ESCI 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Biotic Component, Soil Chemistry, Ecosystem Ecology
12 Sep 2018
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Document Summary
Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environments. The environment can be divided into two major components: abiotic and biotic. Abiotic component consists of nonliving chemical and physical factors. Biotic component consists of all living things. Ecology can be divided into four increasingly comprehensive levels. Organismal ecology: concerned with evolutionary adaptations that enable individual organisms to meet challenges. Population ecology: concerned with populations, groups of individuals of the same species living in the same area. Concentrates mainly on factors that affect population density and growth. Community ecology: concerned with communities, assemblages of populations of different species. Focuses on how interactions between species affect community structure and organization. Ecosystem ecology: concerned with ecosystems, which include all abiotic factors in addition to community of species in an area. Focuses on energy flow and the cycling of chemicals among the various abiotic and biotic factors. Fields of ecology and evolutionary biology are tightly linked.
