.

GENERAL BIOLOGY I BIO101

LECTURE

INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGY
BY
DR. BINTA MUHAMMAD AMINU
 ELEMENTS OF ECOLOGY
• Elements of ecology refer to the fundamental components that make up the
study of interactions between organisms and their environment. These
elements include:
1. Abiotic Factors: Non-living components of an ecosystem such as
temperature, water, sunlight, soil, and air quality.
2. Biotic Factors: Living components of an ecosystem including
plants, animals, and microorganisms.
3. Habitat: The specific environment where an organism lives,
including both biotic and abiotic factors.
4. Organisms: The living beings that interact with each other and their
surroundings.
5. Population: A group of individuals of the same species living in a
particular area.
6. Community: All the populations of different species that live and
interact in a particular area.
7. Ecosystem: A community of organisms and their physical
environment interacting as a system.
8. Biomes: Large geographic areas with similar climates and
ecosystems, such as deserts, forests, or grasslands.
Organisms

Population

Community

Ecosystem

Biosphere
 ECOLOGY
• Ecology is the science that attempts to answer such
questions about how nature works.
• The term ecology was coined from two Greek words:
Oikos meaning "house" or "place to live" and Logos,
meaning, "study of'. The coining of the term was
done in 1869 by a German biologist Ernst Haeckel.
• Ecology is the study of living things in their home or
environment: all the external conditions and factors,
living and non-living that affect an organism.
• Collins dictionary of Environment (1990) defined
ecology as the study of the relationships between
living organisms (the biota) and their physical
environment (the abiotic). In its broadest sense
ecology is the study of organisms, as they exist in
their natural environment.
 ECOSYSTEM
• Ecosystem refers to a community of living organisms in
conjunction with the non living components of their
environment, interacting as a system.
• Thus it includes both living and nonliving components and
the links between them. The term can be applied at any
scale, e.g., a pond, rainforest, oceans or even the earth itself.
• Ecologists have divided all participating elements into basic
subdivisions, emerged by functioning of the ecosystems.
These are:
1. The biotic component that includes all living organisms, that
is all life forms that follow the process of birth and death.
2. The abiotic component that includes all physical, non-living
elements that provide sustenance to the living organisms.
 BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC COMPONENTS
Abiotic component: The abiotic component of an ecosystem refers
to the non living factors simply characterized by:
• Physical parameters such as temperature, moisture, light and
altitude, and
• Chemical features which include various essential nutrients.
These characteristics determine the basic nature of the
ecosystem.
• The abiotic component of our planets consists of three elements:
1. The solid matter of earth starting with topsoil or dust, and all its
solid components under the ground including minerals and metallic
ores called lithosphere.
2. The water in the oceans and in the rivers, lakes and ponds,
including marshes and wetland, as well as the ice and snow on the
mountains called the hydrosphere.
3. The gaseous mixture around us including nitrogen and oxygen
and water vapour, called the atmosphere.
 ABIOTIC COMPONENTS(CONT)
There are other elements which play an important
role in this area, namely;
• the radiant energy that flows from the sun which
maintains temperature on plants
• the gravitational force that makes the seasons
possible and create winds and tides.
• Other elements such as nitrogen, potassium,
calcium and phosphorous etc. also play their part.
 BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC COMPONENTS
The Biotic Component
• The biotic component consists of these categories:
1. Plants, that depend primarily upon soil nutrients, water and
sunlight;
2. Animals including reptiles, rodents, insects, birds, fishes and Man.
3. Microorganisms including parasitic and saprophytic bacteria and
fungi that feeds primarily upon other living or dead organisms.
The biotic component may be categorized into producers,
consumers, and decomposers.
• The producers, mostly green plants, are autotrophs, which use the
energy of the sun to synthesize sugars from CO2 by photosynthesis.
• This energy is made available to the consumers and decomposers;
• Consumers and decomposers are heterotrophs, which exploit the
self-nourishing autotrophs by converting organic compounds of
plants into compounds required for their own growth and activity.
 Biotic(CONT)
• Producers: are autotrophic organisms which are organisms capable
of obtaining their energy from the physical environment and
building their required organic molecules.
• Consumers: are heterotrophic organisms which are organisms that
obtain food and energy from autotrophs or other heterotrophs;
they are unable to synthesize organic food molecules from
inorganic molecules. They can either be:
1. Herbivore: is an animal that obtains its food exclusively from plant
tissue (i.e. feeds on plants).
2. Carnivore: is an animal that eats other animals in order to obtain
food. Carnivores attack and eat herbivores, or may also kill and eat
other carnivores.
3. An omnivore: is an organism that eats both animals and plants.
• Decomposers: are generally bacteria and fungi that break down
the remains or wastes of other organisms in the process of
obtaining their organic nutrients.
This aquatic food pyramid illustrates energy transfer and relative
biomass in an aquatic ecosystem
 FOOD CHAIN
• In an ecosystem, numerous interactions between organisms result
in a flow of energy and cycling of matter.
• Food chains, the nitrogen cycle, and the carbon cycle are examples
of these interactions.
• A food chain is the sequence of steps through which the process of
energy transfer occurs in an ecosystem.
• All organisms need a continuous supply of energy. Energy flows
through an ecosystem in one direction —through food chains.
• Food chains illustrate how energy flows through a sequence of
organisms, and how nutrients are transferred from one organism to
another.
• Food chains usually consist of producers, consumers, and
decomposers.
• If a food chain has more than one consumer level, its consumers are
defined as primary, secondary, or tertiary consumers.
• Primary consumers eat plants, secondary consumers eat primary
consumers, and tertiary consumers eat secondary and primary
consumers.
 FOOD CHAIN
3rd level carnivore
(Consumer)

