Lec #1: Pattern and Process

Ecology

Study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and the factors and interactions that determine these (where are they, how many are there, why?)

Ernst Haeckel, Ecology

Derived from Oikos (home)

History of Ecology

The roots of modern ecology lie in natural history, human demography, biometry, and applied problems of agriculture and medicine

Hunters and gatherers

As a hunter and gatherer, you tell the tribe where, how many, and what does it look like there. The cause/why it is there or not leads to the success of the tribe.

Aristotle 350 BC

Historia Animalium: patterns come from natural processes, not God

Ex: the mice plague

Ex: famine, then rainfall, then the population increased

Herodotus and Plato

Providential Ecology: the balance of nature, and species have a place in the environment (but species do go extinct though)

Graunt

Population growth: father of demography (male/female, birth/death rate, etc.)

Leeuwenhoek

Population growth: used pests, like flies

Buffon

Population regulation: by predators

Malthus

Population regulation: population grows exponentially, but food grow linearly; resources limit the population size

The population will eventually crash/decline (socioeconomic factors)

Quetelet

Population regulation: natural forces/processes limit the population

Verhulst

Population regulation: made a logistic equation for exponential growth

Farr

Farr’s rule (the law of relation): an increase of population density and an increase in mortality (the rate varies)

Stephen Forbes

Community regulation and succession: when communities were put together, there are rules to operate; studied how communities change over time

Studied marine life

Henry Cowles

Community regulation and succession: studied plant life

Ronald Ross

Systems analysis and mathematical model of the spread of infectious disease

Think about density of population

Controls population using how, what rate, where, and why

Ex: malaria