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Transcript
Ecology The science of ecology can provide the basic understanding of the natural processes necessary to manage the planet’s limited resources over a long period of time. Ecology is a science I hope you are here for the right reasons?? Like all sciences the foundation of our understanding of ecology came form the scientific method. Remember asking questions is easy the hard part is finding the answer. Are you a positive thinker? OZONE Green House World Journey Ecology Sites How to remove bee Handout Expectations Learn how to think outside the box. Think for yourself, make predictions, and problem solve. Get stuff done on time (responsibility and accountability) Effort: you get out of it what you put into it. Find a date for Friday Night! State the problem: You cannot solve a problem until you know exactly what it is. My Problem is - "I need a date for Friday Night". Step 1: Research the problem: What will it take to solve my problem? What do I know, and need to know, about my problem? To solve my problem, "I need someone to take out Friday Night". Who can I take? - Examine the possibilities. - Eliminate poor choices. - Consider likely choices. Step 2: Step 3: Form a hypothesis: A possible solution to my problem. The simplest solution is often the best solution! "My date will be ( Name )". Step 4: Test the problem Perform an experiment: to see if your hypothesis works. "Ask ( Name ) for a date Friday Night". Step 5: Draw conclusions Data are the results of an experiment. In its simplest form, there are only two possible conclusions: Conclusion 1 If your hypothesis was correct, you now have a date for Friday. PROBLEM SOLVED! Conclusion 2 If your hypothesis was incorrect, the experiment failed. DON'T GIVE UP! DO MORE RESEARCH!- What was wrong with your original hypothesis? - Did you make a poor selection? - Was your experiment flawed? - Form another hypothesis based on additional research. - Test the new hypothesis. Questions Everyone asks a single question related to ecology. Due tomorrow Put some though into it and make them challenging. Throughout the semester maybe we will find some of the answers. I will generate a list of these questions and extra credit will be given for answers. Reflection on your daily life Close your eyes and follow yourself through a typical day. 1. What natural resources do you use? What choices do you make that have an impact on the environment? What things choices do you make that are helpful to the environment? List two ways you directly or indirectly contribute to an environmental problem. Describe specific ways that you can lessen your impact on an environmental problem. 2. 3. 4. 5. What comes to mind when I you see the following words: Environmentalist Naturalist Most of the words we just looked at have negative connotations if you consider them with the environment in mind. Not all environmentalists are tree huggers and not all republicans want to destroy nature. Termites Scientific Method activity: someone asked this question or made these observations and came up with some answers. After you are done with the activity work on your question and the lion problem. Facts and statistics 2.47 acres are destroyed per minute (20 football fields) 2000 tress are cut down per minute in the rainforest. 1000 acres of trees are cut daily in the US 95% of America’s native forest have been cut. Only 35% of all paper has been recycled. Why is this a problem? The estimated rate of extinction of species of plants and animals is 50,000 per year. One billion tons of carbon dioxide is absorbed annually young forest. Carbon cycle: Where will all the carbon go without plants? Carbon Cycle What is deforestation? When many trees are cleared from a large area. What does it do? Has killed hundreds of thousands of species loss of habitat. Increases the green house effect Increases erosion (silting of lakes and rivers) Lion Problem One mountain lion can eat approximately 1,095 pounds of venison each year. The lion only consumes about 50% of each deer it kills; coyotes and other scavengers get the rest. One deer eats approximately 3,650 pounds of vegetation/year in the form of grasses, herbs, brush, and tree leaves. One square mile of deer habitat produces 800 pounds of vegetation acceptable as deer food/year. Questions What is the minimum number of square miles of habitat needed to support one deer? If each deer averages 150 pounds in weight, how many deer are needed to feed one lion per year? How many square miles of deer-lion habitat are necessary for one lion to survive? Use a map of an area you and outline an area large enough to serve as habitat for one lion. Ignore all road, communities, and other developments which do not produce food. On the same map, again outline an area large enough to support 100 lions but this time take into account the not deer food producing areas. How much larger is the second area you outlined. It is said that today there are more deer in