Australian Ecology SERIES

1979, Total Running Time 45 Minutes (3 x 15 Minutes).

The films in this series explain and illustrate the fundamental principles of population ecology.

"A particular objective of all three films is to present visual examples of concepts that are probably new or beyond the experience of most students, or alternatively, use familiar organisms to reveal a totally unfamiliar principle, activity or environment." Writer/Director, and award-winning environmental filmmaker, David Barrow.

EPISODES

Communities Communities are not what they sometimes appear. This is the approach used to reveal the structure and composition of a rainforest - the community described in this film. From a seemingly innocuous mass of timber and leaves, layer and layer upon layer of the forest is peeled back to display a myriad of populations living in conjunction with one another as the rainforest community. The way community functions, the factors that cause change and the way all life is tied to a community structure are some of the broad concepts introduced within this film.

Ecosystems and Interactions How do plants and animals obtain energy and what are the processes that nourish and support living organisms? Unusual visual examples, including the mangrove eelgrass community are used to answer these questions. The film shows how energy moves through a food chain and how nutrient cycles function. The film draws together many of the concepts of 'Populations' and 'Communities' and explains how the delicate web of life can be radically altered, particularly by the actions of people.

Populations Using a diverse range of visual examples, Populations describes most of the principles that cause populations to look and behave as they do. Populations are seen as existing in a dynamic state of flux, controlled and influenced by a number of factors, with no population capable of living in isolation. The constant change of populations, why this happens and how plants and animals take steps to ensure their survival, are themes within this film.

© 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.