces inorganic carbon dioxide from organic compounds (i.e. carbohydrate) which are
broken down to release energy.
➢ Fossilisation- when living organisms don’t decay after death and form fossils fuels (coal, oil, natural
gas and peat).
➢ Combustion releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when fossils fuels are burned.

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The Nitrogen Cycle

The main stages in the nitrogen cycle

Nitrogen is found in many biological compunds such as ;

i) Proteins
ii) amino acids
iii) most vitamins
iv) DNA
v) ATP

Nitrogen cycle involves : Feeding , assimilation ,death and decay

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 ➢ Feeeding and assimilation – passes nitrogen atoms in organic compound along the food chains
➢ Decomposition by fungi and bacteria produces ammonia from nitrogen compounds such as protein,
DNA and vitamin.
➢ Ammonia is oxidised to nitrite and then to nitrate by nitrifying bacteria , aprocess called nitrification.
➢ Plant roots can absorb the nitrates which is combined with carbohydrates to form amino acids and
then protein.
➢ Denitrifying bacteria –use nitrate as source of energy and convert them into nitrogen
gas.Denitrification reduces the amount of nitrate in the soil and making soil infertile.
➢ Free living nitrogen –fixing bacteria in soil converts nitrigen gas into ammonia.
➢ Nitrifying bacteria uses ammonia and converts it into amino acid and proteins.Bacteria die and their
proteins decomposes releasing ammonia back to the soil.
➢ Nitrogen –fixing baceria in root nodules of legumes converts nitrogen into ammonia while plant
converts it into amno acids and other organic compounds .in return , the plants provide baceria with
organic nutrients ie carbohydrates.This feeding relationship is called mutualism/ symbiosis (where
both organisms benefit from the relationship)
➢ Nitrogen fixation enriches the soil with nitrate when the plant die and are decompose.
➢ Lightening converts nitrogen gas in the air into oxides of nitrogen which dissolve in rain water and
are converted by nitrifying bacteria into nitrates.
➢ Human also prouduces nitrates inform of fertilizers to increase the rate of growth of crops.

LOOKING AHEAD-MEASURING BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity can be measured by calculating a diversity index. Using Simpson’s index(D )

D=1 + ∑ ( n ) 2
N

N- the total number of individuals of all species.

n- The total number of individuals of a particular species.

∑ - Sum all squares.

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 Species Number of individuals of Number of individuals of
each species in community 1 each species in community 2
A 10 1
B 10 1
C 10 1
D 10 1
E 10 46

The total number of individuals of all species (N )=50.

For each species the total number of individuals( n)=10

10 10 10 10 10
∑ ( n ) 2 = (50)2+ (50)2 + (50)2+ (50)2 +(50)2
N

= 0.04+0.04 +0.04+0.04+0.04= 0.20

Simpson's index

D= (1-0.2)=0.80

The value is close to 1.0. Shows that the community had high biodiversity.

THE END

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