SARANSH BIOLOGY SUPPORT FOR AISSCE-2024

UNIT X : CHAP 13: ORGANISM AND POPULATION

Population attributes
*Birth Rate – Number of individuals born per thousand per year.
*Death Rate – Number of individuals die per thousand per year.
*Sex Ratio – Ratio of male-female in the population.

Population density. - the number of individual organisms per unit

area (appropriate measure – total number-sometimes difficult to
determine or meaningless because 4 factors N+I-M+E are concerned
w.r.t habitat concerned

Age pyramids
# Three ecological ages:
# Pre-reproductive, Reproductive and Post-Reproductive
# High proportion pre-reproductive individuals occur in Expanding population
# Pre-reproductive individuals are uniform in Stable population.
# Pre-reproductive individuals are less in Declining population.

POPULATION GROWTH
Factors that affect the size of population: Food availability, Weather, Predation pressure,
Competition. Density of population at any time at a given place depends on Natality, Mortality,
Emigration Immigration

POPULATION GROWTH MODELS

• WAYS TO MEASURE POPULATION DENSITY:

Population size, more technically called population density (designated as N), need not
necessarily be measured in numbers only. Although total number is generally the most appropriate
measure of population density, it is in some cases either meaningless or difficult to determine.
 In an area, if there are 200 Parthenium plants but only
a single huge banyan tree with a large canopy, stating
that the population density of banyan is low relative to
that of Parthenium amounts to underestimating the
enormous role of the Banyan in that community. In
such cases, the per cent cover or biomass is a more
meaningful measure of the population size.
 Total number is again not an easily adoptable
measure if the population is huge and counting is
impossible or very time-consuming. The size of
Bacterial Colony gives idea of Population Density.
 Relative densities serve the purpose equally well. For
instance, the number of fish caught per trap is good
enough measure of its total population density in the lake.
 Indirect estimation, without actually counting them or seeing them. The tiger census in our national
parks and tiger reserves is often based on pug marks and fecal pellets.

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Types of population interactions

INTERACTION SPECIES “ a” SPECIES “ b”

Mutualism + +
Predation + -
Parasitism + -
Commensalis + 0
Competition - -
Ammensalism - 0
Mutualism Both species benefited.
Eg Lichens Relationship between Non-photosynthetic Fungi and photosynthetic Algae or
Cyanobacteria.
✓ Mycorrhiza Asociation between Fungi and Higher Plants like Pinus.
✓ Plants and insects for pollination
✓ Orchid ophrys and male bee a good example for co-evolution of plants and
animals.

PREDATION :One species gets benefited and the other harmed.

