Ecology is the study of the relationships among organisms and the relationship between them and their surroundings.

These surroundings are called the environment of the organism.

Concepts in Ecology:
The term ecology was coined
by combining two Greek words,
oikos (house or dwelling place),
and Logos (the study of), to
denote the relationship
between organisms and their
environment. Ecology is a multidisciplinary enterprise, which cannot be made to fit into one channel of scientific inquiry: it ranges
from reductionism in the study of individual species populations, through less reductionist approaches in the study of communities, to
the holistic in the studies of the totality of communities on earth.

It is like an enormous puzzle in which each organism has requirements for life which interlock with those of the many other
individuals in the area. Although some of these individuals belong to the same species, most of them are very different organisms with
very different ways of living or interacting.

The study of these ecological relationships from the point of view of a single species (as illustrated in the figure) is called autecology.
If all the species living together are studied as a community, then this study is called synecology.

The basic concepts of ecology include the following:

i. All living organisms and the environment they live in are mutually reactive, affecting each other in various ways.

ii. Environment plays a major role in the critical stages of the life cycle of the species.

iii. The species reacts to the environmental changes and adjusts itself structurally and physiologically.

iv. The environment also changes according to certain species- specific activities like growth, dispersal, reproduction, death, decay,
etc.

v. All plants and animals are related to each other by their coaction and reaction on the environment.

vi. Under similar climatic conditions, there may simultaneously develop more than one community, some reaching the climax stage,
and others under different stages of succession.

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An Ecosystem is a complex set of relationships among the living resources, habitats and residents of an area. It includes animals,
plants, trees, birds, fish, water, soil, micro organisms and people.
In other words, an ecosystem comprise of all the living things in a given area, whereby they interact with each other and their non
living environment (such as soil, climate, water, earth, weather, etc.).
An ecosystem can be huge as it may comprise of different plants and animals, or can be small in particularly harsh places of the world
Example of Ecosystem
Let us consider an example of puddle which can be shown in the figure below. In it, we can find several living things (such as frog,
tadpole, flies, fish and snail) and non living things (such as sun, water, temperature, weather, humidity, etc.)

Ecosystem Structure

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 Ecosystem, at the basic functional level, contains primary producers (i.e. plants) which are capable of harvesting energy via
photosynthesis. Next are the consumers and these consumers can be primary consumer (called herbivores) and secondary consumer
(called carnivores). Decomposers work at the bottom of food chain. Waste products and dead tissues are produced at every stage of
food chain and decomposers not only feed on its energy rather they are also responsible for adding back the organic nutrients.
The diagram given in the right explains the structure of ecosystem along with its different functional level. It includes starting the
cycle with producers, followed by primary consumer, secondary consumer and high order consumer. It also includes decomposers
who add back the organic nutrients in the environment.
Types of Ecosystem
There are two main types of Ecosystem:
1. Terrestrial Ecosystem This ecosystem can be found anywhere except heavily saturated places. These are classified into
The Forest Ecosystem This ecosystem has lot of plants or flora and has large number of organisms in relatively small space.
The density of organisms is quite high in this ecosystem and even the small change can affect the entire ecosystem. The forest
ecosystem can be further classified into
Tropical Evergreen Ecosystem It includes tropical forests with the annual rainfall of 80 for every 400 inches. These forests
have dense vegetation and comprise of tall trees with different heights. These trees act as the shelter for different types of animals.
Tropical deciduous forest In these forests, dense bushes and shrubs rule along with the trees. These forests have variety of
flora and fauna.
Temperate evergreen forest These forests have comparatively lesser number of trees and have ferns and mosses in
abundance. Here trees are developed with spiked leaves so as to minimize transpiration.
Temperate deciduous forest These forests are present in moist areas with sufficient rainfall. In these forests, winters and
summers are clearly defined and trees shed their leaves in winters.
Taiga Taiga is situated just before arctic region and is defined by evergreen conifers. Taiga is flooded with migratory insects
and birds.
The Desert Ecosystem These ecosystems exist in the region with less than 25 annual rainfalls and occupy 17% of the land
on earth. Due to high temperature, less rain, intense sunlight, low availability of water, flora and fauna are poorly developed. The
leaves and stems here are modified so as to conserve water and therefore, the desert ecosystem mainly comprise of cactus. The
animal organisms include camels, reptiles, birds and insects. Following figure illustrates the desert ecosystem. It includes plants at
the producer level, followed by primary consumers (such as insects, lizards and rodents); secondary consumers (such as tarantula,
scorpion, lizard, snake, etc.) and high order consumers (such as fox, hawk, etc.)

