Einstein famously said that the ‘most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible’. Perhaps the key question in ecology today is the degree to which the dynamics of ecological communities are comprehensible. All ecological communities are made up of large numbers of species that interact in myriad ways with each other. They can be conceptualized as dynamic systems where it may be necessary to describe the spatial location, age, sex, genotype or other properties (states) of the individuals that comprise populations of different species. How a species’ density and state distribution change over time is determined by complex and often poorly understood functions of that (and other) species’ densities and states.
Evolutionary processes ultimately shape these functions. The historical and contingent nature of Darwinian evolution leads to a bewildering variety of forms of interaction, far beyond those observed in complex non-biological systems.
Evolution also means that the functions and parameters that describe the system’s behavior may change over time so that the ecological dynamics are embedded in a larger arena of evolutionary dynamics. Ecologists want to understand many things about how natural communities came to be as they are. An increasingly pressing concern is to be able to say what happens when communities experience a perturbation. Will the community dampen or amplify the perturbation, or will profound regime change occur? Are there general rules that will guide our stewardship of natural communities and allow us to protect the services they provide us ? Faced with this complexity and the impossibility of ever being able to describe completely the underlying dynamics, ecologists have pursued several strategies, some with great success. The obvious approach is to simplify the problem, which can be done in different ways.
If a particular set of species interact more strongly with each other than with the rest of the community, then it may be possible to abstract and analyze their joint dynamics. This is classical single and multiple species population dynamics, which has given us unparalleled insights into many ecological interactions, and lies at the core of much applied ecology involving conservation, resource management and epidemiology.
It is currently enjoying a renaissance spurred by advances in linking modeling with data (for example, ). Nevertheless, this approach tends to run into the sands as the number of species becomes more than a handful. One possible exception is when the behavior of a whole ecosystem is critically dependent on the dynamics of one or a few ‘keystone’ species. A classic example of this is the importance of predatory starfish (Figure ) in maintaining diversity in north-west American coastal communities. But often the role of keystone species is recognized only after a perturbation. Pisaster ochraceus is a keystone predator in intertidal communities in the American north-west. In a classic experiment Robert Paine removed starfish from the shoreline and found the communities became much less diverse and dominated by a single species of mussel ( Mytilus californianus).
Image credit: D. A second tactic is to make simplifications about how species interact. For example, an assemblage of species might be assumed to interact solely through competition for resources. This has been particularly successful in plant ecology because of the common basic requirements for plant growth - sunlight, water, a limited set of nutrients. Using multispecies forest models, the possible responses to perturbations, such as climate change, can be explored. But does it matter omitting the other components of the community: the mycorrhizal fungi often essential to nutrient acquisition, plant diseases and large and small herbivores. Taking this approach to extremes, neutral models of plant communities assume all individuals of all species are equivalent and interact with each other to the same extent.
Despite this gross simplification, some of the macroecological patterns produced by these models (for example, species-abundance distributions) are surprisingly close to those observed in nature , suggesting that they arise from the general statistics of assemblages rather than being of biological origin. If a system is near to equilibrium, it is reasonable to assume that the dynamics of each species can be described as linear functions of the densities and states of other species. Linearization is a very powerful mathematical tool that has given great insights into community structure - for example, showing that the intuitive link between complexity and system stability is not necessarily true. It can potentially address the perturbation question, but only for systems near equilibrium subject to relatively mild perturbation. Mathematical theory exists, in principle, for exploring broader classes of perturbation though in practice the complexity of biological systems frustrates deep analytical insights. A final simplification is to lump species together into functional groups, or to dispense with species altogether and model the fluxes of energy, carbon, water or other quantity ,. For example, different plant species may simply be characterized as herbs, forbs, trees, or nitrogen-fixers, or more complex classifications can be employed.
Again, this can give important insights, though such models also become complex quite quickly. They also cannot address questions of how perturbations affect biodiversity - a tree monoculture may have similar carbon stocks and flows to a much more diverse forest - nor do they easily lend themselves to answering evolutionary questions. Simplifications and assumptions, what is sometimes (and slightly sneeringly) called the reductionist agenda, have delivered powerful insights into many aspects of ecological dynamics. But they have not provided a general theory of how ecological communities respond to perturbation. Are there alternatives?
