Question

You are a researcher interested in a rare, highly endangered bird species that lives in a very remote area of the Amazonian rainforest. Almost nothing is currently known about this species’ diet, behavior, life-span, breeding system, or its interactions with other species. Use your knowledge of the definition of ecology, the scales at which ecological research is conducted, and experimental design.
1. Which ecological level (or levels) would you focus on in your research? Justify why you would choose this level (or levels), and explain why you would not choose the others.
2. Would you use an observational, experimental, or modeling approach to study this rare bird species? Why would the approach you chose be a better choice than the others for your study?

Answer 1

Answer:

- Ecological levels to consider in this study: organism, population and community

- Approach: I would use an observational approach to study this bird species

Explanation:

The levels of the ecological organization include the organism, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere (from simplest to most complex). In this exploratory study, it is imperative to consider: 1-morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations of the bird species (i.e., organismal-level), 2- size/density/structure of the bird population (i.e., population-level), and 3-interactions between bird population and other populations (i.e., community-level). The higher ecological levels, i.e., ecosystem-level (relationships between the community and abiotic factors ) and biosphere-level (biosphere =  planet Earth), can be in this case disregarded because this study is centered on a focus bird species. Moreover, it is expected to apply an observational strategy because nothing is currently known about the focus bird species. The experimental and modeling approaches seem more suitable to test a particular hypothesis being discussed (it is not the case for this study).