Introduction to Ecology

CERC Certificate Program

Columbia University

Session 4 – Ecosystem
Ecology
 Ecosystem Ecology
Goals for the day h
t
• Why is this field important? r ow
n G e s
• What is a ecosystem? t i o c i s
l a e r
p u E x
• Trophic Structure Po g y
… . h e l o
• Nutrient cycles a t and t food m o
webs
T h s s to
e cu E n
• Ecosystem
o r D i s
Processes i c
ef s s
t B e t’ r e n
•
B u Ecosystem
L Fengineers
o
n d
• Biomes a
• Global Changes
 Population Growth
Exercise
• What did you find?
– Describe the curves – what was
happening when?
– When would you get population
oscillations in the Logistic Model?
– Approximate K for humans?
 Forensic Entomology
1. Describe forensic entomology and degradative
succession. Why is this an example of it?
2. What can influence the dating of a murder and
how would they? Include at least one from
each of the following more general categories:
Timing, Location, and Chemically-related
factors.
3. How to use forensic entomology for the
conservation of animals or of ecosystems? 
 Succession Definitions
• Chronological
distribution of
organisms within
an area
• The sequence of
species within a
habitat or
community
through time
• Shared:
– Time
– Single area
Global Distribution of
Biodiversity

• Greatest in areas where NPP is greatest

– Terrestrial: toward Equator - Why?
– Aquatic: near shore, marine upwellings – Why?
 Ecosystem Ecology

• Why is this field important?

• What is a ecosystem?
• Trophic Structure
• Nutrient cycles and food webs
• Ecosystem Processes
• Ecosystem engineers
• Biomes
• Global Changes
 Uses for Ecosystem
Ecology

• Larger Scale phenomena

– Greater geographic range
– More factors
– Ranging from local to global in scope
• Decreased certainty with increasing
scales
• Focus of international agencies
 Ecosystem Ecology
Goals for the day
• Why is this field important?
• What is a ecosystem?
• Trophic Structure
• Nutrient cycles and food webs
• Ecosystem Processes
• Ecosystem engineers
• Global Changes
 Definition of an
Ecosystem
• Properties?
• A system where populations of species
group together into communities and
interact with each other and the abiotic
environment.
• The entire biological & physical content
of a biotope
– the smallest geographical unit that can be
delimited by convenient boundaries
= +
 Ecosystem Ecology
Goals for the day
• Why is this field important?
• What is a ecosystem?
• Trophic Structure
• Nutrient cycles and food webs
• Ecosystem Processes
• Ecosystem engineers
• Global Changes
 Trophic Structure

• Definition:
– Feeding relationships among the
species
– Within a food web/chain
– Within a single ecosystemfood web

food
chain
 Trophic Structure
• Influenced by resource availability
– Both biotic and abiotic
• More productive areas tend to have greater
trophic diversity (as well as species diversity –
NPP example)
• Connectivity
– Degree and number of associations between species
– What type of species is likely to have the greatest
level of connectivity in the community?
 Bottom Up vs. Top
Down Control
• What biotic factor determines organismal
abundance at each trophic level?
Top Down?

Answer:
Depends
on
ecosystem
& species
compositio
Bottom Up?
 Trophic Structure
• Should this be in this lecture?
• Many would argue not
– Why not?
– On what are these folks placing greater
emphasis? food web

food
chain
 Trophic Structure
• Influenced by resource availability
– Both biotic and abiotic
• More productive areas tend to have greater
trophic diversity (as well as species diversity –
NPP example)
• Connectivity
– Degree and number of associations between species
– What type of species is likely to have the greatest
level of connectivity in the community?
 Ecosystem Ecology
Goals for the day
• Why is this field important?
• What is a ecosystem?
• Trophic Structure
• Nutrient cycles and food webs
• Ecosystem Processes
• Ecosystem engineers
• Biomes
• Global Changes
 Nutrient Cycles
• How would nutrient cycles tie in with
food webs?
– Is there anything that is being recycled
here?
Stages in Nutrient
Cycles
Unassimilated

