1. Introduction to Ecology

2. Ecology derives components from each of the Four Big Ideas in Biology
Big Idea 1: The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life
Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow to reproduce & to maintain dynamic homeostasis
Big Idea 3: Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes
Big Idea 4: Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties. Big Idea 4 is where most of our study of ecology is found!
The interconnectedness of all things living and non-living are complex. Ecology is the study of the abundance and distribution of organisms and how they interact with their own species, other organisms, and the environment.

3. Ecology Defined .
Ecology is the study of organisms and their interactions with the environment.
Ecology is the study of organisms and their interactions with their environment. Ecology looks at both non-living and living components. Ecology and evolutionary biology are closely related since events in ecological time impact life on the scale of evolutionary time.
Abiotic- nonliving chemical & physical factors (Ex: water, oxygen, light, temperature, etc.) and Biotic- all living factors ( Ex: plants, animals, fungi, protists, monera)
Clown Fish movie: Scroll over the image to reveal the “play” command for the animation. This movie shows the positive interaction between a clown fish a sea anemone and the negative interaction between a sea anemone and another species of fish that do not have a symbiotic relationship with sea anemones.
Scroll over the picture to PLAY the animation

4. Levels of Organization
Levels of Organization in our biosphere can be broken down from the biosphere all the way to the cellular level and beyond.
Ecologists can look at the world in levels of increasing complexity:
Population – a group of organisms of the same species that live together in a certain area
Community – a group of organisms of different species that live together in a certain area
Ecosystem – all living and nonliving things in a certain area
Biome – a group of ecosystems that have similar climates and communities
Biosphere – the entire portion of the planet that supports life

5. Types of Ecology
Ecologist use observations & experiments to test explanations for distributions and abundance of species.
Organismal ecology is the study of physiology and behavior interacting with environmental challenges
Population ecology studies the factors impacting the number of individuals of a species in an area
Community ecology is the study of how organisms interact with each other and the environment
Ecosystem ecology studies the energy flow and chemical cycling in a given area
Emphasize the difference between these different types of “ecologies”.

6. Types of Ecology
Identify the category of ecological research that would investigate each of the following questions.
1. How do trout select a mate?
Organismal ecology
Population ecology
Community ecology
Ecosystem ecology
Give students a few moments to answer the question. Correct answer is Organismal Ecology.

7. Types of Ecology
Identify the category of ecological research that would investigate each of the following questions.
1. How do trout select a mate?
Organismal ecology
Population ecology
Community ecology
Ecosystem ecology

8. Types of Ecology
Identify the category of ecological research that would investigate each of the following questions.
2. What factors control photosynthetic productivity in a tropical rainforest?
Organismal ecology
Population ecology
Community ecology
Ecosystem ecology
Give students a few moments to answer the question. Correct answer is Ecosystem Ecology.

9. Types of Ecology
Identify the category of ecological research that would investigate each of the following questions.
2. What factors control photosynthetic productivity in a tropical rainforest?
Organismal ecology
Population ecology
Community ecology
Ecosystem ecology

10. Types of Ecology
Identify the category of ecological research that would investigate each of the following questions.
3. What factors influence the diversity of species that make up a rain forest?
Organismal ecology
Population ecology
Community ecology
Ecosystem ecology
Give students a few moments to answer the question. Correct answer is Community Ecology.

11. Types of Ecology
Identify the category of ecological research that would investigate each of the following questions.
3. What factors influence the diversity of species that make up a rain forest?
Organismal ecology
Population ecology
Community ecology
Ecosystem ecology

12. Abiotic and Biotic Interactions: The 1st Law of Thermodynamics
Ecology is the study of organisms and their interactions with their environment.
The environment includes 2 types of factors:
1. Abiotic factors – the nonliving parts of the environment such as water, oxygen, light, temperature, rocks, minerals, energy, etc.
2. Biotic factors – the living parts of the environment such as plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, protists.

