Unit Ii Ecology
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E-CONTENT COMPILED AND DESIGNED BY SABA KHANAM UNIT II ECOLOGY Ecology is the systematic study of communications among organisms and their environment, such as the communications organisms have with each other and with their abiotic environment. Topics of importance to ecologists include the variety, distribution, amount (biomass), number (population) of organisms, as well as competition between them within and among ecosystems. Ecosystems are composed of dynamically interacting parts including organisms, the communities they make up, and the non-living components of their environment. Ecosystem procedures, such as primary production, pedogenesis, nutrient cycling, and various niche construction activities, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an environment. These procedures are sustained by organisms with specific life history traits, and the variety of organisms is called biovariety. Biovariety, which refers to the varieties of species, genes, and ecosystems, enhances certain ecosystem services. Ecology is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology and Earth science. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Hippocrates and Aristotle laid the foundations of ecology in their studies on natural history. Modern ecology transformed into a more rigorous science in the late 19th century. Evolutionary theories of adaptation and natural selection became cornerstones of modern ecological theory. Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, natural history, or ecological science. It is closely related to evolutionary biology, genetics, and ethology. An understanding of how biodiversity affects the ecological function is an important focus area in ecological studies. Ecologists seek to explain: Life procedures, communications and adaptations The movement of materials and energy through living communities The successional development of ecosystems, and The abundance and distribution of organisms and biovariety in the context of the environment. Ecology is a human science as well. There are many practical applications of ecology in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (Agroecology, agriculture, forestry, Agroforestry, fisheries), city planning (urban ecology), community health, economics, basic and applied SABA KHANAM E-mail id: [email protected] , Contact no. 8604633742 E-CONTENT COMPILED AND DESIGNED BY SABA KHANAM science, and human social interaction (human ecology). Organisms and resources compose ecosystems which, in turn, maintain biophysical feedback mechanisms that moderate procedures acting on living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of the planet. Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and produce natural capital like biomass production (food, fuel, fiber and medicine), the regulation of climate, global biogeochemical cycles, water filtration, soil formation, erosion control, flood protection and many other natural features of systematic, historical, economic, or intrinsic value. SABA KHANAM E-mail id: [email protected] , Contact no. 8604633742 E-CONTENT COMPILED AND DESIGNED BY SABA KHANAM GEOBIOCHEMICAL CYCLES: CARBON, NITROGEN, OXYGEN AND PHOSPHORUS CYCLES The living world depends upon the flow of energy and the circulation of nutrients through ecosystem. Both influence the abundance of organisms, the metabolic rate at which they live, and the complexity of the ecosystem. You have already read in previous sections that energy flows through ecosystems enabling the organisms to perform various kinds of work and is ultimately lost as heat forever in terms of the usefulness of the system. On the other hand, nutrients of food matter never get completely used up. They can be recycled again and again indefinitely. This becomes more clear when we say that when we breathe we may be inhaling several million atoms of elernents that may have been inhaled by the Ernperor Jahangir or any other person from history. Nutrients that are needed by organislns in large amounts are called macronutrients while those, which are needed in traces are called micronutrients WATER CYCLE (HYDROLOGIC CYCLE) Water is one of the most important substances for life. On an average water constitutes 70% of the body weight of an organism. It is one of the important ecological factors, which determines thc structllre and function of the ecosystem. Cycling of all other elements is also dependent upon water as it provides their transportation during tlie various steps and it also is a solvent medium for their uptake by organisms. Water covers about 75% of the earth's surface, occurrinig in lakes, rivers, seas and oceans. The oceans alone contain 97% of all the water on earth. Much of this remainder is frozen in the polar ice and glaciers. Less than loh water is present