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
Plants are awesome, with photosynthesis being the most disruptive invention ever! Join Professor Lindsay Turnbull from the University of Oxford to understand why Plants don't have faces, so we don't know what they're thinking, and can even (horror!) write them off as boring. In this video, we examine the evolutionary history of the land plants: from an ancestral alga to the diversity of modern flowering plants that cover our planet today. We will see how plants stole the technology for photosynthesis - undoubtedly the most disruptive invention of all time - and how their activities changed the biosphere forever. Finally, we explore the range of features that allow a large tree in full leaf to suck up a tonne of water every day.
Image Credit:
Many thanks to the Oxford Herbarium for providing the slides and microscope images of the Rhynie Cherts.
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration Graph: NOAA Global Monitoring Lab, https://www.climate.gov/media/15554 (10/11/23)
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:22 Titles
00:29 The Tragedy of Plants
01:13 What Makes a Plant a Plant
03:01 The Greatest Heist of All Time - Photosynthesis
04:13 The Rhynie Cherts - Early Land Plants
06:37 How Plants Regulate Our Climate
07:24 How We Have Broken Our Climate
08:45 Colour and Beauty - The Flowering Plants
09:59 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
