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Overview of Ecology

Overview of Ecology. Ecology: Study of relationships between organisms and the environment. Environment: the circumstances or conditions surrounding an organism. Ecosystem: Includes all organisms living in an area, and the physical environment with which these organisms interact.

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Overview of Ecology

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  1. Overview of Ecology • Ecology: Study of relationships between organisms and the environment. • Environment: the circumstances or conditions surrounding an organism. • Ecosystem: Includes all organisms living in an area, and the physical environment with which these organisms interact. • Biosphere: Highest level of ecological organization.

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  4. Nature and Scope of Ecology • Ecology: Study of relationships between organisms and the environment. • Wide variety of approaches. • Large temporal and spatial scales. • Field • Lab • Observational • Manipulative

  5. Some fields of ecology • Molecular Ecology • Physiological Ecology • Behavioral Ecology • Landscape Ecology • Restoration Ecology • Human Ecology

  6. ESA Journal Assignment • Go to the Ecological Society of America • Click “science resources”, then “publications” • Choose an volume of Ecology • Click Ecology • Click “current issue” • Click “available issues” • Click to open an Ecology volume’s table of content. • Print & count the numbers of articles by these catagories: • Individual, population, community, etc… • Predation, competition, dispersal, energy flow, etc… • Plants, animals (vertebrate or invertebrate), microbes. • Terrestrial (land & soil) or aquatic (any water) • Hand-in the Table of Contents indicating journal volume and your breakdown of each (due Thurs, Jan 25th).

  7. http://info.hartwick.edu/biology/def_frogs/Index.html • 1.  Identify a problem (for example, lamp does not work) • 2.  List possible explanations (alternative hypotheses) based on your previous experience (what you already know);  note:  all of these hypotheses must be testable (no demons allowed!) • 3.  Pick the most likely hypothesis (or the easiest one to test);  this is called the "rule of maximum parsimony" (for example, the bulb is burned out) • 4.  Make predictions based on the hypothesis:  "if this hypothesis is true, then the lamp should work when I replace the bulb" • 5.  Test the hypothesis by determining if the prediction is true:  make an observation or do an experiment (for example, replace the bulb) • 6.  Move on to test alternative hypotheses if your first one fails the test. • 7.  Repeat until you are convinced that you have identified the most likely hypothesis (publish!)

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