What Is Ecology?: What Does Ecology Have To Do With Me?

What Is Ecology?
What does ecology have to do with me?

Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including
humans, and their physical environment; it seeks to understand the vital
connections between plants and animals and the world around them. Ecology
also provides information about the benefits of ecosystems and how we can
use Earth’s resources in ways that leave the environment healthy for future
generations.
Who are Ecologists?

Ecologists study these relationships among organisms and habitats of many
different sizes, ranging from the study of microscopic bacteria growing in a
fish tank, to the complex interactions between the thousands of plant, animal,
and other communities found in a desert.
Ecologists also study many kinds of environments. For example, ecologists

may study microbes living in the soil under your feet or animals and plants in
a rain forest or the ocean.
The Role of Ecology in Our Lives
The many specialties within ecology, such as marine, vegetation, and

statistical ecology, provide us with information to better understand the world
around us. This information also can help us improve our environment,
manage our natural resources, and protect human health. The following
examples illustrate just a few of the ways that ecological knowledge has
positively influenced our lives.
Common Terms
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is any geographic area that includes all of the organisms and
nonliving parts of their physical environment. An ecosystem can be a natural
wilderness area, a suburban lake or forest, or a heavily used area such as a
city. The more natural an ecosystem is, the more ecosystem services it
provides. These include cleansing the water (wetlands and marshes) and air
(forests), pollinating crops and other important plants (insects, birds, bats),
and absorbing and detoxifying pollutants (soils and plants).
Biodiversity
Short for biological diversity, biodiversity is the range of variation found

among microorganisms, plants, fungi, and animals. Some of this variation is
found within species, such as differences in shapes and colors of the flowers of
a single species of plants. Biodiversity also includes the richness of species of
living organisms on earth.
Environment
Natural Resources
Natural Resources
Natural resources are living and nonliving materials in the environment that
are used by humans. There are two types: renewable (wildlife, fish, timber,
water) and nonrenewable (fossil fuels and minerals).
Population
A group of individuals belonging to one species (of bacteria, fungi, plant, or
animal) living in an area.
Community
Populations of organisms of different species that interact with one another.
Source:Ecological Society of America
Why Live in Groups
There are several major disadvantages to living in groups:
1. Greater competition for food, mates, sleeping sites, and water.
2. Increase parasite and disease load.
There is an incidental reason why some animals live in groups. Concentrated

valuable resources attract individuals. E.g., birds don't nest on cliffs because
they benefit by being in a group. They nest together because they are
attracted by a scarce resource: cliffs.
How do individuals benefit by living in groups?
1. Cooperative food collection. Wolves hunt together. By doing

so each can more easily track and take down large game. Although the
individual has to share meat, each still benefits from group hunting. Group
hunting is less important in primates. Chimps hunt some but meat is not a
major part of their diets. Group hunting is important in many human
societies, however.
2. Sleeping together to conserve warmth. This explains

why individuals form groups at night but it does not explain why groups are
maintained during the day.
3. Shared information. By forming groups, individuals can

exchange critical information (reciprocity). For example, frugivores let each
other know where fruit trees are located.
4. Protection from predators. There are three reasons why an

individual may live in group to avoid predation.
a.Cooperative defense against predators .

Several baboon males can deter a hyena but a solitary baboon will become
prey.
b.Selfish herd . To buffer themselves from predators sheep form

herds, fish swim in schools, and birds fly in flocks. Predators can't eat an
entire group. An individual lives in a group so as to get someone else between
them and a predator. Safety in numbers. This reason is called the selfish herd
because, obviously, individuals want to be in the central core of a group, not
on the periphery.
Cooperative defense against other groups
c.
of your species. Some primates form groups and defend valuable
resources, such as fruit-trees, against groups of their own species. Chimp
groups defend fruit-trees.
Source University of Missouri-Columbia
FORAGING
Foraging is fundamental to the lives of animals. Without food, life is short and
unproductive. As in other aspects of their lives, animals employ tacticss and
strategies for finding their food. Choice of tactics is driven by the type of food and
the defenses it presents. Strategies are probably best explained by optimal foraging
theory, although this theory is controversial. Foraging in groups, or social foraging, is
a key element for many animals; it may surprise you to learn that social foraging is
not always the result of natural selection for cooperative behavior. Do the demands
of foraging select for "intelligence" in certain animals? This question is interesting
but difficult to answer.
Foraging tactics
Both herbivores and carnivores employ specific srategies to bring them to their food. Generally a
foraging animal exhibits several stages in its search for food.
The first stage is a generalized search for appropriate habitat. For example, deer may have
learned, or instinctively know, that richer forage is found near streams and rivers. Black-footed
ferrets seek out prairie dog towns, where they will find their preferred prey. The second stage is a
search strategy to find the actual food items. Searching strategies can be divided into two basic
types:
 sit and wait, which is exemplified by orb-web building spiders and by

certain snakes, such as rattlesnakes and,
 active searching, such as the hunting behavior of coyotes, dragonflies, and
bats, and the foraging behavior of ungulates
Optimal foraging theory
Optimal foraging models attempt to predict the behavior of an animal while it searches for food,
a nesting site, or other key niche components. The outcome of the models predicts both how
individuals move in the environment and how individuals are distributed in the environment.
Because foraging for food is the initiation of an interspecific interaction, optimal foraging
models are frequently expanded and incorporated in population models that reflect the effects of
herbivory, predation, or parasitism.
This area of behavioral ecology has been highly controversial because there are
many reasons to believe that empirically animals either can't or don't optimize their
foraging behavior.

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What Is Ecology?

What does ecology have to do with me?

Who are Ecologists?

Ecologists also study many kinds of environments. For example, ecologists

The Role of Ecology in Our Lives

The many specialties within ecology, such as marine, vegetation, and

Short for biological diversity, biodiversity is the range of variation found

1. Greater competition for food, mates, sleeping sites, and water.

2. Increase parasite and disease load.

There is an incidental reason why some animals live in groups. Concentrated

How do individuals benefit by living in groups?

1. Cooperative food collection. Wolves hunt together. By doing

2. Sleeping together to conserve warmth. This explains

3. Shared information. By forming groups, individuals can

4. Protection from predators. There are three reasons why an

a.Cooperative defense against predators .

b.Selfish herd . To buffer themselves from predators sheep form

Source University of Missouri-Columbia

 sit and wait, which is exemplified by orb-web building spiders and by

Optimal foraging theory

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