13. Abiotic and Biotic Interactions
The purple arrows indicate the heat energy released at each stage.
The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy (or matter) cannot be created or destroyed, but can only change forms. Students know it’s restatement as “The Law of Conservation of Energy” and/or “The Law of Conservation of Matter”.
Point out to students that each and every time energy or matter “changes form” energy is invariably conserved but the internal energy of a closed system changes as heat and work are transferred in or out of it. (Closed systems are rare in biology!)

14. Abiotic and Biotic Interactions
The entropy of any isolated system not in thermal equilibrium almost always increases. “Chaos happens”.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in all energy transformations entropy occurs (we usually refer to this as heat in biology).
The cycles listed on the Abiotic side of the diagram refer to all of the cycles of matter on Earth- Rock cycle, phosphorus cycle, water cycle, carbon cycle, etc.). Another important Physics law that pertains to ecology is the Conservation of Matter (also called the Conservation of Mass), which states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Anytime we use the word conservation we imply a mathematical relationship. What you put in on the left side of an equation must all be accounted for on the right side of the equation.
These two principals are important to understand since anytime you transform energy or change matter, you have to account for everything that went into the process and that must equal everything that came out of the process (even if some of the products are degraded forms such as entropy or heat).
It may help students so see the mathematical expression of entropy which is symbolized by “S”; 𝑆= 𝑞 𝑇 where q = quantity of heat (in Joules, thus an energy) and T is the temperature in Kelvins.

15. Abiotic and Biotic Interactions
Big Idea 2: Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce & to maintain dynamic homeostasis.
The red arrows show the cycling of matter as components are broken down and reassembled into other things. The cycle continues through an ecosystem and throughout the biosphere.
The yellow arrows indicate the energy that is not being lost in each transformation, but rather that it is being converted to a lower quality of energy that we refer to as “heat” (which directly contributes to an increase in entropy since warm bits of matter have molecules that are moving faster, thus are more disordered, thus have higher entropy). The second law of thermodynamics.

16. Importance of Abiotic Factors
Not every organism can live everywhere on Earth
Abiotic factors determine which organisms can survive where:
The Coral Reef is an environment teaming with life, but many organisms would find this environment unsuitable due to its abiotic factors (too much water, temperature, availability of light, etc. )
Abiotic factors determine whether or not and organism can thrive in a certain habitat. The Coral Reef is an environment teeming with life, but many organisms would find this environment unsuitable due to its abiotic factors (too much water, in climate temperature, availability of light, etc.)
Ask students to identify “abiotic” factors and explain why they are “abiotic”. Hopefully, they will generate the following list!
Temperature – effect on body temperature
Light – availability for photosynthetic organisms
Wind – amplifies effects of temperature
Water – too much/not enough water
Rocks/Soil – which organisms can live with/on them, based on pH and mineral composition
Periodic Disturbances – catastrophes, such as hurricanes, fires, tsunamis, etc.

17. Importance of Biotic Factors
W. J. Fletcher tested the effects of two algae-eating animals, sea urchins and limpets, on seaweed abundance near Sydney, Australia. In areas adjacent to a control site, either the urchins, the limpets, or both were removed.
EXPERIMENT 80 60 40 20
Limpet
Sea urchin
Both limpets and urchins removed
Only urchins removed
Only limpets removed
August
1982
February
1983
1984
Control (both urchins and limpets present)
Seaweed cover (%)
Removing both limpets and urchins or removing only urchins increased seaweed cover dramatically.
Almost no seaweed grew
in areas where both urchins and limpets were present, or where only limpets were removed.
100
Seaweed cover (%)
Spend a bit of time on this slide. When faced with experimental data, students regularly confuse the “what happened” (results) with the “why it happened” (conclusion)
Results: Fletcher observed a large difference in seaweed growth between areas with and without sea urchins.
Conclusion: Removing both limpets and urchins resulted in the greatest increase of seaweed cover, indicating that both species have some influence on seaweed distribution. But since removing only urchins greatly increased seaweed growth while removing only limpets had little effect, Fletcher concluded that sea urchins have a much greater effect than limpets in limiting seaweed distribution.
Practice this at every opportunity!

