Purpose of this class

To introduce the basic concepts of

ecology, from organisms to ecosystems,

with the larger goal of applying these

concepts to the management of
ecosystems.
• Chapter 1: Environmental Problems, Their Causes and Sustainability

• Chapter 2: Science, Matter, and Energy

• Chapter 3: Ecosystems: What Are They and How Do They Work?
• Chapter 4: Evolution and Biodiversity
• Chapter 5: Climate and Biodiversity
• Chapter 6: Community and Population Ecology
• Chapter 7: Applying Population Ecology: The Human Population and Urbanization

• Chapter 8: Sustaining Biodiversity: The Ecosystem Approach

• Chapter 9: Sustaining Biodiversity: The Species Approach
• Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
• Chapter 11: Water and Water Pollution
• Chapter 12: Geology and Nonrenewable Minerals
• Chapter 13: Energy
• Chapter 14: Environmetal Hazards and Human Health
• Chapter 15: Air Pollution, Climate Change and Ozone Depletion

• Chapter 16: Solid and Hazardous Waste

• Chapter 17: Evironmental Economics, politics, and Worldviews
Lectures:

Listen carefully - grasp the concept

Technical words in colour

Glossary of technical words

 Final grade

• 1. Examination I (35%)
• 2. Examination II (35%)
• 3. Examination III (Presentations )(10%)
• 4. Homework Exercises (20%)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This deals with humans and their interactions

with the environment.

Topics covered include

fundamental ecology,
air and water pollution,
world population problems,
loss of biodiversity,
pesticides, waste problems
energy problems
and their solutions.
 Chapter 1: WHAT IS ECOLOGY?

Ecology is the science by which we

study how organisms interact in the
natural world.
 What is ecology?

logy - logos ; the study of

 What is ecology?

eco - oikos; house

 Introduction to Ecology

What is ecology?

-Greek Oikos = the home or household

-ology = study of

-The study of the distribution and abundance of

organisms in relation to their environment

-Focus is on interactions
 Ecology

The scientific study of

the relationships between
organisms and their
environments.

E. Haeckel, 1865
 Ecology

The study of the flows of

energy and materials between
abiotic and biotic
components of ecosystems.

Chapin, Mooney and Matson, 2002

 Ecology
is
The study of the
distribution and abundance
of organisms,
and
the flows of energy and
materials between abiotic
Ecology –

is the science by which we study how

organisms (animals, plants, and
microbes) interact in and with the
natural world.
Levels of Organization
 Galaxies
E
C
Solar Scale
O
L system
O
G Earth
Y

Ecosystems
P
H Community ecology
Y Communities
S
I
O Populations
L
O
G Organisms
Y
Organs
B
I
O Tissues C
E
C L
H L
E Cells
M B
I I
O
S Molecules L
T O
R G
Y Atoms Y
 The levels of organization
Organism – a living being; the most
fundamental unit in ecology.

Population – a group of organisms of a

particular species that inhabits a
particular area.

Community – an association of
interacting populations.
Ecosystem – an.
ecological community and its abiotic
environment
Abiotic environment – nonliving
surroundings of an organism

Biosphere – all of the ecosystems on

the Earth.
Levels of organization are
hierarchical (分級)

Organism
Levels of organization are
hierarchical

Population
Levels of organization are
hierarchical
Community
Population

Population

Population
Levels of organization are
hierarchical
Community Abiotic
Population
Environment
Population
- water quality
- dissolved oxygen
- weather
Population
- pollution
- free nutrients
Levels of organization are
hierarchical
Community ECOSYSTEM
Population

Population
Abiotic
Environment
- water quality
- dissolved oxygen
Population
- weather
- pollution
- free nutrients
 Levels of organization are
hierarchical

Ecosystem
Ecosystem

Biosphere
Ecosystem

Ecosystem
 Four ecological subdisciplines

• Behavioral Ecology
• How does behavior contribute to survivorship,
reproduction and population growth?

• Population Ecology
• What controls the abundance of a species?
• How do populations grow?
• What are the controls on population growth rate?
• Community Ecology
• Interactions among organisms with and across
environments
• Biodiversity on earth
• Preservation of species-rich areas
• Linkages between species richness and community
and ecosystem function

• Ecosystem Ecology
• Passage of energy and nutrients through communities
• Effects of energy and nutrients on communities
• Human alterations of global nutrient cycles
Different subdisciplines -- Kinds of ecology.

PEOPLE IN NATURE
COMMUNITY
LANDSCAPE
POPULATION
PHYSIOLOGICAL
ECOSYSTEM
BIOME
Ecology is an integrative/
interdisciplinary science
-Understanding of the biological
(biotic) and physical (abiotic)
sciences
-Provides a context for the
reductionist sciences in biology
-Closely tied to genetics and
evolution
-Ecology can be studied at
different spatial and temporal
scales
-Includes the role of humans in
their environment (= global
change)
ECOLOGICAL PROFESSIONS

Scientist
Environmentalist
Conservationist
Naturalist
Technician
Teacher
Manager
Outdoor Educator
 Outline
1. Different approaches to ecology
2. Roles of organisms
3. Spatial and temporal variation
4. The scientific method in ecology
5. Why care?
Levels of Organization
• Organism
– Question: How do form, physiology, and behavior
aid in survival?
– Focus: adaptations – modifications of structure
and function that suit an organism to its
environment
• Population
– Question: What determines numbers of individuals
and variations in numbers in time and space?
– Focus:
• births
• deaths
• movements
• Community
– Question: How do populations of different
organisms affect one another?
– Focus:
• diversity and abundance of coexisting populations
• interactions between populations
• Ecosystem
– Question: How do the activities of populations and
communities translate to the currencies of energy
and materials?
– Focus:
• movements of energy and materials
• influences of climate and the physical environment
• Biosphere
– Question: How do air, water, and their
energy and chemical consituents move at
a global scale?
– Focus: global circulation of matter and
energy
Which level of organization is most
interesting to you and why?
Roles of Organisms
 Roles of Organisms

