Ecosystems: What is an Ecosystem? Population Stability, Succession

Edited by Jamie (ScienceAid Editor), Taylor (ScienceAid Editor)

What is an Ecosystem?

It is quite complicated getting an idea of exactly what an ecosystem is. It can be thought of as all the biological organisms within an area of study as well as the abiotic factors; sunlight, pH etc. Crucially, ecologists are looking at the interactions between these and so there are many layers.

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help

The different components of an ecosystem can be thought of as existing at different scales. A Population is a group of individuals from the same species, and populations from various species make a community. The area that these communities live in is called a habitat.

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help

Within an ecosystem, a species occupies a niche. This is best described as the particular role it has - for instance, a penguin's niche is living on land in the antarctic and feeding on fish. According to the competitive exclusion principle, no two species can occupy exactly the same niche, so to return to our penguin example, if another animal came to be living on land and feeding on fish it would be in competition with the penguins. Over time, the introduction of this new species would either cause penguins to go extinct, go extinct itself, or each would have to adapt to slightly different niches - perhaps living in different parts of the antarctic or by eating different fish.

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help

Overall, an ecosystem is a community living in a fairly uniform habitat (rain forest, pond) that consists of interactions between organisms and their physical environmental (abiotic factors).

Population Stability

The size of a population in an ecosystem tends to stay fairly constant, albeit with fluctuations. There, however, are certain factors that will affect the sizes of populations outlined in the table below.

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help
Factor Effect
Abiotic Things like temperature, pH and mineral nutrients are vital for growth. If these were to change, it would make a certain niche less favourable.
Predation The populations of predators and prey are very closely linked. Other factors (other than prey) may reduce the population of the predator, and this in turn influences the prey.
Competition As previously discussed, species have a certain niche, whilst they cannot occupy exactly the same, they very often have overlapping niches which results in competition.

Where two species occupy the same niche, only one or the other can survive. For example: the red and grey squirrel in Britain. The grey (Sciurus carolinensis) was introduced in the 19th century, and has replaced the native red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). In some areas (near Norwich for example) they do coexist, but together their numbers are lower than if one or the other wholly populated the area. This is inter-specific competition.

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help

Succession

Many millions of years ago, the earth was devoid of any visible life but over time organisms began to colonize. The sequence of events is called succession and ends with what is known as the climax community This is the most stable community possible in that particular area. So succession could be thought of as the process of getting to the climax community.

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help

There is generally a certain pattern to this process - where small plants initially grow for example, which changes the environment and makes it suitable for other species. Take the example a sand dune where a sequence of succession can be seen moving away from the sea, so it is on a geographic gradient.

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help

Next to the shore, are pioneer plants such as grasses. These make the dune more stable for more complex organisms. And this process continues and the dune is made more stable until the most stable community is reached: the climax.

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help

Other examples of where succession can occur are on recently formed volcanic islands or in wetland formations. In each instance, the climax community is again woodland.

Secondary succession happens in a habitat that has been previously colonized, but has been disturbed; for example, an area of forest that has been cleared. Secondary succession usually occurs more quickly than primary succession because it is made more favourable as a result of previous colonization by existing factors (seeds, roots, soil fertility).

Was this helpful? Yes | No| I need help

Referencing this Article

If you need to reference this article in your work, you can copy-paste the following depending on your required format:

APA (American Psychological Association)
Ecosystems: What is an Ecosystem? Population Stability, Succession. (2017). In ScienceAid. Retrieved Mar 29, 2024, from https://scienceaid.net/biology/ecology/ecosystems.html

MLA (Modern Language Association) "Ecosystems: What is an Ecosystem? Population Stability, Succession." ScienceAid, scienceaid.net/biology/ecology/ecosystems.html Accessed 29 Mar 2024.

Chicago / Turabian ScienceAid.net. "Ecosystems: What is an Ecosystem? Population Stability, Succession." Accessed Mar 29, 2024. https://scienceaid.net/biology/ecology/ecosystems.html.

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

Comments

ScienceAid welcomes all comments. If you do not want to be anonymous, register or log in. It is free.

Article Info

Categories : Ecology

Recent edits by: Jamie (ScienceAid Editor)

Share this Article:

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 3,642 times.

x

Thank Our Volunteer Authors.

Would you like to give back to the community by fixing a spelling mistake? Yes | No