Module #10: Ecology

Ecology first of all means: the study of the interactions between living and nonliving things. Ecology are several sub groups. Here they are starting at the narrowest classification down to broadest below.

Populations- a group of interbreeding organisms coexisting together (species)

Community- A group of populations living and interacting in the same area (several species, or populations)

Ecosystem - An association of living organisms and their physical environment (several populations and their surroundings)

Biome - A group of ecosystem classified by climate and plant life (several entire ecosystems)

Now that you know that I’m going to talk about a Ecosystem, containing animals and plants. As you already know their are producers, consumers, herbivores and carnivores. What you may not know is that within consumers are Primary Consumers, Secondary Consumers and Tertiary Consumers. Primary consumers are an organisms that eat producers,such as plants, this also makes them a herbivore. Secondary consumers are an organism that eat primary consumers, other animals, making them a carnivore. Lastly Tertiary Consumers that are organisms that eat secondary consumers, also eating others animals and is also a carnivore. These relationships are known as trophic levels. With this concept is born a food chain, plants at the bottom, primary consumers one level up, secondary consumers above that, and finally Tertiary consumers. For example:

Plant gets eaten by a mouse, mouse gets eaten by a snake, snake gets eaten by a hawk, equals This all creates an Ecosystem.

One last thing on this topic, we learned here that energy is lost each time it moves up a trophic level in an ecosystem. Thus, we get the...

Ecological Pyramid - a diagram that shows the biomass of organisms at each trophic level

what’s Biomass?

Biomass - a measure of total dry mass of organisms within a particular region.

These are all fancy long confusing words to state simply that it takes a lot of plants to satisfy a primary consumer, a lot more of primary consumers to fill up a secondary consumer and a lot, lot more secondary consumers to make a Tertiary consumer not hungry anymore.

Above are mostly preditor/prey relationships but Ecology is not just about enemies. It can be those animals and their surroundings that work together, and help each other. does such a thing exist? Yes, and it’s called Mutualism.

Examples of Mutualism:

Clown fish and Sea Anemones. The fish is protected from enemy fish by hiding in the Anemones tentacles. Other fish are sometimes unable to resist and go after the clown fish anyway, but get stung by the Anemones fatal blows. The fish is protected. The Anemones gets food.

The Blind Shrimp and the Goby. The blind shrimp, as described, is blind and can’t see enemy fish as it digs out his home of ocean debris. The Goby doesn’t have a home, but, it can see. So, they somehow agreed to work together. The Goby watches outside the home while the shrimp digs. When the Goby sees danger it alert the shrimp by flicking it’s fin were one of the shrimps feelers is resting. When this happens both dash into the home and wait until the Goby says the reef is clear. The fish gets a place to sleep. The shrimp doesn’t get eaten.

The last thing we talked about in this module is the Physical Environment. Water Cycles, Oxygen Cycles, and Carbon Cycles. But if you want to know more about that you’ll have to take a look in the book.