Learn the key concepts in ecology and what makes populations change over time, with Professor Lindsay Turnbull from the University of Oxford Ecology is the study of plants and animals in their environments but what kinds of questions do ecologists try to answer? We begin with a population - a group of organisms belonging to the same species that live in one place. Some populations are stable, while others boom and bust, and we find out why births and deaths are key to understanding stability. We then consider why there are so many species on Earth and in doing so discover the ecological niche that constrains organisms to a specific role. Finally, we take a quick look at humans, who have broken out of their niche and taken control of the planet.
Erratum - Mammal biomass on Earth
The figures given in the video are incorrect. The actual figures are: 34% humans, 62% livestock and 4% wild mammals.
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:20 Titles
00:29 Key ecological questions
01:18 The state of populations: births and deaths
02:58 The rabbit versus the albatross
04:32 Keystone species: the case of the sea otter
06:20 Competition: the ecological niche
08:23 Humans – the ultimate competitor?
11:26 Outro
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Learn the key concepts in ecology and what makes populations change over time, with Professor Lindsay Turnbull from the University of Oxford Ecology is the study of plants and animals in their environments but what kinds of questions do ecologists try to answer? We begin with a population - a group of organisms belonging to the same species that live in one place. Some populations are stable, while others boom and bust, and we find out why births and deaths are key to understanding stability. We then consider why there are so many species on Earth and in doing so discover the ecological niche that constrains organisms to a specific role. Finally, we take a quick look at humans, who have broken out of their niche and taken control of the planet.
Erratum - Mammal biomass on Earth
The figures given in the video are incorrect. The actual figures are: 34% humans, 62% livestock and 4% wild mammals.
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:20 Titles
00:29 Key ecological questions
01:18 The state of populations: births and deaths
02:58 The rabbit versus the albatross
04:32 Keystone species: the case of the sea otter
06:20 Competition: the ecological niche
08:23 Humans – the ultimate competitor?
11:26 Outro
Take a whistle-stop tour of the Animal Kingdom with Professor Lindsay Turnbull from the University of Oxford Everyone can name a few animals - but did you know that most familiar animals only come from one group - and there's more than 30 to choose from?! In this video we discover the probable ancestor of the animals - a strange type of eukaryotic cell that fed on bacteria. But around 540 million years ago the animals experienced a burst of creativity, and a whole range of different animals sprang into being in the blink of a geological eye. We take a look at a few of the major groups - including arthropods, annelid worms and molluscs - which all play host to thousands of species.
Image Credit:
Cartwright et al (2007), Exceptionally Preserved Jellyfishes from the Middle Cambrian
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001121
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Titles
00:18 When the Animals Go Marching
02:01 What Makes an Animal an Animal?
04:17 The Jelly Animals
06:00 How Muscles Have Evolved
07:45 Lines of Symmetry
09:48 Chordates - How Our Ancestor Evolved
11:33 Outro
Biology: The Whole Story
Learn the key concepts in ecology and what makes populations change over time, with Professor Lindsay Turnbull from the University of Oxford Ecology is the study of plants and animals in their environments but what kinds of questions do ecologists try to answer? We begin with a population - a group of organisms belonging to the same species that live in one place. Some populations are stable, while others boom and bust, and we find out why births and deaths are key to understanding stability. We then consider why there are so many species on Earth and in doing so discover the ecological niche that constrains organisms to a specific role. Finally, we take a quick look at humans, who have broken out of their niche and taken control of the planet.
Erratum - Mammal biomass on Earth
The figures given in the video are incorrect. The actual figures are: 34% humans, 62% livestock and 4% wild mammals.
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:20 Titles
00:29 Key ecological questions
01:18 The state of populations: births and deaths
02:58 The rabbit versus the albatross
04:32 Keystone species: the case of the sea otter
06:20 Competition: the ecological niche
08:23 Humans – the ultimate competitor?
11:26 Outro
