Republic of the Philippines

Department of Science and Technology

PHILIPPINE SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL-CENTRAL VISAYAS CAMPUS
Talaytay, Argao, Cebu; Office Telephone Number: (032) 36-77-422
E-mail Address: cvisc1@yahoo.com

Module for Integrated Science 1

First Quarter

An output of the

INTENSIVE TRAINING WORKSHOP for TEACHERS

Prepared by:

LUCAS E. OMBOY
SST-1
 ECOLOGY

Ecology (from Greek: οίκος, oikos, "household"; and λόγος, logos, "word") is the scientific
study of the distribution and abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their
environment. The environment of an organism includes physical properties, which can be
described as the sum of local abiotic factors such as insolation (sunlight), climate, and geology,
and biotic factors, which are other organisms that share its habitat.

The term ecology or oekologie was coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866,
when he defined it as "the comprehensive science of the relationship of the organism to the
environment."[1] Haeckel did not elaborate on the concept, and the first significant textbook on the
subject (together with the first university course) was written by the Danish botanist, Eugenius
Warming. For this early work, Warming is often identified as the founder of ecology.

1. Living Things and the Environment

Course Overview

T he course introduces students to the interconnections among the living and non-living
things in an environment. Students explore the connections that occur within the
biosphere, ecosystem, communities, and population. Students gain understanding of the
interactions and relationships among living things as they coexist in our world.

Objectives:

• Define the terms: organism, population, community and ecosystem.

• Give qualitative and quantitative observation about the environment.
• Define and differentiate biosphere and ecosphere.
• Define and differentiate food chains from food webs.
• Differentiate food chains from ecological pyramid
• Identify the different types of ecological pyramid

References:
www. Wikipedia.com
www. Tutorvista.com
SOLOMON, et. Al, “Biology” 6th Ed., 2002

1.1 Scope of Ecology

Ecologyliving
is usually considered a branch of biology, the general science that studies
organisms. Organisms can be studied at many different levels, from
proteins and nucleic acids, to cells, to individuals and at the level of populations, communities
and ecosystems to the biosphere as a whole.

Ecology is a broad discipline comprising many sub-disciplines namely;

 Ecophysiology – examines how the physiological functions of organisms influence
the way they interact with the environment, both biotic and abiotic.
 Behavioral ecology – examines the roles of behavior in enabling an animal to
adapt to its environment.
 Population ecology – studies the dynamics of populations of single species.
 Community ecology(or synecology) focuses on the interactions between species
within an ecological community
 Ecosystem ecology studies the flows of energy and matter through the abiotic
and biotic components of ecosystems.
 Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field focusing on the study, development,
and organization of ecological systems from a holistic perspective.
 Landscape ecology examines processes and relationships across multiple
ecosystems or a very large geographic areas.
 Evolutionary ecology studies ecology in a way that explicitly considers the
evolutionary histories of species and their interactions.
 Political ecology connects politics and economy to problems of environmental
control and ecological change.
In order to understand how complex our world is, ecologists often speak layers of ecological
levels or organization.
• Biosphere – the part of the earth that supports life, which includes the top portion of
the Earth’s crust (troposphere), all the bodies of water (hydrosphere), and the
surrounding atmosphere.
• Ecosystem – the area in which living things interact with one another and with their
environment. Ecosystems may be large, such as ocean, wetland, or forest. Or, they
may be small like a pond, a single tree, or a rotting log.
• Community – Different species of organisms that interact with each other in a given
area form a community. A species is a group of organisms that share the same general
physical characteristics and are able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring. The
organisms may share or depend on each other for food, shelter, or other needs. For
example, a rainforest may include frogs, monkeys, insects, and birds, all interacting
with one another. A community is made up of all populations of plants, animals, and
microorganisms living and interacting in a given habitat.
• Population - A group organisms of the same species that live in a define area form a
population. A community may have many different populations. For example, in a pond
community, there may be a population of small fishes, grasses growing along the edge
of the pond, of water insects, such as water striders that feed on other insects, or of
water lilies living in the pond.
• Organism – the living thing present in the environment. The actual place or type of
environment in which an organism lives is called its habitat. Fro example, the habitat of
cultured milkfish (bangus) is a fish pen as a frog to a pond. A habitat may include food,
shelter, and the other sources the organisms need to survive. The role an organism
has in its habitat is called its niche. For example, a frog lives in a pond habitat. Its
niche is feeding on insects that live around the edge of the pond. Several different
kinds of organisms usually share the same habitat. But it is rare that more than one
kind of organism fills a particular niche.

Exercise1:
1. Why is it important to study ecology?
2. In your own words, differentiate community and population.
3. Create a drawing or any representation that would relate each ecological
organization.
4. What is your niche in PSHS?
1.2 STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF AN ECOSYSTEM

An ecosystem can also be defined as 'a structural and functional unit of biosphere or
segment of nature consisting of community of living beings and the physical environment,
both interacting and exchanging materials between them'.

Besides a mechanical system or a living body, the ecosystem usually has a boundary
within which the component parts function together as one unit.