Complexity theory is a portmanteau term for a diverse collection of mathematical results and conjectures on complex systems -. It studies systems that exist far from equilibrium and whose intrinsic dynamics are typically both chaotic and high dimensional. It asks whether their dynamics typically come to occupy a subset of possible system states or configurations (sometimes described as self-organization). This is a rich and interesting subject that often takes its inspiration from biological systems.
It is still a young and occasionally flaky field that perhaps in ecology has so far been more productive at generating interesting think pieces and metaphors than deep insights into how biological communities actually behave. Nevertheless, it is one of the most likely sources of new ideas and innovation to increase our understanding of the resilience of ecological systems. Ecology is a young subject. The British Ecological Society, which is the world’s oldest ecological organization, celebrated its centenary only last year, and the American Ecological Society does so next year.
The first half-century focused, sensibly enough, on cataloguing the variety of plants and animals found in different regions, and on codifying the differences among them. More recent work focuses on the whys and wherefores of these differences. Such research differs in an important way from most other areas of science, in that ever-increasing numbers of humans, each on average with a greater ‘ecological footprint’, are having serious impacts on natural ecosystems. We are in critical need of a better understanding of how communities of plants and animals put themselves together, and how the ecological services they deliver - not accounted for in conventional economics metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP) - are likely to be affected by habitat destruction, introduced aliens and many other consequences of human activity. This understanding must then be coupled with new social-science and economic thinking to craft policies to enable humans to flourish in an environment where substantial natural biodiversity is allowed to survive.
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The key to success in teaching a unit on ecology is to provide good instruction followed by a good review exercise. This document is a 5 page student worksheet consisting of 53 questions. As I teach my unit on community ecology, I assign a portion of these questions for homework each night. This document provides quality homework assignments and ends up being a completed and thorough study guide for the unit test. This worksheet of homework questions was written to go along with my Powerpoint on this same topic:.
All answers are included in the additional 4 page teacher guide that is included with this resource. The questions are of varying difficulty levels. Question types include compare and contrast, fill in the blank, short answer, multiple choice, and true/false. Many of the questions are basic and concrete in nature, but many of the questions involve critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Your download will include both a Word document as well as a pdf of this extensive homework/study guide. This study guide is appropriate for any biology or life science class with students in grades 8 - 12. Topics covered in this lesson are:. Community Interactions: Definition of community, types of community interactions such as competition, predation, symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.
Competition: Definition of competition, definition of resource, the competitive exclusion principle, character displacement, many examples, resource partitioning, the result of organisms having identical niches. Predation: Definition, examples, predator, prey, the role of natural selection, adaptations found in predators, adaptations found in prey, mimicry, adaptations found in plants and herbivores. Symbiosis: Definition of symbiosis, types of symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, many examples of each. Properties of Communities: Species richness and diversity, definition of species richness, definition of species diversity, the species-area effect, the result of habitat destruction. Succession: Disturbances, definition and examples of disturbances, definition of succession, types of succession, primary succession, examples of primary succession, secondary succession, examples of secondary succession, pioneer species, climax communities.
Succession in a Marine Ecosystem: A Whale-Fall Community. Related resources include: For updates about sales and new products, please follow my store: You can find me at these locations as well: Instagram: @AmyBrownScience.
Further information: The roots of ecology as a broader discipline can be traced to the Greeks and a lengthy list of developments in. Ecology also has notably developed in other cultures.
Traditional knowledge, as it is called, includes the human propensity for intuitive knowledge, intelligent relations, understanding, and for passing on information about the natural world and the human experience. The term ecology was coined by in 1866 and defined by direct reference to the economy of nature. Like other contemporary researchers of his time, Haeckel adopted his terminology from where human ecological connections were more evident. In his 1749 publication, Specimen academicum de oeconomia naturae, Linnaeus developed a science that included the economy and polis of nature. Polis stems from its Greek roots for a political community (originally based on the city-states), sharing its roots with the word police in reference to the promotion of growth and maintenance of good social order in a community.
Linnaeus was also the first to write about the close affinity between humans and primates. Linnaeus presented early ideas found in modern aspects to human ecology, including the while highlighting the importance of ecological functions ( or in modern terms): 'In exchange for performing its function satisfactorily, nature provided a species with the necessaries of life': 66 The work of Linnaeus influenced and other scientists of his time who used Linnaeus' terminology (i.e., the economy and polis of nature) with direct implications on matters of human affairs, ecology,. Ecology is not just biological, but a human science as well. An early and influential social scientist in the history of human ecology was.