the United States than when the first European settlers arrived. How could this be explained? What factors caused such abrupt changes in the deer population? If we allow habitats to be reduced it will have a negative impact on organism population size. Human Impacts on Ecosystyems Human actions have disrupted the trophic structure, energy flow, and chemical cycling of ecosystems in most areas of the world. Humans have intruded on nutrient cycles to such an extent that it is no longer possible to understand any cycle without taking human effects into account. Agricultural effects Over-harvesting of fish species, spread of toxic pesticides, depletion of surface and ground water supplies for irrigation. Nitrogen cycle: the cultivation/breaking up of the soil increases the rate of decomposition of organic matter, releasing usable nitrogen that is then removed when the crops are harvested. Synthesized fertilizers (nitrogen): is being added to the environment. Is this a problem? Increased nitrates in water, increased global temperature, depletion of the ozone, algae blooms, and etc. Biological Magnification Humans produce thousands of toxic chemicals, that are dumped into the ecosystems with little regard for ecological consequences. Many of these poisons cannot be degraded by microorganism and consequently persist in the environment for years . In other cases some released chemicals are relatively harmless but are later converted to more toxic products by reactions with other substances. Example: mercury, a by-product of plastic production, was once routinely expelled into rivers and the sea in an insoluble form. Bacteria in the bottom mud converted the Mercury into methyl mecury(toxic). Bio Mag continued Toxins become more concentrated in successive levels of a food web. Magnification occurs because the biomass at any given level is produced from a much larger biomass ingested from the level below. Thus, top-level carnivores tend to be the organisms most severely affected by toxic compounds that have been released into the environment. DDT An insecticide, used against mosquitoes and agricultural pests. DDT persists in the environment and it collects in fatty tissues of animals. Traces of DDt have been found in nearly every organism ever tested. DDT was banned in the United States in 1971. It is still used in other parts of the world. HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Find one article in the news from a newspaper, journal, or magazine dealing with the environment. 1. What is the article about? 2. How is the environment being effected (neg or pos)? 3. What is being done or what should be done? 4. What is the impact on the wildlife? 5. What is the impact on humans? 6. Are there any future concerns? 7. Generate one question for others to consider. YOU WILL BE EXPECTED TO PRESENT THESE YOUR FINDINGS WITH OTHERS. What is ecology?????? Ecology: is the study of interactions between different kinds of living things and between living things and the environment in which they live. The study of ecology In order to truly understand ecology one needs to have an understanding of the following areas. Population ecology Community ecology Ecosystems Animal behavior Conservation biology Ecological Research Ecology can be divided into 5 levels of study. Organismal ecology: is concerned with the behavioral, physiological and morphological ways in which individual organisms meet challenges posed by their abiotic environment. Populations: is the next level of organization, population is a group of individuals of the same species living in a particular geographical area. Community: which consists of all organisms that inhabit a particular area Ecosystem: includes all the abiotic factors in addition to the community of species that exist in a certain area. Conservation: Five areas broken down 1 the individual 2 many individuals of the same sepcies 3 Many different species 4 Many species and abiotic factors 5 Self explanatory Why study ecology? It can provide the basic understanding of the natural processes necessary to manage the planet’s limited resources over a long period of time. Help us resolve environmental issues. Help us understand the impact we have on the environment. Someone needs to stand up for the plants and animals, before they are gone. Web of interdependence: The health of human society depends on the well being of other organisms. Example: DDT, Mercury Basic Ecology Terms: Ecology - the study of relationships between organisms and their environment. Population - a group of interacting individuals of the same species. Community - a group of interacting populations. Ecosystem - a functional environmental unit, consisting of a biotic community and the abiotic (nonliving) factors on which the organisms depend. Biosphere - the total of all ecosystems. In other words, all the area on Earth where life is found. What do all organisms need? Energy in some form: Light energy or chemical energy • The opportunity to obtain nutrients: to