Community

• Community- the plants and animals which

interact in some areas
• Various group of population living and interact
with each other
• The ecology of multiple species
 What is a community?
• A group of plants and animals living and interacting with
one another in a specific region under relatively similar
environmental conditions.
• The organisms living in a community interact with one
another (competition, mutualism, predation),
• often affecting each other’s abundance,distribution,
adaptation, and existence.
• An ecological community may range in size from the very
small community as in a pond or a tree to the huge
regional or global community as in a biome
Whittaker, R.H., 1975.
Communities and Ecosystems.
Coexisting species
have
significantly different
niches
(MacArthur , 1958)
 Changes of vegetation communities by gradient

photic
aphotic
benthic
 Ecological succession
• Sequential changes in plant, animal and
microbial communities in an area
• following the creation of new substrate
[primary succession on bare substrate]
• or disturbance [secondary succession on
existing soil]
• Pioneer and climax communities
• Pioneer community - first successional
community
• Climax community - late successional
community, stable until disturbance
 Change during succession:
increase in species diversity in
Plant succession
Bird succession

Plant succession

Soil succession
 Landscape
succession in Black
Forest, Germany
 Community stability
• • Persistence of community despite disturbance
• • Resistance - maintains structure despite
disturbance, e.g. no change in species number
• • Resilience - able to recover back to original
state, e.g. species diversity increases to norm.
Succession mechanism: 3 models
Ecological Stability

▪ regulation of the ecological system to adapt with environmental

changes.
▪ Has a range of homeostatic mechanisms to maintain physiological
and biochemical stability.
▪ ‘balance of nature’= ecosystem is in equilibrium
▪ as population stability or a constancy in species composition of a
community.
▪ stability theory offers a single paradigm applicable to all level of
organization.
Types of Stability

▪ stability defined as = response of a system to disturbance; ability

to resist external disturbance and manage to return to its original
state.

▪ Classification of stability:
▪ 1. Homeostasis: -
▪ capacity to return to an original steady state after disturbance.
▪ A system was at equilibrium before disturbance, undergoing
no significant change
 ▪ Homeostasis: - e.g fish
Stress
Inertia

Measured parameter

Amplitude

Elasticity

Time
Homeostasis : inertial stability is the size of the stress
needed to deflect the parameter (Beeby, 1993)
2. Homeorhesis:- e.g algae

▪ the capacity to return to an original trajectory or rate of change

after disturbance
▪ stability would be indicated if the population returned to its
pervious rate of change following disturbance or the amplitude
of its fluctuation were the same after the disturbance
 Stress

Measured parameter

Amplitude

Elasticity
Time
Homeorhetic stability: it has no equilibrium position but it
returns to the amplitude of fluctuation after disturbance
(Beeby, 1993)
▪ Adjustment stability has two components:

▪ i. amplitude (parameter): maximum deflection of the

parameter that allows the system to return to its original state

▪ ii: elasticity (time) : speed of return (in time) to the pre-stress

equilibrium.
Two main components in stability:

▪ inertial stability – maximum size of the disturbance which a system

can withstand before being deflected; resistance.
▪ adjustment stability – characteristics of the return to equilibrium
▪ elasticity (speed of return from a deflection)
▪ amplitude ( the maximum deflection from equilibrium which still allows the
system to return to its original state)
Approaches to study stability use scale of deflection

1. Stability in population
Use both homeostatic stability and homeorhetic stability
2. Stability in communities
- responses to disturbance.
- stability of a community is dependent on area and
frequency of disturbances
Ecological Stress

-defined by Beeby (1993) as “applied stimulus, measured by its capacity

to deflect some living component of the ecosystem”.
- can be measured at any level
- consist of: - disturbance ~unplanned stress
- perturbation ~ planned manipulation
~ standard method of experiment
e.g. experiment on plant evolution
- capacity to resist disturbances differs at all organisation levels.

- scale of stress in population can be measured by a reduction of birth rate or increased

death rate
- in a community, it is measured with the loss of species or an increase in the abundance
of others

- the frequency of a disturbance and the elasticity of a system influence the impact of the
disturbance :

- sufficient elasticity of a system allows fast recovery after disturbance

- too frequent stress would not allow the recovery of the system causing it to fail - too low
elasticity
 Measure of stability

Time
The effect of the frequency of disturbance on the recovery of
some measured parameter in a system with sufficient elastic to
allow recovery before a subsequent stress.
 Measure of stability

