Transcript Introduction to Ecology - Powerpoint for Sept. 11.

Welcome to Ecology
Paul Cezanne
Bolinas Lagoon
Bolinas Lagoon Salt Marsh
Atlantic White Cedar Swamp
Green Oaks – South Prairie
Course Webpage
• http://courses.knox.edu/bio317
What is
?
Ecology is:
• A science – and as such is
concerned with:
• Attempting to describe
and explain as objectively
as possible patterns and
processes that occur in the
physical world
• Also attempts to make
predictions about future
events based on past
history and current
circumstances
Ecology is not:
• Environmentalism
• Environmentalism is a
social-cultural
movement dedicated
to protecting and
preserving the
environment
Easter Island
Easter Island
Prairie in Illinois
in 1820 –
Prairie – Yellow
Forest - Green
Spread of HIV in Russia
Rosy
Periwinkle
Temperate Rain Forest
Biodiversity:
The rivet hypothesis – Paul Ehrlich
Biodiversity:
Passenger and crew hypothesis – Brian Walker
Shahid Naeem –
Columbia
University
The Ecotron
Aldo Leopold circa 1945
Aldo Leopold (on left) and forest service crew in 1911 in Arizona
Introduction to Ecology
• How do you know you are
talking to a real ecologist?
They always answer any
question the same way.
Rob Colwell
Introduction to Ecology
• How do you know you are
talking to a real ecologist?
They always answer any
question the same way.
• “Well it depends…”
Rob Colwell
Ecology is:
• A science of
dependency
• A probabilistic
science
Intermediate Number Systems
The first ecologists?
Two Founders of Ecology
Ernst Haeckel
Eugene Warming
Definitions of Ecology
• Haeckel – 1870 – By ecology we mean the body of
knowledge concerning the economy of nature – the
investigation of the total relations of the animal both to its
inorganic and organic environment.
• Tansley – 1904 – (Ecology is) Those relations of plants,
with their surroundings and with one another, which
depend directly upon differences of habitat among plants.
• Elton – 1927 – Ecology is the new name for a very old
subject. It simply means scientific natural history.
Definitions of Ecology cont’d
• Andrewartha – 1961 – Ecology is the scientific study of
the distribution and abundance of organisms.
• Krebs – 1972, 2008 – Ecology is the scientific study of the
interactions that determine the distribution and abundance
of organisms.
• Townsend et al. 2003 – Ecology is the scientific study of
the distribution and abundance of organisms and the
interactions that determine distribution and abundance.
The Fundamental Equation of
Ecology – Harper 1977
ΔN=B–D+I–E
Change in Number =
Births – Deaths +
Immigration Emigration
John L. Harper – 1925-2009
Some Definitions of Terms
• environment - biotic and abiotic factors that
influence organisms
• organism - individual living thing
• population - many individuals of one species
living close enough to each other to potentially
interbreed
• community - all interacting populations in a
particular habitat - includes plants, animals,
decomposer microbes - pond or forest community
- in practice often used when 2 or more species
discussed
Some Definitions of Terms
• habitat - place where microbe, plant or animal
lives
• ecosystem - community plus abiotic factors nutrients, water, soil, etc. - pond ecosystem
• biosphere - the earth
• autecology - relation of individual organism to
environment
• synecology - relation of populations or species to
other populations or species