Ecology

Ecology as a scientific study

Levels of ecology

  1. Organismal ecology: adaptation to the environment
  2. Population ecology: what keeps populations steady?
  3. Community ecology: Interspecific interactions
  4. Ecosystem ecology: factors that determine biomes

Organismal eology

  1. What are some of the abiotic factors that shape our ecosystems?
  2. What adaptations do organisms have to these factors?
    1. Anatomical adaptations
    2. Physiological adaptations
    3. Behavioral adaptations

Population ecology

  1. Measures of a population
    1. Density
    2. Dispersion
      • clumped
      • random
      • uniform
    3. Growth
    4. Carrying capacity!
  2. Population regulation
    1. Density-dependent factors
    2. density-independent factors
    3. Cyclic patterns
  3. Two patterns: Opportunistic vs. Equilibrial
    1. # offspring per mating
    2. size of offspring
    3. # of reproductive events
    4. time in life of first reproduction
    5. age structure of population
    6. life span
    7. maturation time
    8. amount of parental care
    9. Examples

Community Ecology

Interaction between species

  1. Competition
    1. competitive exclusion
    2. resource partitioning
    3. biological niche concept
  2. Predation
    1. Predator adaptations
    2. Prey adaptations
    3. The importance of predation in communities
  3. Symbiosis
    1. Parasitism
    2. Commensalism
    3. Mutualism

Changing communities

  1. Succession
  2. Disturbances
  3. How much disturbance is good?

Ecosystems ecology

  1. Energy flow
    1. Feeding (trophic) relationships
    2. Productivity
  2. Geochemical cycling in ecosystems

Types of ecosystems (biomes) (Gallery)

  1. Tropical forest
  2. Savanna
  3. Desert
  4. Chaparral
  5. Temperate Grassland
  6. Temperate deciduous forest
  7. Coniferous forest
  8. Tundra
  9. Rivers and streams
  10. Ponds and lakes
  11. Open ocean
  12. Estuaries
  13. Intertidal zone
  14. Benthic zone
  15. Hydrothermal vent communities

Resource links

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/biome/index.html