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Ecology - Advanced Ecology - Advanced Douglas Wilkin, Ph.D. Jean Brainard, Ph.D. Barbara Akre Say Thanks to the Authors Click http://www.ck12.org/saythanks (No sign in required) AUTHORS Douglas Wilkin, Ph.D. To access a customizable version of this book, as well as other Jean Brainard, Ph.D. interactive content, visit www.ck12.org Barbara Akre EDITOR Douglas Wilkin, Ph.D. CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the U.S. and worldwide. Using an open-source, collaborative, and web-based compilation model, CK-12 pioneers and promotes the creation and distribution of high-quality, adaptive online textbooks that can be mixed, modified and printed (i.e., the FlexBook® textbooks). Copyright © 2016 CK-12 Foundation, www.ck12.org The names “CK-12” and “CK12” and associated logos and the terms “FlexBook®” and “FlexBook Platform®” (collectively “CK-12 Marks”) are trademarks and service marks of CK-12 Foundation and are protected by federal, state, and international laws. Any form of reproduction of this book in any format or medium, in whole or in sections must include the referral attribution link http://www.ck12.org/saythanks (placed in a visible location) in addition to the following terms. Except as otherwise noted, all CK-12 Content (including CK-12 Curriculum Material) is made available to Users in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/), as amended and updated by Creative Com- mons from time to time (the “CC License”), which is incorporated herein by this reference. Complete terms can be found at http://www.ck12.org/about/ terms-of-use. Printed: January 24, 2016 www.ck12.org Chapter 1. Ecology - Advanced CHAPTER 1 Ecology - Advanced CHAPTER OUTLINE 1.1 Ecology - Advanced 1.2 The Ecosystem - Advanced 1.3 Methods in Ecology - Advanced 1.4 Producers - Advanced 1.5 Consumers - Advanced 1.6 Decomposers and Recycling - Advanced 1.7 Food Chains and Food Webs - Advanced 1.8 The Water Cycle - Advanced 1.9 The Carbon Cycle - Advanced 1.10 The Nitrogen Cycle - Advanced 1.11 Biomes and Climate - Advanced 1.12 Climate and Plant Growth - Advanced 1.13 Biodiversity and Adaptations of Biomes - Advanced 1.14 Classification of Biomes - Advanced 1.15 Arctic and Subarctic Biomes - Advanced 1.16 Temperate Biomes - Advanced 1.17 Desert Biomes - Advanced 1.18 Tropical Biomes - Advanced 1.19 Aquatic Biomes - Advanced 1.20 Marine Biomes - Advanced 1.21 Freshwater Biomes - Advanced 1.22 Predation in Communities - Advanced 1.23 Competition in Communities - Advanced 1.24 Symbiosis in Communities - Advanced 1.25 Succession in Communities - Advanced 1.26 Patterns of Populations - Advanced 1.27 Age-Sex Structure of Populations - Advanced 1.28 Growth of Populations - Advanced 1.29 Births and Deaths in Populations - Advanced 1.30 Migration and Population Growth - Advanced 1.31 Population Growth in Nature - Advanced 1.32 Limits to Population Growth - Advanced 1.33 Early Human Population Growth - Advanced 1 www.ck12.org 1.34 The Demographic Transition - Advanced 1.35 Recent Human Population Growth - Advanced 1.36 Future Human Population Growth - Advanced 1.37 Biodiversity - Advanced 1.38 Importance of Biodiversity - Advanced 1.39 The Sixth Mass Extinction - Advanced 1.40 Protecting Biodiversity - Advanced 1.41 Natural Resources - Advanced 1.42 Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources - Advanced 1.43 Soil and Land Resources - Advanced 1.44 Water Resources - Advanced 1.45 Conservation of Resources - Advanced 1.46 Air Pollution - Advanced 1.47 Acid Rain - Advanced 1.48 Ozone Depletion - Advanced 1.49 What is the Greenhouse Effect? - Advanced 1.50 Global Warming - Advanced 1.51 Preventing Climate Change - Advanced 1.52 References Introduction These brilliant red “feathers” are actually animals called tube worms. They live in an extreme environment on the deep ocean floor, thousands of meters below the water’s surface. Their environment is always very cold and completely dark. Without sunlight, photosynthesis is not possible. So what do animals like these eat at such depths? 2 www.ck12.org Chapter 1. Ecology - Advanced Tube worms depend on chemosynthetic microorganisms that live inside them for food. In this and other ways, tube worms have adapted to the extreme conditions of their ecosystem. All organisms must adapt to their environment in order to survive. This is true whether they live in water or on land. Most environments are not as extreme as the deep oceans where tube worms live. But they all have conditions that require adaptations. In these concepts, you will read about a wide variety of ecosystems and the organisms that live in them. 3 1.1. Ecology - Advanced www.ck12.org 1.1 Ecology - Advanced • State what ecologists study, and identify levels of organization in ecology. FIGURE 1.1 What is ecology? Does it have to do with the environment? Does it have to do with all sorts of plants? And animals? Does it have to do with how all organisms interact? And does it have to do with the role of non-living factors in the environment? The answer to all these questions is a resounding YES. Ecology Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions of living things with each other and their relationships with their environments. Ecology is usually considered to be a major branch of biology. However, ecology has a broader scope because it includes both organisms and their environments. Examining the interactions between organisms and their environments 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. Organisms and the Environment 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. 4 www.ck12.org Chapter 1. Ecology - Advanced 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 their environments. The Environment To an 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. Together, these components comprise an ecosystem. 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 (see the History of Life Chapter). This change in Earth’s atmosphere 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 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 the Figure 1.2. 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. FIGURE 1.2 This image of Earth’s surface shows the density of the chief life forms that produce food for other organisms in the biosphere. Plants are the chief food producers on land, and phytoplankton are the chief food producers in the oceans. The map shows the density of plants with a measure called the normalized difference vegeta- tion index and the density of phytoplank- ton with the chlorophyll concentration. 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. You will read more about populations in the Populations (Advanced) concepts. Important ecological issues at the population level include the following: 5 1.1. Ecology - Advanced www.ck12.org • 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. The Population (Advanced) concepts discuss population interactions in communities in detail. Vocabulary • abiotic components: The non-living, physical aspects of the environment, which includes sunlight, soil, temperature, wind, water, and air; they are also known as abiotic factors.
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