BIOEE 1610 Week 1

• Individual
• Population
• Community
• Ecosystem
• Biosphere

A single organism.

A group of individuals belonging to the same species.

Interacting populations of different species.

A community and its abiotic environment.

All life on earth and its support systems.

• Ecology is the scientific study of the processes influencing:
• The distribution and abundance of organisms.
• The interactions between organisms
• The transformations and fluxes of energy and matter.

Although there’s an intersection and most ecologists tend to be environmentalists, they’re not the same thing. Ecology is a field of biological science, whereas environmentalism is the concern and political action for the sake of the environment.

Experiments, models and observations

• These are studies conducted in the field. They measure existing patterns of variation.
• Pros: realistic, all ecological relations are present. Good starting point to identify correlations.
• Cons: Hard to identify a direct cause-result effect. May intervene in or harm ecosystems.

• These are studies done in a controlled setting (could be field or lab). Variables of interest are manipulated to compare response and control.
• Pros: Isolates cause and effect
• Cons: Not all abiotic and biotic relations present, which may deem experiment unrealistic. More subject to confirmation bias.

• Matched pair
• Control groups
• Repeated measures

• Ecological observation
• Posing a question
• Hypothesis generation
• Predictions based on hypothesis
• Experiment, observation or modeling
• Results
• Further experimentation or changing hypothesis

Must involve the study of individuals and their environments.

No. They both have trade-offs.