Spencer was influenced by and reciprocated his influence onto the works of Charles Darwin. Herbert Spencer coined the phrase ', he was an early founder of sociology where he developed the idea of society as an organism, and he created an early precedent for the socio-ecological approach that was the subsequent aim and link between sociology and human ecology. Human ecology is the discipline that inquires into the patterns and process of interaction of humans with their environments. Human values, wealth, life-styles, resource use, and waste, etc.
Must affect and be affected by the physical and biotic environments along urban-rural gradients. The nature of these interactions is a legitimate ecological research topic and one of increasing importance.: 1233 The history of human ecology has strong roots in geography and sociology departments of the late 19th century. In this context a major historical development or landmark that stimulated research into the ecological relations between humans and their urban environments was founded in 's book, which was published in 1864. Marsh was interested in the active agency of human-nature interactions (an early precursor to or ) in frequent reference to the economy of nature. In 1894, an influential named, collaborated with sociologist and published a '‘‘laboratory guide’’ to studying people in their ‘‘every-day occupations.’’': 578 This was a guidebook that trained students of sociology how they could study in a way that a would study birds. Their publication 'explicitly included the relation of the social world to the material environment.'
: 578 The first English-language use of the term 'ecology' is credited to American chemist and founder of the field of home economics,. Richards first introduced the term as ' in 1892, and subsequently developed the term 'human ecology'. The term 'human ecology' was published in 1907 in work 'Sanitation in Daily Life', defined there as 'the study of the surroundings of human beings in the effects they produce on the lives of men'. Richard's use of the term recognized humans as part of rather than separate from nature. The term made its first formal appearance in the field of sociology in the 1921 book 'Introduction to the Science of Sociology', published by and (also from the sociology department at the University of Chicago). Their student, helped solidify human ecology as a sub-discipline within the.
These authors emphasized the difference between human ecology and ecology in general by highlighting in human societies. Human ecology has a fragmented academic history with developments spread throughout a range of disciplines, including: home economics, geography, anthropology, sociology, zoology, and psychology. Some authors have argued that geography is human ecology. Much historical debate has hinged on the placement of humanity as part or as separate from nature.
In light of the branching debate of what constitutes human ecology, recent interdisciplinary researchers have sought a unifying scientific field they have titled that 'builds on but moves beyond previous work (e.g., human ecology, ecological anthropology, environmental geography).' : 639 Other fields or branches related to the historical development of human ecology as a discipline include, and anthropological ecology. Biological ecologists have traditionally been reluctant to study human ecology gravitating instead to the. Human ecology has a history of focusing attention on humans’ impact on the biotic world. Was an early proponent of applying human ecology, addressing topics aimed at the population explosion of humanity, global resource limits, pollution, and published a comprehensive account on human ecology as a discipline in 1954. He saw the vast “explosion” of problems humans were creating for the environment and reminded us that “what is important is the work to be done rather than the label.'
'When we as a profession learn to diagnose the total landscape, not only as the basis of our culture, but as an expression of it, and to share our special knowledge as widely as we can, we need not fear that our work will be ignored or that our efforts will be unappreciated.' : 963 Overview Human ecology has been defined as a type of analysis applied to the relations in human beings that was traditionally applied to plants and animals in ecology. Toward this aim, human ecologists (which can include ) integrate diverse perspectives from a broad spectrum of disciplines covering 'wider points of view'.: 107 In its 1972 premier edition, the editors of gave an introductory statement on the scope of topics in human ecology. Perhaps the most important implication involves our view of human society. Homo sapiens is not an external disturbance, it is a keystone species within the system. In the long term, it may not be the magnitude of extracted goods and services that will determine sustainability. It may well be our disruption of ecological recovery and stability mechanisms that determines system collapse.: 3282 Changes to the Earth by human activities have been so great that a new geological epoch named the has been proposed.
The human niche or ecological polis of human society, as it was known historically, has created entirely new arrangements of ecosystems as we convert matter into technology. Human ecology has created anthropogenic biomes (called ). The habitats within these anthromes reach out through our road networks to create what has been called containing. Exists within these technoecosystems. In direct parallel to the concept of the, human civilization has also created a.
