Notes 2/9/12

ecological hierarchy - observational template (how ecologist organize organisms)

-Individual: organism 

-Population: made up of individuals from same species in the same area

- for people, just that live in the same area

-community:                                                              

-ecosystems

-biome

-biosphere

-landscape

MACRO AND MICRO

Templates

-applied ecological thinking

-diagrams

-phylogeny (classification)

-place & LEK, local ecological ….

ECOSYSTEM LEVEL

Trophic Level is feeding level

-primary producers: things that photosynthesize (autotrophs)

-primary consumers: eat food (heterotrophs)

-secondary consumers: eat primary consumers (herbevores)

-Tertiary consumers: eat secondary consumers (carnivores )

Keystone Species

connect species

-indirect effect when keystone species is eliminated

LANDSCAPE: space 

-elements: patches(size), matrix(connections within patches), corridor (things that connect patches).

- area of patch related to number of species. 

-Meadows 3 connections:

resilience occurs because of self-organization, they are able to learn, adapt and evolve because of substructures, (i.e lung, hierarchy of substructures)