18. Earth’s Climate Varies By Latitude & Season And Is Changing Rapidly
Macroclimate consists of patterns on the global, regional, and landscape level Microclimate consists of very fine patterns, such as those encountered by the community of organisms underneath a fallen log
Macroclimate consists of patterns on the global, regional, and landscape level
Microclimate consists of very fine patterns, such as those encountered by the community of organisms underneath a fallen log
Seasonal variations of light and temperature increase steadily toward the poles
Seasonality at high latitudes is caused by the tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation and its annual passage around the sun
Belts of wet and dry air straddling the equator shift throughout the year with the changing angle of the sun
Changing wind patterns affect ocean currents
Global Climate Change
Changes in Earth’s climate can profoundly affect the biosphere
One way to predict the effects of future global climate change is to study previous change
As glaciers retreated 16,000 years ago, tree distribution patterns changed
As climate changes, species that have difficulty dispersing may have smaller ranges or could become extinct

19. Earth’s Climate Varies By Latitude & Season And Is Changing Rapidly
Seasonal variations of light and temperature increase steadily toward the poles
Seasonality at high latitudes is caused by the tilt of Earth’s axis of rotation and its annual passage around the sun
Belts of wet and dry air straddling the equator shift throughout the year with the changing angle of the sun
Changing wind patterns affect ocean currents
Ask students if they can give any examples of these first two bullets. Perhaps Alaska’s “season of darkness”? Monsoons, etc.

20. Earth’s Climate Varies By Latitude & Season And Is Changing Rapidly
Global Climate Change
Changes in Earth’s climate can profoundly affect the biosphere
One way to predict the effects of future global climate change is to study previous change
As glaciers retreated 16,000 years ago, tree distribution patterns changed
As climate changes, species that have difficulty dispersing may have smaller ranges or could become extinct
Ask student for examples of extinct species other than the dodo bird. Surely they know about dinosaurs !

21. Homeostasis
Organisms must maintain homeostasis, a steady-state internal environment, despite changes in the external environment.
Organisms respond to abiotic factors in 1of 2 ways:
1. Regulators maintain a nearly constant internal environment, despite external conditions
2. Conformers allow internal environment to vary
- This occurs in organisms whose environments
remain relatively stable
Point out that homeostasis is to biology what “equilibrium” is to chemistry. Ask if they can define, explain or give an example of equilibrium, they may know one from chemistry. They may even know LeChatlier’s Principle which states that if an equilibrium is stressed (by adding or removing a reactant or product) the system will shift to alleviate the stress.
If so, build upon that and emphasize that biological “equilibriums” have a much more narrow tolerance to change. Birds lay a clutch of eggs, if the chicken farmer removes eggs from the nest, early in the incubation process, the hen will replace them. Simple economics if you’re a chicken “farmer”!

22. PANGAEA
LAURASIA
120°
80°
40°
80°
120°
120°
80°
80°
120°
GONDWANALAND
135 million years ago
225 million years ago
NORTH AMERICA
EURASIA
LO 4.20 The student is able to explain how the distribution of ecosystems changes over time by identifying large-scale events that have resulted in these changes in the past.
Assess what students already know about these events due to prior knowledge. They may have studied this before in either social studies or previous science courses.
Biogeography is one piece of scientific evidence that supports evolution. Through plate tectonics, all of the earth’s land masses were one land mass called Pangaea (225 million years ago). Over time, due to the movement of the plates on which the land masses sit called Continental Drift, the land masses moved apart into Laragia and Gondwanaland add eventually to the present 7 continental formation. Habitats were greatly effected by this drift as well as climate. Change provided some species with opportunities while other species moved or became extinct.
AFRICA
120°
80°
120°
120° 0°
40°
120°
INDIA
SOUTH
AMERICA
MADA-
GASCAR
AUSTRALIA
ANTARCTICA
65 million years ago
Present

23. Historical Biogeography
Give students the opportunity to explain this slide. As continental drift occurred in the past and continues to occur today, organisms that were once in the same habitat have been separated geographically thus promoting allopatric speciation. As the land masses drifted apart, each species was cast into a separate evolutionary set of circumstances and evolved in response to those circumstances, perished, or moved if possible.

