Understanding Ecology: Habitats, Ecosystems, and Biotic Factors
Ecology is the science that studies the relationships and networks of interdependencies between living beings and the environment in which they live.
What is the Environment?
The environment of a being is formed by the combination of living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) elements that surround them.
Defining Habitat
A habitat is the ideal place for an organism, and is inhabited by mainly ideal conditions to live and reproduce.
Biotope Explained
The biotope consists of non-living elements. It is a particular place that has certain physical and chemical conditions. It can be aquatic or terrestrial; in each case, abiotic factors influence it: climate, soil, water depth.
Understanding Biocenosis
Biocenosis is formed by the living elements. It comprises organisms belonging to five kingdoms: Monera, Protoctists, Fungi, Plants, and Animals.
A group of individuals in the same species = population / A group of organisms populations of the 5 kingdoms = community
Ecosystem: Interconnectedness of Life
The ecosystem is a set of living and non-living things that are interrelated in various forms, exchanging material and energy. They change with age until they reach a stable equilibrium that is maintained through mechanisms of control, power supply, and self-regulation. The materials needed for the continuation of life of all elements of biocenosis is a function of the ecosystem.
The Ecosphere: Earth’s Largest Ecosystem
The ecosphere is the large ecosystem consisting of all living things (biosphere), the land part of the earth (geosphere), and waters of seas and oceans (hydrosphere).
Relationships Within Ecosystems
Neither plants nor animals can live independently. All living things in an ecosystem are related:
- Between individuals of the same species, relationships of competition or cooperation can be established to form groups: family, gregarious, or societies.
- Between individuals of different species, there are relationships of competition for resources: predation, parasitism, mutualism.
Abiotic Factors: Shaping Life
Abiotic factors favor or limit the vital functions and determine the development of biocenosis in a given environment, aquatic or terrestrial. Each abiotic factor has an optimum value in which organisms develop best. The set of values above or below the ideal point at which living things can develop is the margin whose outer limits are called tolerances, for above or below them there is no development. Among abiotic factors are the following:
Climate
- Temperature: Influences the growth and development of organisms. It is a factor that changes with altitude and latitude and suffers daily and seasonal variations.
- Rainfall and soil moisture: Determine the humidity of the atmosphere.
- Sunlight: Essential for photosynthesis.
- Wind: Affects the water cycle and promotes the pollination and dispersion of seeds.
These factors influence both terrestrial and aquatic environments.
Soil
It is the result of the weathering of the rocky surface of the earth by the weather and the action of living organisms and forms a substrate on which life develops in the terrestrial environment. Factors such as the type of rock, moisture, acidity, organic matter content, and aeration are important.
Aquatic Environment
There is a difference in salinity between rivers and lakes (low) and the salt waters of seas and oceans (high). The concentration of dissolved oxygen and illumination are also important. Pressure increases with depth, and most organisms live in an illuminated surface layer, the photic zone.
Food Chains: Energy Flow
A food chain is a sequence of organisms, each one of which is the food of the next. In the graphical representation, they are linked by arrows departing from each animal, plant, or algae to the body that eats them. Nutrients and energy travel through the food chain from one body to the next. Links in a chain:
- Producers: Plants and algae (1st link)
- Primary Consumers: Herbivores (2nd link)