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Welcome to Ecology
Paul Cezanne
Bolinas Lagoon
Bolinas Lagoon Salt Marsh
Atlantic White Cedar Swamp
Green Oaks – South Prairie
Ecology is:• A science – and as such is
concerned with:
• Attempting to describe and explain as objectively as possible patterns and processes that occur in the physical world
• Also attempts to make predictions about future events based on past history and current circumstances
Ecology is not:
• Environmentalism• Environmentalism is a
social-cultural movement dedicated to protecting and preserving the environment
Easter Island
Easter Island
Prairie in Illinois in 1820 – Prairie – YellowForest - Green
Spread of HIV in Russia
RosyPeriwinkle
Temperate Rain Forest
Biodiversity:The rivet hypothesis – Paul Ehrlich
Biodiversity:Passenger and crew hypothesis – Brian Walker
Shahid Naeem –Columbia University
The Ecotron
Aldo Leopold circa 1945
Aldo Leopold (on left) and forest service crew in 1911 in Arizona
Introduction to Ecology
• How do you know you are talking to a real ecologist? They always answer any question the same way.
Rob Colwell
Introduction to Ecology
• How do you know you are talking to a real ecologist? They always answer any question the same way.
• “Well it depends…”
Rob Colwell
Ecology is:
• A science of dependency
• A probabilistic science
The first ecologists?
Two Founders of Ecology
Ernst Haeckel Eugene Warming
Definitions of 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 both to its inorganic and organic environment.
• Tansley – 1904 – (Ecology is) Those relations of plants, with their surroundings and with one another, which depend directly upon differences of habitat among plants.
• Elton – 1927 – Ecology is the new name for a very old subject. It simply means scientific natural history.
Definitions of Ecology cont’d
• Andrewartha – 1961 – Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms.
• Krebs – 1972, 2008 – Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms.
• Townsend et al. 2003 – Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and the interactions that determine distribution and abundance.
The Fundamental Equation of Ecology – Harper 1977
Δ N = B – D + I – E
Change in Number = Births – Deaths + Immigration - Emigration
John L. Harper – 1925-2009
Some Definitions of Terms• environment - biotic and abiotic factors that
influence organisms
• organism - individual living thing
• population - many individuals of one species living close enough to each other to potentially interbreed
• community - all interacting populations in a particular habitat - includes plants, animals, decomposer microbes - pond or forest community - in practice often used when 2 or more species discussed
Some Definitions of Terms
• habitat - place where microbe, plant or animal lives
• ecosystem - community plus abiotic factors - nutrients, water, soil, etc. - pond ecosystem
• biosphere - the earth
• autecology - relation of individual organism to environment
• synecology - relation of populations or species to other populations or species
