Ecology 4.1: Species, Communities And Ecosystems

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Species

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Groups of organisms that can potentially interbreed to produce fertile offspring.

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Populations

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A group of organisms of the same species who live in the same area at the same time. (Members of a species may be reproductively isolated in separate populations)

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Species have either...

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An autotrophic or heterotrophic method of nutrition.

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Consumers

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Heterotrophs that feed on living organisms by ingestion.

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Detritivores

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Heterotrophs that obtain organic nutrients from detritus by internal ingestion.

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Saprotrophs

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Heterotrophs that obtain organic nutrients from dead organic matter by external digestion.

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Community

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Populations of different species living together and interacting with each other.

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Ecosystem

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A community of living organisms forms this by its interactions with the abiotic enviroment

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Autotrophs

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An organism that forms nutritional organic substances directly from the abiotic environment with a source of energy and inorganic substances.

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Autotrophs and heterotrophs both...

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Obtain inorganic nutrients from the abiotic enviroment

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Nutrient cycling

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The supply of inorganic nutrients is maintained by this

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Interbreeding

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When two members of the same species mate and proudce offspring.

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Cross-breeding

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Occassionally, when members of different species mate to produce (usually unhealthy and infertile) offspring.

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Examples of rare organisms with both heterotrophic and autotrophic methods of feeding

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Euglena gracilis (has chloroplasts and carries out photosynthesis when there is sufficient light, but can also feed on detritus or smaller organisms by endocytosis).

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Mixotrophic

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An organism that is not exclusively hetero- or autotrophic

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Organisms that are autotrophic

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Plants and Algae

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Parasitic plants

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Plant species that do not contain chloroplasts and they do not carry out photosynthesis. They are heterotrophic. They grow on other plants, obtain carbon compounds from them and cause them harm.

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Examples of heterotrophic plants / algae

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Ghost Orchid (feeds of dead organic matter), Euglea (unicell that lives in ponds and is both autotrophic and an ingestor of dead organic matter via cytosis), Dodder (Parastic plant that grows on gorge bushes and uses small, root-like structures to obtain sugars, amino acids and other substances) and the Venus Fly Trap (has green leaves for photosynthesis, and catches and digests insects to supply nitrogen).

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In what context is endocytosis used

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A method of consumer digestion that unicellular consumers such as Paramecium use to take the food in and digest it inside vacuoles.

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How does endocytosis work

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(Google: Endocytosis is an energy-using process by which cells absorb molecules (such as proteins) by engulfing them. It is used by all cells of the body because most substances important to them are large polar molecules that cannot pass through the hydrophobic plasma or cell membrane.)

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Primary consumers

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Feed on autotrophs

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Secondary consumers

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Feed on Primary consumers

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Tertiary, Quaternary, ect consumers

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Feed on Secondary, tertiary, ect consumers

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In practise, why do most consumers not fit neatly into any one group of secondary, tertiary ect, consumers?

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Their diet includes material from a variety of groups

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Examples of dead organic matter that Detritivores consume

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Dead leaves and other parts of plants, feathers, hairs and other dead parts of animal bodies and animal feces.

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Informal terminology for Saprotrophs

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Decomposers

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Multicellular detritivores

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Multicellular organisms (such as earthworms and dung beatles) that ingest the detritus into their gut.

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Detritus

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Dead matter from organisms consumed by detritivores

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Unicellular detritivores

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Ingest their food via food vacuoles

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External digest

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The method of digestion used by saprotrophs, where digestive enzymes are excreted and digested externally. The nutrients are then absorbed.

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Why are saprotrophs also called decomposers?

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Because they break down carbon compounds in dead organic matter and release elements such as nitrogen into the ecosystem so that they can be used by other organisms.

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Morphology

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Physical similarities to other organisms

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Phylogeny

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Evolutionary history (of an organism)

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Niche

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An ecological role

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What are 3 ways scientists can organize organisms?

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Niche, morphology and phylogeny

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H0

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Null hypothesis: The belief that there is no relationship; for example, that two means are equal or that is no association or correlation between two variables

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H1

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The alternative hypothesis. It is the belief that there is a relationship; for example, that two means are diffeent or that there is an association between two variables

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Statistical significance in the context of biology

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It means that if the null hypothesis was true, the probability of getting results as extreme as the observed results would be very small.

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Significance level in statistical biology

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It is the cut-off point for the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when in fact it was true.

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What is a common significance level?

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5%, which is the minimum acceptable significance level in published research.

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Inorganic nutrients

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Obtained either directly (autotrophic feeding) or indirectly (heterotrophic feeding) from the abiotic enviroment.

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Important carbon compounds

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carbohydrates, lipids, fats, amino acids

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What happens when there is a difference between the mean results for the two treatments in an experiment?

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A statistical test will show whether this difference is significant at the minimum 5% level.

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'a' indication on data difference in the context of different mean results signifies...

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Insignificance. Two of the same letter a and a indicates that any difference is not statistically significant

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'b' indication on data difference in the context of different mean results signifies...

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Significance. Two different letters a and b indicates mean results with a statistically significant difference.

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6 important inorganic nutrients besides carbon, hydrogen and oxygen needed to make organic compounds

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Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sodium, Potassium and Calcium and Iron

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How many other inorganic nutrients besides Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Phosphorus and Nitrogen (approx). are there needed, sometimes in trace amounts?

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15

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How does the nutrient cycle go?

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From 'Reserves of an element in the abiotic enviroment' to 'Element forming part of a living organism' and back

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What 3 things are necessary for the sustainability of an ecosystem?

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Nutrient availability, detoxification of waste products and energy availability

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What is an example of the detoxification of waste products?

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The way in which the waste products of one species are exploited as a resource by another. F.ex: Ammonium ions released by decomposers are absorbed and used as an energy source by Nitrosomonas bacteria in the soil. Ammonium is potentially toxic but because of the action of these bacteria it does not accumulate.

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What is necessary for an ecosystem that cannot be recycled?

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Energy cannot be recycled, so sustainability depends on the continuous energy supply to ecosystems.

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Mesocosms

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Small experimental areas that are set up as ecological experiments.

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What are mesocosms useful for?

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Ecological experiments, to test what types of ecosystems are sustainable.

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Examples of terrestrial mesocosms

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Fenced-off enclosures in grassland or forest.

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Examples of aquatic mesocosms

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Tanks set up in a labratory.