Summary Notes designed for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. These notes are detailed yet concise, with all the information to achieve a 7 in IB Biology HL or SL. These notes were made using information from the IB syllabus, Oxford IB Diploma HL Biology Textbook, Bioninja and the B...
Class notes Biology Oxford IB Diploma Programme: Biology Course Companion
IBDP HL Biology - 2.2 Water Notes
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IB Biology Option C- Ecology
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Unit C.1
• A limiting factor is a component of an ecosystem which limits the numbers or distribution of a
population.
• They can be biotic or abiotic, such as environmental conditions or interactions between
organisms.
• According to the law of tolerance, populations
have optimal survival conditions within critical
minimal and maximal thresholds.
• Limiting factors cause rates of survival to
drop.
• The distribution of a species in response to a
limiting factor can be represented using this
type of curve:
• Plant species are highly dependent on soil
salinity.
• Plant species that are salt tolerant are called halophytes, which become stressed in freshwater
environments.
• Glycophytes are the opposite and are easily damaged by high salinity (98% of plant species).
• High salinity can be caused by cultivation of land for agriculture, making it harder for
glycophytes to extract water from soil.
• Coral species are highly dependent on oceanic temperature.
• They receive nutrition from zooxanthellae (symbiotic relationship), which cannot survive in low
temperatures.
• Therefore coral is most commonly found near the equator, in water temps between 20-30˚C.
• Quadrats can be placed at regular intervals along a transect line (which is placed along an
abiotic gradient) to generate population data and determine a pattern. The data can be applied
to the law of tolerance.
• A kite graph can be used to represent the changes in species distribution. The width of each
kite represents the abundance of each organism at a particular quadrat along the transect.
• An ecological niche consists of the conditions which determine an organisms survival, including
habitat, activity patterns, resource availability and interactions between other species.
• Two species cannot survive indefinitely in the same habitat if they share the same exact niche as
it will cause interspecific competition.
• This will cause one of two responses:
• Competitive exclusion: One species will outcompete the other.
• Resource partitioning: Both species divide resources (niche partitioning).
• A fundamental niche is the entire set of conditions under which an organism can survive and
reproduce whereas a realised niche is the set of conditions where it actually does live.
• Interactions between species in a community can be classified based on their effect on the
organisms involved.
• Herbivory is the act of eating only plant matter. Fruit eating animals spread seeds in their faeces,
promoting seed dispersal.
, • Predation is the interaction where a predator feeds on a prey species. Their populations are
intertwined, meaning they keep each others populations under control.
• There are different types of symbiotic relationships:
• Mutualism where both species benefit from the interaction (bees + flowering plants).
• Commensalism where one species benefits and the other is unaffected (barnacles + whales).
• Parasitism where one species benefits and the other is harmed (ticks + humans).
• Coral polyps secrete calcium carbonate to help build exoskeletons, protecting them and the
zooxanthellae and supplies the zooxanthellae with CO2.
• Zooxanthellae supplies the coral with oxygen, glucose and other organic molecules and helps
remove waste products from the coral.
• Lack of zooxanthellae caused by light availability, temperature increases and clean acidification
lead to coral bleaching.
• A keystone species has a disproportionately large impact on the biological community relative
to its abundance. These can be predators or the direct/indirect food source for the community.
Unit C.2
• Most species occupy different trophic levels in multiple food chains.
• A food web shows all the possible food chains in a particular community. When constructed a
food web the organisms should be positioned at their highest trophic level.
• The percentage of ingested energy converted to biomass is dependant upon the respiration
rate.
• Primary production is the production of chemical energy by producers whereas secondary
production is the generation of biomass by consumers.
• Respiration = Gross production - Net production
• Feed conversion ratios measure the efficiency of an animal in converting the food provided into
a desired output.
• FCR = mass of feed / mass of desired output.
• In closed ecosystems energy but not matter is exchanged with the surroundings.
• The type of stable ecosystem that will emerge in an area is predictable based on climate.
• Hot and humid environments
create tropic rainforests.
• Cold temperatures and little
precipitation cause taiga
biomes.
• Dry and arid environments
cause desert biomes.
• Climograph's can be used to
identify particular biomes:
• Pyramids of energy show the flow of energy between trophic levels. These
can also be used to identify particular biomes:
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