Ecology and Design 2

Ecology

• The scientific study of the structure and function of ecosystems (Eugene Odum)

• The scientific study of the phenomena, process and relationships of organisms and their environments (includes considerations of organisms’ distribution and abundance)

• From the German, Oekologie, from the Greek oikos (house or household) + logy (study of)

Oekologie

From the German

Oikos

• From the Greek, meaning house or household

Logy

Study Of

Economy

• The careful or thrifty use or management of resources (American Heritage Dictionary, 1971)

• From the Old French, economie (management of a household), from the Greek oikos (house or household) + nomos (managing)

Economie

Management of a household

Noms

Managing

Ecosystem

• The biological community together with the abiotic environment in which it is set

• How an area is going to be defined

Energy Budget

• A balance sheet of energy income against expenditure

• It is studied in the field of Energetics

• Can be constructed for any item

• Neither Earth nor its organisms can exist for long with a negative energy balance

Ecosystem Hierarchical Structure: Individual

Existing as a distinct entity, an organism

Ecosystem Hierarchical Structure: Species

• Groups of organisms that have a high level of genetic similarity

• A group of interbreeding or potentially interbreeding organisms that produce fertile offspring

Ecosystem Hierarchical Structure: Population

A group of individuals of one species, defined by the number of individuals that comprise it

Ecosystem Hierarchical Structure: Ecological Community

• An interactive assemblage of species occurring together within a particular geographic area

• A set of species whose ecological function and dynamics are in some way interdependent

Ecosystem Hierarchical Structure: Ecosystem

Ecological community and its physical environment

Ecosystem Hierarchical Structure: Ecosphere

Aggregate of Earth ecosystems

Trophic Levels

Of or pertaining to nutrition or nutritive processes

Trophic Levels: Autotroph

Primary energy source is light and indirect solar energies (such as wind and rain) that are required for photosynthesis

Trophic Levels: Heterotroph

Primary energy source is food

Primary Production

Designates amount of organic matter fixed (converted from solar energy) by autotrophs in a given area over a given period

Secondary Production

• Energy storage at consumer levels

• Example in cows or fish

Energy Flow

Is unidirectional and noncyclic

Nutrient Movement

Is cyclic

Ecosystem Services

Natural system processes, conditions, or products that are directly or indirectly benefit humans or enhance social welfare

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Provisioning, regulating, supporting, cultural

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Provisioning

Food and water production

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Regulating

Climate and disease climate

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Supporting

Nutrient cycles and oxygen production

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Cultural

Recreational and spiritual benefits

Monetary Values

Assigned to many ecosystems services so that comparisons to human engineered infrastructure and services can be made

Landscape Ecology Term

Developed when aerial photography became widely available

Landscape Ecology Study Of

Interactions of organisms and their environments, usually in large heterogenous areas, landscapes, regions, or portions thereof

Landscape Ecology Broad Landscape Attributes

Structure, function, change

Landscape Ecology: Landscape Structure

The spatial pattern or arrangement of landscape elements

Landscape Ecology: Landscape Function

The movement and flows of animals, plants, water, wind, materials, and energy through the structure

Landscape Ecology: Landscape Change

The dynamics or alteration to spatial pattern and functioning over time

Landscape Elements

Patches, edges, corridors, networks, matrix

Patch

A stand of a particular community distinguished from its surroundings by discontinuities of environmental influences

Patches May Be

• A remnant of a previous more extensive type

• Introduction (Pasture in a forest, homestead, suburban development)

• The result of a disturbance (fire)

• An environmental resource

Edge

Outer portion of a patch where the environment differs significantly from the patch’s interior

Edge Effect

Attributes of a patch edge that makes it look and feel different from the patch’s interior

Edge Effect Attributes

May include vertical and horizontal structure, width, species composition and abundance

Corridor

• A linear landscape feature that differs from the matrix on either side

• May enhance or bar species movement

Corridor Major Functions

• Habitats, conduits, filters, sources, and sinks

• Primarily controlled by the width and connectivity of it

Connectivity

The permeability of the landscape between patches

Networks

Complex of interconnecting landscape corridors

Mosaic

A spatially integrated complex of patches, corridors, and networks that gives a landscape its ecological character

Causes of Habitat Loss

Fragmentation, dissection, perforation, shrinkage, attrition

Causes of Habitat Loss: Fragmentation

Breaking up a larger intact landscape into smaller dispersed patches

Causes of Habitat Loss: Dissection

Splitting an intact habitat into two patches seperated by a corridor

Causes of Habitat Loss: Perforation

Creating holes in an otherwise intact habitat

Causes of Habitat Loss: Shrinkage

The decrease size of one or more habitats

Causes of Habitat Loss: Attrition

The disappearance of one of more habitat patches

Biogeography

The study of the geographic distribution of animals and plants in space and over time

Biome

• A grouping of terrestrial ecosystems

• Each maintained under its regions climatic conditions

• Each similar in vegetation structure, physiognomy, environmental features, and animal community characteristics

Heterogeneity

Non-uniformity, dissimilarity, quality, or state of being heterogenous (non-homogenous)