build, and maintain tissues. • Shelter, Space, appropriate environment, and climate. Abiotic factors of the biosphere What is the biosphere? it is the sum of all the planets ecosystems, or all of life and where it lives. Major abiotic factors: - Temperature, water, sunlight, wind, rocks and soil. - All the dead stuff that is important for all life. Most organisms ultimately get there energy from sunlight, and must tolerate the ranges of temperature, humidity, salinity, and light in there environment. Biome vs. Ecosystem Biome: refers to the major types of ecosystems. Ecosystem: includes all the biotic and abiotic factors in a given area. Biosphere: The global ecosystem. It is the sum of all the planet’s ecosystems, it includes the atmosphere and below ground caves. Climate and the Distribution of Organisms USE AP CD AND FIGURE OUT THE DIFFERENT BIOMES Terrestrial Biomes Based mainly on regional variations in climate. Tropical forests Savanna Desert Chaparral Temperate Grasslands Tundra Ecosystem Consists of all the organisms living in a community as well as all the abiotic factors with which they interact. The boundaries of an ecosystem are not discrete. Examples of ecosystems: Lakes, rivers, forests, etc. Biosphere: a composite of all the local ecosystems on earth. Ecosystems involve two processes. 1. Energy flow: energy enters an ecosystem in the form of sunlight. 2. Chemical cycling: elements such as carbon and nitrogen are cycled between abiotic and biotic factors. Define Biotic and Abiotic? The two processes of Ecosystems Energy of sunlight is converted to chemical energy by autotrophic organisms. It is then passed to the hetertrophs in the organic compounds of food and dissipated in the form of heat. Chemical cycling: Photosynthetic organisms acquire these elements in inorganic form from the air, soil, and water and assimilate them into organic molecules. Cycling of Death and waste Relationship between energy and matter The movement of energy and matter through the ecosystems are related because both occur by the transfer of substances through feeding relationships. Trophic relationships Ecologists divide the species in a ecosystem into trophic levels on the basis of their main food source. Primary Producers (autotrophs): Most are photosynthetic organisms which use light to synthesize sugars and other organic compounds, which they then use as fuel. For cellular respiration and as building material for growth. Most are able to produce living tissue -living matter. They don’t eat like we do. Major Primary producers: Tress on land Algae in water Producers - autotrophic organisms using solar or chemical energy to produce all the organic nutrients for an ecosystem. Consumers - heterotrophic organisms that cannot make their own food. They get energy from the chemical bonds in the nutrients they eat. Primary consumers (herbivores) - eat primary producers (plants). Conversion efficiency: only 10 to 20 percent of the available energy passes from producers to primary consumers. Secondary consumers (carnivores) - eat primary consumers (herbivores). Conversion efficiency: only 5 to 10 percent of the available energy passes from primary consumers to secondary consumers. Tertiary consumers (carnivores) - eat secondary consumers (carnivores). The conversion efficiency for tertiary consumers may be as low as 1%. Omnivores - eat both plants and animals. Decomposers/ Detritivores: - break down dead tissues and wastes. Food chain the specific sequence in which organisms obtain energy within an ecosystem. Food web interrelated food chains within an ecosystem. Ecological Niche: There can be many ecological niches in one geographical area. An animal's niche is determined by all the ways the animal interacts with its environment, including what it eats, how it obtains its food, what physical and chemical conditions it will tolerate, what conditions are optimal for its well-being, and how it interacts with its predators and parasites. Define: Niche: how an organism uses the biotic and abiotic resources of its environment. Habitat Physical environment in which an organism lives. Ecosystem: Biological community and the nonliving parts of the environment. Predation - the feeding of free-living organisms on other organisms. Predator-prey relationships: Optimal foraging brings a predator the maximum net food energy gain. Predators do not normally spend great effort pursuing rare, energy-poor, or hard to handle prey. Prey availablility is a key factor in the foraging behavior of predators. Increasing numbers of prey elicit two types of responses from predators: Foraging behavior of predators Functional response - There is a relationship between prey density and the number of prey consumed per predator per unit of time. The predator seems to focus its attention on the shape and general appearance of the abundant prey, filtering out other potentially distracting stimuli. The abundant prey makes up an increasing percentage of the predator's diet. Numerical response - There