An ecosystem may be natural (like forest, lake, ocean etc) or man-made (such as an
aquarium, a crop field etc), temporary (like a rainfed pond) or permanent (like a lake, forest,
etc), aquatic (such as pond, ocean etc) or terrestrial (like grassland, forest, etc).

Classification of Ecosystem

An ecosystem may be as small as a drop of pond water and as large as an ocean.

Ecosystems can be recognised as self - regulating and self - sustaining units.
 Components of an Ecosystem

An ecosystem comprises of two basic components

i) Abiotic components and ii) Biotic components

The relationship between the biotic components and abiotic components of an ecosystem is
called 'holocoenosis'.

Abiotic Components

These include the non-living, physico - chemical factors such as air, water, soil and the basic
elements and compounds of the environment. Abiotic factors are broadly classified under
three categories.

• Climatic factors which include the climatic regime and physical factors of the
environment like light, humidity, atmospheric temperature, wind, etc.
• Edaphic factors which are related to the structure and composition of soil including its
physical and chemical properties, like soil and its types, soil profile, minerals, organic
matter, soil water, soil organisms.
• Inorganic substances like water, carbon, sulphur, nitrogen, phosphorus and so on.
Organic substances like proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, humic substances etc.

Biotic Components
It comprises the living part of the environment, which includes the association of a
number of interrelated populations belonging to different species in a common environment.
The populations are that of animal community, plant community and microbial community.
Biotic community is distinguished into autotrophs, heterotrophs and saprotrophs.

Autotrophs (Gr: auto - self, trophos - feeder) are also called producers, convertors or
transducers. These are photosynthetic plants, generally chlorophyll bearing, which synthesize
high-energy complex organic compounds (food) from inorganic raw materials with the help of
sunlight, and the process is referred as photosynthesis. Autotophs form the basis of any biotic
system. In terrestrial ecosystems, the autotrophs are mainly the rooted plants. In aquatic
ecosystems, floating plants called phytoplankton and shallow water rooted plants called
macrophytes are the dominant producers.
 Heterotrophs (Gr: heteros - other; trophs - feeder) are called consumers, which are
generally animals feeding on other organisms. Consumer's also referred as phagotrophs
(phago - to ingest or swallow) or macroconsumers are mainly herbivores and carnivores.
Herbivores are referred as First order consumers or primary consumers, as they feed directly
on plants. For example; Terrestrial ecosystem consumers like cattle, deer, rabbit, grass
hopper, etc.

Aquatic ecosystem consumers like protozoans, crustaceans, etc.

Carnivores are animals, which feed or prey upon other animals. Primary carnivores or
Second order consumers include the animals which feed on the herbivorous animals. For
example; fox, frog, predatory birds, smaller fishes, snakes, etc. Secondary carnivores or Third
order consumers include the animals, which feed on the primary carnivores. For example;
wolf, peacock, owl, etc. Secondary carnivores are preyed upon by some larger carnivores.
Tertiary carnivores or Quaternary consumers include the animals, which feed on the
secondary carnivores. For example; lion, tiger, etc. These are not eaten by any other animals.
The larger carnivores, which cannot be preyed upon further are called top carnivores.

Saprotrophs (Gr: sapros - rotten; trophos - feeder) are also called decomposers or
reducers. They break down the complex organic compounds of dead matter (of plants and
animals).

Decomposers do not ingest their food. Instead they secrete digestive enzymes into the
dead and decaying plant and animal remains to digest the organic material. Enzymes act
upon the complex organic compounds of the dead matter.

Decomposers absorb a part of the decomposition products for their own nourishment.
The remaining substances are added as minerals to the substratum (mineralisation).
Released minerals are reused (utilised) as nutrients by the plants (producers).

Exercise 2 :
1. What are the important aspects present in an ecosystem?
2. Compare and contrast autothrophs, heterotrophs and saprotrophs.
Activity 1
Materials:
Short bond paper
Pencils
Colored Pens or Any other coloring material
Procedure:
1. Identify any ecosystem found in the campus.
2. Draw the identified ecosystem.
3. Identify the biotic and abiotic components of your ecosystem.
 STRUCTURE and FUNCTION

Released minerals are reused (utilised) as nutrients by the plants (producers). The two
main structural features of any ecosystem are its 'species composition' and 'stratification'. An
ecosystem can be represented by depicting the producers - consumers relationship in the
given ecosystem. This is also called the 'Trophic structure' of an ecosystem, wherein each
animal population forms the various trophic levels. The producers (green plants) always form
the first trophic level. Herbivores, which feed on producers, are at the second trophic level
followed by secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and so on.
Trophic structure of an ecosystem can be described in terms of its total amount of nutrients or
the amount of living material. The amount of nutrients in the soil at any given time is referred
as 'standing state' whereas the amount of living material is referred as 'standing crop'.