Ecotypes

Races of a species that physiologically or morphologically differ over their range and that may respond differently to the same photoperiod

Periodism

Having the quality of periodicity, that is, recurrence at regular intervals

Photoperiodism

• The differential sensitivity of species to the length of the day

• Plants respond to sensitivity of changing in light while other plants respond to temperature

Phenology

Periodic phenomena in organisms that is connected to periodic environmental change

Provenance

Ultimate source of plant material (where it comes from)

Disjunct Taxon

• A taxon with two or more groups that are related but due to a variety of causes are widely separated from one another geographically

• Example: East side of America and West side of Africa have same plant species but separated

Vicarlance

Process by which species with a common origin are geographically separated to evolve into distinct but related species

Convergent Evolution

Process by which species of different genetic origins growing in similar habitats develop similar adaptations

Dispersal

Expansion of geographic range of a species as individuals move into new areas

Dispersal: Geographic

Seemingly simultaneous movement of many species brought about by removal of geographic barriers, followed by a new barrier creating vicariance

Dispersal: Diffusion

Gradual movement of a species into suitable habitats over several generations

Dispersal: Jump

Random overcoming of geographic barriers as when a seed washes up on an island

Geothermal Energy

• Thermal energy extracted from the Earth’s crust combining energy from the plants formation and form radioactive decay

• Has been exploited as a source of heat for millennia and more recently for electric power

Geothermal Energy: Uses/Types

• Heating and cooling

• Electrical power generation

Methane Gas/Natural Gas

• Second greatest greenhouse gas contributing to global climate change after carbon dioxide

• When burned for electricity heated, it burns cleaner than other fossil fuels

• Has fewer toxic air pollutants, less carbon dioxide, and almost no particulate matter

• May have a similar or greater carbon footprint than coal or oil

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)

• Cooled to a liquid form for ease and safety in non pressurized transport or storage

• So cooled it takes up approx 1/600th the volume of natural gas in a gaseous state at standard temperature and pressure

Types of Coal Mining

• Underground (deep pit)

• Surface (strip mining, contour mining, mountaintop removal mining)

Biomass (Biofuel)

• Produced from plants or from agricultural, domestic or industrial biowaste

• Mostly used for transportation, but sometimes for heating and electricity.

• Generally considered renewable energy source, though not strictly speaking sustainable

• Two most common are bioethanol (US) and biodiesel (EU)

International Energy Agency

Biofuels best used when it is difficult to electrify, such as in shipping and aviation

Resources (Environmental)

Properties or elements consumed by organisms in the course of growth and reproduction

Conditions

Physiochemical features of that environment such as temperature, humidity, or in aquatic environments, pH

Media (Singular Medium)

• Abiotic components immediately surrounding organisms

• Terrestrial organisms (air)

• Aquatic and marine organisms (water)

• Subterranean organisms (soil)

Climate

• Long term weather (over 30-40 years or more)

• More consistent and more predictable than weather

Weather

• Day to day conditions determined by temperature, perception, humidity, wind, and air pressure

• Along with latitude and the presence or absence of mountains

Microclimate

The climate of a very small or restricted area, especially when this differs from the climate of the surrounding area

Solar Flux

Amount of radiant energy of all wavelengths crossing a unit area or surface per unit of time

Radiation Intensity

• The amount of solar radiation (short wave) per unit area, a function of an objects orientation to the sun

• Relatively low and spread over a much larger area when the sun is low in the sky

• Intensity is relatively high when the sun is high and radiation is spread over a smaller area

Relative Humidity

• Ratio of the amount of moisture in the air relative to the maximum amount that the air can hold

• The amount of water vapor the air can hold changes with temperature

Albedo

The ability of an object or material to reflect solar radiation

Terrestrial Radiation

Long wave radiation emitted from the earth and objects and organisms on earth

Precipitation

Water that falls under gravity from clouds

Windward

The side of an object or landform toward the wind

Leeward

Side that is away from the wind

Watershed

A regional or area of land where all the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place

John Wesley Powell

That area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community

Catchment Factors

Topography, shape, size, soil type, land use (paved or roofed, vegetated, agriculture, forestry)

Concerns When Planning/Designing For/With Water

• Quantity, quality, timing

• Material over which it runs (asphalt, clay, sand, type of vegetaion)

• Shape and slope of surface over which it runs

Headwaters

Upstream areas of a watershed

Mouth

Part of river or stream that flows into a lake, bay, reservoir, ocean

River

• A natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake, or another river

• Can flow into the ground and become dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water

• Cover less than 0.1% of land on Earth

Lake

• An area filled with water that is surrounded by land

• Most are fed and drained by rivers and streams

Pond

• An area filled with water, either natural or artificial

• May arise naturally in floodplains as part of a river system or can simply be isolated depression that filled with runoff, groundwater, or precipitation

• May be fresh or salty

Wetland

• An area of land, either permanently of seasonally water saturated, that takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem

• Has characteristic aquatic plants adapted to its hydric soil

Wetland Functions

Flood control, groundwater replenishment, water purification, carbon sink, biodiversity reservoirs, fish, wildlife, habitat