KEYWORDS IN THE STUDY OF ECOLOGY
by Antonio C. Antonio
January 14, 2015
The study of environmental science is a multidisciplinary
academic field that involves both natural and social sciences. My idol, Dean Inocencio E. Buot, Jr. of the
Faculty of Management and Developmental Studies of the University of the
Philippines OU, often says that for one to be successful in the study of
ecology, one has to even be “pakialamero” or nosey. His statement typifies the
broad nature of this particular realm of study.
Daunting and intimidating as it is, there are ways to keep it simple…
perhaps, internalize an inter-connected and interrelated series of keywords,
such as:
SPECIES – A group of living organisms consisting of similar
individuals capable of exchanging or interbreeding. Successful mating is used as the criterion
for delineating individuals of the same species from another. There are roughly half a million species of
plants and several million species of animals in the world most of them found
in the tropics.
POPULATION – Population is defines as: (a) All the
inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country; (b) A particular section,
group, or type of people or animals living in an area or country; (c) The
specified extent or degree to which an area is or has been populated; and, (d)
Population is a distinct group of individuals of species that live and interact
in the same geographical area. Examples
of plant populations are cogon grasses in a grassland area, as distinct from
the populations of “talahib” or colopogonium… in these plant populations live
populations of grasshoppers, snakes and other animals in the same grassland area.
HABITAT – Habitat is defined as: (a) The natural home or environment
of an animal, plant, or other organisms; (b) A person’s usual or preferred
surroundings; and, (c) The specific place or area where organisms or
populations live in the physical environment.
We actually have two main types of habitat, which are: (1) Terrestrial
or land based habitat; and (2) Aquatic or water based habitat.
COMMUNITY – Community is defined as: (a) A group of people
living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common; and,
(b) A feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common
attitudes, interests and goals.
Different populations comprise a community that live and interact with
one another in a given space at a given time.
In the forest we have different communities of plant and animals which
comprise the biotic communities of the forest.
ECOSYSTEM – An ecosystem is a biological community of
interacting organisms and their physical environment.
BIOME – A biome consists of many ecosystems taken together
in a large terrestrial area of the planet earth. Biomes are identified and classified
according to their dominant vegetation type and their associated animal and
microbial components.
TROPICAL FOREST – A tropical forest is a type of forest
found in areas with high regular rainfall and no more than two months of low
rainfall; and consisting of a completely closed canopy of trees that prevents
the penetration of sunlight to the ground and discourages ground-cover
growth. A tropical forest is dominated
by hardwood species belonging to Family Dipterocarpaceae, Leguminosae. Tropical forest can be found in three
continents: (a) Southeast Asia including the Philippines; (b) Tropical Africa;
and, (c) Central and South America particularly the basis of the Amazon River.
BIOSPHERE – A biosphere is the totality of all the
terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the world. It is the regions of the surface, atmosphere,
and hydrosphere of the earth occupied by living organisms. It is the thin layer of the air, soil and
water at the interface of the planet’s surface and its atmosphere where life
forms exist.
In a nutshell, all these general terms is ecology simply
based on the preceding keywords in the study of ecology.
Just my little
thoughts…
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