CHAPTER 1 – The Nature of Ecology
1.3 Ecological Systems form a Hierarchy
1.1 Ecology is the Study of the relationship
between Organisms & their Environment
• Ecology
- Greek words: oikos (family household);
logy (study of)
- Hailed as the framework for understanding
the relationship between humans & their
environment
- Often confused with environment and
environmentalism
➢ Environmentalism: activism that aims
to protect the environment from the
ECOSYSTEM
negative impacts of human activities
- Scientific study of the relationship
(interacts w/the physical world) between
organisms & their environment (physical &
chemical; biological & living components of
an organism’s surrounding)
- Ernst Haeckel: ecology is the economy
(management of) of nature
1.2 Organisms interact with the Environment in
the context of the Ecosystem
- Organisms interact with their environment
in so many levels:
➢ Physical & chemical conditions:
ambient temp., moisture,
concentrations of oxygen,
concentrations of carbon dioxide, light
intensity
➢ All influence basic physiological
processes crucial to growth &
survival
• Place/Ecosystem
- Environment in which organisms carry the
struggle for existence
- Includes both physical conditions and the
array of organisms that co-exist within
its confines
- Eco (environment); system (collection of
related parts; functions as a unit)
• Population
- Group of individuals of the same species
that occupy a given area
- Populations of animals & plants in an
ecosystem do not function independently
of one another
• Community
- Population of different species living and
interacting within an ecosystem
Population 1
(with species 1)
Population 2
(with species 2)
Population 3
(with species 3)
- Organisms interact with the environment in
the context of ecosystem
- Communities & ecosystem exist in the
broader spatial context of landscape
➢ Landscape: area/land composed of
patchwork of communities &
ecosystems
• Biosphere
- Highest level of organization
- Thin layer surrounding the earth that
supports all of life
1.4 Ecologists study pattern & processes at
many levels
• Individual Level
- Examines how features of morphology,
physiology, and behavior influence the
 organism’s ability to survive, grow, and
reproduce
- Birth and Death = discrete events
• Population Level
- Birth and Death = rates
- Examines no. of individuals in the
population; how these numbers change
throughout time
➢ The diversity of organisms comprising
the community modify as well as
respond to their surrounding physical
environment
• Ecosystem Level
- From species to the collective properties
- Flow of energy & nutrients through
combined physical and biological system
• Landscape Level
- Focus on identifying factors that give rise
to the spatial extend & arrangement of
various ecosystems that make up the
landscape
- Explores:
➢ Consequences of spatial patterns on
disposal of organisms
➢ Exchange of energy & nutrients
between adjacent ecosystems
➢ Propagation of disturbances
• Continental to Global Scale
- Broad-scale distribution of ecosystem
types/biomes
• Biosphere Level
- Linkages between ecosystems and other
components of the earth system –
atmosphere
1.5 Ecologists investigate nature using the
Scientific Method
a) Observation
- Cannot be observed = cannot be
investigated
- Repeatable to avoid unsuspected bias
b) Defining a problem
- Question form
c) Developing a hypothesis
- Educated guess
- Guided by experience & knowledge
- cause & effect form
d) Gathering data
- Can be through: field study, field
experiment, laboratory experiment
e) Theory
- Integrated set of hypotheses that together
explain a broader set of observations than
any single hypothesis
1.6 Models provide a basis for predictions
• Models
- Abstract, simplified representations of
systems
- Allows us to predict some
behavior/response using some explicit
assumptions
- May be mathematical
- Hypotheses are models
1.7 Uncertainty is an Inherent Feature of Science
• Uncertainty
- Not the same as confusion
• Science
- Exploration of concepts limited to facts
only
- Only valid means of judging a concept is by
testing its empirical truth
- Scientific concepts have no permanence;
only interpretation of natural phenomena
- Search for evidence that proves our
concepts wrong
Ecology has a rich history
• Theophrastus
- Wrote about the relations between
organisms and the environment
• Carl Ludwig Willdenow
- One of the early plant geographers
- Pointed out that similar climates supported
vegetation similar in form even if the
species were different
• Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt
- Explored Latin America (Orinoco and
Amazon rivers)
- Correlated vegetation with environmental
characteristics = plant association
- Form and function of plants within a region
reflects the constraints imposed by the
physical environment
• Johannes Warming
- Studied tropical vegetation of Brazil
• Charles Darwin
- Compared similarities and differences of
organisms within and among continents
- Differences = geological barriers
• Thomas Malthus
- Economist
- Advanced the principle that populations
grow in a geometric fashion
• Gregor Mendel
- Studied transmission of characteristics from
one generation of pea plants to another
- Population genetics
• Frederic E. Clements
- Proposed plant community behaves as a
complex organism or superorganism that
grows and develops through stages to a
mature or climax state
• Arthur G. Tansley
- Holistic + Integrated ecological concept =
Ecosystem
• R.A. Lindeman
- Traced “energy-available” relationships
within a lake community
- 1942 paper “The Trophic Dynamic Aspects
of Ecology”: marked the beginning of
ecosystem ecology
• G.E. Hutchinson & E.P. & H.T. Odum
- Their work became the foundation of
ecosystem ecology
- Use of radioactive tracers to measure the
movements of energy and nutrients through
ecosystems
- Use of computers to analyze large
amounts of data stimulated the
development of systems ecology
➢ Systems ecology: application of
general system theory and methods to
ecology
• R. Hesse & Charles Eton
- Strongly influenced the development of
animal ecology in the United States
• Charles Adams & Victor Shelford
- Interrelationship between plants and
animals
• Karl Mobius
- Marine biologist
- Developed the general concept of the
community
- Proposed the term biocenose = life having
something in common
** Principles of Ecology (encyclopedia)
emphasized feeding relationships and energy
budgets, population dynamics, natural selection and
evolution
• William Wheeler & Charles Carpenter
- Wheeler: Studied the behavior of ants
- Carpenter: studied the behavior of South
American monkeys
• Konrad Lorenz & Niko Tinbergen
- Gave rise to ethology
Different types of Ecology

1. System Ecology
- Study of whole living systems
- Application of general system theory and
methods to ecology

2. Population Ecology
- Population, growth, regulation
- Intra & interspecific competition, mutualism,
and predation

3. Evolutionary Ecology
- Role of natural selection in physical and
behavioral adaptations and speciation

4. Physiological Ecology
- Responses of individual organisms to
temperature, moisture, light, and other
environmental conditions

5. Community Ecology
- Species interactions

6. Landscape Ecology
- Spatial processes that linked adjacent
communities and ecosystems

7. Conservation Ecology
- Maintenance of biological diversity

8. Restoration Ecology
- Restoration and management of disturbed
lands

9. Global Ecology
- Understanding Earth as a system