ORGANISMS & POPULATION

Introduction

✓ Ramdeo Misra is revered as the Father of Ecology in India. Born on 26 August 1908.
✓ Ramdeo Misra obtained Ph.D in Ecology (1937) under Prof. W. H. Pearsall, FRS, from Leeds University in UK.
✓ He established teaching and research in ecology at the Department of Botany of the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
✓ His research laid the foundations for understanding of tropical communities and their succession, environmental responses of plant
populations and productivity and nutrient cycling in tropical forest and grassland ecosystems.
✓ Misra formulated the first postgraduate course in ecology in India
✓ over 50 scholars obtained Ph. D degree under his supervision and moved on to other universities and research institutes to initiate
ecology teaching and research across the country.
✓ He was honoured with the Fellowships of the Indian National Science Academy and World Academy of Arts and Science, and the
prestigious Sanjay Gandhi Award in Environment and Ecology.
✓ Due to his efforts, the Government of India established the National Committee for Environmental Planning and Coordination (1972)
which, in later years, paved the way for the establishment of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (1984).
 ✓ Ecology – (Gk. Oikos – home , logos – study) – The branch of biology deals with the inter-
relationship among the organisms and interactions between organisms and their environment .
✓ Ecology is one such thread which gives us a holistic perspective to biology.
✓ A particular aspect of this is the study of anthropogenic environmental degradation and the socio-
political issues it has raised.
❖ LEVELS OF ORGANISATION
✓ Organisms: These are the basic units of study in ecology, focusing on their form, physiology,
behavior, distribution, and adaptations to environmental conditions.
✓ Population: A group of individuals of the same species living in a specific area.
✓ Biological Community: An assemblage of populations of different species in an area, showing
interdependence and interactions like competition, predation, and host-parasite relationships,
amensalism etc.
✓ Ecosystem: Composed of a biological community integrated with its physical environment through
energy exchange and nutrient recycling.
✓ Landscape: A unit of land with a natural boundary containing various ecosystems.
✓ Biome: A large regional unit defined by a major vegetation type and associated fauna within a
specific climatic zone. Ex -tropical rainforests, deserts, grasslands, forests, tundra, and aquatic
biomes
✓ Biosphere: The life-supporting zone encompassing all of Earth's terrestrial and aquatic biomes.
✓ A population can be defined as a group of organisms of one species occupying a defined geographical area ,share
or compete for similar resources and potentially interbreed and usually isolated to some degree from other similar
groups.
✓ Although the term interbreeding implies sexual reproduction, a group of individual resulting from even asexual
reproduction is also considered as population for the purpose of ecological studies.
✓ Following are the some examples of populations- all the cormorants in a wetland, rats in an abandoned dwelling,
teakwood trees in a forest tract, bacteria in a culture plate and lotus plants in a pond.
✓ Population area is very important in ecology as it links ecology to population genetics and evolution.
✓ Note:
✓ Deme: Local population (population fiving in a specific area at a particular time).
✓ Metapopulation: Whole set of local populations connected by dispersing individuals.
✓ Ecophene (Ecad): The phenotype variables due to fluctuation in environment. This range of variability shown by the
phenotypes is called phenotypic plasticity.
✓ Ecotype: Genetically adapted population.
✓ Ecoline: The intermediate form between two ecotypes is called ecoline
✓ Keystone Species: It is a species which though having a small population has a major influence on the composition
of the community because of its key role in maintaining the community structure through regulation of trophic level in
routine or during adverse conditions.
✓ Ecotone: It is the transition zone or overlapping zone between two communities.
✓ Edge effect: High diversity in the ecotone area is called edge effect and such diverse species are called edge
species
❖ Population density= Number of Individuals
Space