Time
The effect of the frequency of disturbance on the recovery of
some measured parameter in system of too low elasticity with
too high frequency of disturbance that the system gradually
degraded.
 Discuss the differences between these 2
communities against disturbance
stability
Measure of

stability
Measure of
Time Time
Thank you
Ecosystem concept

28
 DEFINITION- ecosystem
• Coined by a British ecologist, A.E. Stanley in 1935.

• An environmental system of a particular area [space]

whereby the whole organo-physico complex i.e. the biotic
& the abiotic components interact among & between
[intra & inter] themselves resulting in energy transfer and
nutrient/mineral recycling. It is the basic functional unit of
nature on earth.
 Basic ecological processes in ecosystems
• Biogeochemical cycles
– Gaseous
– Sediment
– hydrology
• Productivity
• Energy flow
• Regulatory factors
• etc
 THE WATER CYCLE THE CARBON CYCLE

CO2 in atmosphere
Transport
over land Photosynthesis
Solar energy
Cellular
Net movement of respiration
water vapor by wind

Precipitation
Precipitation
Evaporation
over ocean from ocean over land
Burning of
Evapotranspiration fossil fuels
from land and wood Higher-level
Primary consumers
consumers
Percolation Carbon compounds
through
Detritus
in water
soil
Runoff and
groundwater
Decomposition
 THE NITROGEN CYCLE THE PHOSPHORUS CYCLE

N2 in atmosphere

Rain

Geologic Weathering Plants

uplift of rocks
Assimilation Runoff
Denitrifying
NO3 bacteria Consumption
Nitrogen-fixing Sedimentation Plant uptake
bacteria in root
Decomposers
nodules of legumes Nitrifying of PO43
Soil
Nitrification bacteria
Ammonification Leaching
NH3 NH4+ NO2

Nitrogen-fixing Nitrifying
soil bacteria bacteria Decomposition
• Energy flows through an ecosystem
– Entering as light and exiting as heat

Tertiary
consumers

Microorganisms
and other
detritivores Secondary
consumers

Detritus Primary consumers

Primary producers

Key Heat

Chemical cycling Sun

Energy flow
What are excess energy for?

- growth Plant material

eaten by caterpillar

- birth
200 J
- available energy for the
higher trophic level in the 67 J Cellular
Feces 100 J respiration
food chain 33 J
Growth (new biomass)
 Ecosystem services and function
• Functions vs services….
– Functions are what biologically and chemically occur in
ecosystems, and would occur regardless of human
presence
– Services are based on human needs, uses and
preferences.
 2005 Millenium Ecosystem Assessment
(MEA)
ecosystem services were popularized and their definitions formalized by the United
Nations ecosystem services grouped into four broad categories:
i. provisioning, such as the production of food and water;
ii. regulating, such as the control of climate and disease;
iii. supporting, such as nutrient cycles and crop pollination; and
iv. cultural, such as spiritual and recreational benefits.

**Note that there are various working definitions of ecosystems services in the
literature**
 THE CONCEPT OF BIOMES
Biomes:
• distinguished by the predominant plants
• associated with particular climates –
-rainfall and temperature determine the climates

38
WORLD CLIMATE
Terrestrial Biomes of the World
 Terrestrial Biomes/ecosystems
1. Tropical & subtropical 8. Temperate grasslands,
moist broadleaf forests savannnas and shrublands
2. Tropical & subtropical 9. Flooded grasslands, and
dry broadleaf forests savannnas
3. Tropical & subtropical 10. Montane grasslands, and
coniferous forests savannnas
4. Temperate broadleaf & mixed 11. Tundra
forests 12. Mediterranean forests,
5. Temperate coniferous forests woodlands and scrub
6. Boreal forests/Taiga 13. Deserts & Xeric shrublands
7. Tropical & subtropical 14. Mangroves
grasslands, savannnas and
shrublands.
41
ECOSYSTEM BOUNDARY
EDGE COMMUNITIES
• ECOTONE
• Ecosystems are bound to have
boundaries.
• Some boundaries or edges are abrupt
[sharp], others are diffuse.
• In diffuse boundaries, the vegetation of one
patch blend with the other to form transition
zone, known as ecotone.
 CAUSES OF EDGES
INHERENT EDGES
[stable and permanent] INDUCED EDGES [periodic]
• Soil types – Timber harvesting
• Topography
• Geomorphic features [rock – Land clearing
outcrops] – Agriculture
• Microclimate
– Flood
– Livestock grazing
– Fire
– Storms
Terrestrial
environment
Aquatic environment
abrupt Narrow ecotone

wider ecotone
 8 species

8 species

13 species
 Edges between ecosystems

(a) Natural edges. Grasslands give way to forest (b) Edges created by human activity. Pronounced
ecosystems in Yellowstone National Park. edges (roads) surround clear-cuts in this
photograph of a heavily logged rain forest.
• An ecosystem can range from a microcosm*, such as an
aquarium to a large area such as a lake or forest
• *A small scale, experimental ecosystem
Thank you