Biomass

Biomass

Biomass

Biomass

Necromass
 Materials Cycled
• Nutrients
– Carbon
– Hydrogen
– Nitrogen
– Oxygen
– Phosphorus
– Sulfur
• Energy?
– Is energy cycled?
 Energy
• Does energy
cycle? Predator
• What defines a
cycle?
Herbivore

• Is energy lost /
gained in an
ecosystem? Producers
– How is it lost?
– How is it gained?
 Energy vs. Nutrients
• Nutrients cycle
– Conservation of material
– A lot of new material does not
generally enter an ecosystem

• Energy flows
Predator
– A one-way movement of
energy through an ecosystem Herbivore
– Energy originates by
gathering solar energy
Producers
– Energy lost through growth
and metabolism
 Ecosystem Ecology
Goals for the day
• Why is this field important?
• What is a ecosystem?
• Trophic Structure
• Nutrient cycles and food webs
• Ecosystem Processes
• Ecosystem engineers
• Biomes
• Global Changes
 Ecosystem Processes
• Types?
• Examples:
– Water purification
– Decomposition
– Biomass production
– Nutrient cycling
– Carbon sequestration
• An emergent property
at the level of ecosystem
 Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Processes
  Biodiversity   ecosystem
processes
– Why so?
• Trophic redundancy
– Have multiple species at the same trophic
level
– Performing similar ecological roles
– Could lose a few species without major
changes
 Ecosystem Ecology
Goals for the day
• Why is this field important?
• What is a ecosystem?
• Trophic Structure
• Nutrient cycles and food webs
• Ecosystem Processes
• Ecosystem engineers
• Biomes
• Global Changes
 Ecosystem Engineers
• Species that create novel ecosystems and
habitats
• Examples?
• Anything that significantly modifies the
environment
– Pigs in Hawaii
– Peccaries in Brazil
– Beavers in Northeast
– Humans everywhere
– Prominent successional species?
 Engineering Questions
• Can we substitute species as ecosystem
engineers?
– Are cows good bison substitutes?
– Argument for introducing cattle on Midwest
rangeland

• Are these just keystone species?

– What do you think?
 Ecosystem Ecology
Goals for the day
• Why is this field important?
• What is a ecosystem?
• Trophic Structure
• Nutrient cycles and food webs
• Ecosystem Processes
• Ecosystem engineers
• Biomes
• Global Changes
 Biomes
• Definition:
• From Dictionary.com:
– A major regional or global biotic
community
– Chiefly characterized by the
dominant forms of plant life and
the prevailing climate
• Examples:
– Eastern Deciduous Forest, Arctic
Tundra, Grasslands, etc.
 Ecological Pyramid
• Trends down pyramid:
Population
– Increase in geographic scale
Community
– From single species to
multiple species e s
om Ecosystem
Bi
o
e d
– Increasing number of
e
ecologicalr factors that may Biome
Wh
be influential
?
Fi t
– Decreasing certainty in Biosphere
results
 Ecosystem Ecology
Goals for the day
• Why is this field important?
• What is a ecosystem?
• Trophic Structure
• Nutrient cycles and food webs
• Ecosystem Processes
• Ecosystem engineers
• Biomes
• Global Changes
 Global Changes
• What processes are at work at present in
the planet?
• Examples
– Global Climate Change
– Acid Rain
– Spread of Pollution and Toxins
– Spread of Biotic Pollution
• How are these occurring?
– What is the generative force behind them?
 Global Change Cause
• What is the
Generative Force
behind these
changes?

US!
 Human Impact
• We have altered nearly all of the Earth
that it is profitable for us to do so
Next Week: The Tour of
Ecology Concludes
• Population ecology

• Community ecology

• Ecosystem ecology

• Conservation Issues
– Next week’s
emphasis
– Is there any hope for
the future?