✓ The size of the population tells us a lot about its status in the habitat.
❖ Relative density of a sp.= Total Number of Individuals of sp. × 100
Total number of individual of all sp.
✓ An age pyramid is the graphical representation of the proportion of various age groups of a
population with pre-reproductive at the base, reproductive at the middle, and post-reproductive at
the top.
✓ Age group determines the type of population:
1.Growing or expanding populations- A very high proportion of pre-reproductive individuals
occur in such populations.
2. Mature or stable populations- the number of pre-reproductive individuals is almost equal
with reproductive individuals.
3.Declining populations- the number of pre-reproductive individuals is small.
✓ For the human population, the age pyramids generally show the age distribution of males and
females in a diagram.
From the above equation, we can observe that
✓ population size will increase if the number of (B + I) is the number of (D + E).
✓ population size will decrease if the number of (B + I) is the number of (D + E).
✓ Vital index = B × 100
D
✓ The graphic pattern obtained when population growth is plotted against time is called
population growth forms.
✓ There are two types of population growth forms:
1. Exponential or J-shaped
2.Logistic or S-shaped
J-shaped growth form has three phases-
✓ Establishment phase (lag phase)- In this phase, there
is a small rise in population.
✓ Exponential phase- The population size increases
rapidly and grows much beyond its carrying capacity (K).
✓ Crash phase- After a point due to competition, the
population declines suddenly due to mass-scale deaths.
✓ A species growing exponentially under unlimited
resource conditions can reach enormous population
densities in a short time.
✓ Darwin showed that even a slow-growing animal like an
elephant could reach enormous numbers in the absence
of checks.
✓ A population growing in a habitat with limited
resources shows four phases-
✓ a lag phase,
✓ phase of acceleration (increasing population)
✓ phase of deceleration (decreasing population)
✓ an asymptote when the population density
reaches the carrying capacity (K).
Life History Variation

✓ Populations evolve to maximize their reproductive fitness, also called Darwinian fitness (high r-value), in the
habitat in which they live.
✓ Under a particular set of selection pressures, organisms evolve towards the most efficient reproductive
strategy.
✓ Breeding: Some organisms breed only once in their lifetime (Pacific salmon fish, bamboo), while others
breed many times during their lifetime (most birds and mammals).
✓ Offsprings: Some produce a large number of small-sized offspring (Oysters, pelagic fishes), while others
produce a small number of large-sized offsprings (birds, mammals).
✓ Ecologists suggest that life-history traits of organisms have evolved in relation to the constraints imposed by
the abiotic and biotic components of the habitat in which they live.
✓ The concept of r-Strategists and k-strategists links population dynamics to life history.
✓ r-selection favors rapid reproduction and high offspring numbers in unstable, unpredictable environments,
✓ K-selection favors slower reproduction, fewer offspring, and greater parental investment in stable,
predictable environments
 Population Interactions
✓ No natural habitat on earth is inhabited just by a single species.
✓ For any species, the minimal requirement is one more species on which it can feed.
✓ Even a plant species, which makes its own food, cannot survive alone.
✓ It needs soil microbes to break down the organic matter in soil and return the inorganic nutrients for
absorption.
✓ Plants need an animal agent for pollination.
✓ Animals, plants, and microbes do not and cannot live in isolation but interact in various ways to form a
biological community.
✓ Different species are dependent on each other for survival and so they interact.
✓ Different populations interact differently.
✓ Interspecific interactions arise from the interaction of populations of two different species.
✓ They could be beneficial, detrimental, or neutral (neither harm nor benefit) to one of the species or both.
✓ A ‘+’ sign for beneficial interaction, a ‘-’ sign for detrimental, and ‘0’ for neutral interaction are usually
assigned.
✓ Based on the nature of interactions, we can classify them into the following categories:
❖ Mutualism (+ , +)

✓ Mutualism is an interaction between two organisms of different species

where both partners benefit and help each other in survival.
✓ Examples- lichens, mycorrhiza, cellulose digestion in animals, seed
dispersal, etc.
✓ 1. Lichens - An intimate mutualistic relationship between a fungus
(provides water, minerals, and shelter) and photosynthesizing algae
(provides food) or cyanobacteria.

