LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGY

Lesson Objectives •
Define ecology.
• Describe how organisms can interact with their environments.
• Describe levels of organization in ecology.

Check Your Understanding •

What is an adaptation?
• What is the scientific method?

Vocabulary
• abiotic
• biome
• biosphere
• biotic
• community
• ecology
• ecosystem

What is Ecology?

Life Science can be studied at many different levels. You can study small things like
molecules or cells. Or you can study big things like whole organisms or groups of organisms.
The largest level that you can study is the level of ecology. Ecology is the study of how living
organisms interact with each other and with their environment. Because it is such a large
field, ecology involves many different fields, including geology, soil science, geography,
meteorology, genetics, chemistry, and physics. You can also divide ecology into the study of
different organisms, such as animal ecology, plant ecology, insect ecology, and so on.

A biome is a large community of plants and animals that live in the same place. Ecologists
can also study biomes. For example, ecologists can study the Arctic, the tropics, or the desert.
Can you think of different species or biomes that ecologists could study?

Ecologists do two types of research:

1. Field studies.
2. Laboratory studies.

Field studies involve collecting data outside in the natural world. An ecologist who completes
a field study may travel to a tropical rain forest and count all of the insects that live in a
certain area.

Laboratory studies involve working inside, not in the natural world. Sometimes, ecologists
collect data from the field, and then analyze it in the lab. Also, they use computer programs
to predict what will happen to organisms in who live in a specific area. For example, they
may make predictions about what happens to insects in the rainforest after a fire.

Organisms and Environments

All organisms have the ability to grow and reproduce. To grow and reproduce, organisms
must get materials and energy from the environment.

An organism’s environment includes two types of factors:

1. Abiotic factors are the parts of the environment that have never been alive, such as
sunlight, climate, soil, water and air.
2. Biotic factors are the parts of the environment that are alive, or were alive and then died,
such as plants, animals, and their remains.

Biotic factors, like organisms, interact with abiotic factors. For example, all animals (biotic
factors) breathe in oxygen (abiotic factor). All plants (biotic factor) absorb carbon dioxide
(abiotic factor).

Can you think of another way that abiotic and biotic factors interact with each other?

ECOLOGY: History and Relevance

It is always a customary practice to define a subject by its etymology, basically the word
ecology was derived from the Greek oikos meaning “household” and logos, meaning study or
discourse. Thus, the study of the environment being the household must include all the
inhabitant organisms as well as the functional processes that must go hand – in – hand to
make the world habitable.
In literal definition, ecology is the study of “life at home” and must give special emphasis on
the totality as well as pattern of relations between habitat and its inhabitants.

Students should also note that the etymological origin of the word economics was also
derived from Greek root oikos and was combined with the word nomics meaning
“management”. It literally means “household management” and in this perspective both field
should be companion discipline but unfortunately many people view them as adversaries
with antithetical visions.

Ecology was indeed a fascinating science as it caused interest with humans ever since history
started. During the earlier times, all individuals needs to know their environment – that is
top understand all the forces that controls the nature where they lived in. The beginning of
civilizations, in fact, was highlighted with the use of fire and tools to modify the
environment. Because of such advancement, humans became more adapted and seem to
depend less on the environment for their daily needs; most of us forget that we must
continue to depend on nature for air, water, and not directly, food, as well as waste
assimilation, recreation, and many worthy services provided by nature. Further, economic
systems of whatever political ideology, value man – made things that benefit the individual,
but little value was given credit to the goods and services of nature that benefits our society.
We only value this goods and services when natural crises happen, more or less we continue
to take it for granted. Society assume nature as unlimited or yet somehow replaceable by
technological innovations, even though life indeed needs oxygen and water which are
recyclable but definitely not replaceable. Bear in mind that as long as life support services are
considered free, still they have no value in current market systems.

The science of ecology has a humble beginning in recorded history. The works of notable
philosophers such as Aristotle, Hippocrates, and others clearly contains references to
ecological topics. The Greeks did not have a word for ecology. The word was of recent origin
and was proposed by the German biologist, Ernst Haeckel in 1869. He defined in as “the
study of the natural environment including the relations of organisms to one another and to
their surroundings”. Before such event especially during the biological renaissance in the
18th and 19th centuries, many scholars contributed to the science, even though the word
ecology was not in use. A good example is the notable microscopist Antony van
Leeuwenhoek, who in 1700s, pioneered the study of food chains and population regulation.
Moreover, English Botanist Richard Bradley revealed his understanding of biological
productivity during that time, thus this three subjects are important areas of modern ecology.

