These are the basic foundations to ecology.

1. INTRODUCTIONTO ECOLOGY
Raymond C. Baldonado

2. All about Ecology
▪ The science that deals with the study of relationships between the
living organisms and their environment.
▪ The term “Ecology” was first coined by Ernst Haeckel from the Greek
words:
“Oikos” meaning ‘house’
“Logos” meaning ‘study’ or ‘science of’
▪ Literally, it means the study of the earth’s house.

3. All about Ecology
Haeckel (1870)
“By ecology we mean the body of knowledge concerning the economy
of nature –the investigation of the total relations of the animal to its
inorganic and organic environment.”
Burdon-Sanderson (1890)
Elevated Ecology to one of the three natural divisions of Biology:
Physiology Morphology and Ecology
Elton (1927)
“Scientific Natural History”

4. All about Ecology
Andrewartha (1961)
“The scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms”
Odum (1963)
“The structure and function of Nature”
▪ In conclusion, Ecology is the scientific study of the processes
regulating the distribution and abundance of organisms and the
interactions among them, and the study of how these organisms in
turn mediate the transport and transformation of energy and matter
in the environment.

5. Environment
▪ M-WD, the conditions that surround someone or something, the
natural world.
▪ Includes the Physical/ Non-living (Abiotic) world and Biological/
Living (Biotic) conditions under which organisms live.
▪ Physical component includes:
Light, water, wind, nutrients in soil, heat, solar radiation,
atmosphere, etc.
 Biological component includes:
Plants, animals, microorganisms in soil, etc.

6. TwoTypes on How to Study Ecology
1. Autecology
 The study of the interrelationships of individual organisms to their
environment or simply the ecology of the individual organisms.
 It is the study of the life history and the response to its environment
of a single individual.
 e.g. the life history of an eagle, the food requirements of venus fly-
trap, or the temperature tolerance of the seedlings of a tree species.

7. TwoTypes on How to Study Ecology
2. Synecology
▪ The study of interrelationships between groups of organisms
(populations or communities) and the environment.
▪ If the study involves the abundance, distribution, productivity and/or
dynamics of a group of organisms of the same species it is known as
Population ecology.
▪ e.g. investigation of competition for nutrients of trees in a plantation,
the role of disease in controlling the numbers of animals in an area,
or the rate of growth and death of individuals in a fish population

8. TwoTypes on How to Study Ecology
▪ If the studies involve the description and qualifications of some
aspects of a natural assemblage of different species of organisms it is
classified as Community ecology.
▪ e.g. the study of forest plant associations, the description of the
animal community in a forest or lake, or the change in plant and
communities in an area overtime.

9. Division of Ecology
1.Terrestrial ecology (Dry land ecology)
▪ Study of variety ecosystems found in land.
 May be classified into many branches such as forest ecology,
grassland ecology, mountain ecology, wildlife ecology, etc.
2. Aquatic ecology (Water ecology)
 Study of ecosystems found in bodies of water.
 Classified mainly into freshwater ecology and marine ecology.

10. Levels of Organization
Ecosphere
Biomes
Landscapes
Ecosystems
Communities
Populations
Organism
Organ systems
Organs
Tissues
Cells
Organelles
Molecules
Atoms
ECOLOGY

11. Scope of Ecology
Ecology is primarily concerned with interactions between four levels of
organizations:
1. Organisms: Individual organisms in relation to other organisms.
2. Populations: Group of organisms of the same species and how they
interact with each other.
3. Communities: Natural assemblages of populations of different
species and their interactions.
4. Ecosystems: The entire natural systems composed of communities
and their physical environment

12. Ecology as Interdisciplinary Science
ECOLOGY
Hydrology
Meteorology
Geology
Behavior
Bio-
chemistry
Physiology
Genetics

13. Beyond Fundamental Ecology
Eco-physiology: Examines how the physiological functions of organisms
influence the way they interact with the environment, both biotic and abiotic.
Behavioral ecology: Examines the roles of behavior in enabling an animal to
adapt to its environment.
System ecology: Interdisciplinary field focusing on the study, development
and organization of ecological systems from a holistic perspective.
Evolutionary ecology: Studies ecology in a way that explicitly considers the
evolutionary histories of species and their interactions.
Political ecology: Connects politics and economy to problems of
environmental control and ecological change.

14. Beyond Fundamental Ecology
Applied Ecology: Using ecological principles to maintain conditions necessary
for the continuation of present day life on earth.
Industrial Ecology:The design of the industrial infrastructure such that it
consists of a series of interlocking "technological ecosystems" interfacing with
global natural ecosystems. Industrial ecology takes the pattern and processes
of natural ecosystems as a design for sustainability. It represents a shift in
paradigm from conquering nature to becoming nature.
Ecological Engineering: Unlike industrial ecology, the focus of Ecological
Engineering is on the manipulation of natural ecosystems by humans for our
purposes, using small amounts of supplemental energy to control systems in
which the main energy drives are still coming from non-human sources. It is
the design of new ecosystems for human purposes, using the self-organizing
principles of natural ecosystems.

