In this video, we're going to talk about the levels of ecological study. So ecology can be studied at 6 varying levels of the biological hierarchy, and for each level, we're going to provide a definition and include a typical question that an ecologist studying at that level might ask. Each of these questions is going to be geared toward the species here, which is the capybara, one of the largest rodents on Earth. Now, the first level of ecological study is organismal ecology, which focuses on the behavior, physiology, and evolutionary adaptations of individual organisms, as its name implies with the term organismal, which is why we're showing you just one capybara organism here. A question appropriate for this level of study is: what is the diet of a capybara in this region?
Now the next level of ecological study is population ecology, and recall from the previous lesson videos that a population refers to multiple individuals of the same species living in the same area at the same time. Population ecology is going to examine the population dynamics of just one single species. By dynamics, it means looking at how the population changes over time, including birth rates, death rates, and population size. Notice in the image, we're showing you multiple individuals of the same species, multiple capybaras. A question appropriate for this level of study is: what happens to the capybara population size over time?
Now the next level of ecological study is community ecology, and recall from previous lesson videos that a community refers to multiple populations of different species living in the same area at the same time. Community ecology is going to study the interactions between multiple species within a defined area or habitat. Notice here, the question is: how do caiman, which are predators, affect the distribution of capybaras, the prey, in a wetland ecosystem? Notice that in this image, we're showing you not only the population of capybaras but the populations of other species as well, including caiman.
Now the next level of ecological study is ecosystem ecology; recall from previous lesson videos that an ecosystem includes not only the living community but also their nonliving abiotic environment. Ecosystem ecology is going to investigate an ecosystem's flow of energy and nutrients and analyze biotic-abiotic interactions from both the present and the past, as we've discussed in the previous lesson videos. A typical question suitable for this level of study is: how does precipitation, a non living component of the environment, impact capybaras in a wetland ecosystem? Notice in this image over here, we're showing you these water areas in this wetland ecosystem, which will be influenced by the precipitation, and we're also showing you the living community as well.
Now the next level of ecological study is landscape or seascape ecology; so, a landscape or a seascape is really just a mosaic of multiple ecosystems that are interacting in some way. Landscape focuses on terrestrial ecosystems and seascape focuses on aquatic ecosystems. This is going to examine spatial arrangements and interactions across, again, multiple nearby ecosystems that are interacting with each other. A typical question suitable for this level of study is: how do forest and mountain ecosystems affect capybaras and nearby wetland ecosystems? Notice in this image here, we're showing you a mountain ecosystem, a forest ecosystem, and we're also showing you this wetland ecosystem here. When we look at how these nearby ecosystems impact each other, that's looking at landscape ecology.
Now last but not least, the final level of ecological study is global ecology, which, as its name implies, is going to explore interactions between all of Earth's ecosystems and their impacts on a global scale, looking at the biosphere. A typical question appropriate for this level is: how does global climate change affect worldwide capybara distribution? It's at a very large scale, which is why we're showing you the entire Earth here. That concludes this video, and I'll see you all in our next one.
