Kangana Animation:

Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions of living things with each other and their relationships with the environment. Ecology is usually considered to be a major branch of biology. However, ecology has a more broad scope, because it includes both organisms and their environments. Examining the interactions between organisms and the environment can provide a basic understanding of the richness of life on earth and can help us understand how to protect that richness, which is increasingly threatened by human activity. Regardless of the challenges associated with conducting research in natural environments, ecologists often carry out field experiments to test their hypotheses.

Ecology is guided by a number of basic principles. One principle is that each living organism has a continual relationship with every other element in its environment. In this context, the environment includes both living and nonliving components.

Organisms

An organism is a life form consisting of one or more cells. All organisms have properties of life, including the ability to grow and reproduce. These properties of life require energy and materials from the environment. Therefore, an organism is not a closed system. Individual organisms depend on and are influenced by the environment.

The Environment

To the ecologist, the environment of an organism includes both physical aspects and other organisms. These two components of the environment are called abiotic and biotic components, respectively.

• Abiotic components, or abiotic factors, are the non-living physical aspects of the environment. Examples include sunlight, soil, temperature, wind, water, and air.

• Biotic components, or biotic factors, are the living organisms in the environment. They include organisms of the same and different species.

Biotic components can be very important environmental influences on organisms. For example, the first photosynthetic life forms on Earth produced oxygen, which led to the development of an oxygen-rich atmosphere. This change in Earth’s atmosphere, in turn, caused the extinction of many life forms for which oxygen was toxic and the evolution of many other life forms for which oxygen was necessary.

Levels of Organization

Ecologists study organisms and their environments at different levels. The most inclusive level is the biosphere. The biosphere consists of all the organisms on planet Earth and the areas where they live. It occurs in a very thin layer of the planet, extending from about 11,000 meters below sea level to 15,000 meters above sea level. An image of the biosphere is shown in Figure 1. Different colors on the map indicate the numbers of food-producing organisms in different parts of the biosphere. Ecological issues that might be investigated at the biosphere level include ocean pollution, air pollution, and global climate change.

Ecologists also study organisms and their environments at the population level. A population consists of organisms of the same species that live in the same area and interact with one another. Important ecological issues at the population level include:

• Rapid growth of the human population, which has led to overpopulation and environmental damage;

• Rapid decline in populations of many nonhuman species, which has led to the extinction of numerous species.

Another level at which ecologists study organisms and their environments is the community level. A community consists of populations of different species that live in the same area and interact with one another. For example, populations of coyotes and rabbits might interact in a grassland community. Coyotes hunt down and eat rabbits for food, so the two species have a predator-prey relationship. Ecological issues at the community level include how changes in the size of one population affect other populations.

Ecosystem

A community can also be defined as the biotic component of an ecosystem. An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all the living organisms in an area functioning together with all the nonliving physical factors of the environment. The concept of an ecosystem can apply to units of different sizes. For example, a large body of fresh water could be considered an ecosystem, and so could a small piece of dead wood. Both contain a community of species that interact with one another and with the abiotic components of their environment. Another example of an ecosystem is a desert, like the one shown in Figure 2.

Like most natural systems, ecosystems are not closed, at least not in terms of energy. Ecosystems depend on continuous inputs of energy from outside the system. Most ecosystems obtain energy from sunlight. Some obtain energy from chemical compounds. In contrast to energy, matter is recycled in ecosystems. Elements such as carbon and nitrogen, which are needed by living organisms, are used over and over again.

Niche

One of the most important ideas associated with ecosystems is the niche concept. A niche refers to the role of a species in its ecosystem. It includes all the ways species’ members interact with the abiotic and biotic components of the ecosystem.

Two important aspects of a species’ niche include the food it eats and how it obtains the food. Figure 3 shows pictures of birds that occupy different niches. The various species eat different types of food and obtain the food in different ways. Notice how each species has evolved a beak that suits it for these aspects of its niche.