• Bacteria – some produce energy from light or

inorganic chemicals; others decompose dead
organisms or consume living organisms
• Protists – included producers (algae) and
consumers
• Plants – produce energy from sunlight and
CO2
• Fungi – decompose dead organisms
• Animals – consume other organisms
 Variation in time and space

• Everything in nature changes: anything

we can measure exhibits variation.
• Variation has temporal and spatial
components.
• Variation in each measurement has a
characteristic scale:
– air temperature varies over hours
– ocean temperature varies over weeks or
months
• Two kinds of temporal variation:
– predictable, cyclic variations (daily,
seasonal)
– unpredictable, irregular variations
Spatial Variation
 Spatial Variation
• Spatial variation occurs at very small
(forest sunflecks) and very large
(hemisphere) scales.
• Scale of variation depends on the
organism:
– the two sides of a leaf are different to an
aphid(蚜蟲)
– a moose(大角麋) eats the whole leaf, aphid
and all
 Scientific Method in Ecology
1. Observation and description of
natural phenomena
2. Development of hypotheses or
explanations
3. Testing the predictions of these
hypotheses
1. experiments
2. new observations
 An example….
• Observation: Birds eat caterpillars;
caterpillars eat tree leaves

• Hypothesis: Bird predation on

caterpillars reduces leaf damage
• Experiment: exclude birds from foliage
by placing cages around trees (still
allowing access to insects)
• Control – treatment that reproduces all
aspects of the experiment except the
variable of interest
– this experiment: control is trees without
cages

• Result – caged trees had 70% more

insects on their leaves and 50% more
leaf damage…

• Conclusion – bird predation does

reduce leaf damage
 Other approaches
• Microcosms: small-scale reproduction
that reproduces essential features of the
natural system
• Mathematical models
– portray the system as set of equations
– model is a hypothesis and yields
predictions that can be tested; examples:
• disease spread
• global climate change
Microcosms
Large scale
 Models

Mg C ha -1 yr-1
Global Potential Net Primary Productivity
 Why care about ecology?
• Pure science perspective
– curiosity
– love of nature
– challenge
• Applied perspective
– increasing human impacts on the natural
world
– recognition that the environment impacts
us as much as we impact the environment
Population ecology
Community ecology
Ecosystems
Biosphere
 Origins of Ecology
Carolus Linnaeus –
Systema Naturae, 1735
Natural History & Taxonomy

Charles Darwin 1859 -- The

Origin of Species
Natural History & Evolution
Economy of Nature (Balance)
 Origins of Ecology

Ernst Haeckel 1866

Natural History & Morphology
"ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny“
"politics is applied biology"
生態學是以自然環境為主體的經濟學，
相對於以人為主體的傳統經濟學。

隨著生態學的進展，科學家與社會大眾逐
漸瞭解人類與環境生態的密切依存關係，
並認識到人類經濟係建構於自然環境之中，
因此經濟發展的考量與效果評估，必須擴
及整個生態系統，因此逐漸形成生態經濟
學(ecological economics)這樣概念。
傳統的認知將生態與
經濟視為兩個對立的
概念，因為經濟發展
往往以生態破壞為代
價。但許多人可能不
知道，生態學實際上
是自然界的經濟學
(the knowledge
concerning the
economy of
nature)………
商業生態學-商業也可以
很生態
作者：保羅.霍
編／譯者：簡妤儒
出版社：新自然主義
出版日：2005/09/20
“生態學馬克思主義”
研究-
當代國外馬克思主義研究叢書
9787536694033 出 重
版 慶
社
：
「人文生態學」

是研究人與環境總體關係的學科， 以
人的生活實踐為中心，

結合了倫理學和生態學的原理，包 含
物質和精神現象，從生物圈概念走向智慧圈
概念。

「人文生態學」對德育及公民教育可以產生
重要的輔助作用，結合推行又可以促進
可持續發展（Sustainable Development)
何謂生態學Ecology？
•Oekologie (E. Haeckel, 1869)
•Oikos(G): House 住所，棲息地
•Logos(G): study 論述，學科

•The branch of science dealing with

•the relationships of living things
•to one another and to their environment.
•生態學主要探討生物與生物間，
•以及生物與環境間的科學。

•和中國的『風水』觀念有何異同？
生態的思維？
風水
•“氣乘風則散，界水則止，
古人聚之使不散，行之使有止，
• 故謂之風水。風水之法，得水為上，藏風次之”
• 風水注重人與自然的有機聯繫及交互感應。
• 注重人與自然種種關係的整體把握和思維。
傳統風水和現代生態學的思維差異
•以人為出發點的風水觀
•以萬物與環境為出發點的生態觀

以人的生活為出發點的環境改造
以整體環境為出發點的改造方法
以生物的需求為思維模式
中國風水觀念中的最佳城址
風水觀念中的城鎮選址與生態的關係
現代生態學的發展趨勢：
•1. 更加往宏觀的方向發展：
• 個體生態學、種群生態學、生態系統、
生物圈、全球生態學（能量和物質的流動無國界）
•2. 廣泛應用系統理論（系統生態學）：
• 建立系統的模擬模型，模擬生態系統行為和
各種管理措施。
應用最優化原理來控制和管理生態系統。
•3. 與社會科學（尤其是經濟學）的結合：
生態經濟學。
•4. 應用生態學：
• 生態工程、生態技術、生態建設、生態管理
•5. 量化生態學：
• 植被的聚類分析、排序技術、種的多樣性研究、信息生態學
http://ecology.org.tw/e-paper.php