✓ 2 .Mycorrhizae - Associations between fungi and the roots of higher

plants.
The fungi help the plant in absorption of essential nutrients from the
soil while the plant, in turn, provides the fungi with energy-yielding
carbohydrates.
3.Termites and cellulose digesting protozoa
✓ Termites feed on the dead wood. They depend on cellulose
digesting flagellates like Trichonympha campanula to provide
the enzymes to digest wood.
✓ These protozoa would die outside of the termite, and the
termite would starve if it did not have the protozoa to aid in
digestion.
4. Plant-animal relationships
✓ Plants need the help of animals for pollinating their flowers
(entomophilous flowers) and dispersing their seeds.
✓ Plants offer rewards or fees in the form of pollen and nectar for
pollinators and juicy and nutritious fruits for seed dispersers.
✓ This mutually beneficial system should also be safeguarded against
‘cheaters’, for example, some animals try to steal nectar without
helping in pollination.
✓ Plant-animal interactions often involve co-evolution of the mutualists,
i.e., the evolution of the flower and its pollinator species are tightly
linked with one another.
Fig and wasps
✓ In many species of fig trees, there is a tight one-to-one relationship
with the pollinator species of wasp.
✓ It means that a given fig species can be pollinated only by its
‘partner’ wasp species and no other species.
✓ The female wasp uses the fruit not only as an oviposition (egg-
laying) site but uses the developing seeds within the fruit for
nourishing its larvae.
✓ The wasp pollinates the fig inflorescence while searching for
suitable egg-laying sites.
✓ In return for the favor of pollination, the fig offers the wasp some of
its developing seeds, as food for the developing wasp larvae.
 Orchid and bee
✓ Orchids show a bewildering diversity of floral patterns.
✓ Many have evolved to attract the right pollinating insect (bees and bumblebees)
and ensure guaranteed pollination by it.
✓ Not all orchids offer rewards.
✓ The Mediterranean orchid Ophrys employs ‘sexual deceit’ to get pollination
done by a species of bee. One petal of its flower bears an uncanny
resemblance to the female of the bee in size, color and markings.
✓ The male bee is attracted to what it perceives as a female, ‘pseudo copulates’
with the flower, and is dusted with pollen from the flower.
✓ When this same bee ‘pseudo copulates’ with another flower, it transfers pollen
to it and thus, pollinates the flower.
✓ This is how co-evolution operates.
✓ If the female bee’s color patterns change even slightly for any reason during
evolution, pollination success will be reduced, unless the orchid flower co-
evolves to maintain the resemblance of its petal to the female bee.
❖ Competition (- , -)

✓ It is a rivalry between two or more organisms for obtaining the same resources.
✓ It can be of two types:
✓ Darwin was convinced that interspecific competition is a potent force in organic evolution in the struggle for
existence and survival of the fittest.
✓ It is generally believed that competition occurs when closely related species compete for the same resources
that are limiting, but this is not entirely true.
✓ Firstly, totally unrelated species also compete for the same resources (Interspecific competition).
✓ For instance, in some shallow South American lakes visiting flamingoes and resident fishes compete for their
common food, the zooplankton in the lake.
✓ Secondly, resources need not be limiting for competition to occur.
✓ In interference competition, the feeding efficiency of one species might be reduced due to the interfering and
inhibitory presence of the other species, even if resources (food and space) are abundant.
✓ Therefore, competition is best defined as a process in which the fitness of one species (measured in terms of
its ‘r’, the intrinsic rate of increase) is significantly lower in the presence of another species.
✓ Principle of competitive exclusion

✓ Gause found that when two species of

Paramecium (P. aurelia and P. caudatum) are
grown together, one is eliminated.
✓ Two species competing for the same resources
cannot co-exist.
✓ A competitively inferior one will be eliminated
eventually if resources are limited.
Competitive release

