Geography
Interaction between Environment and Biota
The interaction between environment and biota refers to the dynamic relationship between living organisms and their surrounding environment. This includes the ways in which biota, such as plants and animals, adapt to and modify their environment, as well as how the environment influences the distribution and behavior of biota. This interaction is a fundamental concept in understanding ecosystems and biodiversity.
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12 Key excerpts on "Interaction between Environment and Biota"
eBook - PDF- Peter Cotgreave, Irwin Forseth(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
1.2.1 Interacting with the environment One of the commonest descriptions of ecology is that it is the study of the interactions between organisms and their environments. The beauty of this definition is that it starts with the organism. Since all ecology is about organisms, and since evolution acts through the sur-vival and death of particular individuals, ecologists should never forget that their theories and experiments must be explained with reference to individual plants, animals, fungi or micro-organisms. The components of . . The diversity of life 3 an organism’s environment fall into two categories a the physical and the biological environments. The physical environment includes rocks, soils, rainwater, sunshine, minerals and pollution, while the biological environment includes an organism’s food, its parasites, its mate, its offspring and its competitors a all of the other organisms it ever encounters, whether they are of its own species or not. . . Fig. 1.2 Some ecological problems. (a) The giant panda, an endangered species. (Copyright John Cancalosi/Still Pictures.) (b) Erosion in the Peak District. (Courtesy of M.R. Ashman.) (c) The Rangitata River, New Zealand, in flood, January 1994. (Courtesy of G. Browne, Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences.) (a) (b) (c) 4 Chapter 1 Ecologists call the living, biological element of the environment the biotic environment and the physical element the abiotic environment. 1.2.1.1 A problem The drawback of this first definition of ecology is that it is very broad. In effect, every aspect of every organism involves an interaction with something. Walking, for example, is an interaction with the physical environ-ment, since it involves an animal creating friction with the ground. In other words, if ecologists were to take this definition too literally, they would end up studying every aspect of biology.
eBook - PDFEcology
Principles and Applications
- J. L. Chapman, M. J. Reiss(Authors)
- 1998(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Whether or not an organism can survive at all stages of its life in a particular environment is therefore of considerable importance in determining the distribution within habitats and the overall global range of individual species. Figure 9.2 summarises the complex interactions between the abiotic and biotic environments of an organism. Investigations of the components of the environ- ment and the responses of organisms play a crucial part in ecological study as they add to our under- standing of both the distribution of species and the structure of communities. 9.2 The physical environment 9.2.1 The composition of the physical environment The physical or abiotic environment experienced by an organism depends on several factors: geology (rock and soil types); topography (landscape); world location (latitudinal light and temperature varia- tions); climate and weather; and catastrophes (fire, earthquakes etc.). Some of these factors such as the geology and topography of an area are relatively sta- ble; they may be different at different places, but at any one site they will remain constant for periods of time much longer than the life of the organisms living there. Other factors, such as atmospheric con- ditions including humidity, wind speed, temperature and sunlight, will be very variable at one locality from one day or year to the next. Such abiotic factors will also change throughout the day and night, so that an organism, however short its life span, will have to live through changes in the environment. 9.2.2 Geology and soil The different rock types which form the geology of an area are the product of many long and complicated processes. These include the effects of the movements of whole continents by a process called plate tecton- ics (see Section 18.2), igneous activity such as volcanos, the accumulation of sediments and erosion of rocks. Figure 9.3 shows how complex the pattern produced by these processes can be.
- Kiran Abasaheb More(Author)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Delve Publishing(Publisher)
ECOLOGY 1 CONTENTS 1.1: Introduction ........................................................................................ 2 1.2: Biotic Factors in an Ecosystem ............................................................ 5 1.3: Abiotic Factors in an Ecosystem .......................................................... 7 1.4: Types of Ecology ................................................................................. 9 1.5: Importance of Ecology ...................................................................... 20 CHAPTER Ecological Studies in Environmental Science: New Insights and Perspectives 2 1.1: INTRODUCTION Ecology is a branch of biology that examines the relationships that exist between living things and the environments in which they live. The field of research known as biophysics investigates the relationships that exist between living things and the physical world around them. In this particular biophysical environment, it is possible to identify both biotic and abiotic components. The study of how organisms interact with their respective environments is known as ecology. Ernst Haeckel, a physicist from Germany, is credited with first using the word in 1866. It is possible to trace its roots back to the Greek language. Oikos is the term that is used for “home” in Greek, whereas logos is the word that is used for “school.” In a biophysical environment, everything is related to everything else and impacts everything else in some way. In the natural world, there are many different kinds of systems, and these systems all interact with one another to form ecosystems. As a consequence of this, the ecosystem may be thought of as a location. Figure 1.1: Ecology: the example is for CO2 analysis. Source: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index. php?curid=2109652 When all of the species in a region collaborate, they have the potential to create an environment that is not just consistent but also favorable to the existence of life.