The recognition as distinct field of science, ecology was at least dated from about the 1900
but only in the past few decades became part of the general vocabulary. At first, it was
divided along the taxonomic lines (such as plant ecology and animal ecology), but the works
of Frederick Clemens and Victor Shelford (biotic community), Raymond Lindeman and G.
Evelyn Hutchinson (food chain and material cycling concepts), Edward Birge and Chauncy
Juday (whole lake studies) helped established the basic theory for a unified general ecology
field. Worldwide environmental awareness movement burst during the 1968 – 1970 as
astronauts took the first photographs of the Earth seen from the outer space. During the
1970s concern about pollution, natural areas, population growth, food and energy
consumption, and biotic diversity was the main goal. The said period was referred to as the
“decade of the environment” after the initiation of the first “Earth day” on April 22, 1970.
The succeeding decades saw the decline in awareness as it was influenced by crimes, cold
wars, government budgets, and welfare. As we enter the 21st century, environmental
awareness again became the forefront because anthropogenic abuse of the Earth continues to
increases.

The increase in public attention has a great impact and effect on academic ecology. During
the 1970s, the science of ecology is only treated as a subdiscipline of biology. Ecologist were
usually staffed at the biology department and ecology courses were generally offered only in
the biological science curricula. Even though it is still rooted to biology, ecology now
emerged from the former as essentially new, integrative discipline that connects physical and
biological processes and also forms the bridge between the natural sciences and the social
sciences. With the expansion of the scope of ecology, the study on how interrelationships
between organism’s interfaces and the use of resources intensifies. Multilevel approach brings
together “evolutionary” and “systems” thinking, two approaches which actually tended to
divide the field of ecology in recent years.

Branches of Ecology

From the smallest bacterium to the largest animal or plant, studying ecology is indeed
challenging. Studying their physiology, adaptation, and species interaction requires skills and
knowledge. Ecologist divide their interest to several fields to understand species in their
natural environment.

Terrestrial Ecology deals with the study of land organisms and how they interact with each
other and adapt to their environment. Aside from that, the diversity and distribution of
different organisms in various terrestrial habitats are also being focused on. Aquatic Ecology,
basically is the opposite of terrestrial ecology, it deals with the study of the ecosystems found
in bodies of water, be it the marine, freshwater, or the estuarine. Microbial Ecology focuses
on the study of how communities of microorganisms establish themselves on abiotic
substrates and how such organizations enable them to interact with each other. Systems
Ecology is a branch of ecology that tackles various abiotic factors like energy budget
allocation and physical processes such as carbon cycle and biogeochemical cycles. Taxonomic
Ecology is the branch of ecology that deals with the use of taxonomic data to study
ecosystems by helping identify key organisms present in that area. This branch of ecology
helps in the easier classification of organisms, whether each act accordingly or
antagonistically with each other in the community level. Evolutionary Ecology merges the
two scientific studies of evolution and ecology and focuses on the physical and genetic
changes that occurred among organisms and how such modifications were affected by
ecological factors. Population Ecology deals with the study of population structures and
dynamics, rather than looking at the individual behavioral patterns of living organisms.
Behavioral Ecology, integrates the study of the interaction between survival value to the
behavior of organisms and their offspring. Interestingly, it somehow related to evolutionary
as it examines how an organism changes its behavior to ensure survival and perpetuation.
Conservation Ecology, as its name suggests, studies the management of biodiversity through
conservation and restoration methods. This branch of ecology had just recently evolved to
address the decreasing biodiversity and deteriorating natural resources in the planet. Lastly,
Applied Ecology aims to apply the principles, concepts and significant knowledge, findings,
and technological advances to understand real world situations and to address practical
human problems.

Levels – of – Organization Hierarchy

In studying ecology, understanding the concept of levels of organization delimit modern

ecology. Hierarchy means “an arrangement into a graded series”. The interaction with the
physical environment such as energy and matter, at each level eventually produces
characteristic functional systems. This system, in standard meaning, consists of “regularly
interacting and interdependent components forming a unified whole”.

Ecology is largely, but not entirely, concerned with the system levels beyond that of the
organism. In standard ecological sense, the term population was originally coined to denote a
group of people and in broadest sense to include groups of individuals of any one kinds of
organism. Community, which is sometimes designated as “biotic community” on the other
hand pertains to a group of population occupying a given area. The community together with
the nonliving environment function together as an ecosystem. On the other hand, landscape
is defined as a heterogeneous area which is composed of a cluster of interacting ecosystems
that are repeated in a similar manner throughout. When we say biome, we are pertaining to
a large regional or subcontinental system which is characterized by a major vegetation type
or other identifying landscape aspect. The largest and most nearly self – sufficient biological
system is often designated as the ecosphere, which includes all the living organisms of Earth
interacting with the physical environment as a whole to maintain a self – adjusting, loosely
controlled pulsing state.

Hierarchical theory provides a convenient framework for subdividing and examining

complex situations or extensive gradients, but it is more than just a useful ranking
classification. It also includes a holistic approach in understanding and dealing with complex
situations, and is an alternative to the reductionist approach of seeking answers by reducing
problems to lower – level – analysis.

