A Level Biology

Populations in ecosystems

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Community

▪ Groups of biologically interacting populations living in the same region is known as a

community or an assemblage of species living close together for potential interaction
is called a community.
 E.g. mangrove community
 Tropical wet forest community
 Teak forest community
▪ The size of a community can be small as an intestine or as large as a tropical forest.

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Ecosystem
▪ A community of living organisms interacting with non living factors in the environment
produce an ecosystem.
▪ They are easily recognisable systems.
▪ Its abiotic environment decides its biotic environment. For e.g. desert- cacti
▪ Takes energy from outside only for its existence.
▪ Substances are always exchanged between the abiotic and the biotic components in
a cyclic manner.
▪ Therefore it acts as a self defensive system.

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Structure of an ecosystem
Majorly divides into two components.
1. Abiotic component
2. Biotic component

Abiotic component
▪ Divides into three major parts.
1. Inorganic substances
2. Organic substances
3. Physical factors

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Abiotic factors

Inorganic
Physical factors Organic components
components
Energy radiation, Dead animal and plant Gases, water, minerals
temperature, heat, matter, faecal and
relative humidity, excretory matter
rainfall, salinity, pH
value, wind

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Biotic component
Includes all organisms classified under the
following groups.
▪ Virus
▪ Bacteria and archaebacteria
▪ Protista
▪ Fungi
▪ Plantae
▪ Animalia

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Niche

▪ A habitat describes the place where a species lives within an ecosystem. The niche
occupied by a species is more than a physical description of a place. A niche is the
role of an organism in an ecosystem; it is how the organism ‘fits into’ the ecosystem.
An organism’s niche describes where it is, how it obtains energy, how it interacts with
both its physical environment and with other species.
▪ Organisms require resources from their surroundings and they have special
adaptations for obtaining them. In many ecosystems, many there are similar niches
that may be occupied by the same species, or, more likely, by different ones.

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An ecosystem supports a certain size of population of a species, called the carrying
capacity. This population size can vary as a result of:

▪ The effect of abiotic factors

 When abiotic conditions (temperature, water, light, space etc) remain ideal for a
species, they grow well and thrive successfully.
 E.g. if the temperature of the surrounding is better suited for metabolic reactions
in mammals, they do not have to use much of their energy in maintaining their
body temperature. This allows them to use more of their energy in growth and
reproduction. As a result, the size of their population will increase.

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▪ Interspecific competition

 When members of different species compete for the same type of resources, it is
called interspecific competition. This could mean that the two species competing
have less amount of resources and therefore populations of small size. If there
was a situation where one species ( out of the two competing) is well adapted to
its environment than the other, it is more likely to out-compete the other.

▪ Intraspecific competition

 When members of the same species compete for the same type of resources, it is
called intraspecific competition. The presence of plentiful resources increases the
population of a species. When this happens, more organisms will start competing
for the same amount of food and space. Gradually, the resources (food and
space) will become limited and the size reduces. Less competition for resources
is seen among smaller populations. This helps in their growth and reproduction.
Eventually the growth of population occurs.

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▪ Predation

 The population sizes of both the predators and the prey share an interconnection.
Predators are animals who hunt and kill other animals (prey). If there is a change
in one of the populations, it could affect the other population.

1. If the population of prey increases, the predator population grows as well due to
the abundance of food.
2. When the population of predators rise, the prey population declines as they get
eaten.
3. This results in less food for the predators making their population smaller.
4. However, there are other factors involved in the predator-prey relationship
making it more complicated than it sounds. For e.g. availability of food for the
prey

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Estimating the size of a population

For slow moving or motile organisms

▪ Randomly placed quadrats: a quadrat is a square frame divided into several smaller
squares like a grid. These squares are made by strings attached to the sides of the
frame. Quadrats are placed at different points on the ground within the area of
investigation.
▪ You can use your results in two different ways: to calculate species frequency and
species density. Species frequency is a measure of the chance of a particular
species being found within any one quadrat. You simply record whether the species
was present in each quadrat that you analyse.

