Ecology The scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions that determine distribution and abundance Begon, Harper, Townsend, 2006, Ecology, Blackwell

Lecture outline 1.The evolution of life and life histories 2.The flux of energy and matter 3.Individuals and populations 4.Ecological communities 5.Positive and negative species interactions 6.Trophic networks 7.Distributions in time 8.Distributions in space 9.Function and diversity 10.The human impact Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions that determine distribution and abundance

Literature

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Ernst Haeckel ( ) The term ecology was coined 1866 by Ernst Haeckel in his habilitation lecture.  : home Ecology deals with patterns and with processes in the living world. Aims of ecology: Describing the place of living beings in their environment Explaining abundances, distributions, and interactions of living beings Predicting the changes in the abundance and distribution of living beings Controling changes in the abundance and distribution of living beings Autecology deals with the life history of single species Population ecology deals with the abundance and distribution of a group of interbreeding organisms Community ecology deals with a group of interacting species Evolutionary ecology deals with the evolutionary history of todays ecological systems The basic units of ecological research are Genes Individuals Populations Species What is ecology?

The scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions that determine distribution and abundance Distribution and abundance might relate to genes, individuals, populations, or species The manifold of genes or species is called diversity. Applied to all living beings we speak of biodiversity Alfred Russel Wallace ( ) Charles Robert Darwin ( ) Number of marine families

Species home range Time Allopatric speciation is generally slow Peripatric speciation might be fast Allopatric, peripatric, and sympatric speciation Spatial breeding barrier Allopatric and peripatric speciation: New species emerge by genetic divergence in geographically isolated regions Sympatric speciation: New species emerge within the same habitat by any other breeding barrier. The include behavioural, resource use, or morphological barriers.

Tinamou Ostrich Rhea Spotted Kiwi North Island Kiwi South Island Kiwi Great Kiwi Time800 Cassowary Emu Tinamou The diversification of species Australia New Zealand South Amercia / Africa Low diversity of nine species Comparably high genetic diversity Today’s biodiversity is largely caused by evolutionary history and plate tectonics Rhea Cassowary

Zosterops abyssinicus Zosterops poliogaster

Postglacial colonization of Europe Hewitt G.M Postglacial recolonisation of European biota. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 68: During the last 10,000 years Central and Northern Europe was recolonised from multiple glacvial refuges where species survived the ice age. The refuges are centres of gentic diversification. Major refuges where: The Maghreb Spain Turkey Sicily Cyrpus Crete We reconstruct colonisation routs by the analysis of genetic diversity across Europe. Because colonising populations are often small they are generically impoverished (founder effect).

Colonisation gradient Founder effects Ordered genetic loss Relict populations Vicariant (scattered) genetic loss Colonisation gradient Carabus auronitens Postglacial colonization of Europe The allele - sites matrix is sorted according to allele richness Popu- lations

Postglacial colonisation of European Tenebrionidae (Coleoptera) Three major postglacial refuges with high numbers of endemics and high rates of glacial speciation Three major colonisation routes Reconstruction of postglacial colonisation using phylogenetic relatedness of species

Past and present fragmentation Distribution of South American rainforest refugia (100,000 to 20,000 BP) based on the overlap of postulated refugia for birds, butterflies and plants. Shading represents probability of locations being refugial. Whitmore, T.C.,Prance, G.T Biogeography and Quaternary History in Tropical America. Blackwell.

Convergent evolution by similar selective pressures

Suboptimum Ecological niches Optimum Water Light Two niche dimensions of a plant A given habitat filters species according to the abiotic conditions Condition Performance Performance of a species Repro- duction Growth Survival G Evelyn Hutchinson, The niche is the role a species plays in a community, rather than a habitat. The niche is the sum of the habitat requirements that allow a species to persist and produce offspring. The niche is an n-dimensional hypervolume, where the dimensions are environmental conditions and the resources that define the requirements of an individual or a species to practise Charles Elton, Joseph Grinnell, Profession Place

Condition Performance Ecological niches emerge from differences in performance along the gradient of habitat conditions Generalist species Specialist species Formally a niche is the place of a species within a multidimensional hypervolume spanned by all resources used by this species. Generalist species have relatively broad niches in comparison to specialist species. A habitat is the place where a species occurs. Do not mismatch habitat and niche! Condition Performance Fundamental niche Realized niche

Number of resources Trophic position Ground beetles (Carabidae) on Mazurian lake islands Error bars denote a standard error basal top The carbon isotope ratio of body tissues ( 13 C ⁄ 12 C = δ 13 C) depends on resource width, while the nitrogen isotope ratio ( 15 N ⁄ 14 N = δ 15 N) increases in insects with trophic level. Parts of the species are well segregated in trophic niche space, while another part of species highly overlaps in resource use. The plot shows also three different guilds of species with similar resourse use. Zalewski et al. 2013, Ann.Zool.Fenn

CA + D - -H + + E + S → (CH 2 O) n + DA + ES The basic resources of life (CH 2 O) n Light Chemical reaction Water, Hydrocompounds CO 2 (CH 2 ) n H 2 Phototroph Chemotroph Organotroph Lithotroph Autotroph Heterotroph 6CO 2 + 6H 2 O + light + ADP → C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6O 2 + ATP Green plants, Cyanobacteria C 6 H 12 O 6 + C 6 H 12 O 6 + O 2 + ADP → (CH 2 O) n + CO 2 + H 2 O + ATP Animals, fungi CO 2 + NH 3 + O 2 + ADP → (CH 2 O) n + HNO 2 + H 2 O ATP Nitrosomonas bacteria Facultative store of energy excess Organic compounds Waste Carbon source Proton source Energy Energy storage Organic compounds Electron acceptor Reduction Oxidation Energy storage

Resources and feeding types Energy source Electron donator Carbon source Trophic group Light (Photo) Organic (Organo) Organic (Hetero) Photoorganoheterotrophs Inorganic (Auto: CO 2 ) Photoorganoautotrophs Inorganic (Litho) Organic (Hetero) Photolithoheterotrophs Inorganic (Auto: CO 2 ) Photolithoautotrophs Radioactivity Inorganic (Litho) Inorganic (Auto: CO 2 Radiolithoautotrophs Chemical compound (Chemo) Organic (Organo) Organic (Hetero) Chemoorganoheterotrophs Inorganic (Auto: CO 2 ) Chemoorganoautotrophs Inorganic (Litho) Organic (Hetero) Chemolithoheterotrophs Inorganic (Auto: CO 2 ) Chemolithoautotrophs Animals, fungi, green plants Cyanobacteria, green plants Firmicutes heat tolerant Eubacteria Purple non-sulfur bacteria Iron bacteria, Archaea Spirochaetes

Trophic niche spaces in eukaryotes Mineralisers Producers Green plants Animals Fungi, slime moulds, animals Fungivores Herbivores Omnivores Parasites Omnivores are animals that feed on other animals and plants The specific trophic needs of organisms define their trophic niche. Trophic niches are generally not species specific. They are highly variable in time and space. Saprovores Carnivores LatinGreek HerbivorePhytophage CarnivoreZoophage FungivoreMycetophage OmnivorePantophage SaprovoreSaprophage MicrovoreMicrophage BacteriovoreBacteriophage