The Islamia University of Bahawalpur

Institute of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics

Course Title: Introduction to Biochemistry (Theory)

Foundation I: BCHM-01101(CH 2+1)
Class: BS 1st Biochemistry
Course Instructor: Dr. Adeela Naureen

Review of the Variety and Ecology of the Living World

Introduction to Ecology

Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each other and their environment. This
includes living things (biotic factors) and non-living things (abiotic factors).

Ecology is studied at many levels and has grown increasingly important as technological and
environment impacts have grown. We need to understand ecology so that we can design
sustainable methods that reduce negative impacts on biodiversity.

Biotic and abiotic factors

Ecosystems are influenced by both biotic and abiotic factors.

The prefix “a” means “without” and the root word “bio” means life, so abiotic is literally “without
life” or in other words, non-living and biotic means living or once living factor in an ecosystem.
Biotic factors include animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and protists. Some examples of abiotic
factors are water, soil, air, sunlight, temperature, and minerals.

Ecological levels: from individuals to ecosystems

Ecologists often work at five broad levels, sometimes discretely and sometimes with
overlap: organism, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere. All these terms
represent distinct ecological levels and are not synonymous, interchangeable terms. Here is a brief
guide to understand these ecological players.
From smallest to largest:

• Organism: Organismal ecologists study adaptations, beneficial features arising by natural

selection, that allow organisms to live in specific habitats. These adaptations can be
morphological, physiological, or behavioral.

You are an individual, your pet cat is an individual, a moose in Canada is an individual, a
coconut palm tree on an island is an individual, a gray whale in the Pacific Ocean is an
individual, and a tapeworm living in the gut of a cow is an individual, as is the cow itself
an individual. An individual is one organism and is also one type of organism (e.g., human,
cat, moose, palm tree, gray whale, tapeworm, or cow in our example). The type of organism
is referred to as the species. There are many different definitions of the word species, but
simply that it is a unique type of organism. The word “species” always ends in an “s”. Even
if you are referring to just one type of organism, one species, it is a species; there is no such
thing as a specie. That’s just one of those grammatical facts of life.
 Each species that has been studied and described by scientists has been given a two-part
name, their binomial or scientific name, that uniquely identifies it (e.g., humans = Homo
sapiens; domestic cats = Felis catus; moose = Alces alces; coconut palms = Cocos
nucifera; gray whales = Eschrichtius robustus; cow tapeworms = Taenia saginata; and
domestic cows = Bos taurus). The power or value of the scientific name is that it makes
clear what type of organism you are talking about. Since only one type of organism in the
entire world has that unique name, it makes for much clearer communication and
understanding than using common names.

• Population: A population is a group of organisms of the same species that live in the same
area at the same time. Population ecologists study the size, density, and structure of
populations and how they change over time.

Populations are geographically based; they live in a particular area. But the size or scale of
that area can be variable – we can talk about the human population in a city, a state, a
country or a hemisphere. Or we can talk about the population of palm trees on just one
island, or on all of the islands in a specific state, or all of the islands in the country. The
person studying or writing about the population gets to decide what scale to use, what is
most appropriate for what they want to study or explain.

Species are made up of populations. How many populations? It all depends. It depends on
how widespread the species is and how small or large the geographic area is. Some species
have very limited ranges or distributions, being restricted, for example, to a single island
or the top of a single mountain in the whole world. The single population on the island or
mountaintop makes up the entire species. Such populations are extremely vulnerable – if
anything happens to that one population, the entire species will be lost; the species will go
extinct. But many species are more widespread. There are populations of moose, for
example, in Minnesota, Alberta, Manitoba and other U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
If you want to know how many moose there are on Earth, you have to know the sizes of
all the different populations in all the different locations.

• Community: A biological community consists of all the populations of different species

that live in a given area. Community ecologists focus on interactions between populations
and how these interactions shape the community.

Why we use the term “in a given area?” because once again the scale is flexible, determined
by the person studying or writing about the community. We might be talking about the
community of all the organisms living in the very top of a single rainforest tree or of all the
trees in the forest. What’s most important about the community concept is that it involves
multiple populations of all the different species in the given area and how these species
interact with each other. Each of the populations is made up of individuals of a particular
species, and the individuals interact with each other – with members of their own species
 (e.g., fighting, grooming, mating, pollinating each other) and with individuals of other
species (e.g., hunting them for food, using them as a place to build a nest, growing on
them). Community ecologists study the populations in a given area and their interactions.

• Ecosystem: An ecosystem consists of all the biotic and abiotic factors that influence that
community. Ecosystem ecologists often focus on flow of energy and recycling of nutrients.

What’s the difference between communities and ecosystems? When you’re talking about
ecosystems, you’re not only looking at all the different populations and species in the given
area, but you’re also looking at the physical environment, the non-living or abiotic
conditions, and not just what they are, but how they impact the organisms, and in some
cases how the organisms impact the physical environment. For example, temperature and
rainfall patterns influence where different terrestrial species of plants and animals live;
some can survive dry desert conditions, others need the high rainfall found in rainforests.
But the forests themselves also influence temperature and rainfall patterns. For example,
on a hot summer day it is so much cooler and moist in the shade of a forest than out in the
open. And worms change the structure and composition of soil as they churn through it.

What size is an ecosystem? It depends on how big or small the scientist or author wants to
define it to be. It could be as small as your backyard, or Pond, or the entire Australian
outback. Different sizes or scales will be appropriate for different types of studies, reports
and policies. The scientist or author just needs to explain what the size is and why it is
appropriate.

• Biosphere: The biosphere is planet Earth, viewed as an ecological system. Ecologists

working at the biosphere level may study global patterns—for example, climate or species
distribution—interactions among ecosystems, and phenomena that affect the entire globe,
such as climate change.
The diagram above will hopefully help you visualize how the different ecological levels are related
to each other. Individuals make up a population; populations make up a species; multiple species
and their interactions make up a community; and multiple species and their interactions make up
ecosystems when you include the abiotic factors. This is the hierarchy of ecology.
Common mistakes and misconceptions

• Dead organisms are not abiotic. Some people think that if an organism is no longer alive,
it cannot be considered biotic. However, if something used to be alive, or was part of a
living organism (such as a bone, or hair), it is still considered biotic.

• Populations and communities are not the same. Although some people use those terms
interchangeably at times, in biology, these terms have specific meanings. Populations
consist of only one species in an area, while communities encompass multiple species.

• Some people think that the loss of a few species is not a big deal. However, this could
not be further from the truth! Biodiversity is crucial to the success of our planet because
each species, no matter how big or how small, has an important role to play.

In addition, a richer biodiversity allows organisms and ecosystems to adapt to environmental

change, and also offers many contributions to medicine and agriculture as well!

Key Terms
Reference:

https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/health/ephti/library/lecture_notes/env_health_scienc
e_students/LN_Ecology_final.pdf

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/high-school-biology/hs-ecology/hs-introduction-to-
ecology/a/hs-introduction-to-ecology-review