ORGANISMS AND POPULATIONS

1. Ecology is a subject which studies the interactions among organisms and between the organism
and its physical (abiotic) environment.
2. Ecology is basically concerned with four levels of biological organisation – organisms, populations,
communities and biomes.
3. Sun and the tilt of its axis cause annual variations in the intensity and duration of temperature,
resulting in distinct seasons.
4. These variations together with annual variation in precipitation (remember precipitation includes
both rain and snow) account for the formation of major biomes such as desert, rain forest and
tundra

5. Regional and local variations within each biome lead to the formation of a wide variety of
habitats.
6. On planet Earth, life exists not just in a few favourable habitats but even in extreme and harsh
habitats
7. The most important ones are temperature, water, light and soil. We must remember that the
physico-chemical (abiotic) components alone do not characterise the habitat of an organism
completely.
8. the habitat includes biotic components also – pathogens, parasites, predators and competitors –
of the organism with which they interact constantly.
9. Temperature: Temperature is the most ecologically relevant environmental factor.
10. the average temperature on land varies seasonally, decreases progressively from the equator
towards the poles and from plains to the mountain tops
11. thermal springs and deep-sea hydrothermal vents where average temperatures exceed 1000 C.
12. few organisms can tolerate and thrive in a wide range of temperatures (they are called
eurythermal), but, a vast majority of them are restricted to a narrow range of temperatures (such
organisms are called stenothermal).
13. The levels of thermal tolerance of different species determine to a large extent their
geographical distribution.
14. In recent years, there has been a growing concern about the gradually increasing average global
temperatures
15. Water: Next to temperature, water is the most important factor influencing the life of
organisms.
16. In fact, life on earth originated in water and is unsustainable without water.
17. The productivity and distribution of plants is also heavily dependent on water.
18. For aquatic organisms the quality (chemical composition, pH) of water becomes important.
19. The salt concentration (measured as salinity in parts per thousand), is less than 5 in inland
waters, 30-35 in the sea and > 100 in some hypersaline lagoons.
20. Some organisms are tolerant of a wide range of salinities (euryhaline) but others are restricted
to a narrow range (stenohaline).
21. Many freshwater animals cannot live for long in sea water and vice versa because of the osmotic
problems, they would face.
22. Light: Since plants produce food through photosynthesis, a process which is only possible when
sunlight is available as a source of energy, we can quickly understand the importance of light for
living organisms, particularly autotrophs.
23. The availability of light on land is closely linked with that of temperature since the sun is the
source for both.
24. But, deep (>500m) in the oceans, the environment is perpetually dark and its inhabitants are not
aware of the existence of a celestial source of energy called Sun.
25. The UV component of the spectrum is harmful to many organisms while not all the colour
components of the visible spectrum are available for marine plants living at different depths of the
ocean.
26. Soil: The nature and properties of soil in different places vary; it is dependent on the climate,
the weathering process, whether soil is transported or sedimentary and how soil development
occurred.
27. characteristics along with parameters such as pH, mineral composition and topography
determine to a large extent the vegetation in any area.
28. many species would have evolved a relatively constant internal (within the body) environment
29. that permits all biochemical reactions and physiological functions to proceed with maximal
efficiency and thus, enhance the overall fitness’ of the species.
30. the organism should try to maintain the constancy of its internal environment (a process called
homeostasis) despite varying external environmental conditions that tend to upset its homeostasis.
31. Regulate: Some organisms are able to maintain homeostasis by physiological (sometimes
behavioural also) means which ensures constant body temperature, constant osmotic concentration,
etc.
32. Evolutionary biologists believe that the ‘success’ of mammals is largely due to their ability to
maintain a constant body temperature and thrive whether they live in Antarctica or in the Sahara
desert.
33. We maintain a constant body temperature of 370C Plants, on the other hand, do not have such
mechanisms to maintain internal temperatures.
34. Conform: An overwhelming majority (99 per cent) of animals and nearly all plants cannot
maintain a constant internal environment.
35. Their body temperature changes with the ambient temperature.
36. In aquatic animals, the osmotic concentration of the body fluids change with that of the
ambient water osmotic concentration.
