BIOL1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Bush Tucker, Tropical And Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests, Biogeography
BIOL1003: Module 4 – Ecology
Lecture 1 – Introduction to Ecology
Ecology: The study of the interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of
organisms
• Can be studied at many levels: see textbook fig 52.2
o Organism (single member of a single organism)
o Population (one type of organism)
• Within species
o Community (several types of organisms)
• Other organisms
o Ecosystem/landscape
• Place and climate
o Global/biosphere
• Ver important to define what scale people are studying at, because there is a great overlap
between each level
Fundamental ecological questions:
• Where do we find organisms?
o What are they there and how many?
• What are they doing there?
o Their role and what keeps them there?
• How is it that they are successful in that environment?
o Life histories and why they have fitness?
Mostly looking at colobus monkeys
Where
• Biogeography
o Distribution through place and time
• Biome
o Tropical forest, woodland forest, tropical rainforests, etc.
• Habitat (like address)
o Primary or secondary forests
What
• Role/niche
o What does the organism do?
o Ecosystem level
• Primary consumer, herbivore, competitor, mutualist, prey
How
• Life span
• What makes them a success
• Reproductive fitness
• Population dynamics
• Undisturbed populations are maintaining numbers/increasing
• Decreasing where hunted for bush food
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