✓ Tiger and Deer
✓ Snake and Frog
✓ Herbivores and plants
Competition: Both the species are harmed.
• Flamingos and resident fishes compete for the common food zooplankton in South American lakes.
• Abington Tortoise and goats in Galapagos Islands for food.
Competitive Release:
A species whose distribution is restricted to a small geographical area because of the presence of
a competitively superior species, is found to expand its distributional range dramatically when the
competing species is experimentally removed.
Connell’s elegant field experiments showed that on the rocky sea coasts of Scotland, the larger
and competitively superior barnacle Balanus dominates the intertidal area, and excludes the
smaller barnacle Chathamalus from that zone.
Gause’s Competitive Exclusion Principle -Two closely related species competing for the same
resource cannot co-exist indefinitely and the competitively inferior one will be eventually eliminated.
McArthur Resource Partitioning : If two species compete for the same resource, they could avoid
competition by choosing, for instance, different times for feeding or different foraging patterns. Eg.
five closely related species of warblers living on the same tree were able to avoid competition
and co-exist due to behavioural differences in their foraging activities
PARASITISM
One species gets benefit and the other is harmed.
Adaptations of parasites
# Loss of sense organs
# Presence of adhesive organs or suckers
# Loss of digestive system
# High reproductive capacity.
Cuscuta, a parasitic plant that is commonly found growing on hedge plants, has
lost its chlorophyll and leaves in the course of evolution. It
derives its nutrition from the host plant which it parasitises.
Brood parasitism (KOEL) in birds is a fascinating example of
parasitism in which the parasitic bird lays its eggs in the nest of
its host and lets the host incubate them. During the course of
evolution, the eggs of the parasitic bird have evolved to resemble
the host’s egg in size and colour to reduce the chances of the
host bird detecting the foreign eggs and ejecting them from the
nest. Eg : the cuckoo (koel) and the crow .
.
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CHAPTER 14 : ECOSYSTEM
ECOSYSTEM – STUCTURE AND FUNCTION:
• Interaction of biotic and abiotic components results in a physical structure that is
characteristic of each type of ecosystem.
• Identification and description of plant and animal species of an ecosystem gives its species
composition.
Vertical distribution of different species occupying different levels is called stratification.
• The components of the ecosystem are seen to function as a unit:
 Productivity.
 Decomposition.
 Energy flow and
 Nutrient cycle.
• Description of pond as an ecosystem:
o The abiotic components include all dissolved inorganic and organic substances and the rich soil
deposit at the bottom of the pond.
o The solar input, cycle of temperature, day length, regulates the rater of function of the entire pond.
o The producer (autotrophic) includes phytoplankton, some algae and the floating, submerged and
marginal plants found in edge of pond.
o The consumers are represented by zooplankton, free swimming and bottom dwelling animals.
o The decomposers are the fungi, bacteria especially abundant at the bottom of the pond.
• Basic events (in terms of function) in an ecosystem:
o Conversion of inorganic into organic material (photosynthesis) by producers.
o Consumption of the autotrophs by heterotrophs.
o Decomposition and mineralization of the dead organic matter to release them back for reuse by the
autotrophs
o There is unidirectional flow of energy towards the higher trophic levels and its dissipation and loss
as heat to the environment.
PRODUCTIVITY:
• Primary productivity:
✓ The amount of biomass or organic matter produced per unit area over a time period by plants during
photosynthesis.
✓ It is expressed in terms of weight (g-2) or energy (kcal m-2)
✓ The rate of biomass production is called productivity.
• Gross primary productivity: (GPP) is the rate of production of organic matter during
photosynthesis.
• Net primary productivity:
o A considerable amount of energy is utilized by plants in respiration.
o Gross primary productivity minus respiration losses (R) is the net primary productivity.
o GPP – R = NPP.
• Net primary productivity is the available biomass for the consumption to heterotrophs (herbivore
and decomposers.
• Secondary productivity: is defined as the rate of formation of new organic matter by the
consumer.

DECOMPOSITION:

• Earthworm is said to be ‘friends’ of farmer:

o Breakdown the complex organic matter.
o Loosening of the soil helps in aeration and entry of root.
• The decomposers break down complex organic matter into inorganic substances like
carbon dioxide, water and nutrients, called decomposition.
• Dead plant remains such as leaves, bark, flowers and dead remains of animals, including
fecal matter, constitute the detritus.
The process of decomposition completed in following steps:

o Fragmentation : Break down of detritus into smaller particles by detritivore

(earthworm).

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o Leaching: Water soluble inorganic nutrients go down into the soil horizon and get
precipitated as unavailable salts.
o Catabolism : Bacterial and fungal enzymes degrade detritus into simple ino
rganic substances.
o Humification: Accumulation of dark coloured amorphous substances called
humus.

Importance of humus:

o Highly resistance to microbial action.

o Undergo decomposition at an extremely slow rate.
o Being colloidal in nature, it serves as reservoir for nutrients.
o Mineralization:
The humus is further degraded by some microbes and release of inorganic
nutrients occur.

Factor affects rate of decomposition:

• Decomposition is largely an oxygen-requiring process.

• Detritus rich in chitin and lignin has slow rate of decomposition.
• Detritus rich in nitrogen and water-soluble substance like sugar has faster decomposition.
• Temperature and soil moisture are most important climatic factor that regulate
decomposition
• Warm and moist environment favor decomposition.
Low temperature, dryness and anerobiosis inhibit decomposition.

ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM:

Except for deep sea hydrothermal ecosystem, sun is the only source of energy for all ecosystems on earth.
• Less than 50% of incident solar radiation is photosynthetically active radiations. (PAR).
• Plants capture 2-10 % of PAR and used in photosynthesis.
• All organisms depend on the producers, either directly or indirectly.
• Energy flow in the ecosystem is unidirectional i.e. energy transferred from producer to
consumers.
• Energy transfer is not absolute, and spontaneous, unless energy is degraded it can not be
transfer. When energy transferred from one trophic level to another, lot of energy lost in the form
of heat to the environment.
• Only 10% of energy transferred from one trophic level to other.

Food chain:
• Grazing food chain: it extends from producers through herbivore to carnivore.
• Detritus food chain: Begins with dead organic matter (detritus) and pass through detritus feeding
organism in soil to organisms feeding on detritus-feeders.
• In aquatic ecosystem GFC is the major conduit for energy flow.
• In terrestrial ecosystems a much larger fraction of energy flows through the detritus food chain than
through GFC
• Different food chains are naturally interconnected e.g. a specific herbivore of one food chain may
serve as food of carnivores of other food chains. Such interconnected matrix of food chains is
called food web.
• Trophic level: A group of organism irrespective of their size having same source of energy or
similar food habit constitute a trophic level.
• Standing crop: each trophic level has a certain mass of living material at a particular time called as
the standing crop.
• The standing crop is measured as the mass of living organisms (biomass) or the number in a unit
area.
• The number of trophic levels in a food chain is restricted by 10 % flow of energy, less amount of
energy available to the last trophic level.

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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID:
• The base of the pyramid is broad and it narrows down at the apex. The similar shape is obtained
when food or energy relationship between organisms at different trophic level.
• The relationship can be expressed in terms of number, energy or biomass.
• The base of the pyramid represented by producer and apex is the top consumer; other trophic levels
are in between.
• In most ecosystems, all the pyramids, of number, of energy and biomass are upright.
• The pyramid of number in a tree ecosystem is inverted.
• The pyramid of biomass in sea also inverted because the biomass of fishes is far exceeds that of
phytoplankton.
• Pyramid of energy is always upright, can never be inverted, because when energy flows from a
particular trophic level to the next, some energy is always lost as heat at each step.
Limitations of ecological pyramids:
• It does not take into account the same species belonging to two or more trophic levels.
• It assumes a simple food chain, it never exits in nature.
• It dose not accommodate food web.
• Saprophytes are not given place in ecological pyramids.

BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION

• Biodiversity: the term biodiversity refers to the totality of genes, species, and
ecosystems of a region.
• Types of biodiversity described by Edward Wilson:
Genetic diversity: A single species might show high diversity at the genetic level over its
distributional range.
✓ Medicinal plant Rauwolfia vomitoria of Himalayan range produces active chemical reserpine shows genetic
variation.
✓ India has more than 50000 different strain of rice.
✓ 1000 varieties of mango.
Species diversity: different species of a single animal like frog.
Ecological diversity: diversity in the ecosystem level like desert, rain forest, mangroves, coral reef,
wetlands, estuaries etc.
How many species are there on Earth and How many in India?
 According to IUCN (2004), 1.5 million of plants and animals are in our biosphere.
 Robert May places global species diversity at about 7 million.
 More than 70 percent of all the species recorded are animals.
 All plants constitute about 22 percent.
 Among animals insects constitute 70 percent.
 India has only 2.4 percent of the world’s land area; its share of global species diversity is
impressive 8.1 percent.
 India is considered one of the mega diversity countries of the world.
Pattern of Biodiversity:
Latitudinal gradients:
• Species diversity decreases as we move away from the equator towards the pole.
• Tropic (23.5o N to 23.5o S) harbors more species than temperate and pole
• The largely tropical Amazonian rain forest in South America has the greatest
biodiversity on earth:
• 40,000 species of plants.
• 3000 species of fishes.
• 1300 of birds.
• 427 amphibians
• 378 reptiles
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• More than 1, 25,000 invertebrates.