eBook - ePubBiogeography
A Study of Plants in the Ecosphere
- Joy Tivy(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
The first is the intimate interrelationship between the organic and inorganic elements of the earth’s environment; the character of the biosphere is primarily a product of the continual interaction or interchange between the lithosphere and the atmosphere. The second is the reciprocal relationship between humans and the biosphere. On the one hand the latter provides the vital link between man and his physical environment; and despite the advances of modern science and technology man is still, whether he realises or likes it, completely dependent on the biosphere for his food. On the other hand, because of an ability, greater than that possessed by any other form of life, to exploit organic resources he is not only an integral part of the biosphere but is now the ecologically dominant organism in it. The significance of biogeography is particularly well expressed by the ecologist M.G. Lemée (1967: 4) in Précis de Biogégraphie, when he states: C’est [la biogégraphie] aussi une science géographique, car elle tend à établir les rapports avec des peuplements végétaux et animaux avec les autres grandes phénomènes géomorphologie, sols, activités humaines, pour atteindre â une vue synthétique des aspects de la surface du Globe. Pour le géographe la connaissance de la partie vivante du paysage intervient comme un élément de première importance de ce complex, car liée aux autres éléments par d’étroites relations mutuelles, elle constitue un indicateur très sensible des caractères du milieu géographique. However, the definition and, hence, the delimitation of the scope of biogeography varies dependent on whether or not the aim or point of view has been primarily biological or geographical and on the role accorded to man in the study of the biosphere. Until relatively recendy ecologists tended to regard humans as an important but ‘unnatural’ elements in the environment of plants and animals
eBook - PDF- Andrew S. Pullin(Author)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
The ecosystem concept An ecosystem is a community of living organisms together with the phys-ical processes that occur within an environment. All organisms are faced with environmental variables to cope with. These are usually divided into abiotic factors, including the broad climate and geology as well as specific factors such as temperature, water (rainfall and humidity), light, salinity, pressure and soil and water chemistry (pH and mineral content), and biotic factors, which are interactions with other organ-isms, including competition, predation, parasitism and symbiosis. Thus there are abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) components of an ecosys-tem, all potentially interacting to form a functioning unit, distinguish-able, although not isolated, from other ecosystems. The concept of the ecosystem is central to our understanding of the natural world. Ecological studies have shown how energy flows through ecosystems, from the capture of light energy by plants and conversion to the chemi-cal energy in sugars, to its passage through successive trophic levels and constant escape back into the environment (Fig. 2.1). Equally, we have learnt how nutrients and water are cycled from the atmosphere to the soil, through plants, animals, decomposers and back again; the intrica-cies of food webs and the interdependence of species in coevolved mutu-alisms (the evolution of relationships between species because of the benefit to both, e.g. pollinators and flowering plants); and how our eco-systems are shaped by the challenges of the abiotic environment. The study of the spatial distribution of species and habitats has led to the classification of the environments or ecosystem types we have on our planet in terms of the flora and fauna that prevail in them. This is most developed for terrestrial environments, but applies to aquatic ones as well. In this chapter we briefly review major world ecosystems.
eBook - PDFAgroecology
The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems, Third Edition
- Stephen R. Gliessman(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
To conceptualize biotic factors in ecological terms, we must enter an area of overlap between autecology and syn-ecology. Even though we begin from the perspective of the individual organism confronting an environment made up of various factors, we must deal with interactions between organisms when the factors we are concerned with are biotic. Despite their synecological origin, however, the concepts developed in this chapter to describe these interactions can be applied in an autecological way by considering interac-tions in terms of their impact on each individual organism in the agroecosystem. There are two basic frameworks for conceptualizing the interactions between organisms in a community or ecosys-tem; each has its respective advantages. Traditionally in ecology, interactions have been understood in terms of the effects that two interacting organisms have on each other. This framework is the basis for such foundational concepts as competition and mutualism. In agroecology, however, it is often more helpful to view interactions as deriving from the impact that organisms have on their shared environ-ment. Organisms remove substances from, alter, and even add substances to the areas they occupy, in the process changing the environmental conditions for themselves and other organisms. Thus each biotic factor that an individual organism faces can be understood as a modification of the environment created by another organism. Both of these frameworks, or perspectives, are explained in more detail in the succeeding text. ORGANISM–ORGANISM PERSPECTIVE A broadly accepted system for classifying interactions between organisms was developed by E. P. Odum (1971). This system has many useful applications and has served ecologists well in understanding the biotic environment. Interactions between two organisms of different species are seen as having either a negative effect (−), a positive effect (+), or a neutral effect (0) for each member in the interac-tion.