The way that the human species engineers or constructs technodiversity into the environment, threads back into the processes of cultural and biological evolution, including the human economy. Policy and human institutions should rarely assume that human enterprise is benign. A safer assumption holds that human enterprise almost always exacts an ecological toll - a debit taken from the ecological commons.: 95 The ecosystems of planet Earth are coupled to human environments. Ecosystems regulate the global of energy, climate, soil nutrients, and water that in turn support and grow (including the environmental, physiological, cognitive, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of life).
Ultimately, every manufactured product in human environments comes from natural systems. Ecosystems are considered because ecosystems do not exclude beneficiaries and they can be depleted or degraded.
For example, within communities provides sustainable health services that reduces mortality and regulates the spread of vector borne disease. Research shows that people who are more engaged with regular access to natural areas have lower rates of diabetes, heart disease and psychological disorders. These ecological health services are regularly depleted through urban development projects that do not factor in the common-pool value of ecosystems. The ecological commons delivers a diverse supply of community services that sustains the well-being of human society.
The, an international UN initiative involving more than 1,360 experts worldwide, identifies four main types having 30 sub-categories stemming from natural capital. The ecological commons includes provisioning (e.g., food, raw materials, medicine, water supplies), regulating (e.g., climate, water, soil retention, flood retention), cultural (e.g., science and education, artistic, spiritual), and supporting (e.g., soil formation, nutrient cycling, water cycling) services. Main article: Global assessments of biodiversity indicate that the current epoch, the Holocene (or Anthropocene) is a sixth mass extinction.
Species loss is accelerating at 100–1000 times faster than average background rates in the fossil record. The field of involves ecologists that are researching, confronting, and searching for solutions to sustain the planet's ecosystems for future generations. 'Human activities are associated directly or indirectly with nearly every aspect of the current extinction spasm.'
: 11472 Nature is a system. Ecosystems regenerate, withstand, and are forever adapting to fluctuating environments. Ecological resilience is an important conceptual framework in conservation management and it is defined as the preservation of biological relations in ecosystems that persevere and regenerate in response to disturbance over time.
However, persistent, systematic, large and nonrandom disturbance caused by the niche constructing behavior of human beings, habitat conversion and land development, has pushed many of the Earth's ecosystems to the extent of their resilient thresholds. Three planetary thresholds have already been crossed, including,. These biophysical systems are ecologically interrelated and naturally resilient, but human civilization has transitioned the planet to an epoch, where the threshold for planetary scale resilience has been crossed and the ecological state of the Earth is deteriorating rapidly to the detriment of humanity. The world's fisheries and oceans, for example, are facing dire challenges as the threat of global collapse appears imminent, with serious ramifications for the well-being of humanity; while the Anthropocene is yet to be classified as an official epoch, current evidence suggest that 'an epoch-scale boundary has been crossed within the last two centuries.' : 835 The ecology of the planet is further threatened by global warming, but investments in nature conservation can provide a regulatory feedback to store and regulate carbon and other greenhouse gases. Ecological footprint.
While we are used to thinking of cities as geographically discrete places, most of the land 'occupied' by their residents lies far beyond their borders. The total area of land required to sustain an urban region (its 'ecological footprint') is typically at least an order of magnitude greater than that contained within municipal boundaries or the associated built-up area.: 121 In 1992, developed the concept. The ecological footprint and its close analog the has become a popular way of accounting for the level of impact that human society is imparting on the Earth's ecosystems. All indications are that the human enterprise is unsustainable as the footprint of society is placing too much stress on the ecology of the planet. The 2008 living planet report and other researchers report that human civilization has exceeded the bio-regenerative capacity of the planet. This means that the footprint of human consumption is extracting more natural resources than can be replenished by ecosystems around the world. Ecological economics.
See also: is an that extends its methods of valuation onto nature in an effort to address the inequity between market growth and biodiversity loss. Natural capital is the stock of materials or information stored in biodiversity that generates services that can enhance the welfare of communities.
Biology Ecology Unit Study Guide
Population losses are the more sensitive indicator of natural capital than are species extinction in the accounting of ecosystem services. The prospect for recovery in the economic crisis of nature is grim. Populations, such as local ponds and patches of forest are being cleared away and lost at rates that exceed species extinctions. The mainstream growth-based economic system adopted by governments worldwide does not include a price or markets for natural capital.
