Download I. ECOLOGY ECOLOGY - definition ECOLOGY

I. ECOLOGY
1
ECOLOGY - definition
• What is ecology?
• Something to do with environment or with saving it.
• Since when do we talk abut ecology?
• Since 1960’s
• In relation to environmental movement
• What does the word ecology mean?
• Ernest Heinrich Haeckel (1866):
ecology: Oikos = household, home
Logos = knowledge
• The same rood word as economy:
Ecology = Economics of nature
2
ECOLOGY - definition
living system : environment : science
• What is living system?
• Open self-organizing thermodynamic system
• System consists of elements that exchange energy and mater
through semipermeable membranes with its environment
• Function of living system is to perform matter-energy
transformations
• Elements of living system are interrelated with flow of energy and
matter cycles
• Out-puts from one component are inputs for another component:
production-consumers structure
• Part of the energy and matter flows is used for control
• Physical structures that use energy and matter form their
environment for growth and development and have hierarchical
structure
3
1
ECOLOGY - definition
living system : environment : science
• What is environment?
• Set of elements that are not part of living system but are
inseparable from it
• Set of conditions (biotic and abiotic) to which living system is
exposed
• Abiotic elements: elements of non living environment => source
and sink of energy and matter, they put physical constraints to
living system (climate, soil conditions) => very unpredictable
dynamic systems
• Biotic elements: living creatures in interactions with living system
=> different types of interactions: source of food, effects on
elements of non living environment
4
ECOLOGY - definition
living system : environment : science
• What is science?
• Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge" or
"knowing") is the effort to discover, and increase human
understanding of how the physical world works. It apples
systematic approach to derive cognitions and knowledge
about studied phenomena:
• Two approaches:
Analytical
parts
elements
classification
structure
quantity
Holistic
wholeness
processes
relations
patterns
quality
5
ECOLOGY - definition
• Ernest Heinrich Haeckel (Ekologija, 1869):
”The body of knowledge concerning the economy of nature – the
investigation of the total relationship of the animal both to its organic
environment; including, above all, its friendly and inimical relations
with those animals and plants with which it comes directly or
indirectly into contact – in a world ecology is the study of those
complex interrelations referred to by Darwin as the conditions for
struggle for existence. ”
6
2
ECOLOGY - definition
• Permanent attempts toward deeper definition:
“The study of structure and function of the nature.” (Odum 1971)
“The scientific study of the relationship between organisms and their
environment.” (McNaughton and Wolfe 1979)
“ The study of organisms and their environment – and the
interrelationships between the two.” (Putman and Wratten 1984)
“The study of the patterns of nature and how those patterns came to
be, and how they change in space and time” (Kingsland 1985)
“The study of the relationships between organisms and their physical
and biological environment” (Ehrlich abd Roughgarden 1987)
7
ECOLOGY - definition
• Non of these definition is fully satisfactory:
The original definition relays only to animal ecology.
Too restrictive or too vague.
They apply to population ecology and overlook ecosystem function.
• Functional definition - the most suitable and
applicable:
“Ecology works at characterizing the patterns seen in nature,
studying the complex interactions among organisms and their
environment, and understanding the mechanisms involved in
biological diversity.”
8
ECOLOGY - definition
Since when we can speak about ecology?
Greek scholar Theophrastus
(300 bc): (associate of Aristotle)
Johann Wolfgang von Goeth
(1749 - 1832) :dynamic point of
view on living beings : study of
morphology (forms and structures
of organisms)
Carl von Linne (1707-1778):
classification of living organisms
based on their morphology
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804):
distinguished between life and
machine: parts of machine support
functioning of the machine, parts of
living organisms support growth,
development and reproduction, selforganization is introduced
Charles Robert Darwin (1809 1882) Evolution theory based on
natural selection principle
Ernest Heinrich Haeckel (1834-1919) Generelle
Morphologie der Organismen (1866): ECOLOGY
9
3
The development of ECOLOGY
• Ecology has branched into many subdivisions:
• According to the
object of interest:
•
•
•
•
•
Plant ecology
Animal ecology
Population ecology
Community ecology
Ecosystem ecology
• According to the
object of application:
•
•
•
•
•
Ecological Modelling
Ecological Economics
Ecological Informatics
Ecological engineering
Ecosystem based
management
10
Development of plant ecology
Modern impetus to ecology came from plant geography:
Why plants differ in various parts of the world and why some
similarities exist between different parts of the globe?
