Biology Ecology Project

3. Environmental Science is interdisciplinary, in that it includes life sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences to study the interactions of living, nonliving and

Ecology is the scientific study of how organisms interact with the environment. Some examples of ecology include ecological succession, symbiotic relationships, and how organisms in general react and respond to their environment. In the movie, “The Lion King”, something that is shown throughout the whole movie is ecology. It is shown to be linked with ecology in many places such as when secondary succession occurs after Scar’s death, and also shown due to the symbiotic relationship between Zazu and the monkeys. The topics being discussed today however deal with ecological succession, symbiotic relationships, and how organisms respond to their external factors.

Ecology is the branch of biology that studies the relationship between organisms and their environment. Ecology is a basic tool of environmental science.

Ecological theory describes four levels of the environment that interconnect and impact people. Moving from the most intimate individual system to a broader inclusion you can identify the many systems that play a role in individual’s lives and well-being. These interactions could be harmonious and create homeostasis or could be disharmonious and cause stress.

Ecosystem: a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment

-Ecosystem: any environment containing living organisms interacting with each other and with the non-living parts of that environment.

A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time. All populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.

Conservation biology is the study of environmental problems that are caused by human actions. This would be the scientific study of the Earth’s biodiversity with the whole purpose from being extinct. In this field it helps in putting together many theories from other fields such as ecology, demography, taxonomy and genetics. This would help in the understanding of the management of species in their ecosystems, breeding, genetic analysis and their resoration of their

1.Ernst Haeckel contributed much to the scientific world with the creation of the word “ecology” opening the door to a whole new branch of science. He kicked off the study of ecology when he explained how ecology and evolution revolve around one another.

By definition, an ecosystem is a “community of organisms in an area and the physical factors with which those organisms interact.” Although the key characteristics of an ecosystem are the presence of biotic and abiotic factors, it is the interactions that enables vivacious life to flourish. Whether it is the isopods hidden in the nook under a log or its crustaceous ancestors in the vast ocean, ecosystems are thriving with behavior as its driving force. Effective communication can be observed in countless organisms, which is a testimony to its importance.

In order for an ecosystem to stay an ecosystem there are three aspects that interact with each other:

The earth is comprised of many different life forms, including plants, animals, humans, and other organisms. These various life forms are highly interdependent and have formed important systems that continually reshape the planet's landscapes, oceans, and atmospheres.

According to Frederic Clements, the vast majority of communities function as interdependent communities, which are the ones in which species depend on each other to survive. Moreover, he proposed that most communities act as superorganism. On the other hand, Henry Gleason rejected the Clements’s proposal about the superorganism metaphor and suggested that most communities function as independent communities, which are the ones in which species do not require each other to survive. In other words, he proposed that species with independent distributions describes most communities.

Ecology today can be defined as “the study of the interrelationships between living things and their environment”. It is important to understand that when we say that ecology includes the “environment”, we are talking about everything that is external to an organism, all the biotic and abiotic. Nowadays it also attempts to understand and explain the how and why of the origins and mechanisms of interactions.

Biodiversity presents occurrence of variety of species and their natural community in which they live. By the definition it is “The degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. It is a measure of the health of ecosystems and is in part a function of climate.” (Rutherford) Ecosystem is on the other hand, “ community and its abiotic environment”( Rutherford). Biodiversity exists in every ecosystem, weather it is big one, or just ecosystem of one garden, it has the same importance because without it nature loses its ability to perform major functions needed for life on Earth, as it is oxygen production. Trough this investigation, two different ecosystems will be explored and