Sie sind auf Seite 1von 25

Principles of Ecology and

Microbial Ecology

ENVH 4387/5387
1
Introduction

 Ecology - That branch of biology that deals


with the interrelationships between living
organisms or the interaction between
organisms and the abiotic environment
 We will learn about the interaction between
pollutants, the environment, people, and the
role microorganisms play in these interactions

ENVH 4387/5387
2
Overview

 The environment must be able to assimilate human


wastes
 Overloading of wastes in the environment results in
» Human health effects (disease)
» Loss of ability to produce food
» Loss of usable water
» Loss of suitable living space
» Loss of suitable recreational space
 The ability of the environment to assimilate human
waste is mediated by the biological, chemical, and
physical components of the environment
ENVH 4387/5387
3
Vocabulary

 Environment
 All of an individual organism’s surroundings, both the
inanimate components (air, soil, water) and other plants and
animals.
 Abiotic - The nonliving component of the environment
 Biotic - The living component of the environment
 Biosphere - the portion of earth that is inhabited by
living organisms.

ENVH 4387/5387
4
Vocabulary

 The abiotic component of the biosphere


includes
» inorganic compounds
» organic compounds
» climate

ENVH 4387/5387
5
Vocabulary

 The biotic component can be divided into


» Primary producers - photosynthetic organisms, i.e.
algae, green plants, and photosynthetic bacteria
» Consumers
– All living organisms other than the primary producers i.e.
herbivores and carnivores
– Ultimately depend on the primary producers for energy

ENVH 4387/5387
6
Vocabulary
 Species
» Groups of interbreeding natural populations that
are reproductively isolated from other such groups
 Population
» Group of organisms belonging to one species that
occur within a defined area.
 Community
» the populations of different species that exist in
the same defined area (groups of populations
living together as an association).
ENVH 4387/5387
7
Vocabulary

 Habitat
» Inanimate or abiotic components for individual,
population, and community
 Ecosystem
» Habitat plus community
 Trophic level
» The level of an organism in a community based
on its feeding requirements (e.g., producers are at
the lowest trophic level)

ENVH 4387/5387
8
Vocabulary

 Succession
» Continuous replacement in time of one community
by another community.
» These changes in communities are controlled by
both the dynamic nature of the abiotic and biotic
components of the ecosystem

ENVH 4387/5387
9
Vocabulary

 Climax community
» The mature stable community developed after
many stages of ecological development.
» When the population reaches equilibrium and the
communities stop changing, the system has
reached a climax (activated sludge)
» some ecosystems never reach a climax

ENVH 4387/5387
10
Vocabulary

 Energy Transfer
» Organisms utilize solar radiation and a pool of
chemicals as their prime source of energy
(Primary producers)
» This energy is transferred from one organism to
another (from one trophic level to another)
» This is the basis of the nutrient cycles that we will
discuss later in the semester

ENVH 4387/5387
11
Vocabulary

 Food Chain or Food Web


» The sequence of organisms that feed on each
other, starting at the phytoplankton and leading to
very large organisms
» Energy is transferred through the biosphere in
food chains or food webs
» The sequence of trophic levels in an ecosystem

ENVH 4387/5387
12
Vocabulary

 Biomagnification
» An important attribute of food chains is their ability to
concentrate nonmetabolizable toxic materials
» Materials that are present in extremely low concentrations in
the abiotic phase can be concentrated in a stepwise manner
until at the higher trophic levels they may upset essential
metabolic processes
» The large numbers of individuals consumed to maintain the
next trophic level magnifies the concentration of toxic
material per unit body weight

ENVH 4387/5387
13
Vocabulary

 Biomagnification
» The ecological danger of biomagnification is
amplified by the concentration of toxic materials in
specific organs and tissues

» e.g. DDT ======> in eggs

» Pesticides =======> fish, liver, & fatty tissues

ENVH 4387/5387
14
Vocabulary

 Homeostasis
» The buffering capacity of an ecosystem that allows
the ecosystem to resist perturbations
 Positive feedback
» when part of the output is returned to the original
input
 Negative feedback
» when materials are taken out of the system

ENVH 4387/5387
15
Vocabulary

 Pollutant
» a substance that occurs in the environment at
least in part as a result of human activities, and
which has a deleterious effect on living organisms
 Contaminant
» a substance released by human activities, does
not have a deleterious effect

ENVH 4387/5387
16
 Biotic & Abiotic Influences

 Biotic Factors: living things, their remains,


and features, such as nests, associated with
their activities
 Population: a group of individuals of the
same species
 Community: all of the different species
that
 interact in an ecosystem
ENVH 4387/5387
17
 Abiotic Factors: the non-living physical and
chemical components of an ecosystem
 e.g. oxygen
 water
 light availability
 -water availability
 -nutrient availability
 -temperature

ENVH 4387/5387
18
 Sustainable Ecosystem: an ecosystem that
is maintained through natural processes
 Sustainability: the ability to maintain
natural ecological conditions without
interruption or weakening

ENVH 4387/5387
19
 Limiting Factor: any factor that restricts the
size of a population
 e.g. biotic: availability of food
 abiotic: access to water

ENVH 4387/5387
20
Biotic & Abiotic Influences

Tolerance Range: the abiotic conditions within


which a species can survive

21
Biotic & Abiotic Influences

Biotic Factors: interactions with other organisms


influence a species' success
e.g. Competition: two individuals vying
for the same resource
Predation: one individual feeds
on another
Mutualism: two
individualsbenefitting
each other
Parasitism: one individual lives
and feeds on a host organism
Commensalism: one individual
benefits
22
Carrying Capacity: the maximum population size
of a particular species that a given ecosystem can
sustain
-carrying capacity is set by the influences of all
the biotic and abiotic factors over a long
period of time

-sustainable populations live at or below


their carrying capacity

23
ENVH 4387/5387
24
ENVH 4387/5387
25

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen