A Guide To ECOSYSTEM At Any Age

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ECOSYSTEM is the term used to describe the full array of creatures, plants, and other living things in a given habitat. For example, an ecosystem can be created by planting some tulips in your backyard and letting them grow to create a whole brand new environment for pollinating bees like family guy weed episodes.

1. The Ecological Niche

All organisms have a specific niche in the ecosystem they live in. A niche is an environment that is comfortable, enabling and necessary to carry out all of an organism’s life functions. For example, a polar bear needs to hunt seals in order for it to survive. A bee’s job as pollinator is dependent on its environment and the work it does. There are many different types of niches (ecosystems), such as:

– Terrestrial

– Fresh Water

– Brackish Water

– Marine

2. Population Ecology

Population ecology is the study of how populations grow, change and interact with one another. In a simplified breakdown of this theory, population ecology asks the questions: “Why do living things exist?” and “What proportion of each species is sustainable?” For example, if there are too many fish in a pond and they are eating all of the plants, naturally there will be a decrease in the amount of food available to support life within that ecosystem. If these fish are left unchecked, then they will eventually wipe out the plants within their environment. This would result in an imbalance in that ecosystem among other aquatic animals that rely on those plants for survival.

3. Community Ecology

Community ecology takes a macroscopic look at all of the species within a specific ecosystem or habitat. For example, an organism may live in a rainforest and be considered a part of that community. This organism has all the same responsibilities as any other living thing living in that rainforest. For example, it must eat, drink, procreate and live its life to fullest potential in order to survive. A community can also be called a biotic community. 

4. Food Pyramid

The food pyramid is an easy way to see how every organism fits into an ecosystem. This pyramid includes:

– Primary producers (plants): plants are the organisms that create energy from the sun which is broken down into food. This food is dispersed to all other organisms in the ecosystem by primary producers. 

– Secondary producers (animals): animals obtain their energy from plants and other secondary producers, then disperse their nutrients to each other. 

– Tertiary consumers (reptiles, insects and crustaceans): Tertiary consumers obtain energy by eating all types of organisms in the ecosystem. 

5. Mechanistic Ecology

Mechanistic ecology is the study of how every organism in an ecosystem works together to work towards their own individual goals. For example, if you’re studying an ecosystem like the one above and you notice a beetle with a leg that looks like it has been run over. This can be explained through mechanistic ecology by looking at the whole ecosystem and seeing all of the interactions between organisms within it. From this understanding, we can assume that this beetle’s leg was run over by a piece of wood because it influenced its motion. The wood, then, probably caused the beetle to walk into something that could have crushed its leg causing it to end up in this situation.

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6. Population Growth

Simply put, population growth is the increase in total population size. This can be measured as a function of time and space where x=population growth rate. The equation for this function is:

x = p(0) * e ^ r * t

Where p(0) is the initial population at time t = 0 (which will be referred to as t = 0 in this post). 

7. Energy Flow In Ecosystems

Energy flow in ecosystems is similar to the food pyramid but rather than representing the transfer of energy from one organism to another, it shows how any living thing gets its energy from an outside source and how that energy moves through the food chain within an ecosystem. The equation for this function is as follows:

E = C * A * I

Where E = Energy, C = Carbon, A = Oxygen, and I = Background Influx (energy entering the ecosystem).

8. Population Growth Rate

Population growth rate is the rate at which a population of organisms grows over time. The equation for this function is:

r=G / T  (where r = the population growth rate) G is the amount of time it takes for a population to double in size. T is time (in years). If we have an ecosystem with a total population of 100 people, after one year that’s 200 people in that system.

9. Thomas Malthus

Thomas Malthus was an economist that predicted a future where humans would never reach “carrying capacity” due to the population size increasing faster than the food supply. 

10. Carrying Capacity

Carrying capacity is the limit of organisms that a particular environment can support indefinitely. For example, in an ecosystem with two bears, if there are not enough berries and other food to sustain both of them, then only one bear will be able to get food each day and live comfortably. How ecosystems state their carrying capacity is through what has been determined as minimum viable population (MVP). MVP is defined as the smallest number of individuals that can be considered a meaningful population (e.g.: 100 polar bears).

Conclusion:

In conclusion, to be able to understand how the environment works and is ordered within itself, one must understand the concepts of ecology. Some of these concepts include: ecosystem, niche, population growth rate and carrying capacity. These are all vital parts of an ecosystem that make all organisms within it exist as they do today, which is also a result of ecological succession. From these foundations of ecology, we can eventually build more complex models to predict the future and conditions of our planet.

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