GEOL 11042 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Paleoecology
8 Nov 2020
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Paleoecology is the study of the interaction of organisms with one another and the environments in which they lived. We study modern ecology by examining the animals and plants that live in a certain environment, interpreting inter-relationships between the plants and animals in the area, and determining the physical conditions that exist in the area. For some examples, we can study a coral reef and observe that the coral colonies form a complex array of shapes containing many open spaces. If we look into the open spaces, we might observe lobsters, starfish, small fish, among others, hiding in the nooks and crannies. We might also notice some fish adapted to eat bits of the coral. We could also directly measure the temperature and depth of the water, and determine the amount of light streaming onto the seafloor. These, and other, aspects of the physical environment can be observed directly in order to characterize the ecological setting of the modern reef.