eBook - PDF- Khushboo Chaudhary, Pankaj Kumar Saraswat, Aniruddh Kumar Pareek(Authors)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Delve Publishing(Publisher)
Population Stabilization: Human birth rates have stabilized in most industrialized countries. Health: The incidence of life-threatening diseases has been reduced in most countries. Habitat Conservation: Deforestation has slowed & habitat protection has improved in some areas. Renewable Energy: Progress is being made in the transition to renewable energy sources. Freedom: Democracy is spreading around the world allowing local people to govern themselves. International Cooperation: helps solve global environmental problems An environmental management system brings together the people, policies, plans, review mechanisms, and procedures used to manage environmental issues at a facility or in an organization. Biotic factors are all of the living or once living things in an environment. Abiotic factors are all of the nonliving things in an environment. The interactions among living organisms such as plants and animals are called biotic factors, which may cause marked effects upon vegetation. The effects may be direct and indirect and modify the environment. The plants mostly live together in a community and influence one another. Similarly, animals in association with plants also affect plant life in one or several ways. The different interactions among them can be classified into the following two types they are positive interaction and negative interaction. Positive Interactions When one or both the participating species are benefited, it is positive interaction examples Mutualism and Commensalism. a. Mutualism: It is an interaction between two species of organisms in which both are benefitted from the obligate association. The following are common examples of mutualism. Environment- Environmental Management ond Control of Pollution... 127 Nitrogen fixation Rhizobium (Bacterium) forms nodules in the roots of leguminous plants and lives symbiotically.
eBook - PDFHuman Geography
People, Place, and Culture
- Erin H. Fouberg, Alexander B. Nash, Alexander B. Murphy, Harm J. de Blij(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
In this definition, the term “environment” includes both the natural world and the built environment (and is almost always limited to the environ- ment of Earth). In this chapter, we will consider the concept of “nature” as it has been taken up by geographers and as some- thing we consider separately from the built environment. Although the centrality of the environment to our very exis- tence may fade into the background as we go about our daily business, we are sharply reminded of its significance when we suffer through hurricanes, experience smog or high ultraviolet exposure, or pay higher prices for food or fuel. Conversely, we are becoming increasingly aware that our individual daily activities, from driving our cars to recycling to the temperature we set in our homes, have an impact on our environment. As geographers, we are interested in how human-nature relations can be considered in light of our five major themes— location, region, place, landscape, and movement. In this chapter, we begin by examining geographical approaches to thinking about or conceptualizing human-environment inter- relationships. Although these are often framed as “binary” relationships—that is, as an interconnection between two things (humans and nature)—we will soon see that the com- plexity of the human-nature relationship evades straightforward binary descriptions. We then consider the impacts human beings are having on the natural world. In the third and final section, we explore the approaches humans are employing to FIGURE 6.2 Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield hosts a live chat from space with students at Chris Hadfield Elementary School, Milton, Ontario, January 17, 2013. Richard Lautens/Toronto Star via Getty Images FIGURE 6.3 An artist’s rendition of the Mars One colony. © Mars One/Bryan Versteeg/Splash/Splash News/Corbis to expand their understanding of human-environment relations to include environments beyond Earth.
eBook - PDFBiogeography
Introduction to Space, Time, and Life
- Glen MacDonald(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
BIOLOGY AND THE HIERARCHIES OF LIFE 15 If we were to consider the relationship between the species of our commu- nity and the physical factors of the environment, particularly when we examine flows of energy and matter through this biophysical system, we would be con- ducting research at the scale of the ecosystem. It could be argued that the spatial boundaries of any ecosystem extend over the whole earth. Even the smallest area is linked to the world at large by physical processes such as rainfall and biological processes such as the input of fine airborne organisms. In practice, the boundaries of ecosystems are often defined by the researcher and can vary from very small areas such as the trunk of a decaying tree to large areas such as the tundra of Baffin Island in arctic Canada. Very large areas of the earth’s surface that have a similar climate and vegetation are referred to as biomes. The biomes are an important area of research in biogeography, and we will discuss them in detail later. Finally, all of life on the planet is collectively referred to as the biosphere— the highest and broadest level of ecological research. The other realms of the earth are physical ones of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. The atmosphere includes all the components of the air; the hydrosphere includes all the water in the oceans, lakes, streams, and ground; and the lithosphere is the solid earth of rock and sediment. Although the research of biogeographers may focus on smaller levels such as ecosystems, the end goal of biogeography is to combine the results from all of these more specific studies and draw general con- clusions about how the biosphere functions today, how it developed, and where it might be headed in the future. Remember, our future and that of the biosphere are really one and the same.