24. Biogeography: Leopard Distribution
Since many of your students may not be world travelers, point out that earth is a might big place! As such, it is populated will an amazing assortment of creatures that have varying distributions. The leopard, however has a massive geographic range. Make sure students can decipher the legend for this diagram.

25. Biogeography: Leopard Distribution
Leopards have the largest distribution of any wild cat, occurring widely in eastern and central Africa, although populations have shown a declining trend and are fragmented outside of sub-Saharan Africa.
Within sub-Saharan Africa, the species is still numerous and even thriving in marginal habitats where other large cats have disappeared.
But populations in North Africa may be extinct
Ask student to propose factors that account for the declining population trends.

26. Dispersal limits distribution?
Biogeography
Serves as a starting point to understanding limits on distribution of species
Species absent
because
Yes No
Dispersal limits distribution?
Have student propose “answers” to both the “yes” and the “no” parts of this flowchart as you go through the next few slides.
Yes? Area inaccessible or insufficient time
No? Then move onto the next distribution limit which is BEHAVIORAL

27. Biogeography & Distribution of Species
Serves as a starting point to understanding limits on distribution of species
Species absent
because
Yes No
Dispersal limits distribution?
Behavior limits distribution?
Area inaccessible
or insufficient time
See how their “answers” stack up! Then ask them to again propose answers
Yes? Habitat selection
No? Biotic Factors such as other species, perhaps

28. Biogeography
Serves as a starting point to understanding limits on distribution of species
Species absent
because
Yes No
Dispersal limits distribution?
Behavior limits distribution?
Biotic factors (other species) limit distribution?
Area inaccessible
or insufficient time
Habitat selection
Once more with feeling!
Yes? Predation, parasitism, competition or disease
No? Abiotic factors limit distribution, perhaps

29. Biogeography
Serves as a starting point to understanding limits on distribution of species
Species absent
because
Yes No
Dispersal limits distribution?
Behavior limits distribution?
Biotic factors (other species) limit distribution?
Abiotic factors limit distribution?
Area inaccessible
or insufficient time
Habitat selection
Predation, parasitism, competition, disease
Finally,
Yes? Chemical Factors
No? Physical Factors

30. Biogeography
Serves as a starting point to understanding limits on distribution of species
Species absent
because
Yes No
Dispersal limits distribution?
Behavior limits distribution?
Biotic factors (other species) limit distribution?
Abiotic factors limit distribution?
Area inaccessible
or insufficient time
Habitat selection
Predation, parasitism, competition, disease
Water Oxygen
Salinity
pH Soil nutrients, etc.
Temperature Light
Soil structure
Fire Moisture, etc.
Chemical
factors
Physical
Any pertinent answers should be praised!
Suggested Simulations for students to practice with concepts within this unit of study:
Animal Behavior: Behavior/modules.htm
Population Simulations:
Chi:
Phet: Biology-> Natural Selection Pinko Probability
Ecology & Behavior
Global Environment
Chi Square: Fruit Fly Lab

31. Ecology: The Big Picture
Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess complex properties.
Abiotic and biotic factors influence populations, communities, ecosystems, and the biosphere.
Over time species have adapted, died, or moved to more suitable environments.

32. Virginia Advanced Study Strategies Notable contributions by S. Meister
Created by:
Susan Ramsey
Virginia Advanced Study Strategies
Notable contributions by S. Meister
Suggested Simulations for students to practice with concepts:
Animal Behavior: Behavior/modules.htm
Population Simulations:
Chi:
Phet: Biology-> Natural Selection Pinko Probability
Ecology & Behavior
Global Environment
Chi Square: Fruit Fly Lab