FUNCTION

The functional attributes of an ecosystem helps to keep its component parts running
together. Few important functional aspects of an ecosystem are: Biological diversity and
maintenance of stability

The numerical strength and biomass of organisms affect the functioning of ecosystem.
In ecosystems, the biotic communities usually contain a few common species represented by
a large number of individuals or by a large biomass and a comparatively large number of
individual species occurring in small numbers. Under stress conditions, the number of rare
species is usually reduced, and only a few species may survive and their frequency of
occurrence may be very high. As a rule, the total number of species in any ecosystem is
reduced under conditions of extreme stress, as found in arctic, antarctic and desert region
and so on.

A system is considered stable in the ecological sense if its structure and functions
remain more or less the same from year to year. A system with high species diversity and low
dominance is less productive but stable. On the other hand, a system with a community with
low species diversity and high dominance is more productive but unstable.

Exercise 3:
1. What are the different trophic structures of an ecosystem?
2. Why is a system with high species diversity and low dominance less productive but
more stable?

1.2.1 FOOD ACHAINS AND FOOD WEBS

F
or
ood chain is a series of groups of organisms called trophic levels, in which, there is
repeated eating and eaten by so as to transfer food energy".

"
The series of populations or organisms of an ecosystem through which food and
energy contained in it passes with each member becoming the food of the later is called a
food chain". For example;

a) Food chain observed in a river:

b) Food chain observed in a grassland:

The transfer of food energy from plant sources through a series of organisms forms a
'food chain'. The base of the food chain is always formed by a plant (producer / autotroph),
which is grazed on by a herbivore, which is predated over by a carnivore, which may be
eaten by another carnivore. A food chain, can therefore, be represented as,

Producer Herbivore Carnivore 1 Carnivore 2

Where each link represent a Trophic Level.

Characteristic of a FOOD CHAIN

In a food chain,

a) there is repeated eating in which each group eats the smaller one and is eaten by the
larger one. Thus, it involves a nutritive interaction between the biotic components of an
ecosystem.

b) the plants and animals which depend successively on one another form the limbs of a food
chain.

c) there is unidirectional flow of energy from sun to producers and then to a series of
consumers of various types. Thus, a food chain is always straight and proceeds in a
progressing straight line.

d) usually 80 to 90% of potential energy is lost as heat at each transfer on the basis of
second law of thermodynamics (transformation of energy involves loss of unavailable
energy).

e) usually there are 4 or 5 trophic levels. Shorter food chains provide greater available energy
and vice - versa.

f) omnivores occupy more than one trophic level and, some organisms occupy different
trophic positions in different food chains.

In nature, food chain relationships are not isolated. They are very complex, as one
organism may form the food source of many organisms. Thus, instead of a simple linear food
chain, there is a web like structure formed by these interlinked food chains. Such
interconnected matrix of food chains is called 'food web'.

Food web can be defined as, "a network of food chains which are interconnected at
various trophic levels, so as to form a number of feeding connections amongst different
organisms of a biotic community". Food webs are indispensable in ecosystems as they allow
an organism to obtain its food from more than one type of organism of the lower trophic level.

Generally, a food web operates according to taste and food preferences of the
organism, yet availability of food source and other compulsions are equally important.
For example, tigers normally do not eat fish or crabs, but Sunderbans tigers are forced to
feed on them in the absence of their natural prey.

1.2.2 ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID

Ecological pyramids are also called 'Eltonian pyramids' after C. Elton. Charles Elton
(1927) developed the concept of ecological pyramids who noted that "…the animals at the
base of a food chain are relatively abundant while those at the end are relatively few in
number…" Ecological pyramids can be defined as, "a geographical representation of an
ecological parameter like number of individuals or amount of biomass or amount of energy
present in various trophic levels of a food chain with producer forming the base and top
carnivores at the tip".
Graphical representation of the trophic structure is done by drawing ecological pyramids,
where the basal, mid and top tiers show the parameter values for producers, herbivores and
carnivores in the ecosytsem.
 An ecological pyramid may be upright (tapering towards the tip), or inverted (widens
towards the tip) or spindle shaped (broader in the middle and narrow above and below).
On the basis of the parameters used, ecological pyramids are of three types.
 Pyramid of Numbers
- is the graphic representation of number of individuals per unit area of various trophic
levels stepwise with producers forming the base and top carnivores the tip".

 Pyramid of Biomass
- is the graphic representation of biomass present per unit area of different trophic
levels, with producers at the base and top carnivores at the tip".

 Pyramid of Energy
- is a graphic representation of the amount of energy trapped per unit time and area in
different trophic level of a food chain with producers forming the base and the top
carnivores at the tip".

Exercise 4:
1. Compare and contrast food web from food chain.
2. Why do food chains have only 4 to 5 links?
3. How are Ecological Pyramids different/similar from food chains?

Activity 2
Materials:
Magazines, newspapers, pictures, colored pens, markers or pencils
Short bond paper (cartolina or illustration board will do)
Paste and others adhesives
Rulers
Pair of scissors
Procedure:
1. Create a food web using the materials given. You could draw or make a
collage out of the materials whichever you prefer.
2. The Identify the different trophic levels of each organism involved in your
food web.