Anism & Environment

THE ORGANISM AND ITS ENVIRONMENT
Introduction:
• organisms are not randomly distributed
• there are no homogeneous mixture of

organism
• there are restricted patterns of species

distribution
• restricted and patchy distributions of

organism
• correlations between the biology of

different species and the nature of the
environment in the ‘patches’ in which they
are found
1
Ecosystem Ecosystem ecology
(the biotic community &
the physical
environment in an area)
Community Community ecology

(the study of biotic
communities)
Population Population ecology

(the study of populations of
organisms)
Species Autecology
(the study of the individual
organism)
The levels of organization in ecology and their

associated disciplines 2
3
• abiotic relationships are the primary
factors determining whether or not any
organism can exist in a certain environment
• physiological processes proceed at

different rates under different conditions
• any one organisms only has a limited

range of conditions in which it may survive
• tolerance limits: restricts markedly the

conditions under which an animal or plant
can operate at maximum efficiency
• tolerance curves: curves of performance

for any organism for any particular
physiological process representing its
efficiency of operation over a range of some
physicochemical parameter
4
a. Evolution by natural selection to
explain the match between organisms
and environment – Charles Darwin’s
(1859) theory of evolution:
3. The individuals that make up a

population of a species are not identical
4. This variation is heritable - the
characteristics of individuals are
determined by its genetic make-up
5. Many individuals in a population
reproduce at a less than maximal rate
6. Different individuals leave different
number of descendants
7. The number of descendants that an
individual leaves depends on the
interaction between the characteristics
of the individual and the environment of
the individual
5
Natural selection is the basic mechanism of
evolution.
All living organisms are adapted to a specific set of

environmental conditions within specific
ecosystems
Within every species, however, genetic variation

leads to a degree of variation in physical
characteristics between different individuals
Some variations allow those who possess them to

function more effectively in their particular
environment, giving them a greater chance of living
long enough and being healthy enough to produce
offspring, to which their genes are passed on
natural selection; genetic variations that improve

the adaptation of an organism to its environment
have a better chance of being passed on than
variations that hinder adaptation, simply because
better adapted organisms are more likely to survive
and reproduce.
6
7
8
b. Historical Factors:
ii. Movements of land masses
• The movement of the tectonic plates of
the Earth’s crust, with consequent
migration of continents
• Populations were being split and
separated, and land areas were moving
across climatic zones
ii. Climatic changes

• Changes in climate have occurred on
shorter time-scales than the
movements of land masses
• The present distribution of species
represents phases in a recovery from
past climatic shifts
• The present distribution of organisms
represents a precise local 9
specialization to present conditions
10
iii. Island patterns
• the fauna & flora of islands have several

features that distinguish them from the
fauna & flora of continents
• there are fewer species on islands than

in comparable areas of mainland of the
same size
• many of the species on islands are either

subtly or profoundly different from those
on the nearest comparable area of
mainland
• islands contain many species unique to

themselves, & many differentiated ‘races’
or ‘sub-species’ that are distinguishable
from mainland forms
11
PRINCIPLES PERTAINING TO LIMITING
FACTORS
3. Liebig’s law of the minimum

• An organism must have essential
materials for growth & reproduction
• These basic requirements vary with the
species & with the situation
• The essential material available in
amounts most closely approaching the
critical minimum needed will tend to be
limiting one
• ‘growth of a plant is dependent on the
amount of food-stuff which is presented
to it in minimum quantity’
12
13
2. Shelford’s law of tolerance
• the presence & success of an organism

depend upon the completeness of a
complex of conditions
• organisms have an ecological minimum

