Toll Free 1800 572 9282 
mailus@wbcsmadeeasy.in
W.B.C.S. Examination Notes On – Environment – Synecology.
Amongst the vast syllabus of W.B.C.S Examination, this part is quite easy to read and recollect and also fetches good marks.Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the scientific term for the variety of life on Earth. It refers not just to species but also to ecosystems and differences in genes within a single species. Biodiversity is the key indicator of the health of an ecosystem.Continue Reading W.B.C.S. Examination Notes On – Environment – Synecology.
Environment is everything that is around us. It can be living or nonliving things. It includes physical, chemical and other natural forces. Living things live in their environment. They constantly interact with it and adapt themselves to conditions in their environment.Also read, Environment Notes On – Agro Ecology – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
The study of groups of organisms i.e. community is known as synecology. It is descriptive but also can be experimental with the aid of tools such as computer and radioactive tracers.It is subdivided into aquatic and terrestrial; Terrestrial includes Desert, Grassland, Forest and Aquatic includes Freshwater, Brackish and Marine water. Through the concept of Tansley (1935) the divergence between autecology and synecology were brought together.
The concept states that “all organisms are interacting with one another and also with the abiotic elements of theirenvironment in an interrelated system. This means that organisms and environment form a reciprocating system. There is a give and take between these two systems with the action or inaction of one system having impact on the other system. From this concept therefore emanates three main levels of integration in ecology: i.Individual ii. Population – Communnity iii. Ecosystem .These are referred to as the basic units of ecology especially the ecosystem.
Population: An aggregation of individuals of the same species in a continuous area which contain no potential breeding barrier.
Community: A group of interacting populations in a given habitat. Usually
restricted to organisms of similar size and life habits e.g tree community, insect community, bird community, human community. BIOME: Several interacting communities Ecosystem: abstraction of many separate ecosystems with similar characteristics.NOTES ON, Environment and Biodiversity-For WBCS Main Exam Is Available Here.
Under natural conditions, however, organisms- plants, animals, microbes
etc., live together as a natural group affecting each other’s life in several ways.
Thus, more complex situations exist where the units of study, instead of single organisms are groups of organisms known as a community. Such an approach where units of study are groups of organisms is called synecological approach.
Depending upon the conditions as these exist, synecology may deal with1. Population ecology: A recently developed field, where the units of study
are pure stands of individuals of a single species – population. As a result of
aggregation of these individuals, it becomes desirable to study the
interdependencies between them, and the populations are studied in terms of their size, growth rates etc., which are chiefly governed by the interactions of the members of population. Thus, population ecology is the study of such and other similar relationships of group of organisms. The main job of population ecologist is, “Why is this population of a particular density?” To answer this
and other questions he studies competition, usually between population from the same trophic level (herbivores competing for same grass). Population ecology is also concerned with communities. A population ecologist also studies interactions between populations of different species in a community.
For instance, study of prey-predator interactions between members of adjacent trophic levels of a community.
2. Community ecology: In contrast with population ecology, here the units of
study are groups of individuals belonging to different species-plants as well as animals. The living (biotic) components of the community are studied mainly for the nature of interdependencies between individuals of different species.Do follow previous years question papers for better understanding of the types of questions asked.
Major concerns of community ecologist are, “Why is this community of a
particular diversity? Why does a particular community occur at a given
location? How communities interact and how these change through time?”
3. Biome ecology: In nature, we generally find that there may exist a complex of more than one community, some in their climax stages and others in different stages of succession, and these all communities grow under more or less similar climatic conditions in an area. Thus in biomes, as units of study there are studied interactions between different communities of area.
4. Ecosystem ecology: This has been the most recent development in ecology. It is established that not only living (biotic) but also non-living (abiotic)
components of the nature interact with each other. These interacting biotic and abiotic components, then interact with each other to form an integrated
system—ecosystem or ecological complex or ecological system. Thus it
becomes the most complicated synecological approach to the ecology of an
area, where the units are the whole system-living as well as non-living
components. Here we mainly emphasize the similarities and differences in food relationships among living organisms and various forms of energy supporting their life. This has also been referred to as bioenergetic approach in modern ecology.
Please subscribe here to get all future updates on this post/page/category/website
