2. Course Objectives
This course aims to introduce students to the
fundamentals of biological Sciences – key areas that
are pertinent to modern day biology.
Course Contents
• Introduction to Biology; Origin of life; Tree of life,
fields of Biology, Biomolecules, The dynamic cell;
Introduction to plants, Animals, Fungi, Algae,
protists, Bacteria and Viruses. Structure and
Properties. How living things harvest energy;
Photosynthesis; Cell cycle; Introduction to genetics;
Mutation, Ecology; ecosystems; Biodiversity; Types
and in situ and ex situ conservation;; An overview of
flora and fauna of AJK and Pakistan.
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3. Recommended Books
• 1. John HP. and J. Hopson, The Nature of Life. Third
Edition. McGraw-Hill Science; Edition (1989).
• 2. Arthur W. Haupt, Fundamentals Of Biology,
McGraw Hill Book Company Inc,
• 3. Postlethwait, J H, Hopson, J, Modern Biology.
2006. Holt Rinehart and Wintson.
• 4. Smith and Smith, Elements of Ecology (9th
edition). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin
Cummings.
• 5. Nico et al., 2011. An Introduction to Ecological
Genomics. 2nd Edition; Oxford University Press.
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8. Ecology
• Systematic and scientific study of interaction of
organisms with their environment
• Oikos: Greek word: Family households
• Logy: study of
• Biotic, abiotic
• Organic, inorganic
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9. ECOLOGY
The study of living organisms in the natural environment
How they interact with one another
How they interact with their nonliving environment
OR
Ecology is the science by which we study how organisms
(animals, plants, microbes) interact in and with the natural world.
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10. • Population: Group of interacting people of same
species that inhabit a defined geographical area.
• Community: Populations of different species
occupying the same geographical area.
• Ecosystem: Living things interacting with the
physical factors of environment.
• Biosphere: our entire planet with all its living
species, its atmosphere, its oceans, the soil in which
living things are found and physical and biological
cycles that affect them.
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11. Biodiversity
The total number of
different species in an
ecosystem and their relative
abundance
Worcester City Museums
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15. Environment
• Living components
– All need sun, air, water, and earth
– All grow, eat, drink, breathe, move, have babies
• Non-living components
16. Community
All the populations of the different species living and inter-acting
in the same ecosystem
7-spotted lady bird
(Adephagia
septempunctata)
Bean aphids
(Aphis fabae)
Red ant (Myrmica
rubra) and
Broom plant
(Cytisus scoparius)
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17. Specie
A group of organisms that can breed to produce fully
fertile offspring
Great White Pelican Pelecanus onocrotalus
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18. Population
A group of organism of the
same species which live in the
same habitat at the same time
where they can freely
interbreed
The black-veined white butterfly
(Aporia crataegi) mating
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19. Habitat
The characteristics of the type of environment where an
organism normally lives.
(e.g. a stoney stream, a deciduous temperate woodland,
Bavarian beer mats)
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21. Species distribution
• is the study of the distribution of biodiversity over space
and time.
• is the manner in which a biological taxon is spatially
arranged.
• It is very useful in understanding species distribution
through factors such
as speciation, extinction, continental drift, glaciations,
variation of sea levels, river capture and available
resources.
• This branch of study not only gives a description of the
species distribution, but also a geographical explanation
for the distribution of particular species.
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22. Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species
and ecosystems in geographic space and
through geological time. Organisms and
biological communities often vary in a regular fashion
along geographic gradients
of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area.
Phytogeography
• Phytogeography is the
branch of biogeography that
studies the distribution of
plants.
Zoogeography
• Zoogeography is the branch
that studies distribution of
animals.
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23. Distribution Pattern
• Limits to Global Distribution:
Saguaro cactus: mule deer: Oak Tree:
Human population
Other examples
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24. • Physical factors
Sunlight, Water, temperature, Mineral nutrients
For plants, for animals
Pine trees
cactus
• Other Species
Invasive species
• Geographical Barriers
Sea, Desert, mountain range organisms cannot
crawl, swim, fly, or float across the barrier
Factors in Specie Distribution
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25. Local Pattern of Distribution
• Uniform Distribution
Apple tree in orchard
Rare in natural population
Saguaro cactus due to water competition
Creosote Bushes
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27. • Random Distribution
fruit eaten by animals and excreted
• Clumped Distribution
resources limited to an area
social behaviors: herds, nest, reproduction
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30. Constraints on Population Size
• Human Population Density
• Number o organisms in an area of a certain amount of space:
100 butterflies per hectare, Mice in Barn
• Also known as Crude density.
• Ecological Density: Number of organisms in specific habitat.
• World wide Population Density
Less than 2 per Square miles
Quite high in much of Asia, India, Europe and
Eastern North America
Around Coastlines, rivers, inland bodies of water
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