Download chapter 3 notes - Flushing Community Schools

Chapter 3 – Communities,
Biomes, & Ecosystems
Flushing High School
Ms. Ferris
Chapter 3 Objectives
• I can recognize how unfavorable abiotic and biotic factors
affect a species (3-1)
• I can describe how ranges of tolerance affect the distribution
of organisms (3-1)
• I can sequence the stages of primary and secondary
succession (3-1)
Ch. 3-1: Community Ecology
• Wherever you live, you probably are
used to the conditions of your
environment. If it is cold outside, what
do you do?
• Just like you adapt to your
environment, so do other organisms.
Communities
• What is a community?
– A group of interacting populations that occupy
the same area at the same time.
• What does the community and ecosystem
that you live in look like? How would you
describe it to someone from another
country?
• What changes do you think your
community & ecosystem have gone through
in the last 100-150 yrs?
• Does every community have the same
type of plants and animals?
• How would an urban community differ
from a rural community?
• Review questions from Ch. 2:
– What are abiotic and biotic factors?
– How can they affect an organism?
• Just as abiotic and biotic factors can
affect an individual organism, they
also affect entire communities.
– For example: Think about soil. How could
soil affect a community?
• Organisms also adapt to the
conditions that they live in.
– For example: How have plants and
animals adapted to living in the desert?
• The presence of certain factors,
such as water or temperature,
influence which organisms can
survive in some ecosystems.
– Any abiotic (nonliving) or biotic
(living) factor that restricts the
numbers, reproduction, or
distribution of an organism is called
a limiting factor.
• Abiotic limiting factors include sunlight,
climate, temperature, water, nutrients,
fire, soil chemistry, and space.
• Biotic limiting factors include other
plant and animal species
• Factors that restrict the growth
of one population might enable
another to thrive.
Name at least one limiting factor of these desert oasis’:
Range of Tolerance
• There are limits to what an organism
is able to survive.
– Organisms have an upper limit and a
lower limit that define the conditions that
they can survive in.
– An organisms ability to survive abiotic
and biotic factors that it is subjected to is
called its tolerance.
Ecological Succession
• Ecosystems are constantly changing –
these changes can be small changes,
like a tree falling, or a big change like
a forest fire.
• The change in an ecosystem that
happens when one community
replaces another as a result of abiotic
and biotic factors is called ecological
succession
• There are two types of ecological
succession:
– Primary succession – the establishment
of a community in an area of exposed
rock that does not have top soil.
• Very slow!
• Soil must be formed before organisms like
fungi and plants can move in.
• Example: Underwater volcano eventually
becoming a lush island.
– Pioneer species (lichens, mosses, & ferns) help to
form soil
– Eventually a mature community is formed with
very little change – a climax community
– Secondary succession – orderly &
predictable change that takes place after
a community of organisms has been
removed but the soil remains intact.
• Example: A forest fire will destroy/cause
organisms to leave the area however the soil
remains there.
• Secondary succession happens faster because
soil is already there.
• Succession Module