& maximum, between which represents
the limits of tolerance
• the concept of the limiting effect of

maximum as well as minimum – the limits
within which various plants & animals
can exist
• Some subsidiary principles to the law of

tolerance:
x. Organisms may have a wide range of
tolerance for one factor & a narrow range
for another
xi. Organisms with wide ranges of tolerance
for all factors are likely to be most widely
14
distributed
iii. When conditions are not optimum for a
species with respect to one ecological
factor, the limits of tolerance may be
reduced with respect to other ecological
factors
iv. The period of reproduction is usually a
critical period when environmental
factors are limiting. The limits of
tolerance for reproductive individuals,
seeds, eggs, etc are usually narrower
than for non-reproducing adult plants or
animals
• the relative degree of tolerance (steno-
(narrow), and eury- (wide)):
iv. Stenothermal – eurythermal: temperature
v. Stenohydric – euryhydric: water
vi. Stenohaline – euryhaline: salinity
vii.Stenophagic – euryphagic: food
viii.Stenoecious – euryecious: habitat 15
selection
ACTIVITY (GROWTH)
STENOTHERMAL EURYTHERMAL STENOTHERMAL

(OLIGOTHERMAL) (POLYTHERMAL)
OPT. OPT. OPT.
MIN MAX. MIN MAX.
TEMPERATURE
Comparison of the relative limits of tolerance of

stenothermal & eurythermal organisms
16
Physical Factors of Importance as Limiting
Factors:
3. Temperature (T)
• T rhythms control the seasonal & daily

activities of plants & animals
• T is responsible for the zonation &
stratification in waters & land
• Most species & activities are restricted to
an even narrower band of temperatures
• The range of T variation tends to be less
in water than on land
• Aquatic organisms have a narrower limit
of tolerance to T than land animals
• Organisms which are subjected to
variable temperatures in nature tend to be
depressed, inhibited or slowed down by
constant T
17
2. Light
• quality of light (wave length or color); the

intensity (actual energy); the duration
(length of day) are important
• daily rhythms of light & darkness control

the movement of animals
• photoperiodicity: the length of day
• reproductive cycle of plants can be

classified based on photoperiodicity:
• long-day plants: bloom when the light
duration is > 12h/day
• Short-day plants: bloom < 12h duration of
light/day
• Plants which have wide tolerance to day
length, day length is not the limiting
factor
18
3. Water
• the biotic situation is determined by

rainfall & the balance between rainfall and
potential evapo-transpiration
• humidity: the amount of water vapor in the

air
• absolute humidity: the actual amount of
water in the air expressed as weight of
water per unit of air
• relative humidity: represents the
percentage of vapor actually present
compared with saturation under existing
temperature-pressure conditions
• daily rhythm in humidity & vertical &

horizontal differences – regulate the
activities of organisms
• important role of humidity in modifying the

effects of temperature
19
4. Atmospheric gases and biogenic salts
• gases are limiting factors in deep soils and

mountains
• in aquatic environment, oxygen is limiting

in organically polluted waters
• T and dissolved salts affect the ability of

water to hold oxygen
• the solubility of oxygen increased by low T

and decreased by high salinities
20
Efficiency of some physiological process
Optimum point
Limit to
performance
Value of controlling environmental variable
Tolerance curve (Shelford, 1913):

• curve of performance for any organism for
any particular physiological process
21
Efficiency of some physiological process
Physiological
optimum
Critical Critical
Lower minimum maximum Upper
lethal lethal
limit limit
Preferred range
Critical limits
Lethal limits
Nesting limits to tolerance
• at the lower & upper lethal limits, death

occurs
• outside the critical max & min, the
organisms are ecologically inviable
22
Similar curve represents the number of
individuals within the population which
may found occupying environments at a
given value of the chosen
physicochemical factor (Shelford, 1913):
• central zone of the normal distribution

curve where the majority of the
individuals occur: the optimum or
preferred range as a whole
• the stress zone: two tails of the curves

occupied by relatively few individuals
operating under less than optimum
conditions
• the tolerance curve can be shifted to a

certain extent by genetic or evolutionary
changes, or by physiological or
behavioural changes during the
organism’s lifetime
23
The Ecological Niche
• the concept which depends on the
responses of organisms to environmental
conditions
• any given species can survive, grow,

reproduce & maintain a viable population
within certain environmental limits
• a species’ true ecological niche is an n-

dimensional hypervolume within which it
can maintain a viable population
• a species can maintain a viable population

in a larger ecological niche in the absence
of enemies (predators & competitors)
• a niche is an abstract concept that brings

together all of an organism’s requirement
(environmental conditions) necessary for an
organism to maintain a viable population
• Habitats are actual places which provide24
numerous niches
25
The match of organisms to varying
environment
3 major categories of environmental

change:
v. Cyclic changes:
Rhythmically repetitive, e.g. cycles of the
seasons, the movements of the tides, the
light & dark periods within a day
ii. Directional changes:

