Natural Resources and their Management

Ecology & Ecosystems

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Introduction to ecology
All the living things that we know about are
found on the Earth. From the biggest whale to the
smallest bacteria, they all share this planet with
us. The word ecology comes from the Greek
word oikos meaning our home. So the study
of ecology is about the relationships that exist
between all the living organisms (biotic) and
non-living things (abiotic) in our environment.
For example a Marula tree needs air, water and
nutrients from the soil. It depends on a certain
amount of rainfall and needs warm temperatures.
Insects and birds live in its trunk and branches
and may feed on it. In the shade of these
branches other plants may grow. In this place or
ecosystem the plants and animals are
interdependent, that is they rely on the support or
existence of each other. Everything is linked in
some way to everything else.
Ecosystems can be any size. An example of an
ecosystem is a rotting log; another is a 100
kilometres stretch of coastline; another is the
Kalahari Desert.
When many similar ecosystems throughout the
world are grouped together, we call them a
biome. Biomes are large areas with similar flora,
fauna, and micro-organisms. Examples of biomes
are tropical rainforests, tundra, desert, grassland
and savannah.
Ecosystems function within biomes. They are the
dynamic interactions between plants, animals,
and micro-organisms and their environment.
Ecosystems falter if they do not remain in
balance. Ecosystems can be affected by natural
phenomena, such as fire, disease, and the number
of predators, or by human activity, such as
building, logging, or pollution.
The relationships between plants and animals and
the land, air and water around them in an
ecosystem are governed by processes. Some are
simple, while others are very complex, but they

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can all be grouped into five interdependent

principles:
Tropic levels (feeding relationships)
Energy flow (sunlight)
Material cycling (water, nitrogen, carbon)
Limiting factors (physical and chemical)

Constant change (succession and

evolution)

Feeding relationships in an ecosystem

To understand how ecosystems work and what
affects them, we need to understand how energy
flows through the different levels of the
ecosystem. Organisms can be either producers or
consumers in terms of energy flow through an
ecosystem. Producers convert energy from the
environment into carbon bonds. All organisms
require food and nutrients to live. Tropic or
feeding levels in an ecosystem are about how
organisms make their food or get it from others
who make it.
The six main levels are:
Producers: Green plants get their energy
from the sun in a process called photosynthesis
that also requires carbon dioxide and water.(see
Information Sheet on Cycles in the Environment)
Plants also use nitrogen from the air and nitrates
in the ground to produce protein which both
plants and animals need in order to grow
Primary consumers: All herbivorous
animals that get their food from green plants are
known as primary consumers. Examples include
cattle and antelope.
Secondary consumers: are carnivorous
animals that feed on herbivores. Lion and
cheetah are examples. Most carnivores are
predators. These are animals that catch and eat
other animals. By always taking the individuals
that are easiest to catch, predators promote the
survival of the fittest amongst their prey.
Predators use their senses of sight, smell and
hearing to catch their prey. The more successful

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Theme: Natural Resources and their Management

Topic No 1: Ecology & Ecosystems
the method, the more likely the species are to
survive.
Tertiary consumers: These are
carnivorous animals that feed on other
carnivores, rather than herbivores. Sharks are an
example.
Reducers: These include animals such as
worms or crabs that feed on any dead organic
matter.
Decomposers: This group is made up of
fungi and bacteria that break down organic
matter into its inorganic parts for re-use by
plants.

Source: Action Magazine, Ecosystems

Energy flow
All life depends upon the flow of energy and
materials through ecosystems. Initially all the
energy for this comes from the sun and is fixed
by plants during photosynthesis. When
herbivorous animals digest plant tissue, some of
the energy is released. This energy is used either
to power the animals own movement,
metabolism and growth, stored by it or given off
as heat. Energy flows in one direction and
diminishes as it is used up by plants or animals,
or is 'lost' into space as heat. It cannot be
recycled.

Source: Action Magazine, Ecosystems

When organisms consume food, energy and

chemical materials are transferred between the
tropic levels. This link is called a food chain.
Each organism in the chain provides food for the
next one in the chain. There are two main types
of food chain:
Grazing and browsing food chain:
This starts from a base of green plants and goes
on to herbivores and carnivores.
Detritus food chain: This starts from a
base of dead organic matter proceeding to a
variety of other organisms including scavengers,
insects, fungi and bacteria.
The two chains are linked as dead organisms
from the first form the base of the second which
in turn provides vital nutrients to green plants. In
reality because primary and secondary consumers
usually eat many types of food, the links do not
form a simple chain but result in a complex food
web.

