Ecology of South Florida (EVR 3013) LECTURE 10

INTRODUCTARY ECOLOGY I
BIOGEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE & VEGETATION

VETO
There's a law of nature I'd like to veto...
It's the life and love of the (blank) mosquito.

Don Blanding (1955) [in Jones and O'Sullivan 1995]
HANDOUTS: Fig. 10-1. Vegetation map of southern Florida.

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Definitions

1. Ecology

a. E. Pianka
"Wild plants and animals in their natural communities constitute the subject matter of ecologist."
b. Scientific natural history
c. Interactions
Study of the interrelationships between organisms and their environments
d. Influences
Study of organisms and the totality of the physical and biological factors affecting them or influenced by them

2. Environment

Sum total of all physical, chemical, and biological factors affecting organisms at a particular time

B. Brief History

  1. Initially ecology was descriptive
  2. A major goal of science is to understand causality
  3. Multiple causality is common in ecology
  4. Problems of correlation
  5. Predictive and probabilistic
  6. Ecology - coined by Ernst Haeckel in the 1860s (from Greek word oikos) "Rules of the House"
  7. Multidisciplinary - includes physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, geography, climatology, geology, oceanography, economics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology. (I would add soil science, agronomy, forestry, and statistics).

C. Ecosystems

1. Definition

climate, soils, bacteria, fungi, plants and animals at any particularly place, including abiotic and biotic components.

2. Community

All biotic components constitute a community

3. Open vs. closed

D. Principles

1. heterotrophs - consumers

2. autotrophs - producers

3. Operating laws

Natural selection is perhaps the only law of ecology - differential reproductive success.

II. BIOGEOGRAPHY

A. Definition by Watts

Biogeography seeks to establish patterns of order from the apparent chaos of the multiplicity of life forms present upon the surface of the earth, and in its soil, atmosphere, and water bodies. In doing so it is concerned with the mechanisms whereby both plants and animals originate, evolve, and organize themselves into assemblages which show particular distributions and affinities.
Watts 1971

B. Biome Level

Patterns of organisms are evident at different scales such as biomes

1. Terrestrial biomes

  1. tundra
  2. coniferous forest
  3. deciduous forest
  4. grassland
  5. savanna
  6. tropical rain forest
  7. chaparral
  8. desert
  9. freshwater

2. Marine biomes

  1. coral reefs
  2. deep sea
  3. pelagic plankton
  4. pelagic nekton
  5. neuston - on water film

3. Littoral biomes

Pertaining to the shore. There are high and low energy shores.
  1. rocky shore
  2. sandy shore
  3. muddy shore and salt marsh
  4. shallow sea benthos

C. Biogeographical Provinces

1. Tropical
  1. Neotropical
  2. Ethiopian
  3. Oriental
  4. Australian (Australasian)
  5. (Oceanian)
2. Extratropical
  1. Neartic
  2. Paleartic
  3. (Antarctic)

D. Processes

1. Continental Drift
2. Dispersal
3. Quaternary events
4. Species-Area Relationships
Observations - big areas generally have more species than small areas. Why?

III. CLIMATE, VEGETATION, AND SUCCESSION

A. Vegetation & climate

Climate is major determinant of vegetation

B. Definitions

C. Components

Climate, parent material, soils and biota (plants animals)

D. Succession

1. Thoreau

Term originated with Thoreau, who recognized that hardwoods follow pines after logging in New England

2. Examples

a. Lake Michigan Sand Dunes
b. North Carolina
c. South Florida Pinelands

3. Generalizations

  1. Small plants precede big plants
  2. Annuals precede perennials
  3. Herbs precede shrubs
  4. Shrubs precede trees
  5. Pines precede hardwoods
  6. Biomass increases
  7. Physiognomy increases in complexity

4. Definitions

a. Succession
Sucession is a directional, cumulative change in the species which occupy a given area through time. Excludes seasonal and long-term climate induced change. Prolonged absence of change marks climax community, or rather the absence of cumulative change. Fluctuations around a mean are acceptable and refered to as dynamic equilibrium (Barbour et al. 1980)
b. Primary succession
Primary succession is the establishment of plants on land not previously vegetated. Colonization.
c. Secondary succession
Secondary succession is the establishment of plants on previously vegetated land that has been subject to human or natural disturbance. Secondary succession on abandoned cropland is called old-field succession.
d. Climax
A climax community is a terminal stage of ecological succession, a biotic community in equilibrium with existing environmental conditions.
Back to start,  On to lecture 11,  12,  13,  14 &15,  16,  17,   18,  19

Feedback

Please enter your name:
Please enter your Email address (for reply):

The error you found, your suggestion for improvement, or updated information...


Involves changing the web documents, so tell Scott
Involves the class, so tell Dr. Bennett