Relationship of Ecology to other fields of Biology

Since the science of biology is generally made up of three large branches; Zoology (study of
animals), Botany (study of plants), and Microbiology (study of microorganisms). The study of
such fields would not be possible if we will not use the way to distinct of dealing with it.
Imagine a two – layer cake with the thin layer on the top and thick layer at the bottom and
we will slice it to three equal parts (which will represent the three large branches). The first
way of dealing with it is by using approach – that is common to all organisms, hence will be
represented by the lower thick layer of the cake. This will deal with almost common fields
being studied in biology encompassing all organisms – genetics, molecular biology,
systematics, developmental biology, physiology, morphology, evolutionary biology, and
ecology. We can create a picture in our mind of the relationship of all these branches to one
another – in this case the relationship of ecology to the other fields. Ecology deals with the
relationship of organisms to its environment and as an organism it must be equip with parts
and structures (morphology) which will enable it to live and adapt. Physiology will explain
of how the organisms’ functions towards it nourishment and metabolism. Variation and
heredity (genetics) of most fitted organisms as well as the genetic characters are also vital in
the study of ecology especially in population and behavior. Systematics catalogue all the
existing organisms as well as its role in the environment. Developmental and evolutionary
biology will deal with ontogeny of the organisms as well as the speciation processes and
adaptation mechanisms.

The thin layer of the cake is represented by the second way which is by organisms in focus or
organismal – that is dealing with the specific organisms or group of organisms applying all
the fields in the approach way. Example of it is Vertebrate Zoology which deals with the
group of animals with backbones (vertebrae) – and this can still be sliced to a more specific
branches such as ichthyology (fishes), herpetology (reptiles and amphibians), ornithology
(birds), and mammalogy (mammals). If you will focus on one group you will use the
approach way to understand it – e.g. ichthyology will not just study fishes per se but will deal
with fish genetics, molecular biology, systematics, development, physiology, morphology,
evolution, and ecology.

Scientific Method in Ecology

We do know that ecology is a science, therefore it uses scientific method as way of learning
and understanding the natural world we live in. Although various versions of the scientific
method are used today, generally all are based on making observations, asking questions, and
searching for answers to lots and series of questions through experimentation.

It works by using a logical – problem method to understand how the world we live in works.
Just like other scientists, ecologists generally use the following: (1) make observation, (2)
research the topic to find out what is already known, (3) ask a testable question, (4) turn the
question into a hypothesis, (5) make predictions, (6) conduct an experiment to test the
predictions, and (6) analyze the results to arrive at a conclusion.

It is normal to all scientist like the ecologist to begin research by making observations. It
should be accurate – if not the it will be useless. Example of observations that an ecologist
will note are: (1) plant leaves are more nutritious than grasses or (2) deer eat lots of leaves.

Then these observations will raise questions like “why deer eat so many leaves?” Ecologist
usually select testable questions to research. He will formulate a hypothesis – which is an
educated guess or a possible answer to the question. It is possible to have a multiple suggested
answers – can be due to multiple hypothesis. A good example of a hypothesis from the
observation above is: Deer prefer leaves over grasses because it is more nutritious. From such
point, an ecologist can now derive prediction – Deer offered the same amount of leaves and
grasses would prefer leaves.

Experimentation will follow to test the hypothesis if it is true. The ecologist will design a
suited experiment either in the laboratory or in the field. If it is in the laboratory – the
ecologist will carefully manipulate one variable to be measured. In this case, he will hold the
animal in a cage or corral where plants and grasses will be presented or offered and then he
can now measure what the animal eat the most. If the experiment will be done in the field,
there will be limitation in the manipulation of the variable or sometimes not at all so they
usually rely more on observations. For example, using the animal above, the ecologist will
record what the deer eat whether leaves or grasses and measure the amount of such available
to the deer in the wild.
At this point, the ecologist can now analyze the data and compares it with the predictions.
For example, using again our animal subject above: If the data agrees with the predictions,
then the initial hypothesis is confirmed and the problem is solved or the question is
answered. If the data, disagreed with the predictions, the initial hypothesis is rejected and
the ecologist will start over again with a different hypothesis.

At this juncture, the ecologist often has new observations and questions based on what was
learned. The more hypotheses are developed then more experiments are designed.

After you have read, have you realized how important ecology is?

SYNTHESIS

Recall

1. Name three fields you can study when you study ecology.
2. Define ecosystem.
3. Define organism.
4. What are the levels of organization in ecology?
Apply Concepts

5. What is the difference between field studies and laboratory studies?

6. What is the difference between a population and a community?
7. Explain why almost the entire planet is a biosphere.

Critical Thinking

8. Give an example of how an abiotic factor can interact with the environment.
9. A question that an ecologist could ask at the population level is, “What factors control
zebra populations?”
Think of two examples of how other species may affect the zebra population.