2nd level carnivore

(Consumer)
E.g. sparrow hawk

Heterotrophs
1st level carnivore
(Consumer)
E.g. thrush

Herbivore
(Consumer)
E.g. snail

Producer
E.g. plant
A generalized food chain
FOOD CHAIN
 TROPHIC LEVEL
• Trophic Level: is a term which is used to locate the
position or level of an organism during its energy-
seeking activities.
• Plants are said to belong to the first trophic (energy)
level, since the chemical energy they both store and
utilize is one step (level) from the original solar
energy they trapped.
• When one organism eats another, energy is
transferred.
• Since heterotrophs obtain their energy from
autotrophs, they occupy higher trophic levels.
• Thus, trophic level refers to the number of energy
transfers an organism is from the original solar
energy entering an ecosystem.
 FOOD WEB
• The concept of a food chain is an abstraction or
generalization.
• Ecosystems are more complicated than a single food
chain would indicate.
• Most aquatic ecosystems contain many more species
than those in a single food chain, and all of these
species interact and are interdependent.
• Like people, most aquatic organisms consume more
than one type of food. A food web is a diagram of a
complex, interacting set of food chains with in an
ecosystem.
• A food web illustrates complex feeding relationships
within an ecosystem. All organisms in a food web are
interdependent. A food chain is just one strand of a
food web.
 Food web
2nd level carnivores
Hawk, Owl

Migrant
Mice Rat Sparrow
Omnivores Birds

1st level carnivores Egrets

Shrews

Intertidal
Herbivores Terrestrial Marine
Invertebrates Fishes
Invertebrates

Producers Terrestrial and

salt marsh Marine plants
plants and algae
Food web
 Habitat
 The word habitat is used extensively to refer to the exact place where
organisms live.
 It can also be called as an organism address; the habitat of caterpillar is the
plant on which it lives. Habitat can be small as in the case of mammalian
host infected with roundworms or it can be large as in the case of savannah
where animals like zebra are found.
Types of habitats
• Terrestrial habitats (land based): home of organisms that live on land e.g.
forests, grasslands, deserts, farmland etc.

• Aquatic habitats (water related): lodging of water organism’s e.g. Stream,

flooded rice field, seas, rivers, oceans etc. Aquatic habitat can be divided
into:
• Marine (salt water) habitat e.g. seas and oceans

• Fresh water habitat e.g. rivers, streams and ponds

• Estuarine habitat e.g. lagoon, brackish.

• Arboreal habitat: home of flying organisms which fly and rest on tree
trunks, tree and storey building tops.
 TERRESTRIAL HABITAT
• Terrestrial Habitat: Is any portion of dry land that is occupied by living
organisms. They include:
(a) Savannah: Savannahs are tropical grassland often with scattered trees.
• They are most extensive in Africa, but also found in Australia, South
America and Southern Asia.
• Savannah is subject to fire. The Savannah or grassland of East Africa is
famed for its abundance of wildlife. Despite the activities of hunters, killing
elephants for their ivory, rhinoceroses for their Horns and cats for their
skins, enormous numbers of large herbivores and carnivores still roam East
Africa; examples, zebra, buffalo, giraffe, and black rhinoceros.
(b) Tropical rainforest: occur near the equator where rainfall is abundant and
occurs throughout the year.
• They are found in south and Central America, West and Equatorial Africa,
South-East Asia and Indonesia.
• Fruits are found throughout the year and specialized fruit eaters have
evolved among the insects, birds and primates.
• Other animals concentrate on leaves, for example, all species of sloth
(Choloepus and Bradypus). NB/ these are mammals that are fully adapted to
life in trees and unable to walk on the ground; they use their limbs to hang
upside-down from branches.
 TERRESTRIAL HABITAT(CONT)
(c) Desert: are found throughout the world, mostly in the
subtropical zone between 15 and 40° north-south of the
equator.
• Among the great deserts of the world are the Namib and
Kalahari deserts.
• Deserts usually receive less than 50mm of rain a year; not
only that, but the rain is unpredictable.
• Animals in desert face a formidable array of problems.
• Water is obviously scarce, but so is food.
• Also, there are temperature extremes, i.e. it may be very hot
during the day, but cold at night.
• some animals such as the camel are well adapted to living in
deserts; for example, camels can tolerate a 30% loss of their
total water content, and can therefore survive for
considerable periods without water.
• Most mammals die if 14% of their water is lost.
 AQUATIC HABITAT
Aquatic habitat: Is any water body and its associated surroundings
which harbours living organisms.
(i) Marine habitat
Marine sandy beach: occur around the world in the littoral belt.
• They look like inviting environment; however, they pose considerable
problems for the organisms living there.
• For a start, sand is abrasive and constantly on the move; and the
sand is nutrient poor.
• Mollusks and sea cucumber (i.e. worm-like echinoderms) are found
in large numbers. This rich invertebrate life often supports large
numbers of wading birds.