The Grassland Ecosystem This ecosystem is located in temperate and tropical regions of the world. It mainly comprise of
shrubs and little number of trees. The main vegetation include legumes, plants and grasses and has lot of grazing animals, along
with several herbivores and insectivores insects. The grassland ecosystem is of further two types. Firstly, Savanna, which support
large number of grazers and predators and secondly, prairies, which includes short grass prairies, mixed grass and tall grass.The
grassland ecosystem is illustrated in the figure given below. In this figure, grazing animals or primary consumers feed on producers
and carnivores on these herbivores. Decomposers, too, play an important role in an ecosystem by decomposing the organic
nutrients.

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 The Mountain Ecosystem This ecosystem has diverse array of habitats. The animals in this ecosystem have thick fur coats
to prevent from cold and hibernation is commonly found in animals. Low slopes are covered with coniferous forest and at higher
altitudes, only treeless alpine vegetation survives.
2. Aquatic Ecosystem Aquatic ecosystem is found in water and encompasses aquatic flora, fauna and water properties. Aquatic
ecosystem are of two types:
The Marine Ecosystem It is the biggest ecosystem that covers around 71% of the surface of earth. Water in marine
ecosystem is salty and has high amount of minerals. Several divisions of marine ecosystem are coral reefs, oceanic, profundal, salt
marshes, estuaries and hydrothermal vents.
The Freshwater ecosystem In contrast with the marine ecosystem, the freshwater ecosystem is just 0.8% of the earth
surface. Three basic kinds of freshwater ecosystem are wetlands, lentic and lotic. This ecosystem comprises of amphibians, reptiles
and 41% of the fish species of the world.

Components of Ecosystem
The ecosystem has two main components:
Abiotic Components It includes several physico chemical or non living components like water, soil, climate, weather,
temperature, humidity, wind, etc. Abiotic components are classified as: Climatic factors, including physical factors like light,
temperature, atmosphere, humidity, wind, etc.; Edaphic factors, including structure and composition of soil such as physical and
chemical properties like the type of soil, minerals, soil water, soil profile, soil organisms, etc.; and inorganic substances like
carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, water, phosphorus and so on.
Biotic Components It includes living part of the ecosystem such as association of lot of interrelated population, population
is different community, etc. Biotic components are further classified as autotrophs (producers), saprotrophs (reducers or
decomposers) and heterotrophs (consumers). Following image shows the two main components of ecosystem, i.e. biotic (people,
animals and plants) and abiotic components (rocks, water, air, wind, temperature, light, etc.)

Every living being need energy to survive and therefore, every animal do something like running and jumping to use energy. The
living beings get energy from food they eat. For example, plants use sunlight, air, water and nutrients from soil to get energy. Thus,
energy is mandatory for any living organism to function, grow and survive.

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Example of Food Chain
A simple food chain starts with grass, rabbit and fox, where grass is eaten by rabbit and rabbit by foxes.

In another example of food chain, sunlight is being used by producers, i.e. plants. These plants are eaten by primary consumer, i.e.
grasshopper. These grasshoppers are being eaten by shrew (i.e. secondary consumer) and finally by an owl (i.e. tertiary consumer).
Thus, energy is being transferred from one animal to another via food chain.

Types of Food Chains found in an Ecosystem: Grazing and Detritus Food Chain!
The transfer of food energy from the producers, through a series of organisms (herbivores to carnivores to decomposers) with repeated
eating and being eaten, is known as food chain.

In nature, basically two types of food chains are recognized grazing food chain and detritus food chain.

1. Grazing food chain:

This type of food chain starts from the living green plants goes to grazing herbivores, and on to carnivores. Ecosystems with such type
of food chain are directly dependent on an influx of solar radiation.

This type of chain thus depends on autotrophic energy capture and the movement of this captured energy to herbivores. Most of the
ecosystems in nature follow this type of food chain. The phytoplanktons zooplanktons Fish sequence or the grasses rabbit
Fox sequences are the examples, of grazing food chain.

2. Detritus food chain:

This type of food chain goes from dead organic matter into microorganisms and then to organisms feeding on detritus (detrivores) and
their predators. Such ecosystems are thus less dependent on direct solar energy. These depend chiefly on the influx of organic matter
produced in another system. For example, such type of food chain operates in the decomposing accumulated litter in a temperate
forest.

Significance of food chain:

1. The studies of food chain help understand the feeding relationship and the interaction between organisms in any ecosystem.

2. They also help us to appreciate the energy flow mechanism and matter circulation in ecosystem and understand the movement of
toxic substances in the ecosystem.

