Ecology Preserving the Animal Kingdom The Abiotic Environment

Ecology Preserving the Animal Kingdom

The Abiotic Environment • Ecology- the study of Animals and their relationship to their environment and other organisms • Habitat- includes all living things and non living characteristics • Environmental factors have physiological values , tolerance Range, range of optimum, and Limiting Factor • Combinations of abiotic factors are necessary for and organism to survive

Abiotic Factors • Energy- organisms supply their energy needs in various ways • Heterotroph- ingest other organisms, carnivores and herbivores • Autotroph- Convert energy from the sun, photosynthesis, plants- algae- some protists • Energy Budget- accounting of an animals total energy intake and how it is used

Tolerance Range of Organisms

Temperature • Regulating Body temperature • Temperature determines rates of chemical reactions in a body (metabolic rate) • When food becomes scarce in winter animals must alter metabolic activity • Torpor-Bats, Hummingbirds and some rodents decrease body temp and metabolism daily • Hibernation-Small mammals (rodents), shrews and bats, decreased body temp and metabolism for weeks or months

Temperature cont. • Winter Sleep-larger animals, energy reserves sustain these mammals thru winter inactivity. Can awaken very quickly if disturbed • Estivation- period of inactivity to survive dry periods. Enter burrow does not eat or drink until moisture returns. invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians • Other abiotic factors include moisture, light, geology and soils

Population Growth • Change over time as a result of birth, death and dispersal • Survivorship curves: • Type 1 convex, humans survive to old age and die • Type 2 diagonal, constant probability of death through out life • Type 3 concave, high juvenile mortality, adults much lower mortality

Survivorship Curves

Population Growth • The potential for populations to increase in numbers is remarkable • Populations experience exponential growth but not indefinitely • Capacity for growth determined by : climate, food, space and other environmental factors • Carrying Capacity- population size that a particular environment can support

Logistic Growth Curve

Population Regulation/ Density • Density- independent factors: influence the size of a population regardless of size, weather • Density- dependent factors: influence when population is very high, competition for food, disease, predation, and parasitism • Intraspecific competition- competition between members of the same species, usually very intense because resource requirements are the same

Population Regulation/ Density • Interspecific competition- between members of a different species, one may be forced to move, become extinct or they coexist • Coevolution- predator prey relationships, flowering plants and insect or hummingbird pollinators • Symbiosis- two different species living in continuous intimate associations, 3 types • Parasitism, commensalism and mutualism

Interspecific Adaptations • Camoflage- color patterns help hide animal, stripes on zebras • Cryptic coloration- animal takes on a color pattern in its environment • Countershading- dark back and light belly • Aposematic coloration- warning coloration of poisonous or deadly animals • Mimmicry- looking like a poisonous animal

Cryptic Coloration

Camoflage

Countershading

Countershading/ Stripes to blend with sunlight

Aposematic Coloration

Mimicry

Communities • All the populations living in an area make up a community • Species have a unique organization in the community it is not a random mixture • Keystone species control the characteristics of the community • Community Diversity (species) is determined the variety of resources, high productivity, climate stability, moderate levels of predation

Trophic Structure of Ecosystems • Communities and their physical environment are called Ecosystems • Ecosystems need a constant supply of energy usually in the form of sunlight, energy is not recycled • Primary production is the total amount of biomass produced in a given area • Biomass is the total mass of all organisms

Trophic Levels • Plants convert less than 1% of the suns energy to chemical energy, • 60% of this is converted to new biomass, 40% lost to respiration, Autotroph, primary producer • Herbivores convert 10% into new biomass, 90% lost to respiration, Heterotroph, primary consumer • Carnivores convert 10% to new biomass, Heterotroph, secondary consumer

Trophic Levels

Marine Trophic Levels

Soil Trophic Levels

Marine Food Chain

Food Chain

Biogeochemical Cycles • All matter is cycled from nonliving reservoirs to living systems and back to nonliving reservoirs. • Nutrients are elements essential for life • 97% of living matter is made of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen • Sulfur, phosphorous, and calcium are less abundant but also important

Biogeochemical Cycles cont. • The nonliving reservoir for these cycles is the Earth (atmosphere or ground) • Fixation is the process of incorporating these nutrients into living tissue • Cycling involves moving from plant to herbivore to carnivore to decomposer and back to the Earth • Ideally the rate of return equals the rate of fixation

Carbon cycle

Water Cycle