Ecology and its Branches

Ecology- The word ecology derived from the Greek word 'Oikos meaning habitation, and logos meaning
discourse or study, implies a study of the habitations of organisms. Ecology may be studied with particular
reference to animals or to plants, hence animal ecology and plant ecology.Animal ecology, however, cannot
be adequately understood except against a considerable background of plant ecology. What animal and
plants are given equal emphasis, the term bioecology is often used. Causes is plant ecology usually dismiss
animals as but one of many factors in the environment. Synecology is the study of communities, and
autecology the study of species.

Levels of Organization

*There are six levels:

1. Individual

The individual is specie thatthey can bread and produce

their offspring.

2. Population

Population arethe groups of individuals that belongs to te

same species and live in the same area.

3. Community

Assemblages of different populations that live together in

defined area.

4. Ecosystem

Is a collection of all organisms that lives in particular place

together with their non-living or physical environment.

5.Biomes.

- Large systems called biomes.

- Biome is a group of ecosystems that have the same clinical and similar dominant communities.

6 Biosphere.

Contains the combine portion of the planet in which all organisms exist, including land water
and air or atmosphere.

Branches of Ecology
Plant Ecology:

Is the study of plants, here ecologist study how the plants grow and produce.

Animal Ecology:

Study of the animals and their communities.

Human Ecology:

In this branch of ecology we study about how people relate to each other and as well as to the
environment.

Aoolied Ecology:

The use of ecological principals to solve the real world problems.

Medical Ecology:

Study about the public’s health according to their environmental asoects.

Ecophysiology:

The study about the interaction of living organisms with nonliving environment.

Functional Ecology:

The study about the species that play role in the ecosystem.

Cognitive Ecology:

the effect that animal interaction with their habitat has on their cognitive systems and how those
systems restrict behavior within an ecological and evolutionary framework

Fire Ecology:

The study about the role of fire in the environment of animal and plants and as well as it’s effect
on the ecological communities.

Molecular Ecology:

The study about of new ecological field resulted in the publication or evolutionary standpoint.

Behavioral Ecology:

All organisms can exhibit behaviours. Even plants express complex behaviour, including memory and
communication.[114]Behavioural ecology is the study of an organism's behaviour in its environment and its
ecological and evolutionary implications.

Production ecology:
 It deals with the gross and net production of different ecosystems like fresh water, sea water,
agriculture, horticulture, etc., and tries to do proper management of these ecosystems so that
maximum yield can be get from them.

Ecological energetic:

It deals with energy conservation and its flow in the organisms within the ecosystem. In it
thermodynamics has its significant contribution.

Physiological ecology:

The factors of environment have a direct bearing on the functional aspects of organisms. The
ecophysiology deals with the survival of populations as a result of functional adjustments of organisms
with different ecological conditions.

Chemical ecology:

It concerns with the adaptations of animals of preferences of particular organisms like insects to
particular chemical substances.

Habitat:

It deals with ecological study of different habitats on planet earth and their effects on the
organisms living there. According to the kind of habitat, ecology is subdivided into marine
ecology (oceanography), estuarine ecology”, fresh water ecology (limnology), and terrestrial
ecology. The terrestrial ecology in its turn is classified into forest ecology, cropland ecology, grassland
ecology, desert ecology, etc., according to the kinds of study of its different habitats.

Ecological genetics:

An ecologist recognized kind of genetic spasticity in the case of every organism. In any
environment only, those organisms that are favored by the environment can survive. Thus, genecology
deals with the study of variations of species based upon their genetic potentialities.

Paleoecology:

It is the study of environmental conditions, and life of the past ages, to which palynology,
paleontology, and radioactive dating methods have made significant contribution.

Geographic ecology:

It concentrates on the study of geographical distribution of animals (zoogeography) and

plants (phytogeography), and also of paleoecology and biomes.

Space ecology:
 It is a modern subdivision of ecology which is concerned with the development of partially or
completely regenerating ecosystems for supporting life of man during long space flights or during
extended exploration of extra-terrestrial environments.

Radiation ecology:

It deals with the study of gross effects of radiations and radioactive substances over the
environment and living organisms.

Ethology:

It is the interpretation of animal behavior under natural conditions. In it, often, detailed life
history studies of particular species are amassed.

Sociology:

It is the study of ecology and ethology of mankind.

Systems ecology:

It is the modern branch of ecology which is particularly concerned with the analysis and
understanding of the function and structure of ecosystem by the use of applied mathematics, such as
advanced statistical techniques, mathematical models, characteristics of computer sciences.

Energy Flow

Left: Energy flow diagram of a frog. The frog

represents a node in an extended food web. The energy ingested is utilized for metabolic processes and
transformed into biomass. The energy flow continues on its path if the frog is ingested by predators,
parasites, or as a decaying carcass in soil. This energy flow diagram illustrates how energy is lost as it
fuels the metabolic process that transform the energy and nutrients into biomass.
Right: An expanded three link energy food chain (1. plants, 2. herbivores, 3. carnivores) illustrating the
relationship between food flow diagrams and energy transformity. The transformity of energy becomes
degraded, dispersed, and diminished from higher quality to lesser quantity as the energy within a food
chain flows from one trophic species into another. Abbreviations: I=input, A=assimilation, R=respiration,
NU=not utilized, P=production, B=biomass.