Why tropical rain forest has greater biodiversity: (Three Hypothesis)
 Unlike temperate regions subjected to frequent glaciations in the past, tropical latitudes have
remained relatively undisturbed for millions of years and thus, had a long evolutionary time
for species diversification.
 Tropical environments. Unlike temperate ones, are less seasonal, relatively more constant and
predictable, promotes niche specialization and lead to greater species diversity.
 There is more solar energy available in the tropics, which contribute to higher productivity.

Species area relationship:

 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT observed within a region species richness increa
sed with increasing explored area but only up to a limit.
 The relation between species richness and area for a wide variety of taxa turns out to be a
rectangular hyperbola.
 On a logarithmic scale the relationship is a straight line describe by the equation LogS =
logC +Z log A


Where S= species richness, A = Area, Z = slope of the line (regression coefficient), C = Y- intercept.
• It has been noted that regardless of the taxonomic group or region the slope of the
regression line is amazingly similar. However, for a very large area
like the entire continent the slope of the line is steeper.

Ecologists have discovered that the value of Z lies in the range of 0.1 to 0.2, regardless of the
taxonomic group or the region (whether it is the plants in Britain, birds in California or molluscs in
New York state, the slopes of the regression line are amazingly similar). But, if you analyse the
species-area relationships among very large areas like the entire continents, you will find that the
slope of the line to be much steeper (Z values in the range of 0.6 to 1.2). For example, for
frugivorous (fruit-eating) birds and mammals in the tropical forests of different continents, the slope
is found to be 1.15.
Importance of species diversity to the Ecosystem:
 Community with more species generally tends to be more stable than those with less
species.
 A stable community should not show too much variation in productivity from year to year;
it must be resistant or resilient to occasional disturbances (natural or man-made)
 Stable community must be resistant to invasion by alien species.
David Tillman’s long-term field experiment finds that:
o Plots with more species showed less year-to-year variation in biomass
o Increased diversity contributed to higher productivity.
The rivet popper hypothesis:
 In an airplane (ecosystem) all parts are joined together by thousands of rivets
(species).
 If every passenger starts popping a rivet to take home (species extinct), it may not
affect flight safety initially but as more and more rivets are removed the plane
becomes dangerously weak.
 Further more which rivet is removed may also be critical.
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 Loss of rivets on the wings (key species) is obviously a more serious threat to flight
safety than loss of a few rivets on the seats or windows inside the plane.
Loss of Biodiversity:
• The IUCN Red List (2004) documents the extinction of 784 species.
• Recent extinction includes:
✓ Dodo (Mauritius).
✓ Quake (Africa)
✓ Thylacine (Australia)
✓ Stellar’s cow (Russia)
✓ Three subspecies of tiger (Bali, Java, Caspian).
• Since the origin and diversification of life on earth there were five
episodes of mass extinction of species. The sixth mass Extinctions in progress now.
How the’ sixth Extinction’ is different from the previous five extinctions.
• The current extinction rate is 100 to 1000 times faster.
• All others are pre-human period, this one is anthropogenic.

Effect of biodiversity loss:

Decline in plant production.
Lowered resistance to environmental perturbations such as drought.
Increased variability in certain ecosystem processes such as plant productivity, water use,
and pest and disease cycle.

CAUSES OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS:

• The present loss is all due to human activity (anthropogenic)
• There are four major causes “The Evil Quartet” are as follows:
Habitat loss and fragmentation:
 Most important cause driving animals and plants to extinct.
 The tropical rain forest reduced to 6 % from 14 % of earth land surface.
 The Amazonian rain forest is called as ‘lungs of the planet ‘is being cut cleared for
cultivating soya beans.
 Degradation of many habitat by pollution is also threatens the loss of diversity.
 Large areas are broken into figments also the cause of diversity loss.
Over-exploitation:
 When ‘need’ turns to ‘greed’ it leads to over-exploitation of natural resources.
 Many species extinctions in the last 500 years (Stiller’s cow, passenger pigeons) were due
to over-exploitation.
 Many marine fish populations around the world are over harvested.
Alien species invasion:
 The alien species became invasive and cause decline or extinction of indigenous species.
 Nile perch introduced into Lake Victoria in east Africa led to extinction of 200 species
of cichlid fish in the lake.
 Parthenium, (carrot grass), Lantana, and water hyacinth (Eichhornia) posed a threat to
indigenous species.
 African cat fish Clarias gariepinus for aquaculture purposed is posing a threat to
indigenous catfishes in our rivers.
Co-extinction:
 When a species becomes extinct, the plant and animal species associated with it an
obligatory way also become extinct.
 Extinction of Host species leads to extinction of the parasite also.
 Co-evolved plant-pollinator mutualism where extinction of one invariably lead to the
extinction of the other.
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION:
Why should we conserve Biodiversity?
Reason for conservation biodiversity is grouped into three categories.
Narrowly utilitarian. Broadly utilitarian Ethical
Narrowly utilitarian:
 Human derive countless direct economic benefits from nature-
 Food (cereals, pulses, fruits), firewood, fiber, construction material.
 Industrial products (tannins, lubricants, dyes, resins, perfumes)
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 Products of medicinal importance.