is a relationship between prey density and predator density. Predator numbers increase as a prey population increases. Predator Prey relationships Some species appear to be linked, with population numbers fluctuating together. But do the predators control prey populations, or do prey populations control predators? Assignment Choose the statement below that you believe is most accurate. Write a paragraph giving a compelling argument to support your choice. (statement #1) Predators control prey populations. (statement #2) Prey populations control predators. Competition - within any ecosystem, some organisms utilize resources and reduce the availability of those resources to other organisms. Intraspecies competition - between organisms of the same species. Interspecies competition - between organisms of different species. Predation - refers to the relationship between a predator and its prey. Predator and prey are often tied together in many ways. Each has traits that attempt to take advantage of the traits of the other. Moths are a good meal for many birds. Most moths are active at night, a time when most birds are not hunting. But the moth has to hide during the day to escape the birds. The protective coloration of some moths allow them to hide in plain view. Do you see the moth on the tree bark here? Would the moth be as well hidden on just any tree? Have you ever seen a rabbit run onto the road in front of a car and suddenly stop? While this is not a good reaction at the time, it is the behavior that will most often save the rabbit from being caught by a predator. How? Even predator and prey populations are related. If the predator population is low, the numbers of the prey species will increase. Most predator species will reproduce in larger numbers if food is abundant. As the numbers of the predator species increase, the prey population begins to decline. Types of Symbiosis Symbiosis the close association between two dissimilar organisms. Parasitism - one organism obtains its nutrition from another organism to the harm of the host. Commensalism - one organism benefits from another organism while that organism neither benefits nor is harmed. Mutualism - the relationship benefits both organisms equally. Make a Food Web Food web must consist of 10 organisms Use arrows to show how the energy is transferred. Label each organism as either a producer or a consumer be specific. Putting it all together In streams, much of the organic matter used by consumers is supplied by terrestrial plants and enters the ecosystem as leaves and other debris that fall into the water or are washed in by runoff. A crayfish might feed on the plant detritus at the bottom of a stream or lake and then be eaten by a fish. The fish maybe eaten by a Fisher and the Fisher is then eaten by a coyote. Food chains: show the movement of energy between different trophic levels Food web: a more detailed depiction of feeding relationships Food chain As energy flows through a system much is lost at each trophic level. Biomass: The living weight of a species 10% of the energy available at each trophic level is converted into new biomass in the trophic level above. What does that mean? What is a Tropic level? Each step in a food web is a trophic level. How many trophic levels are there in the following food web? Sun------> Grass------> Rabbit------> Bear If there are a lot of trophic levels between primary producers and consumers, there will be less energy available to the consumer compared to the energy originally captured by the primary producer. Lets add energy to the example above: Sun------> Grass (captures 100% or 100Joules)------> Rabbit (captures 10% or 10J)------> Bear (captures 10% or 1J) What does this mean? The bear has to eat a lot of rabbits in order to get enough energy to survive. EXAMPLE: A caterpillar eats 200joules of energy. 100 joules are lost as waste, 67 joules used for cellular respiration, and 33 joules is used for growth (adding to biomass) Where did most of the energy go? Lost as waste For cellular respiration work A little went to add biomass Ecological pyramid - a graph representing trophic level numbers within an ecosystem. The primary producer level is at the base of the pyramid with the consumer levels above. Numbers pyramid - compares the number of individuals in each trophic level. Biomass pyramid - compares the the total dry weight of the organisms in each trophic level. Energy pyramid - compares the total amount of energy available in each trophic level. This energy is usually measured in kilocalories. Pyramids Most pyramids are going to look like this. The number, biomass, and the amount of energy gets smaller as you move up the trophic levels. What is going to happen to this food web if it is represented by an inverted pyramid? Energy passing through a system Pyrimids of biomass If we made a pyramid of numbers for the last slide what do you think it would look like? How many primary producers? How many primary consumers? Etc. Homework Make