In ecology, energy flow, also called the calorific flow, refers to the flow of energy through a food chain,
and is the focus of study in ecological energetics. In an ecosystem, ecologists seek to quantify the
relative importance of different component species and feeding relationships.

A general energy flow scenario follows:

Solar energy is fixed by the photoautotrophs, called primary producers, like

green plants. Primary consumersabsorb most of the stored energy in the plant through digestion, and
transform it into the form of energy they need, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP),
through respiration. A part of the energy received by primary consumers, herbivores, is converted
to body heat (an effect of respiration), which is radiated away and lost from the system. The loss of
energy through body heat is far greater in warm-blooded animals, which must eat much more
frequently than those that are cold-blooded. Energy loss also occurs in the expulsion of undigested food
(egesta) by excretion or regurgitation.

Secondary consumers, carnivores, then consume the primary consumers, although omnivores also
consume primary producers. Energy that had been used by the primary consumers for growth and
storage is thus absorbed into the secondary consumers through the process of digestion. As with
primary consumers, secondary consumers convert this energy into a more suitable form (ATP) during
respiration. Again, some energy is lost from the system, since energy which the primary consumers had
used for respiration and regulation of body temperature cannot be utilized by the secondary consumers.

Tertiary consumers, which may or may not be apex predators, then consume the secondary consumers,
with some energy passed on and some lost, as with the lower levels of the food chain.

A final link in the food chain are decomposers which break down the organic matter of the tertiary
consumers (or whichever consumer is at the top of the chain) and release nutrients into the soil. They
also break down plants, herbivores and carnivores that were not eaten by organisms higher on the food
chain, as well as the undigested food that is excreted by herbivores and
carnivores. Saprotrophic bacteria and fungi are decomposers, and play a pivotal role in
the nitrogen and carbon cycles.

The energy is passed on from trophic level to trophic level and each time about 90% of the energy is
lost, with some being lost as heat into the environment (an effect of respiration) and some being lost as
incompletely digested food (egesta). Therefore, primary consumers get about 10% of the energy produced by
autotrophs, while secondary consumers get 1% and tertiary consumers get 0.1%. This means the top
consumer of a food chain receives the least energy, as a lot of the food chain's energy has been lost between
trophic levels. This loss of energy at each level limits typical food chains to only four to six links.
 Biotic and abiotic component of the ecosystem

Components of Ecosystem

There are two main components of an ecosystem which are in constant communication with each
other. They are the biotic components and the abiotic components.

Biotic Components of Ecosystem

The living components of an ecosystem are called the biotic components. Some of these factors include
plants, animals, as well as fungi and bacteria. These biotic components can be further classified, based on
the energy requirement source. Producers, consumers, and decomposers are the three broad categories of
biotic components.

 Producers are the plants in the ecosystem, which can generate their own energy requirement
through photosynthesis, in the presence of sunlight and chlorophyll. All other living beings are
dependent on plants for their energy requirement of food as well as
oxygen.

 Consumers include the herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. The

herbivores are the living organisms that feed on plants. Carnivores eat
other living organisms. Omnivores are animals that can eat both plant
and animal tissue.

 Decomposers are the fungi and bacteria, which are the saprophytes.
They feed on the decaying organic matter and convert this matter into
nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The saprophytes play a vital role in
recycling the nutrients so that the producers i.e. plants can use them
once again.

Abiotic Components of Ecosystem

Abiotic components are the physical and/or the chemical factors that act on the living organisms at any part
of their life. These are also called as the ecological factors. The physical and chemical factors are
characteristic of the environment. Light, air, soil, and nutrients etc. form the abiotic components of an
ecosystem.

The abiotic factors vary from ecosystem to ecosystem. In an aquatic ecosystem, the abiotic factors may
include water pH, sunlight, turbidity, water depth, salinity, available nutrients and dissolved oxygen.
Similarly, abiotic factors in terrestrial ecosystems can include soil, soil types, temperature, rain, altitude,
wind, nutrients, sunlight etc.
Here, the sun is the energy source. Producers/plants use this energy to synthesize food in the presence of
carbon dioxide and chlorophyll. The energy from the sun, through several chemical reactions, turns into
chemical energy. The herbivores are dependent on plants for the energy requirements. The carnivores, in
turn, feed on the herbivores and other carnivores. At any level, microbes then decompose any dead and
decaying organic matter. These decomposers, after various chemical reactions, release molecules back to
the environment in the form of chemicals. The chemicals are again used by the producers, and the cycle
starts again.

In conclusion, ecosystems have a complex set of interactions that happen between the biotic and abiotic
components. The components of an ecosystem are linked to each other through the energy flows and
nutrient cycles. Even though ecosystems do not have clear boundaries, these interactions get affected, even
if one factor is changed or removed. This ultimately has the capacity to affect the entire ecosystem.

Abiotic and Biotic

Abiotic factors refer to non-living physical and chemical elements in the ecosystem. Abiotic
resources are usually obtained from the lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Examples of
abiotic factors are water, air, soil, sunlight, and minerals.

Biotic factors are living or once-living organisms in the ecosystem. These are obtained from the
biosphere and are capable of reproduction. Examples of biotic factors are animals, birds, plants,
fungi, and other similar organisms.

Contemporary