•1765-1812:Climate (similar climate – similar vegetation): Carl
Ludwig Willdenow
•1769-1859: relations between different vegetation types and
environmental characteristics, the term assiciation was coined:
Frideric Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt
•1860-1938: Classificatin of vegatation according to the life forms of
its plants: Christen Raunkiaer
•1864-1941:Plants modify their environment by creating
microenvironments: Jozef Paczoski
•1874-1945:plant community is superorganism and it has a
hierarchical structure: F.E.Clements
•1897: plant successions: E.H. Cowles
11
Development of animal ecology
•Beginners : R Hesse (1924) Animal ecology and C. Elton (1927)
Ecological animal geography
•Victor Shelford – stressed interrelationships between plants and
animals: Ecology became science of communities
• Development of general concept of the community: a complex
community of interdependent organisms – biocenoses (1877) = “life
having something in common”: Karl Mobius (1877)
• Feeding relationships and energy budget, population dynamics and
natural selection and evolution: Principles of Animal Ecology, group
of ecologists from Uni. Chichago (1949)
•Behaviorizem (Watson 1914, von Fisch 1915), Ethology ( Konrad
Lorenz – genetically programmed behavior), behavioral ecology (how
the behavior is influenced by natural selection.
12
4
Development of ecophysiology
•Respons of individual organisms to temperature, moisture, light,
nutrients and other factors of the environment.
•Justus Libig (1840): Law of minimum
•F.F. Blackman (1905): Law of maximum
•V.E. Shelford (1911): Linked the physiology of an organism to its
environment: => Law of tolerance
13
Development of population ecology
•Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) with Thomas Malthus (1766-1834): the
idea of “the survival of the fittest” as a mechanism of natural selection
and evolution
•Darwin’s theory combined with Mendel’s genetics (1822-1884)
resulted in two central themes in ecology – evolution and adaptation
•Hardy (1908) and Weinberg (1908) studied genetic equlibrium in
populations – beginning of population genetics
•Study of population growth, predation and interspecific competitions
=> population ecoloy (Lotka in Volterra, 1926).
•Combination of population genetics and population ecology resulted
in evolutionary ecology concerned with the interactions of population
dynamics, genetics, natural selection and evolution (Ernest Mayer,
1904 - 2005).
•Combination of population ecology and evolutionary ecology
resulted in community ecology
14
Development of ecosystem ecology
•F.E. Clements: plant community behaves as a complex organism that
growths and develops through stages to a mature or climax stage.
•A.G. Tansley (1871-1955): introduction of holistic combination of
living organisms and their physical environment into a system called
an ecosystem.
•Holistic concept of ecosystem has introduced nutrient cycling and
feeding levels (producers and consumers) (A. Thienemann and F.A.
Forel 1841-1912), primary production and energy budgets (Edgar
Transeau 1926)
•Description of succession in term of energy flow through the lake
ecosystem (Lindman (1942), beginning of ecosystem ecology
•Application of general system theory and methods in ecology and
introduction ecological modelling based on calculations performed
with computer, SYSTEMS ECOLOGY was developed (Odum
1960’s).
15
5
Development of applied ecology
=> Ecological theories and models help to understand human impact
on environment
⇒ Bases for ecosystem and natural resource management,
preservation and restoration
⇒ Applied ecology
16
ECOLOGY
?
NATURE PROTECTION
" Obvladovanje narave je prazna
beseda, spočeta v neznanju in
porojena v kamenodobni biologiji in
filozofiji, ko je človek še mislil, da je
narava ustvarjena zato, da mu služi."
17
Rachel Carson - 1970 (Nema Pomlad)
ECOLOGY
Scientific
Development
•Ecological Modelling
•Ecological Economics
•Ecological Informatics
•Ecological engineering
•Ecosystem based
management
•Nature protection
Conservation biology
•Restoration ecology
•Landscape ecology
18
6