Ecology

Lab 18

What Is Ecology?

Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with each other and with their environment.

Ecology also includes the study of the distribution and abundance of organisms; ecology can be studied at progressively more encompassing levels of organization.

Levels of ecological organization 1. Populations – individuals of the same organism that

live together are members of a population. 2. Species – a species consists of all the populations of

a particular organism. 3. Communities – populations of different species that

live together in the same place constitute a community. 4. Ecosystems – a community and the nonliving factors

with which it interacts is called an ecosystem. 5. Biomes – major terrestrial assemblages of plants,

animals, and microorganisms that occur over wide geographic areas and have distinctive physical characteristics are called biomes.

6. Biosphere - all the world’s biomes, along with its marine and freshwater assemblages, together constitute an interactive system called the biosphere.

Barn Owls Tyto alba

Barn owls feed on small mammals, birds, insects or other small animals.

Prey is swallowed whole – no teeth.

Owl Pellets

Owls can’t digest bones, feathers, fur & other hard parts of their prey.

Instead, a pellet is produced with hard parts inside & fur/feathers outside. Expelled orally

What can we learn?

What are the owls in a population eating? Specialist? Generalist? Most common

prey in area? Info helpful for

conservation.

Food Webs

Food webs show the flow of energy from organisms at lower feeding (trophic) levels to those at higher levels. Primary producer Primary consumer

(herbivore) Secondary

consumer (carnivore)

Tertiary consumer