Download Chapter 12, lesson 1: Living Things and Nonliving

Chapter 12, lesson 1: Living Things and Nonliving Things.
 Organisms act upon, or
with, one another and with nonliving things
in their environment.
 Ecology = the study of the interactions among
and
things in the environment.
 Living things in the environment =
factors.
 Plants, animals, fungi, microscopic organisms, invertebrates.
 Nonliving things in the environment =
factors
 Light, temperature, water, air, rocks, etc.
 Levels of Organization:
 Organisms interact at different
.
 Biosphere  Ecosystem  Community  Population  Organism
 The higher the level, the
interactions there are.
 Lowest level of organization =
(individual living thing).
 Place where an organism
= habitat.

to live in that habitat.
 Examples: fish have fins to swim, monkeys have long arms and tail to
live in trees.
 Populations:
 Population = a group of organisms of the
species that lives in the
same
.
 Example: grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park.
 Individual
of a population interact with one another.
 Breeding/mating, competition for food, water, and space.
 Communities:
 Community = populations of
species that live in the
same
.
 Bears, rabbits, pine trees, and grass = different populations that all may live
together in the same forest community.

in a community interact with one another in many ways.
 Food, shelter, competition, propagation (spreading new plants), etc.
 Trees determine what grows under them and provide food and shelter for
other animals. Animals may help more trees/plants grow by burying seeds.
Predators eat animals and use tree to nest in.
 Ecosystems:
 Ecosystem = All the
among the populations of a community
and the
things in their environment.
 Occur on land, in water, and in the air.
 Breathing, drinking, growing (plants), shelter, etc.
 Changes in Ecosystems:
 As the community of organisms and the nonliving things of an ecosystem interact,
they may cause
.
 May result in the community changing into a
type of
community.
 Changes that occur over time in a community =
.
 Example: succession of a pond community  forest community.
  Pond community – small fish, insects and small plants.
 Young pond = small organisms and few plants, little soil in bottom of pond.
 Organisms die and settle on bottom  decompose  layer of soil formed.
 Soil also washed into pond from land.
 Larger plants begin to grow in pond (because of more soil)
 Larger animals move into pond (eat larger plants)
 Both cause more soil as they die and decompose.
 Grasses and plants grow at edge of pond as edges dry up.
 Land animals move in to eat edge plants – rabbits, mice, etc.
 Pond continues to fill with soil and completely fills up.
 Larger plants (bushes then trees) begin to grow (more soil for roots) and shade
out grasses and then bushes.
 Larger animals that use bushes and trees move in.
  Forest community – trees, squirrels, deer, etc.
 A community will eventually reach a point at which it changes
over
time  becomes stable =
community.
 May stay nearly the same for hundreds of years. Example = oak/hickory forest.
 Usually has a great
of organisms.
 A natural disaster (volcano, forest fire, earthquake) can destroy large parts of
climax community within a short time  returns to earlier stage and succession
begins again.
 Human Impact on Ecosystems:
 People produce a variety of wastes and waste products 
.
 Anything added to the environment that is
to living
things.
 Most often caused by human activities.
 Burning gas, coal, or oil produces sulfur dioxide = poisonous gas
 Makes rainwater more acidic  acid rain  decreases the growth of
plants and harms their leaves  affects animals that eat the plants.
 Acid rain that falls into bodies of water can harm or kill the organisms
living there.
 Topsoil washed into lakes and rivers because of bad farming and
construction.
 Fertilizers washed off of land into bodies of waters.
 Chemicals dumped into water  kill plants and animals.
 Human activities also affect wildlife by causing a loss of
t.
 Building roads, houses, shopping centers  destroy possible places for wildlife
to live and/or find food.
 More animals die on roads because their territories are split up  They must
cross roads to find food and mates  also come to road side for food and
minerals
 Habitat destruction too widespread  fewer animals reproduce  less
number of that species.
 Threatened =
number of these animals than there
used to be.
 Endangered =
of a certain species is
left.
 Extinct = all the members of a species are
. Will
never return.

and habitat
are two
reasons for extinction.
 Chain reaction produced?
 A great website to checkout for a list of threatened, endangered, and some extinct
species. It also is a great resource for things being done to help the environment.
http://www.fws.gov/
 Biomes:
 Some ecosystems are found over
geographic areas = biomes.
 Biomes on land: deserts, pine forests, grasslands
 Biomes in water: oceans, lakes, and rivers.
 Different biomes are found in different
.
 Temperature, sunlight, and rainfall amounts = parts of a biome’s climate.
 Types of organisms found in a particular biome depend on the
available to the organisms.
 Resources = things that an organism uses to live.
 Water, air, sunlight, soil.
 We should use our natural resources wisely.
 Some resources are renewable resources = resources that are replaced
constantly by
.
 Water, air, sunlight
 Some resources are nonrenewable resources = materials that
be replaced once they are used up.
 Coal, mineral, natural gas
 To reduce the use of nonrenewable resources

= reuse
 Aluminum cans ==> recycle the minerals instead of using more.
 Newspapers ==> recycle instead of cutting down more trees to make
more.
 Use
energy resources
 Does not use fossil fuels = fuels formed millions of years ago from
the remains of plants and animals.
 Wind power, solar power, methane gas and other gases produced by
animals and garbage.
 The Biosphere:
 Highest level of organization of life =
.
 Part of Earth where
things can exist.
 All the biomes on Earth together form the biosphere.
 The biosphere is the thin layer on a large sphere (the Earth)
 Includes the organisms living on the surface, under water, underground, and
in the air.
 Includes nonliving things = water, minerals, and air.
 The Earth’s biosphere is a tiny part of Earth.
 Can be easily
.
 The survival of living things depends on the conditions of the nonliving
parts of the biosphere.
 Humans need to do their part to protect it = avoid pollution.