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The more food there is, the greater the number of

animals that can be supported by it. Since most
food is in the form of plants, so there are more
animals (herbivores) that live on plants. However
between 80-90% of this plant energy is used by
herbivores just to keep themselves alive. So the
food available for carnivores is less and so there
are fewer of them. This leads to the idea of a
food pyramid where many plants support, fewer
primary consumers, less secondary consumers
and so on, limiting the links in the food chain to
four or five, the first link is always a primary
producer, and the last link is always a
decomposer.

Material cycling
All the elements such as water, carbon and
nitrogen that are needed for plants and animals in
an ecosystem are cycled continually between the
biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems in
biogeochemical cycles. (see Information Sheets
on Cycles in the Environment) Because of this
ecosystems can be likened to self-sufficient
machines kept running by the plants and animals
in them. In these ecosystems food, minerals and
water never ran out. They were constantly reused

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Theme: Natural Resources and their Management

Topic No 1: Ecology & Ecosystems
in a natural cycle powered by energy from the
sun.

Limiting factors
Limiting factors are of two kinds, chemical and
physical:
Every living organism requires certain
kinds and quantities of chemical nutrients.
If one of these nutrients is absent, or
present in insufficient amounts, even if all
the others are available in abundance, the
organism will function poorly or die. In
some cases the limiting factor may not be
the lack of a particular nutrient, but an
excess of it, i.e. it occurs in amounts which
are poisonous. Consequently all organisms
must live within a range between too much
and too little of their essential
requirements. This is called their range of
tolerance.
Examples of physical limiting factors for
plants are water, sunlight, fire,
temperature, disease, grazing pressure,
competition with other species and the
activities of people, e.g. destroying certain
plant species. Examples of physical
limiting factors for animals are water,
temperature, the availability of shelter and
nesting or breeding sites (including our
homes), diseases and parasites, predation,
and the activities of people, e.g. hunting,
violence and habitat destruction.

Constant change-succession and

evolution
Nothing in nature is static. Even mountains are
gradually eroded and after millions of years
become flat plains. Sediments brought down by
rivers are continually being deposited in the sea
and in lakes and eventually these may become
dry land.
Within any ecosystem, plants and animals are
continually developing to maturity, growing old
and dying, and being replaced by others. The
new organisms may be the same species or they
might be the new species colonising the area,
thus changing the composition of the biotic
community. Unless influenced by the people or

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catastrophic events (such as volcanic eruptions),

the biotic community of an ecosystem will
change in an orderly and broadly predictable
fashion. This process is called ecological
succession. For example a volcanic island may
change from barren rock to lush forest as initial
plant colonizers create conditions more
favourable to other species.
During this process ecosystems develop from a
simple community to a more complex one. This
increased complexity also brings about greater
stability that makes it more resistant to change
by outside influences, such as the activities of
people, invasive plants, or disease. The most
robust ecosystems are usually also those with the
greatest variety of plants and animals, i.e. the
greatest biodiversity.
Natural ecosystems are self-sustaining in that
they function within the limits of available
resources. In comparison, sustaining man-made
ecosystems (cities, farmland) requires external
resources.
To some extent ecosystems are capable of selfregulation. Homeostasis is the tendency of
ecosystems to return to a state of equilibrium.
This regulation is achieved through feedback
mechanisms (physical, chemical, social and
behavioural). Homeostasis leads to the stability
of ecosystems, for example a rain forest will
remain a rain forest. However when changes
become too great or occur too quickly, (fire,
floods, pollution, global warming) then an entire
ecosystem may be changed or destroyed. This
appears to be what is happening to the Arctic ice
cap ecosystem as it melts because of global
warming.
Organisms also change their form and function
over long periods of time, some to the extent that
they may no longer resemble their original form.
This process is called biological evolution. In
nature a successful plant or animal is one that
manages to survive. Today only a third of all the
different types of animals that once existed on
the Earth are still found. To survive these
animals and plants have adapted to fit in with
changes that have taken place in their
surroundings. These adaptations include:

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Theme: Natural Resources and their Management

Topic No 1: Ecology & Ecosystems

Seeing without eyes (bats)

Camouflage (insects, chameleons,
butterflies)

travel over a very large home range looking for

females to mate with.