Continental shelf benthos: Marine benthic organisms live on the bottom

of the ocean. Large numbers of animals from a variety of phyla are
found here. Polychaete worms, mollusks, sea-squids, sponges, sea
spiders, crustaceans and echinoderms are all found with a number of
fish.
 Aquatic habitat
(ii) Freshwater habitat

• Tropical Freshwater Swamp forests: The Amazon basin is

the best example of freshwater swamp forest. Minerals in
the water and accompanying soils tend to be scarce, so
that primary productivity is low. Consequently, there are
few animals.

• Lakes and ponds: The North America/Great Lakes are

among the largest in the world. A lot of fishing takes
place in lakes and ponds. Birds and other invertebrates
are also found in lakes.
 Biological Interaction
• Biological interactions are the effects organisms in a
community have on one another. This is because in the
natural world, no organism exists in absolute isolation,
and thus every organism must interact with other
organisms. Biological interactions that affect the
survival and distribution of an organism can either be
interspecific or intraspecific:
• Intraspecific interactions are interactions that occur
between members of the same species, such as
competition for food and territory.
• Interspecific interactions are interactions that occur
between members of different species, such as
predator-prey interactions, host-parasite interactions,
competitive exclusion, and resource partitioning.
 Types of biological interactions
1. Competition: is the struggle between individuals or different populations
for a limited resource.
 It evolves when there is large population of organisms. The species that is
better at gaining the limiting resource will eventually eliminate the inferior
competitor.
 Organisms usually compete with one another for essential commodities
such as food, shelter, light, water, etc. Two species with the same
ecological niche can never co-exist as one will always oust the other. This is
known as the competition exclusive principle (which states that two
species competing for the same resource cannot coexist).
 Competitive association can be seen between flowering plants and
grasses. Competition could either be intra-specific or inter-specific.
• Intraspecific - Competition happens within the same species (plants
competing for light, space, and nutrients, silver gorillas competing with
each other for dominance)
• Interspecific - Competition occurs between different species (hyenas and
vultures compete for remains of dead animals)
 Types of biological interactions(cont)
2. Predator-prey interaction (Predation) (+/-):
 this is the act of one animal (predator) using
another as its food (prey) (i.e. an interactions
between organisms in which one organism feeds
on the other).
 Predation determines the distribution of predators
and preys. Thus herbivores are only found where
there are suitable plants.
 Predation can also check the population of the
prey. Lion and antelope are a typical example of
organism that exhibits such type of relationship.
 Types of biological interactions(cont)
3. Symbiotic interactions (Symbiosis):
 the term means literally living together. It is an association
between two or more organisms of different species.
 It can be beneficial or detrimental. Three common types
of symbiotic relationship are:
i) Parasitism (+/-): parasitism is a close association between
two living organisms of different species which is beneficial
to one (parasite) and harmful to the other (the host),
 the host is harmed by the parasite, but is usually not
killed by it.
 Parasites could be protozoans, helmiths, fungi, or even
viruses e.g. man and tapeworm which lives in the gut, and
man and liver fluke which lives in the bile duct, lice on
fowls; fleas on dogs and cats, aphids on plants, man and
mosquitoes etc.
 Types of biological interactions(cont)
iii) Commensalism (+/0): a close association between two living
organisms of different species which is beneficial to one (the
commensal) and does not affect the other (the host).
 For example, epiphytes are plants that grow on the branches
of other plants. In general the host plant is unharmed, while
the epiphyte that grows on it benefits. Remora fish and shark
is also another example.
iv)Mutualism (+/+):
 is a close association between two living organisms of
different species which is beneficial to both partners. For
example, termite and protozoa, protozoa digest the cellulose
that is taken by the termite and the termite provides shelter.
 Mycorrhizae associations between fungi and the roots of
most kinds of plants, the fungi expedite the plants' absorption
of certain nutrients, and the plants in turn provide the fungi
with carbohydrates, Bees and flowers, etc.
 Resource Partitioning
• Resource partitioning can be defined as specialization
by different species to make use of different resources.
• In long-established communities which are species-rich,
resource partitioning leads to less competition and a
more stable community structure.
• Resource partitioning is often seen in similar species
that occupy the same geographic area.
• The more specialized an organisms become for a
particular niche, the less chance the direct competition.
For example, species of Anolis lizard on Caribbean
islands partition their tree habitat in such a way that
some species will occupy the canopy of a tree, others
use twigs on the periphery and still others can be found
on the base of the trunk.