The direction of a change is maintained over
a period that may be long in relation to
the life span of the organisms, eg. the
progressive erosion of a coastline, the
progressive deposition of silt in an
estuary, cycles of glaciation
iii. Erratic change:

All environmental changes that have no
rhythm & no consistent direction, e.g the
variation in the time of arrival of monsoon
26
rains, the erratic course & timing of

hurricanes, cyclones, flash storms, fires
caused by lightning
2 main ways in which organisms time their

responses to variations in their
environment:
v. By changing in response to the

environmental change:
If the cycle in conditions is weak & contains

much variations, the organisms may best
match the changing conditions by
responding to them directly, e.g the
desert plants germinate in direct
response to the arrival of rain
ii. By using a cue that anticipates the

change:
Organisms live in environments with strong
& repeated cycle of environmental
change & the variation in the cycle is
relatively weak, e.g the darkness of night
27
& the cold of winter

Explanations for the diversity that exists within
communities:
iii. Environments are patchy & heterogenous (made

up of different specialized environments)
v. Most environments contain within them gradients

of conditions or of available resources. Some of
the diversity species in a community may
represent specialization to different conditions
along such gradients
vii.The existence of one type of organism in an area

immediately diversifies it for others
• Coexisting species commonly differ in subtle

ways, but each matches its environment
• The differences in the ecology of species that
coexist within communities are most easily
recognized when the species are closely related
• Similarities between species may have arisen
through convergent evolution or because they
have ancestors in common
28

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THE ORGANISM AND ITS ENVIRONMENT

• organisms are not randomly distributed

• there are no homogeneous mixture of

• there are restricted patterns of species

• restricted and patchy distributions of

• correlations between the biology of

Community Community ecology

Population Population ecology

The levels of organization in ecology and their

• physiological processes proceed at

• any one organisms only has a limited

• tolerance limits: restricts markedly the

• tolerance curves: curves of performance

3. The individuals that make up a

All living organisms are adapted to a specific set of

Within every species, however, genetic variation

Some variations allow those who possess them to

natural selection; genetic variations that improve

ii. Climatic changes

• the fauna & flora of islands have several

• there are fewer species on islands than

• many of the species on islands are either

• islands contain many species unique to

3. Liebig’s law of the minimum

• the presence & success of an organism

• organisms have an ecological minimum

• the concept of the limiting effect of

• Some subsidiary principles to the law of

STENOTHERMAL EURYTHERMAL STENOTHERMAL

MIN MAX. MIN MAX.

Comparison of the relative limits of tolerance of

• T rhythms control the seasonal & daily

• quality of light (wave length or color); the

• daily rhythms of light & darkness control

• photoperiodicity: the length of day

• reproductive cycle of plants can be

• the biotic situation is determined by

• humidity: the amount of water vapor in the

• daily rhythm in humidity & vertical &

• important role of humidity in modifying the

• gases are limiting factors in deep soils and

• in aquatic environment, oxygen is limiting

• T and dissolved salts affect the ability of

• the solubility of oxygen increased by low T

Value of controlling environmental variable

Tolerance curve (Shelford, 1913):

Nesting limits to tolerance

• at the lower & upper lethal limits, death

• central zone of the normal distribution

• the stress zone: two tails of the curves

• the tolerance curve can be shifted to a

• any given species can survive, grow,

• a species’ true ecological niche is an n-

• a species can maintain a viable population

• a niche is an abstract concept that brings

3 major categories of environmental

ii. Directional changes:

iii. Erratic change:

rains, the erratic course & timing of