Habitat

Another aspect of a species’ niche is its habitat. A species’ habitat is the physical environment to which it has become adapted and in which it can survive. A habitat is generally described in terms of abiotic factors, such as the average amount of sunlight received each day, the range of annual temperatures, and average yearly rainfall. These and other factors in a habitat determine many of the traits of the organisms that can survive there.

Consider a habitat with very low temperatures. Mammals that live in the habitat must have insulation to help them stay warm. Otherwise, their body temperature will drop to a level that is too low for survival. Species that live in these habitats have evolved fur, blubber, and other traits that provide insulation in order for them to survive in the cold.

Human destruction of habitats is the major factor causing other species to decrease and become endangered or go extinct. Small habitats can support only small populations of organisms. Small populations are more susceptible to being wiped out by catastrophic events from which a large population could bounce back. Habitat destruction caused the extinction of the dusky seaside sparrow shown in Figure 4. Many other bird species are currently declining worldwide. More than 1,200 species face extinction during the next century due mostly to habitat loss and climate change.

Competitive Exclusion Principle

A given habitat may contain many different species, each occupying a different niche. However, two different species cannot occupy the same niche in the same geographic area for very long. This is known as the competitive exclusion principle. It is another basic principle of ecology. If two species were to occupy the same niche, they would compete with one another for the same food and other resources in the environment. Eventually, one species would outcompete and replace the other.

Humans often introduce new species into areas where their niches are already occupied by native species. This may occur intentionally or by accident. Consider the example of kudzu. Kudzu is a Japanese vine that was introduced intentionally to the southeastern United States in the 1870s to help control soil erosion. The southeastern United States turned out to be a perfect habitat for kudzu, because it has no natural enemies there. As a result, kudzu was able to outcompete native species of vines and take over their niches. The extent to which kudzu has invaded some habitats in the southeastern United States is shown in Figure 5.

Ecology is more holistic, or all-encompassing, than some other fields of biology. Ecologists study both biotic and abiotic factors and how they interact. Therefore, ecologists often use methods and data from other areas of science, such as geology, geography, climatology, chemistry, and physics. In addition, researchers in ecology are more likely than researchers in some other sciences to use field studies to collect data.

Field Studies

Ecological research often includes field studies because ecologists generally are interested in the natural world. Field studies involve the collection of data in real-world settings, rather than in controlled laboratory settings. The general aim of field studies is to collect observations in wild populations without impacting the environment or its organisms in any way.

Ecologists commonly undertake field studies to determine the numbers of organisms of particular species in a given geographic area. Such studies are useful for a variety of purposes. For example, the data might help an ecologist decide whether a given species is in danger of extinction.

Sampling

In field studies, it usually is not possible to investigate all the organisms in an area. Therefore, some type of sampling scheme is generally necessary. For example, assume an ecologist wants to find the number of insects of a particular species in a given area. There may be thousands of members of the species in the area. So, for practical reasons, the ecologist might count only a sample of the insects. In order to select the sample, the ecologist could divide the entire area into a grid of one-meter-square test plots. Then the ecologist might systematically select every tenth (or other numbered) test plot and count all the insects in the plot.

Statistical Analysis

Like other scientists, ecologists may use two different types of statistical analysis to interpret the data they collect: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics are used to describe data. For example, the ecologist studying insects might calculate the mean number of insects per test plot and find that it is 24. This descriptive statistic summarizes the counts from all the test plots in a single number. Other descriptive statistics, such as the range, describe variation in data. The range is the difference between the highest and lowest values in a sample. In the same example, if the numbers of insects per test plot ranged from 2 to 102, the range would be 100.

NeoBux Forum: Advertisement Click Our friendly community is an excellent source for earning tips, which allow you to utilize multiple ways

In the show kaz tells jesper that Inej refuses to kill And it is true that Inej had values but she killed in the books Why do you think

If you would like to know where to buy Amp , the top cryptocurrency exchanges for trading in Amp stock are currently Binance, Mandala Exchange, Bybit,