ECOLOGY

• Ecology is a biological science that studies the relationship

between living organisms and their environment. It examines
connections in nature. It deals with various principles which
govern relationships between organisms and their environment.
• The term ecology was coined by combining two greek words, oikos
(house) and logos (the study of) to denote such relationships
between the organisms and their environment. Thus, literally,
ecology is the study of organisms at home.
• The dynamic environment and organisms make ways for the
development of different kinds of organisms through a process
known as succession. The process continues till the development
of a community which is now more or less stable and now able to
keep itself adjusted in equilibrium with the environment.
 ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
• In nature, communities are never stable, but dynamic , changing more or less regularly
over time and space. They are never found permanently in complete balance with their
component species or with physical environment. Environment is always changing over a
period of time due to
• (1) variations in climatic and physiographic factors
• (2) the activities of the species of the communities themselves.
These influences bring about marked changes in the dominants of the existing community,
which is thus sooner or later replaced by another community at the same place. This process
continues and successive communities develop one after another over the same area, until
the terminal final community again becomes more or less stable for a period of time. This
occurrence of relatively definite sequence of communities over a period of time in a same
area is known as ecological succession.
 PARAMETERS FOR ECOLOGICAL
SUCCESSION

1. It is an orderly process of community development that involves changes in

species structure and community processes with time, it is reasonably directional
and therefore, predictable.
2. It results from modification of the physical environment by the community, that is,
succession is community controlled even though the physical environment
determines the pattern, the rate of change.
3. It culminates in a stabilized ecosystem in which maximum biomass and symbiotic
function between organisms are maintained per unit of available energy flow.
 CAUSES OF SUCCESSION
• Initial or initiating causes- these are climatic as well as biotic. Climatic include
factors, such as erosion and deposits, wind, fire etc., Caused by lightning or
volcanic activity, and biotic includes the various activities of organisms. These
causes produce the bare areas or destroy the existing populations in an area.
• Continuing causes- these are the processes as migration, aggregation,
competition, reaction etc. Which cause successive waves of populations as a
result of changes.
• Stabilizing causes- these causes stabilizing of the community. Climate of the
area is the chief cause of stabilization, other factors are of secondary value.
 GENERAL PROCESS OF SUCCESSION
• Nudation- this is the development of bare area without any form of life. The area may
develop due to landslide, erosion etc.
• Invasion- this is the successful establishment of species in a bare area. The species actually
reaches this new site from any other area.
• Competition- after aggregation of a large number of individuals of the species at the limited
place, there develops competition mainly for space and nutrition.
• Reaction- the mechanism of the modification of environment through the influence of living
organisms on it is known as reaction. As a result of reaction changes take place in soil, water,
temp. Etc. Of the environment.
• Stabilization- the final terminal community becomes more or less stabilized for a longer
period of time.
 TYPES OF ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
• There are two main types of succession, primary and secondary.
Primary succession is the series of community changes which
occur on an entirely new habitat which has never been colonized
before. For example, a newly quarried rock face or sand dunes.
• Secondary succession is the series of community changes which
take place on a previously colonized, but disturbed or damaged
habitat. For example, after felling trees in a woodland, land
clearance or a fire.