Copying the appearance of another animal

(hoverflies)
Having no leaves (the nara)
Using a disguise (stone plants)
Developing resistance to poisons (insects)
Changing their coat or colour by the
season (snow leopard)

Living together in an ecosystem

Within for example the savannah grassland
ecosystem many plants and animals live together
as a community. How different types of animal
survive within this community, depends on what
they eat, where they roam, where they breed, and
how their lives fit with all the other creatures. All
of these things determine an animals position or
niche within the community. No two types or
species of animal are the same. Each is different
in a particular way to give it an advantage. This
lessens the competition between different species
of animals so that each one has a better chance of
survival. Gemsbok can live in semi-desert scrub
where other antelope would die. They dig for
underground melons, tubers and bulbs and
survive by using the water from these. Buffalos
are ruminants with stomachs that can digest
much coarser grass than other herbivores
Every animal needs an area in which it can live,
find a mate and find shelter. This area is called
its 'home range'. Forest animals have a smaller
home range than plains animals, since they do
not have to move as far in search of food, water
or shelter. A plains cheetah, for example, travels
over an area 10 times larger than a forest leopard.
Home ranges vary between different animals
because they have different habits. A large herd
of buffalo may have a home range of over 200
sq. km. but a similar sized herd of impala may
only travel about 50 sq km. Some animals such
as the steenbok and klipspringer, mate for life
and stay in a small home range together. Other
antelope such as kudu are organised into two
different herds: one for the mothers and
offspring, the other for adult males. So the males

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A territory is that part of an individual's home

range which it uses for breeding. A territory is
usually the part that contains more food and
therefore more females. Territories are often
marked out using scent glands, urine or dung to
warn other animals of the same species that the
territory is 'owned'. In most habitats there are
more home ranges than suitable breeding
territories. This means that because of
competition there will always be some younger
or less strong individuals in a herd which do not
get to breed. This helps to make sure that only
genes from the strongest and fittest males are
passed down to any future offspring.
Lion intruders straying into part of a home range
used by another pride will be chased and fought
off by both the males and females of the pride.
Often battles are bloody, particularly if a
coalition of male lions is trying to take over the
pride. Winners get to keep the territory and the
breeding rights which go with it until the next
attempted take-over occurs.
Natural methods within an ecosystem govern the
members of the population. These include:
Competition for food within the same species
Competition for territory with food and breeding
opportunities (see above)
Symbiotic relationships between animals, among
plants and between plants and animals. For
example:
Oxpeckers live among cattle and helps the
ox by removing ticks and other parasites .
(mutualism)

The honeyguide often leads the Ratel to a

beehive so that the Ratel will break it open
and in the process help the bird to also get
at the wax containers (mutualism)
Plants provide leaves, flowers, fruits and
seeds for animals to feed on. (symbiosis)
Orchids and palms often use trees for
support in order to climb up and reach the
light. (commensualism)

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Theme: Natural Resources and their Management

Topic No 1: Ecology & Ecosystems
Communicating in an ecosystem
Plants and animals, just like people are aware of
their surroundings. While they dont speak, they
are capable of sending messages in other ways.
Animals make sounds, leave scents, move parts
of their body and touch and groom each other to
show what they are feeling. Animals send
messages in order to attract mates, warn each
other about danger or show their rank in a group.
Plants largely communicate by releasing
chemicals or through colour. Flowers, fruits and
berries may be brightly coloured in order to
attract an insect or animal. On the other hand,
trees such as acacia often release a powerful
bitter chemical when their leaves are chewed that
tells the animal to stop browsing.

Damage to terrestrial ecosystems:

some examples
For ecosystems to work, everything must be in
balance. Human activity is the single biggest
contributor to unbalancing ecosystems. By
breaking one link in the chain, we affect the
whole ecosystem. For example, if we spray
pesticides or hunt animals nearly to extinction,
we set up a 'chain reaction' in the food chain!
Biomagnification occurs when organisms at
the bottom of the food chain concentrate the
material above its concentration in the
surrounding soil or water. A good example of
biomagnification can be found in the pesticide
DDT. This pesticide was used before the 1960s
to eliminate insects such as mosquitoes that
spread malaria. It worked very well and saved
millions of lives by getting rid of the malaria
mosquito. One f the reasons that DDT worked so
effectively is that it does not break down in the
environment. It is picked up by organisms in the
environment and incorporated into fat. Even
here, it does not do real damage to many
organisms (including humans). In others,
however, DDT is deadly or may have more
insidious, long-term effects. In birds, for
instance, DDT interferes with the deposition of
calcium in the shells of the bird's eggs. The eggs
laid are very soft and easily broken; birds so
afflicted are rarely able to raise young and this
causes a decline in their numbers. Rachel
Carson, a scientist, wrote a book called The