two ecological pyramids for the following food web. What is an ecological pyramid? A diagram which shows the decreased amounts of energy or living tissues (biomass) or numbers of individuals. Here is the food web: Phytoplankton------> Zooplankton-----> Crawfish-----> Fish-----> Pelicans. EC I contain a large amount of H2O I am considered mesotrophic There are slot sizes fishermen have to abide by before they take fish from me. I have a lot of Stizostedion vitreum vitreum in me. I was in the news paper a lot last spring and summer I am the fifth largest of my kind in MN Native Americans can fish me year around with few restrictions Importance of H2O For one day you will keep track in all of the ways you use water (washing hands, showers, cooking, drinking, toilet, etc.) Water useage Flushing toilet 6 gallons Shower 5 gallons per minute Bathtub 15-25 gallons Washing clothes 25 gallons per load Dishwasher 15 gallons per load Faucet 1.5 gallons per minute Calculate how much water you usedin one day Ways to conserve water What can be done to save water? - General questions Why is water so important? Can other plants and animals do things to conserve their water? List some adaptations plants and animals have to help them conserve water. Discuss the water cycle. The Water cycle Water is essential to all living things. Driven by solar energy, most of the water cycle occurs between the oceans and the atmosphere through evaporation and precipitation. Facts - 80,000 cubic miles of water evaporates from the ocean every year. - 15,000 cubic miles of water evaporates from land surfaces every year. Water Cycle The Carbon Cycle Carbon is the basic constituent of all organic compounds. Carbohydrates are produced through photosynthesis and CO2 is released from cellular respiration. Where do plants get the carbon they need? Where do animals get the carbon they need? *** There is an increase in the overall concentration of atmospheric CO2 caused by the combustion of fossil fuels by humans. Fossil fuels are trapped carbon sources. Carbon Cycle Nitrogen Cycle Nitrogen is another key element in ecosystems. Nitrogen is found in all amino acids (building blocks of proteins). Nitrogen is available to plants only in the form of two minerals NH4 (ammonium) and NO3- (Nitrate). Earth’s atmosphere is about 80% Nitrogen in the form of N2, not available to plants. NH4 and NO3- are added to the soils by being dissolved by rain. (5-10%) Nitrogen Fixation (80%+): The conversion of N2 ---> NH4 and NO3- is done by fungi and prokaryotes (symbiotic relationships) Nitrogen Cycle The Phosphorus Cycle Organisms require phosphorus as a major constituent of nucleic acids, phospholipids and ATP. Phosphorus does not move through the atmosphere, there are no phosphorus containing gases. PO4: phosphate is the important organic form absorbed by plants. WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? The weathering of rocks, excretion from animals, and decomposers. Eutrophication of a lake The addition of in the form of sewage and runoff from fertilizers stimulates the growth of algae in aquatic ecosystems, often with negative affects. Algae blooms Aquatic Biomes occupy the largest part of biosphere Ecologists distinguish between fresh water biomes and marine biomes. The evaporation of seawater provides most of the planets precipitation. Marine algae and photosynthetic bacteria supply a substantial portion of the worlds oxygen. Aquatic Biomes Lakes: Oligotrophic, Eutrophic, Mesotrophic Rivers and Streams Ponds Wetlands Estuaries Marine biomes: Intertidal zones, coral reefs, benthos, and abyssal zones. Vertical Stratification of Aquatic Biomes Lakes Many aquatic biomes exhibit vertical stratification of physical and chemical variables. Light is absorbed by both the water itself and the microorganisms in it. Photic Zone- where light is sufficient for photosynthesis. Aphotic Zone- Where little light penetrates. At the bottom of all aquatic biomes a substrate called the benthic zone, made up of sand and organic and inorganic sediments. Occupied by organisms collectively called benthos, there main food source is called detritus. Fresh Water Biomes Two types of fresh water biomes; standing bodies of water which include lakes and ponds, and moving bodies of water which include rivers and streams. littoral zone: the shallow waters close to the shore rooted and floating aquatic plants flourish here. limnetic zone: The well-lit, open surface, farther from shore occupied by a variety of phytoplankton consisting of algae, cyanobacteria. These organisms photosynthesize and reproduce at a high rate during the spring and summer. Continued Zooplankton, mostly rotifers and small crustaceans, graze on the photoplankton. The zooplankton are then consumed by small fish, which in turn are eaten by larger fish, semi aquatic snakes, turtles and fish eating birds. Most of the small organisms are short lived and their remains sink into a deep aphotic region called the profundal zone, and down to the benthic