This type of economic system places further onto future generations. Many human-nature interactions occur indirectly due to the production and use of human-made (manufactured and synthesized) products, such as electronic appliances, furniture, plastics, airplanes, and automobiles. These products insulate humans from the natural environment, leading them to perceive less dependence on natural systems than is the case, but all manufactured products ultimately come from natural systems.: 640 Human societies are increasingly being placed under stress as the is diminished through an accounting system that has incorrectly assumed '. That nature is a fixed, indestructible capital asset.' : 44 The current wave of threats, including massive extinction rates and concurrent loss of natural capital to the detriment of human society, is happening rapidly. This is called a biodiversity crisis, because 50% of the worlds species are predicted to go extinct within the next 50 years. Conventional monetary analyses are unable to detect or deal with these sorts of ecological problems.
Multiple global ecological economic initiatives are being promoted to solve this problem. For example, governments of the met in 2007 and set forth (TEEB) initiative: In a global study we will initiate the process of analyzing the global economic benefit of biological diversity, the costs of the loss of biodiversity and the failure to take protective measures versus the costs of effective conservation. The work of is notable for building on the integration between ecology and its economic origins. Boulding drew parallels between ecology and economics, most generally in that they are both studies of individuals as members of a system, and indicated that the “household of man” and the “household of nature” could somehow be integrated to create a perspective of greater value. Interdisciplinary approaches. Human ecology may be defined: (1) from a bio-ecological standpoint as the study of man as the ecological dominant in plant and animal communities and systems; (2) from a bio-ecological standpoint as simply another animal affecting and being affected by his physical environment; and (3) as a human being, somehow different from animal life in general, interacting with physical and modified environments in a distinctive and creative way. A truly interdisciplinary human ecology will most likely address itself to all three.: 8–9 Human ecology expands functionalism from ecology to the human mind.
People's perception of a complex world is a function of their ability to be able to comprehend beyond the immediate, both in time and in space. This concept manifested in the popular slogan promoting sustainability: 'think global, act local.' Moreover, people's conception of community stems from not only their physical location but their mental and emotional connections and varies from 'community as place, community as way of life, or community of collective action.' In these early years, human ecology was still deeply enmeshed in its respective disciplines: geography, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and economics.
Scholars through the 1970s until present have called for a greater integration between all of the scattered disciplines that has each established formal ecological research. In art While some of the early writers considered how art fit into a human ecology, it was Sears who posed the idea that in the long run human ecology will in fact look more like art. (1986) calls human ecology the 'possibility of an aesthetic science,' renewing dialogue about how art fits into a human ecological perspective. According to Carpenter, human ecology as an aesthetic science counters the disciplinary fragmentation of knowledge by examining human consciousness. In education While the reputation of human ecology in institutions of higher learning is growing, there is no human ecology at the primary and secondary education levels. Educational theorist Sir has called for diversification of education to promote creativity in academic and non-academic (i.e.- educate their “whole being”) activities to implement a “new conception of human ecology”.
Bioregionalism and urban ecology. See also: In the late 1960s, ecological concepts started to become integrated into the applied fields, namely,. Called for a future when all planning would be “human ecological planning” by default, always bound up in humans’ relationships with their environments. He emphasized local, place-based planning that takes into consideration all the “layers” of information from to to zoology to. Proponents of the movement, like and, have embraced the term human ecology as way to describe the problem of—and prescribe the solutions for—the landscapes and lifestyles of an automobile oriented society. Duany has called the human ecology movement to be 'the agenda for the years ahead.'
While McHargian planning is still widely respected, the movement seeks a new understanding between human and environment relations. Among these theorists is, who published Human Ecology: Following Nature's Lead in 2002 which focuses on the relationships among landscape, culture, and planning.
The work highlights the beauty of scientific inquiry by revealing those purely human dimensions which underlie our concepts of ecology. While Steiner discusses specific ecological settings, such as cityscapes and waterscapes, and the relationships between socio-cultural and environmental regions, he also takes a diverse approach to ecology—considering even the unique synthesis between ecology.
's 2003 Human Ecology: Fragments of Anti-fragmentary view of the world is an important expose of recent trends in human ecology. Part literature review, the book is divided into four sections: 'human ecology', 'the implicit and the explicit', 'structuration', and 'the regional dimension'. Much of the work stresses the need for transciplinarity, antidualism, and wholeness of perspective. Key journals. Volkswagen 2001 beetle owners manual. See also.
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