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Silent Spring in the 1960s that was very

influential in banning DDT. Her book describes
the spring without the sound of bird calls. DDT
was banned because of the biomagnification
properties.
Monoculture is another example of how
human activity can unbalance an ecosystem.
Human civilization depends on agriculture to
feed the population. To do so, we manipulate the
environment to favour plant species that we can
eat (crops). By encouraging crops to grow, we
discourage (or kill off) other species, for
example, weeds. But while monocultures, or
fields with only one crop, may be good for
human consumption, they pack many similar
plants into a small area, creating a situation ideal
for disease and insect pests. Pests in this area
thrive, and unbalance the rest of the ecosystem. It
takes lots of chemicals (pesticides) to keep a
monoculture going.
Another problem with human agriculture is that
of inorganic nutrient recycling. In a natural
ecosystem, when a plant dies it falls to the
ground and rots, and its inorganic nutrients are
returned to the soil. In human agriculture,
however, we harvest the crop. The nutrients are
not returned to the fields. They have to be
replaced with chemical fertilizers, which tend to
run off the fields and pollute the water.
Humans have a great impact on the carbon cycle
because when we burn fossil fuels (such as coal)
we release excess carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere. This means that more carbon
dioxide goes into the oceans, and more is present
in the atmosphere. Excess carbon dioxide causes
global warming.
Every sphere of human activity agriculture,
industrialization and technology, energy
development and use, and population growth
have an effect, good or bad, on ecosystems.
Understanding how ecosystems work is crucial in
making informed choices and decisions about
how we should live in order to make our
environment a better place in which to live, learn
and work.

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Theme: Natural Resources and their Management

Topic No 1: Ecology & Ecosystems
Important ideas to stress in your teaching and learning

Ecology is the study of relationships between the living and non-living things in our environment.
Plants and animals in an ecosystem are interdependent, that is they rely on the support and
existence of each other
The relationships between plants and animals are governed by the processes of feeding, energy
flow, material cycling, limiting factors and change.
Plants and animals in an ecosystem live together as a community. An animals position or niche in
the community is determined by what it eats, where it goes, where it breeds and how its life fits
with other creatures.
Natural methods within an ecosystem govern its members. These include competition for food and
territory, mutualism, symbiosis and commensualism.
Plants and animals communicate in many different ways.
Ecosystems can be damaged through every sphere of human activity, agriculture, energy use,
industrialization and changing technology and population and resource growth.

Glossary
Biodiversity
Biomagnification
Biotic

The range and variety of organisms present in a given ecological community or

environment.
The accumulation of a harmful substance in a biological organism, especially
one that forms part of the food chain.
used to describe the features of a natural system that is living.

Carbon cycle

The series of interlinked processes through which carbon is exchanged between

living organism and the nonliving environment.

Eroded

The gradual wearing away of rock or soil by physical breakdown, chemical

solution, and transportation of material caused by water, wind or ice.
The gradual development of an entity into a more complex or better form.
any carbon-containing fuel, for example coal, peat, petroleum, and natural gas,
derived form the decomposed remains of prehistoric plants and animals.

Evolution
Fossil fuels
Genes

Global warming
Habitat
Homeostasis
Interdependent
Metabolism
Mutualism

The basic units capable of transmitting characteristics from one generation of

life to another. It consists of a specific sequence of DNA or RNA that occupies
a fixed position on a chromosome (a structure within a cell nucleus that carries
genes).
An increase in the worlds temperatures, believed to be caused by the
greenhouse effect and the depletion of the ozone layer.
the natural conditions and environment in which a plant, animal or person lives.
A state of equilibrium.
Relying on mutual assistance, support, cooperation or interaction among a
collective of elements or members.
A series of ongoing chemical interactions taking place in a living organism that
provide the energy and nutrients to sustain life.
A relationship between two organisms of different species that benefits both
and harms neither.

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Information Sheet No 1

Theme: Natural Resources and their Management

Topic No 1: Ecology & Ecosystems
Organic
Organism

Relating to or derived from living things.

A living thing such as a plant, animal, or bacterium.

Predation

A relationship where one party preys on another i.e. the act of intentionally
plundering or destroying something.
Manufactures from used or waste materials that have been reprocessed.
Something that is strong, sturdy and durable.

Recycled
Robust
Sediments

Material eroded from pre-existing rocks that is transported by water, wind or

ice and deposited elsewhere.

Self-regulation

Capable of controlling and adjusting its own affairs/ functions without outside
interference.
Able to live or continue existing without outside support.
The series of changes that create a full-fledged plant and animal community.
A cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship between two entities.
Third in order or place.
Those organisms in a food chain that are the same number of steps away from
the original source of energy. So green plants are grouped in the first trophic
level (producers), herbivores in the second trophic level (primary consumers),
carnivores that feed on herbivores in the third level (secondary consumers) and
so on.

Self-sustaining
Succession
Symbiosis
Tertiary
Trophic levels

Tundra

The level treeless plain between the ice cap and the timberline of North
America and Eurasia that has permanently frozen subsoil.

Sources/Further Reading
Action Magazine, Ecosystems, Harare 1994
Action Magazine, Animals in Action, Harare 1998
Essential Learnings in Environmental Education, CEE 1990.

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Information Sheet No 1