37. Thermoregulation is energetically expensive for many organisms. This is particularly true for
small animals like shrews and humming birds.
38. Heat loss or heat gain is a function of surface area.
39. Since small animals have a larger surface area relative to their volume, they tend to lose body
heat very fast when it is cold outside; then they have to expend much energy to generate body heat
through metabolism
40. Migrate: The organism can move away temporarily from the stressful habitat to a more
hospitable area and return when stressful period is over.
41. Every winter the famous Keolado National Park (Bharatpur) in Rajasthan host thousands of
migratory birds coming from Siberia and other extremely cold northern regions.
42. In bacteria, fungi and lower plants, various kinds of thick- walled spores are formed which help
them to survive unfavourable conditions – these germinate on availability of suitable environment.
43. The familiar case of bears going into hibernation during winter is an example of escape in time.
44. Some snails and fish go into aestivation to avoid summer–related problems-heat and dessication.
45. Under unfavourable conditions many zooplankton species in lakes and ponds are known to enter
diapause, a stage of suspended development.
46. we have seen that some are able to respond through certain physiological adjustments while
others do so behaviourally (migrating temporarily to a less stressful habitat).
47. These responses are also actually, their adaptations.
48. So, we can say that adaptation is any attribute of the organism (morphological, physiological,
behavioural) that enables the organism to survive and reproduce in its habitat.
49. It also has the ability to concentrate its urine so that minimal volume of water is used to
remove excretory products.
50. Many desert plants have a thick cuticle on their leaf surfaces and have their stomata arranged
in deep pits to minimise water loss through transpiration.
51. They also have a special photosynthetic pathway (CAM) that enables their stomata to remain
closed during day time.
52. Some desert plants like Opuntia, have no leaves – they are reduced to spines–and the
photosynthetic function is taken over by the flattened stems.
53. animals from colder climates generally have shorter ears and limbs to minimise heat loss. (This
is called the Allen’s Rule.)
54. In the polar seas aquatic mammals like seals have a thick layer of fat (blubber) below their skin
that acts as an insulator and reduces loss of body heat.
55. The body compensates low oxygen availability by increasing red blood cell production,
decreasing the binding affinity of hemoglobin and by increasing breathing rate.
56. in most animals, the metabolic reactions and hence all the physiological functions proceed
optimally in a narrow temperature range (in humans, it is 370C).
57. A large variety of marine invertebrates and fish live at great depths in the ocean where the
pressure could be >100 times the normal atmospheric pressure that we experience.
58. Some organisms show behavioural responses to cope with variations in their environment.
59. Desert lizards lack the physiological ability that mammals have to deal with the high
temperatures of their habitat, but manage to keep their body temperature fairly constant by
behavioural means.
60. we rarely find isolated, single individuals of any species; majority of them live in groups in a well
defined geographical area, share or compete for similar resources, potentially interbreed and thus
constitute a population.
61. Population ecology is, therefore, an important area of ecology because it links ecology to
population genetics and evolution.
62. A population has certain attributes that an individual organism does not.
63. An individual may have births and deaths, but a population has birth rates and death rates.
64. In a population these rates refer to per capita births and deaths, respectively.
65. The rates, hence, expressed is change in numbers (increase or decrease) with respect to
members of the population.
66. A population at any given time is composed of individuals of different ages.
67. If the age distribution (per cent individuals of a given age or age group) is plotted for the
population, the resulting structure is called an age pyramid
68. The shape of the pyramids reflects the growth status of the population - (a) whether it is
growing, (b) stable or (c) declining.
69. The size, in nature, could be as low as <10 (Siberian cranes at Bharatpur wetlands in any year) or
go into millions (Chlamydomonas in a pond).
70. Population size, more technically called population density (designated as N), need not
necessarily be measured in numbers only.
71. The size of a population for any species is not a static parameter. It keeps changing in time,
depending on various factors including food availability, predation pressure and adverse weather.
72. the density of a population in a given habitat during a given period, fluctuates due to changes in
four basic processes,
73. two of which (natality and immigration) contribute to an increase in population density and two
(mortality and emigration) to a decrease.
74. Nt+1 =Nt +[(B+I)–(D+E)
75. Under normal conditions, births and deaths are the most important factors influencing
population density, the other two factors assuming importance only under special conditions.