 Bioprospecting: exploring molecular genetic and species-level diversity for products of
economic importance.
Broadly Utilitarian
 Amazonian forest along produce 20% of oxygen during photosynthesis.
 Pollinator layer: bees, bumblebees, birds and bat that pollinate the plant without which seed
cannot be produced by plants.
Aesthetic pleasure we get from the biodiversity.
How do we conserve biodiversity?
In situ conservation:
• When we conserve and protect the whole ecosystem, its biodiversity at all level is
protected – we save the entire forest to save the tiger. This approach is called in situ (on
site) conservation.
• Biodiversity hot spot: regions with very high levels of species richness and high
degree of endemism.(species confined to that region and not found anywhere else)
• Hot spot in biodiversity is also regions of accelerated habitat loss.
• Out of 34 hot spot in the world, three hot spot located in India:
Western Ghats and Srilanka Indo-Burma Himalaya.
✓ Other protected area under in situ conservations are:
• 14 biosphere reserve
• 90 national park
• 448 wild life sanctuary
Sacred groves: tract of forest were set aside, and all the trees and wildlife within were venerated
and given total protection.
Ex situ conservation: threatened animals and plants are taken out from their natural habitat and
placed in special setting where they can be protected and given special care.
• Zoological Park. Botanical garden Wildlife safari. Conservation of gamete
by cryopreservation.
• Genetic strains are preserved in seed bank.
Convention on Biodiversity:
“The earth Summit” held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 called upon all nations to take appropriate
measures for conservation of biodiversity and sustainable utilization of its benefits.
World Summit on Sustainable development held in 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa, 190
countries pledged their commitment to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction in the current rate
of biodiversity loss at global, regional and local level.
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance holds the unique distinction of being the first
modern treaty between nations aimed at conserving natural resources. The signing of the
Convention on Wetlands took place in 1971 at the small Iranian town of Ramsar. Since
then, the Convention on Wetlands has been known as the Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention's broad aims are to halt the worldwide loss of wetlands and to
conserve, through wise use and management, those that remain. This requires international
cooperation, policy making, capacity building and technology transfer.

What are Ramsar wetlands?

Under the Ramsar Convention, a wide variety of natural and human-made habitat types ranging from rivers
to coral reefs can be classified as wetlands. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, billabongs, lakes, salt
marshes, mudflats, mangroves, coral reefs, fens, peat bogs, or bodies of water - whether natural or artificial,
permanent or temporary. Water within these areas can be static or flowing; fresh, brackish or saline; and can
include inland rivers and coastal or marine water to a depth of six metres at low tide. There are even
underground wetlands. The Ramsar Convention encourages the designation of sites containing
representative, rare or unique wetlands, or wetlands that are important for conserving biological diversity.
Once designated, these sites are added to the Convention's List of Wetlands of International Importance and
become known as Ramsar sites. In designating a wetland as a Ramsar site, countries agree to establish and
oversee a management framework aimed at conserving the wetland and ensuring its wise use. Wise use
under the Convention is broadly defined as maintaining the ecological character of a wetland. Wetlands can
be included on the List of Wetlands of as international Importance because of their ecological, botanical,
zoological, limnological or hydrological international Importance because of their ecological, botanical,
zoological, limnological or hydrological importance.

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