zone. Microbes in the profundal zone and benthic zone use oxygen for cellular respiration as they decompose the detritus. Lakes are often classified according to there production of organic matter. Classification of lakes Oligotrophic lakes are deep and nutrient poor, the photoplankton in the limnetic zone are not very productive. Eutrophic lakes, in contrast are usually shallower and their nutrient concentration is usually high. As a result photoplankton are very productive and thw waters a re frequently murky. Mesotrophic lakes are in the middle of Oligotrophic and Eutrophic. Over long periods of time oligtrophic lakes become Eutrophic lakes. Streams and river are bodies of water moving in one direction constantly. Turn over A stratum of rapid temperature change called a thermocline separates a more uniformly warm upper layer from a more uniformly lower cold layer in lakes and oceans. Global Climate Patterns Earth’s global climate patterns are largely determined by the input of solar energy and the planets movement through space. The planet is tilted on its axis by 23.5 degrees relative to its plane of orbit around the sun, its tilt causes seasonal variation in the intensity of solar radiation. The angle of solar radiation changes from day to day as Earth revolves around the sun. Only the tropic receives sunlight from directly overhead. As a result, the tropics experience the greatest annual input and least seasonal variation in solar radiation of any region on Earth. Local and Seasonal Effects on Climate. Ocean currents effect climates along coasts of continents by heating or cooling overlying air masses, which may then pass across the land. Evaporation from the ocean is greater then the land, which is why areas near the coast are generally moister. Oceans and large bodies of water generally moderate the climates of the nearby terrestrial environments on a daily bases. Mountains also have a major effect on the climate. In the Northern hemisphere south side slopes receive more sunlight and therefore are warmer and drier. Deserts commonly occur on the leeward side of a mountain. Human affects Out of all the abiotic factors which ones do humans influence? Temperature an abiotic factor Temperature is an important factor in the distribution of organisms because of the effects on biological processes and the inability to regulate body temperature precisely. For example cells may rupture if the water they contain freezes at temperatures below 0C and most proteins will denature if temperature rises above 45C. Reptiles: Why no crocodiles in Minnesota? Endotherms are the exception, but even endotherms function best with in certain environmental temperature ranges that vary from species to species Water Water is essential to life, but its availability varies dramatically among habitats. Freshwater and marine organisms live submerged in an aquatic environment, but face problems with osmolarity. Organisms in terrestrial environments encounter a nearly constant threat of desiccation, and their environment has been shaped by the requirements for obtaining and conserving adequate supplies of water. The unique properties of water have effects on organisms an their environments (cohesive/adhesive, high specific heat, etc) Sunlight Sunlight provides the energy that drives nearly all ecosystems, although plants and other photosynthetic organisms are the only ones to use the sunlight directly. Light is also important to the development and behavior of the many plants and animals that are sensitive to photoperiod, the realtive lengths of daytime and nighttime. Photoperiod is a more reliable indicator then temperature for cueing seasonal events, such flowering or migration. Wind Wind amplifies the effect of environmental temperature on organisms by increasing heat loss due to evaporation and convection. It also increases water loss in organisms due to the increased rate of evaporation. Rocks and Minerals Rocks and soil: The physical structure, pH, and mineral composition of rocks and soil limit the distribution of plants and other animals that feed on them. In streams and rivers the composition of the substrate can affect water chemistry, which in turn influences the resident plants and animals. In marine environments the structure of substrates in the intertidal zone on the sea floors determines the types of organisms that can attach or burrow in those habitats. Continued Periodic Disturbances: Catastrophic disturbances such as fire, hurricanes, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions can devastate biological communities. After the disturbance the area is repopulated by the survivors, but the structure of the community is changes during the rebound. Some periodic disturbances such as volcanic eruptions, are so infrequent and unpredictable that organisms have no evolutionary adaptations to them. Fire on the other hand recurs frequently in some communities and some communities require fire to maintain them. Productivity of different ecosystems