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▪ For example, if you placed your quadrat 50 times, and found daisy plants in 22 of
your samples, then the species frequency for daisies is:

22/50 x 100 = 44%

▪ Species density is a measure of how many individuals there are per unit area- for
example, per square metre. The number of individuals that you have counted is
divided by the total area of all your quadrats.
▪ It is always not possible to count individual plants and animal because of the way that
they grow. For example, many animals and plants grow over surface forming a
covering and it is almost impossible to count individuals. How do you decide how
many grass plants there are in a quadrat that you have placed on a lawn? In this
case, you can estimate the percentage cover of the species within your quadrat.

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▪ To help with this, you can use a 100cm x 100cm
quadrat with wires running across it at 10 cm
intervals in each direction, dividing the quadrat
into 100 smaller squares. You then decide
approximately what percentage of the area
inside the quadrat is occupied by each species.
These percentages may not add up to 100%.
▪ For example, there might be bare ground in the
quadrat, so the numbers will come to less than
100%. Or there may be plants overlying one
another, in which case the numbers may add up
to more than 100%.
▪ An alternative to estimating percentage cover of
each species is to use an abundance scale,
such as the Braun - Blanquet scale for number
and plant cover.

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▪ Quadrats along a belt transect: it is possible to use lines called transects to find out
the distribution of plants across an area. To workout the percentage cover and
species frequency, quadrats are placed next to one another along the transect.
Interrupted belt transect is when quadrats are placed at intervals along the transect to
cover a greater distance.

For motile organisms

▪ A good method of estimating the population size of mobile organisms, if used with
care, is the mark-release-recapture technique. First, as many individuals as possible
are caught. Each individual is marked, in a way that will not affect its future chance of
survival. The marked individuals are counted, returned to their habitat and left to mix
randomly with the rest of the population.
▪ When enough time has elapsed for the mixing to take place, another large sample is
captured. The number of marked and unmarked individuals is counted. The
proportion of marked to unmarked individuals is then used to calculate an estimate of
the total number in the population.

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Succession

Ecosystems change constantly (dynamic). The process of ecosystem changing overtime is

called succession. Succession is of two types.
1. Primary succession - this occurs on land that’s newly exposed or formed.
E.g. formation of new rock surface after a volcanic eruption, exposure of new land area
after the drop in sea levels.
2. Secondary succession - this happens in the soil of a land cleared of all plants.
E.g. after a forest clearance by humans, after a forest fire

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▪ Primary succession begins when a species starts to colonise the surface of a new
land area.
▪ Spores and seeds start to grow after being blown by the wind.
▪ Pioneer species refers to the first species which colonise the area.
▪ As the abiotic conditions are harsh, only pioneer species are able to grow because
they’re adapted to live in hostile conditions.
▪ The death of pioneer species alter the biotic conditions s microorganisms decompose
their dead matter forming basic soil. This creates a less hostile environment.
▪ As the basic soil helps in retaining water, new organisms with different adaptations
could grow in them.
▪ When they die and decompose, more organic materials are added to make the soil
rich in minerals. This allows bigger plants like shrubs to grow and retain more water
in the soil.

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▪ Certain new species change the environment making it unsuitable for the previous
species.
▪ Secondary succession occurs in the same manner, but since a soil layer is present
already, succession starts a little late. Larger plants (e.g. shrubs) are the pioneer
species in a secondary succession.
▪ At different stages, different animals and plants move in and out-compete the already
existing plants and animals. Then they become the dominant species within the
ecosystem.
▪ The ecosystem gets more complex as succession progresses. As new species and
the existing species grow alongside each other, biodiversity is also increased.
▪ The final stage is the climax community where it will not change much more.
▪ The ecosystem has reached a steady state.

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Management of succession

▪ Preventing the development of a climax community by artificial means (e.g. human

intervention) is known as plagioclimax.
▪ Sometimes, in order to conserve ecosystems, prevention of succession is involved to
preserve the ecosystem in its prevailing state of succession.
▪ For example, Scotland is home to large moorland areas where many plant and animal
species survive. If the morrland was left as it is for the nature to take course,
succession would cause a climax community of spruce forest. This would lead to the
loss of plants and animals currently living there.

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▪ Prevention of succession helps keep the ecosystem intact. In order to conserve the
moorland ecosystem, succession could be managed as follows.

1. Allowing animals to graze on the 2. Lighting managed fires

land

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