ECOLOGY- The science that studies the interrelationships existing between organisms and their environment and among groups of organisms.
BASICS OF ECOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING
I. Living things do not exist as isolated individuals or groups of individuals. II. All organisms interact with others of their own species, with other species, and with the physical and chemical environments that surround them. III. All organisms have an effect on each other and their surroundings.
No living organisms exists entirely by itself, it is a part of a community organisms which interact and have effect on each other and their environment.
The organisms in an environment are grouped together at different levels.
A.Species- a natural group of actually or potentially interbreeding individuals reproductively isolated from other such groups. A species is the smallest taxonomical group of organisms that can actually breed with each other and have fertile offspring.
B.Population- all the individuals of a given species in a defined area.
C. Community- The group of the species populations that tend to occur together in a particular geographical area.
D. Ecosystem- The community or series of communities and their surrounding environment. This includes both the physical and chemical environment; that is the
rocks, metals, perfumes (phermones), water, and air.
ECOSYSTEM- Functional unit of variable size composed of living and nonliving parts, which interact. Component parts of the whole system function through a sequence of operations involving energy and the transfer of energy.