- Jonah, T Z(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Agri Horti Press(Publisher)
Ecological Concepts, Principles and Applications 1 1 Ecological Concepts, Principles and Applications Principles of Ecology Conservation of wildlife requires an understanding of ecology, the science devoted to study of the interactions among organisms and their environment. Ecology is defined as “the study of the abundance and distribution of organisms”. Understanding why animals thrive where they do requires an intimate knowledge of both the organisms and they environment in which they live, including other organisms. Ecology is a subdiscipline of biology, the scientific study of life. Biology is a broad discipline that spans many levels of organization, from molecules to ecosystems. The broad principles that are incorporated into ecological thinking, or, as Aldo Leopold so gracefully stated, into “thinking like a mountain.” The Importance of Scale in Biology Traditionally, ecology focuses on the larger scales in biology, from the individual organism through populations, communities, ecosystems, and the biosphere. Levels of organization in ecology: emergent properties : • Populations are interbreeding groups of individuals of the same species, generally living in the same contiguous habitat. • Communities are interacting populations of different species. • Ecosystems are comprised of both the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors in a given area; they contain both the broad biological community and all This ebook is exclusively for this university only. Cannot be resold/distributed. Biodiversity and Ecology of Aquatic Environments 2 the physical processes (such as weather, soil, hydrology, nutrients, energy flow etc.) that influence that community. • The biosphere is global in scale, and includes all the biological and physical processes that allow for and influence life on Earth.
- Vierah Hulley(Author)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Delve Publishing(Publisher)
Because people, objects, components, and even complete systems seldom exist in isolation, this is the reason why this is true (Xu, 2011). As a result, attempting to grasp the concept of “environment” without an understanding of how everything is interconnected is a waste of time. Anything from people to items to entire systems can have an impact on their surroundings and vice versa. Because of this interdependence that might exist between diverse entities in certain circumstances, the webs of interrelationships that can exist between them can be tremendously Key Aspects of Environmental Planning: Public Policy and Practice 4 extensive and intricate. It is helpful to think of the “environment” as a kind of field or place where different elements interact and connect. The biotic and abiotic (nonliving) components of environmental systems, as well as the interactions between them, are of special interest to ecologists, who study ecology under various guises and hence are likely to be familiar with this method of thinking as well. The term “environment” is frequently used synonymously with the scientific term “ecology,” which refers to a community of species that are dependent upon one another as well as the physical environment in which they live. It is the natural surroundings in which we live that are referred to as the “environment.” The notion of interconnectivity is fundamental to environmental science and management due to the reality that many environmental issues are the consequence of one environmental system being disturbed or degraded as a result of changes to another environmental system (Beierle and Konisky, 2001). 1.2. ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING INTRODUCTION Land development that considers not just the natural environment but also social, political, economic, and governance components can provide a solid foundation for long-term success.
- Francisco Pugnaire(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Furthermore, this created a new interest in the ecological drivers of biodiversity in natural environments, a topic of research that had interested plant ecologists in the past (Whittaker 1972; Grime 1973; Connell 1978; Huston 1979). In theoretical ecology, biotic interactions are considered to be important driv-ers of community composition and richness, together with chance biogeographi-cal events (e.g., dispersal) and local environmental factors (Lortie et al. 2004; see CONTENTS 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 59 4.2 Biotic Interactions and Biodiversity ............................................................... 60 4.2.1 Competition and Biodiversity ............................................................. 60 4.2.2 Facilitation and Biodiversity ............................................................... 65 4.3 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function: The Role of Biotic Interactions ......... 68 4.3.1 Niche Complementarity and Selection Effect .................................... 69 4.3.2 Facilitation .......................................................................................... 69 4.4 Reconciling Diversity Experiments and Natural Patterns .............................. 70 4.4.1 The Debate .......................................................................................... 70 4.4.2 Constrained Environments and Facilitation ....................................... 71 4.4.3 Productive Environments and Niche Complementarity ..................... 71 References ................................................................................................................ 75 60 Positive Plant Interactions and Community Dynamics also Figure 6.2 in Chapter 6, this volume). All hypotheses addressing the role of biodiversity for ecosystem functioning have also emphasized the crucial impor-tance of biotic interactions.
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