✓ If a species is restricted to a small geographical area because of the

presence of a competitively superior species, it is found to expand its
distributional range dramatically when the competing species is
experimentally removed.
✓ Connell’s field experiments showed that on the rocky sea coasts of
Scotland, the larger and competitively superior barnacle Balanus
dominates the intertidal area
✓ It excludes the smaller barnacle Chthamalus from that zone.
✓ However, if the population of Balanus is reduced, competition is
released and Chthamalus increases in number.
✓ This phenomenon is called competitive release.
✓ Darwin found 14 species of finches to coexist in
Galapagos Islands due to the development of
different feeding habits.
✓ Several plants can grow together by sending their
roots to various lengths.
✓ Different species of animals can live together in the
same area by feeding on different organisms, e.g.,
lions and leopards, which occupy the same niche but
lions predate mostly larger animals and leopards on
smaller ones.
✓ Therefore, competition does not always result in the
extinction of species but causes the development of a
larger number of niches.
 ❖ Predation (+, -)
✓ Predation is a biological interaction where one organism─ the
predator, kills and eats another organism─ its prey.
✓ With the terms predator and prey, usually animals come to mind, but
a sparrow eating any seed is also a predator.
✓ Animals eating plants are categorized separately as herbivores,
however, in a broad ecological context, they are not very different
from predators.
❖ Importance of Predation

1.Transfer of energy
✓ Predation is nature’s way of transferring to higher trophic levels the energy fixed by plants.
✓ Predators act as ‘conduits’ for energy transfer across different trophic levels.
3.Maintaining species diversity
✓ It is done by
i.reducing interspecific competition in a
community,
ii. reducing the intensity of competition among
competing prey species.

❖ Why are predators ‘prudent’?

• If a predator is too efficient and over-exploits
its prey, then the prey might become extinct.
• Predators will also become extinct for lack of
food. That is why predators in nature are
‘prudent’.
• Prey species have evolved defense
mechanisms to lessen the impact of predation.
✓ Some animals are poisonous
and therefore avoided by the
predators, e.g., Snakes.
For plants,
✓ herbivores are the predators.
✓ Nearly 25 percent of all insects are
known to be phytophagous (feeding
on plant sap and other parts of
plants).
✓ The problem is particularly severe for
plants because, unlike animals, they
cannot run away from their predators.
✓ Plants, therefore, have evolved an
astonishing variety of morphological
and chemical defenses against
herbivores.
 4. Parasitism (+ , -)
✓ It is a relationship between two organisms, in which one organism─ the parasite, thrives at the cost of the other─ the
host.
✓ Many parasites have evolved to be host-specific (they can parasitize only a single species of the host) in such a way
that both host and the parasite tend to co-evolve.
✓ If the host evolves special mechanisms for rejecting or resisting the parasite, the parasite has to evolve mechanisms
to counteract and neutralize them in order to be successful with the same host species.
 Adaptations of a parasite
✓ Loss of unnecessary sense organs
✓ Presence of adhesive organs like hooks or suckers to cling
on to the host
✓ Loss of digestive system
✓ High reproductive capacity
✓ The life cycle of parasites is often complex, involving one
or two intermediate hosts or vectors to facilitate the
patriotization of its primary host.
✓ The human liver fluke (a trematode parasite) depends on
two intermediate hosts (a snail and a fish) to complete its
life cycle.
✓ The malarial parasite needs a vector (mosquito) to spread
to other hosts.
✓ The majority of the parasites harm the host; they may
reduce the survival, growth, and reproduction of the host
and reduce its population density.
✓ They might render the host more vulnerable to predation
by making it physically weak.
❖ Commensalism (+, 0)
• It is the interaction in which one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor benefited.
• Examples- Barnacles grow on the back of a whale benefit (shelter) while the whale does not derive any
apparent benefit.
❖ Amensalism (- , 0)
✓ Amensalism is an interaction between two individuals of different species in which an
organism does not allow another organism to grow or live near it.
✓ Inhibition is achieved through the secretion of chemicals called allochemics.
✓ For the commercial production of antibiotics, these types of interactions are very
useful.
✓ Examples- Penicillium does not allow the growth of Staphylococcus bacteria.
✓ Convolvulus arvensis is a common weed that inhibits the germination and growth of
wheat.
✓ Black walnut produces a chemical named juglone. It is toxic to apples, tomatoes, and
Alfalfa. The phenomenon of inhibiting the growth of other organisms through the
secretion of toxic chemicals is known as allelopathy.