76. Exponential growth: Resource (food and space) availability is obviously essential for the
unimpeded growth of a population.
77. Ideally, when resources in the habitat are unlimited, each species has the ability to realise fully
its innate potential to grow in number, as Darwin observed while developing his theory of natural
selection.
78. dN/dt = (b – d) × N Let (b–d) = r, then dN/dt = rN
79. The r in this equation is called the ‘intrinsic rate of natural increase’ and is a very important
parameter chosen for assessing impacts of any biotic or abiotic factor on population growth.
80. To give you some idea about the magnitude of r values, for the Norway rat the r is 0.015, and
for the flour beetle it is 0.12.
81. In 1981, the r value for human population in India was 0.0205.
82. The above equation describes the exponential or geometric growth pattern of a population and
results in a J-shaped curve when we plot N in relation to time.
83. the integral form of the exponential growth equation as
1. Nt = N0 ert where
2. Nt = Population density after time t
3. N0 = Population density at time zero
4. r = intrinsic rate of natural increase
5. e = the base of natural logarithms
84. Any species growing exponentially under unlimited resource conditions can reach enormous
population densities in a short time.
86. Logistic growth: No population of any species in nature has at its disposal unlimited resources to
permit exponential growth.
87. This leads to competition between individuals for limited resources. Eventually, the ‘fittest’
individual will survive and reproduce.
88. Let us call this limit as nature’s carrying capacity (K) for that species in that habitat.
89. A population growing in a habitat with limited resources show initially a lag phase, followed by
phases of acceleration and deceleration and finally an asymptote, when the population density
reaches the carrying capacity.
90. A plot of N in relation to time (t) results in a sigmoid curve. This type of population growth is
called Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth
91. dN/dt = rN (K /K - N/K)
92. Since resources for growth for most animal populations are finite and become limiting sooner or
later, the logistic growth model is considered a more realistic one.
93. Populations evolve to maximise their reproductive fitness, also called Darwinian fitness (high r
value), in the habitat in which they live.
94. Under a particular set of selection pressures, organisms evolve towards the most efficient
reproductive strategy.
95. For any species, the minimal requirement is one more species on which it can feed.
96. 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.
97. Interspecific interactions arise from the interaction of populations of two different species

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97. Both the species benefit in mutualism and both lose in competition in their interactions with
each other.
98. In both parasitism and predation only one species benefits (parasite and predator, respectively)
and the interaction is detrimental to the other species.
99. The interaction where one species is benefitted and the other is neither benefitted nor harmed
is called commensalism.
100. In amensalism on the other hand one species is harmed whereas the other is unaffected.
101. Predation, parasitism and commensalism share a common characteristic– the interacting species
live closely together.
102. Predation: Besides acting as ‘conduits’ for energy transfer across trophic levels, predators play
other important roles.
103. They keep prey populations under control. But for predators, prey species could achieve very
high population densities and cause ecosystem instability.
104. When certain exotic species are introduced into a geographical area, they become invasive and
start spreading fast because the invaded land does not have its natural predators.
105. The prickly pear cactus introduced into Australia in the early 1920’s caused havoc by spreading
rapidly into millions of hectares of rangeland.
106. In the rocky intertidal communities of the American Pacific Coast the starfish Pisaster is an
important predator.
107. If a predator is too efficient and overexploits its prey, then the prey might become extinct
and following it, the predator will also become extinct for lack of food.
108. This is the reason why predators in nature are ‘prudent’.
109. The Monarch butterfly is highly distasteful to its predator (bird) because of a special chemical
present in its body.
110. For plants, herbivores are the predators. Nearly 25 per cent of all insects are known to be
phytophagous (feeding on plant sap and other parts of plants).
111. Thorns (Acacia, Cactus) are the most common morphological means of defence.
112. Many plants produce and store chemicals that make the herbivore sick when they are eaten,
inhibit feeding or digestion,
113. Competition: When Darwin spoke of the struggle for existence and survival of the fittest in
nature, he was convinced that interspecific competition is a potent force in organic evolution.
114. 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.
115. For instance, in some shallow South American lakes visiting flamingoes and resident fishes
compete for their common food, the zooplankton in the lake.