in the form of ice free fresh water in rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Yet this relatively negligible portion of the planet's water is crucially important to all forms of terrestrial and aquatic life. There is also underground supply of water. Soils near tlie surface also serve as reservoir for enormous quantities of water. SABA KHANAM E-mail id: [email protected] , Contact no. 8604633742 E-CONTENT COMPILED AND DESIGNED BY SABA KHANAM SABA KHANAM E-mail id: [email protected] , Contact no. 8604633742 E-CONTENT COMPILED AND DESIGNED BY SABA KHANAM THE CARBON CYCLE Ground water 0.62 Lakes (fresh water) 0.009 inland sea, saline lakes 0.008 Soil moisture 0.005 Atmosphere 0.001 Rivers and stream 0.0001 1 Carbon is present in the atmosphere, mainily in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). It is a minor constituent of the atmosphere as compared to oxygen and nitrogen. However, as you are well aware without carbon dioxide life could not exist, for it is vital to the production of carbohydrates through photosynthesis by plants and is the building block of life. It is the element that anchors all organic substances from coal and oil to DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the compound that carries genetic information). Carbon is returned to the environment almost as fast as it is removed. Figure 18.3 illustrates the global carbon cycle. Carbon from the atmospheric pool moves to green plants, and then to animals. Finally, from them directly to the atmosphere by process of respiration at various trophic levels in the food chain or to bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms that return it to atmosphere through decomposition of dead organic matter. Some carbon however enters a long term cycle. It may accumulate as undecomposed organic matter as in the peaty layers of bogs and moorlands or as insoluble carbonates (for example the insoluble calcium carbonate (CaC03) of various sea shells), which accumulate in bottom sediments in aquatic systems. This sedimentary carbon eventually turns into sedimentary rocks such as limestone and dolomite and may take a long time to be released. In deep oceans such carbon can remain buried for millions of years till geological movement may lift these rocks above sea level. These rocks may be exposed to erosion, releasing their carbon dioxide and carbonates and bicarbonates into steams and rivers: hard water has usually flowed through lime stone at some point, picking up carbonates which they accumulate as 'fur' in kettles when the water is boiled. Fossil fuels such as coals, oil and natural gas etc. are also part of the carbon cycle, which may release their carbon compounds after several years. These fossil fuels are organic compounds that were buried before they could be decomposed and were subsequently transformed by time and geological processes into fossil fuels. When fossil fuels are burned the carbon stored in them is released back into the atmosphere as carbon-dioxide. In. summary carbon is sequestered by plants on land and in oceans through photosynthesis by using sunlight. Leaving few exceptions every living thing competes to harvest some of that carbon and include it into a form specified by its own DNA. After death and decay of organism most of the carbon is oxidized and used by other living organisms, in the carbon cycle. A very small quantity escapes oxidation, is buried, and through geological time may be transformed into hydrocarbons such as coal and oil. Today when we burn coal (Fig. 18.3) in fact we are releasing carbon (in the form Of COz) that may once SABA KHANAM E-mail id: [email protected] , Contact no. 8604633742 E-CONTENT COMPILED AND DESIGNED BY SABA KHANAM have been part of DNA of a dinosaur and this time it can become a part of your cell. Carbon cycle (Fig. 18.4) basically involves a continuous exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and organisms on one hand, and between the atmosphere and the sea, on the other. The immediate source of carbon dioxide for exchange in the oceans is restricted to surface layers of water. SABA KHANAM E-mail id: [email protected] , Contact no. 8604633742 E-CONTENT COMPILED AND DESIGNED BY SABA KHANAM NITROGEN CYCLE The Nitrogen Cycle Another critical element in nutrient cycle is Nitrogen (N2). Nitrogen is an essential constituent of protein which is a building block of all living tissue. It constitutes nearly 16% by weight of all the proteins. There is an inexhaustible supply of nitrogen in the atmosphere but the elemental form cannot be used directly by most of the living organisms. Nitrogen needs to be 'fixed', that is, converted to ammonia, nitrites or nitrates, before it can be taken up by plants. Nitrogen fixation on earth is accomplished in three different ways: i) by certain free-living and symbiotic bacteria and blue green