Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Keywords in the Study of Ecology


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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