15. Beyond Fundamental Ecology
Ecological Economics: Integrating ecology and economics in such a way that
economic and environmental policies are reinforcing rather than mutually
destructive.
Urban ecology: For ecologists, urban ecology is the study of ecology in urban
areas, specifically the relationships, interactions, types and numbers of
species found in urban habitats. Also, the design of sustainable cities, urban
design programs that incorporate political, infrastructure and economic
considerations.
Conservation Biology: The application of diverse fields and disciplines to the
conservation of biological diversity.
Restoration Biology: Application of ecosystem ecology to the restoration of
deteriorated landscapes in an attempt to bring it back to its original state as
much as possible.

16. Beyond Fundamental Ecology
Landscape Ecology: “Landscape ecology is concerned with spatial
patterns in the landscape and how they develop, with an emphasis on
the role of disturbance, including human impacts” (Smith and Smith). It
is a relatively new branch of ecology, that employs Global Information
Systems.The goal is to predict the responses of different organisms to
changes in landscape, to ultimately facilitate ecosystem management.

17. Importance of Ecology
Understanding or the knowledge of ecology is important to:
1. Maintain a healthier and more productive biosphere for the life of
humans and other living organisms;
2. Provide principles for rational use of natural resources, often
referred to as conservation; and
3. Provide a basis for the formulation of a good conservation policy
especially if those entrusted with natural resources have ecological
knowledge in such fields: agriculture, forestry, wildlife, range
management, fisheries, etc.

18. The Ecosystem and Its Components
Ecosystem
 The interaction of the living organisms and the non-living organisms.
 It is composed of biotic components such as the plants (producers),
animals (consumers) and the microorganisms (decomposers). And
abiotic components which include air, water, soil, inorganic
substances, organic substances, climate regime that are present in a
given area.

19. The Ecosystem and Its Components
Biotic Components
From the trophic or nutritional standpoint there are 2 living
components of ecosystem:
1. Autotrophs- these are the organisms that fix light energy and use
the simple inorganic substances to build up complex one, this
include the plants.
2. Heterotrophs- these are the organisms which utilize, rearrange and
decompose the complex materials particularly the animals, bacteria
and fungi.

20. The Ecosystem and Its Components
 Plants considered as the primary producers.
 Animals are the consumers which can be:
1. Herbivores (plant eaters)- primary consumers
2. Carnivores (meat eaters)- secondary, tertiary and quaternary
3. Omnivores (plant and animal eaters)- secondary, tertiary and
quaternary

21. The Ecosystem and Its Components
▪ Microorganisms can be either:
1. Saptrotrophs/Osmotrophs- chiefly bacteria and fungi which are
responsible for the decomposition or breaking down of dead
organic matter.
2. Detritus feeders- such as crabs, carpenter ants, termites and
earthworms which extract nutrients from partly decompose matter.

22. The Ecosystem and Its Components
Abiotic Components
▪ Generally include the hydrosphere (water), lithosphere (solid earth)
and atmosphere (air).
Water is one of the most usual natural compounds found on earth and
it is the most important of all.
Water covers almost 71% of the earth’s surface.
Medium of transport for several ecosystems.
Chemical properties- universal solvent; temperature regulator;
protectant; lubricant; has high specific heat capacity; high heat
conductivity; buffered medium; and cohesion-adhesion property.

23. The Ecosystem and Its Components
Biological properties- dissolve minerals and nutrients for use by the
living organisms; medium in the fertilization of surviving gametes;
for the dispersal of seeds, gametes and larval stages of aquatic
organisms; as a medium of dispersal and germination of seeds;
reagent in photosynthesis; needed in osmosis and turgidity; for
transpiration and translocation; and as habitat for aquatic organisms.

24. The Ecosystem and Its Components
Three Components of Lithosphere (Solid Earth)
1. Soil- complex mixture of rock fragments, highly altered minerals, organic
debris and living organisms which support plants in terrestrial environment.
- source of all nutrients and water of organisms living in land.
2. Rocks- consolidated units of the earth’s crust which are formed of minerals
that have come together by hardening or lithification of sediments, by
solidification from a molten mass or by alteration with a pre-existing rock.
- facilitates the storage and movement of ground water, source of
mineral constituents of sediments and soil and a medium of storage and
transportation for groundwater.

25. The Ecosystem and Its Components
3. Sediments- rock fragments that may or may not be chemically
altered by weathering which are carried by media such as wind or
water.
- serves as the habitat for the aquatic organisms and
source of nutrients needed by the aquatic organisms.