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3. The study of food chain helps us to understand the problems of bio-magnifications.

A food web is a graphical depiction of feeding connections among species of an ecological community. Food web consists of food
chains of a particular ecosystem. The food web is a illustration of various methods of feeding that links the ecosystem. The food web
also defines the energy flow through species of a community as a result of their feeding relationships. All the food chains are
interconnected and overlapping within an ecosystem and they make up a food web.

Food webs have trophic levels and trophic positions.

Species of plants form the first level basal species. The basal species are also known as producers; these are
resources species on which the primary consumers or primary predators feed on in the web.
These primary predators do not feed on any other living creature other than the primary producers in the food
web.
The basal species can either consists of the autotrophs or the detritivores that also includes decomposing organic material and
associated microorganisms and plant material.
Autotrophs capture energy form sun-light and produce energy by the process of photosynthesis. Others get energy chemical
oxidation of inorganic compounds.
In the top level are the apex predatores or the secondary predators, these species are not directly killed for its food resources.
The intermediate trophic levels are filled with omnivorous species which feed on more than one trophic level and they cause
the flow of energy through various food pathways from the basal species.
The scheme of the tropic levels is such that the first trophic level consists the plants (level 1) and then the primary consumers
or herbivores (level 2) and then the carnivores or secondary consumers (level 3). The detritivores are considered at the zero
level of the food chain.

Ecological pyramids
The concept of ecological pyramid was developed by Charles Elton; these pyramids are also known as Eltonian pyramids. The
pyramids are a graphical representation which depicts the number of organisms, biomass and productivity at each trophic level. All
ecological pyramids begin at the bottom with the produces and proceed through different trophic levels.

Ecological pyramids begin with the producers at the bottom like plants and they proceed to various trophic levels like herbivores
consume plants, carnivores prey on herbivores and so on. The highest level is at the top of the food chain.

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Ecological pyramid is also known as trophic pyramid or energy pyramid; it is graphically represented to show the biomass or
productivity of the biomass at each trophic level in an ecosystem. They are graphical representations of the structure of trophic levels
of ecosystems.
There are 3 types of ecological pyramids as described as follows:

Pyramid of energy
Pyramid of numbers and

Pyramid of biomass.

The pyramid of energy or the energy pyramid describes the overall nature of the ecosystem. During the flow of energy from organism
to other, there is considerable loss of energy in the form of heat. The primary producers like the autotrophs there is more amount of
energy available. The least energy is available in the tertiary consumers. Thus, shorter food chain has more amount of energy available
even at the highest trophic level.

The energy pyramid always upright and vertical.

This pyramid shows the flow of energy at different trophic levels.

It depicts the energy is minimum as the highest trophic level and is maximum at the lowest trophic level.

At each trophic level, there is successive loss of energy in the form of heat and respiration, etc.

The pyramid of numbers depicts the relationship in terms of the number of producers, herbivores and the carnivores at their successive
trophic levels. There is a decrease in the number of individuals from the lower to the higher trophic levels. The number pyramid varies
from ecosystem to ecosystem. There are three of pyramid of numbers:

Upright pyramid of number

Partly upright pyramid of number and

Inverted pyramid of number.

Upright Pyramid of Number

This type of pyramid number is found in the aquatic and grassland ecosystem, in these ecosystems there are numerous small
autotrophs which support lesser herbivores which in turn support smaller number of carnivores and hence this pyramid is upright.
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Partly Upright pyramid of Number
It is seen in the forest ecosystem where the number of producers are lesser in number and support a greater number of herbivores and
which in turn support a fewer number of carnivores.

Inverted Pyramid of Number

This type of ecological pyramid is seen in parasitic food chain where one primary producer supports numerous parasites which
support more hyperparasites.

The pyramid of biomass is more fundamental, they represent the quantitative relationships of the standing crops. In this pyramid there
is a gradual decrease in the biomass from the producers to the higher trophic levels. The biomass here the net organisms collected
from each feeding level and are then dried and weighed. This dry weight is the biomass and it represents the amount of energy
available in the form of organic matter of the organisms. In this pyramid the net dry weight is plotted to that of the producers,
herbivores, carnivores, etc.
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There are two types of pyramid of biomass, they are:

Upright pyramid of biomass and

Inverted pyramid of biomass.

Upright Pyramid of Biomass

This occurs when the larger net biomass of producers support a smaller weight of consumers.
Example: Forest ecosystem.

Inverted Pyramid of Biomass

This happens when the smaller weight of producers support consumers of larger weight.
Example: Aquatic ecosystem.

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