116. 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.
117. Gause and other experimental ecologists did, when resources are limited the competitively
superior species will eventually eliminate the other species, but evidence for such competitive
exclusion occurring in nature is not always conclusive.
118. Abingdon tortoise in Galapagos Islands became extinct within a decade after goats were
introduced on the island, apparently due to the greater browsing efficiency of the goats.
119. Another evidence fo the occurrence of competition in nature comes from what is called
‘competitive release’.
120. A species whose distribution is restricted to a small geographical area because of the presence
of a competitively superior species, is found to expand its distributional range dramatically when
the competing species is experimentally removed.
121. Balanus dominates the intertidal area, and excludes the smaller barnacle Chathamalus from
that zone.
122. Gause’s ‘Competitive Exclusion Principle’ states that two closely related species competing for
the same resources cannot co-exist indefinitely and the competitively inferior one will be eliminated
eventually.
123. species facing competition might evolve mechanisms that promote co-existence rather than
exclusion. One such mechanism is ‘resource partitioning’.
124. If two species compete for the same resource, they could avoid competition by choosing, for
instance, differenttimesfor feeding or different foraging patterns.
125. MacArthur showed that five closely related species of warblers living on the same tree were
able to avoid competition and co-exist due to behavioural differences in their foraging activities.
126. Parasitism: Considering that the parasitic mode of life ensures free lodging and meals, it is not
surprising that parasitism has evolved in so many taxonomic groups from plants to higher
vertebrates.
127. The life cycles of parasites are often complex, involving one or two intermediate hosts or
vectors to facilitate parasitisation of its primary host.
128. The human liver fluke (a trematode parasite) depends on two intermediate hosts (a snail and a
fish) to complete its life cycle.
129. The malarial parasite needs a (mosquito) to spread to other hosts. Majority of the parasites
harm the host; they may reduce the survival, growth and reproduction of the host and reduce its
population density.
130. Parasites that feed on the external surface of the host organism are called ectoparasites.
131. The most familiar examples of this group are the lice on humans and ticks on dogs.
132. Many marine fish are infested with ectoparasitic copepods.
133. Cuscuta, a parasitic plant that is commonly found growing on hedge plants, has lost its
chlorophyll and leaves in the course of evolution.
134. In contrast, endoparasites are those that live inside the host body at different sites (liver,
kidney, lungs, red blood cells, etc.).
135. The life cycles of endoparasites are more complex because of their extreme specialisation.
136. Their morphological and anatomical features are greatly simplified while emphasising their
reproductive potential.
137. Brood parasitism in birds is a fascinating example of parasitism in which the parasitic bird lays
its eggs in the nest of its host and lets the host incubate them.
138. Commensalism: This is the interaction in which one species benefits and the other is neither
harmed nor benefited.
139. An orchid growing as an epiphyte on a mango branch, and barnacles growing on the back of a
whale benefit while neither the mango tree nor the whale derives any apparent benefit.
140. Another example of commensalism is the interaction between sea anemone that has stinging
tentacles and the clown fish that lives among them.
141. The fish gets protection from predators which stay away from the stinging tentacles.
142. The anemone does not appear to derive any benefit by hosting the clown fish.
143. Mutualism: This interaction confers benefits on both the interacting species.
144. Lichens represent an intimate mutualistic relationship between a fungus and photosynthesising
algae or cyanobacteria.
145. Similarly, the mycorrhizae are associations between fungi and the roots of higher plants.
146. The most spectacular and evolutionarily fascinating examples of mutualism are found in plant-
animal relationships.
147. Plants need the help of animals for pollinating their flowers and dispersing their seeds.
148. plant-animal interactions often involve co-evolution of the mutualists, that is, the evolutions of
the flower and its pollinator species are tightly linked with one another.
149. In many species of fig trees, there is a tight one-to-one relationship with the pollinator
species of wasp.
150. 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.
151. Orchids show a bewildering diversity of floral patterns many of which have evolved to attract
the right pollinator insect (bees and bumblebees) and ensure guaranteed pollination by it.
152. The Mediterranean orchid Ophrys employs ‘sexual deceit’ to get pollination done by a species
of bee.
153. If the female bee’s colour 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

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