Download Ecology - Wappingers Central School

Ecology:
the study of how
organisms
interact with their
environment.
• Ecosystem: Any group of living and nonliving
things interacting with each other
• Ecosystems vary in size.
• They can be as small as a puddle or as large as the
Earth itself.
• Includes biotic and abiotic factors.
Abiotic: non-living factors in an
ecosystem that affect the organisms that
live there
Some Abiotic
Factors
• sunlight
• temperature
• soil
• water
• pollutants
• Abiotic factors are limiting
factors
• Limiting Factors: determine the
types and numbers of organisms in
an ecosystem.
• limiting factors restrict the growth
of populations.
Example:
• Deserts lack water. Only organism
that have adapted to dry areas live
there.
• Cactus doesn’t lose water to the dry
environment
Biotic factors the living
things and their materials
• This would include
organisms, their presence,
interaction, and wastes.
Some Biotic Factors
• parasitism
• disease
• predation (one animal
eating another)
Limiting factors: biotic and abiotic
Carrying capacity: the maximum number
of organisms the resources of an ecosystem
can support.
• The carrying capacity is
limited by the abiotic and
biotic resources (limiting
factors)
• Ex. Food, water, space,
mates
• as well as the ability of the
environment to recycle the
dead organisms through the
activities of bacteria and
fungi.
Energy Flow
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Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction
It begins with the Sun
goes through photosynthetic organisms (autotrophs)
to herbivores (animals that eat plants)
to carnivores (eat other animals)
and finally the decomposers.
Producers
• Autotrophs are also called producer organisms
• Producer: capture solar energy to make sugars in the process of
photosynthesis.
Autotroph = producer = photosynthesis
Producers are the first step in the food chain.
They make the energy of the sun usable to other organisms.
Without producers, all life on the planet would end.
Primary consumers
• Herbivores are primary consumers
• Primary consumer: consume producer
organisms for energy.
• They are the second step in the food chain.
Secondary
consumers
• Carnivores are
secondary
consumers
• Secondary
consumer: eat the
primary consumers
as their source of
food.
• They are predators.
Tertiary consumers
• Tertiary consumer: carnivore at the topmost
level in a food chain that feeds on other
carnivores;
• feeds on secondary consumers
Omnivores
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Omnivores: organisms that eat plants and animals
They act as both primary and secondary consumer.
Humans are examples of omnivores.
Most bears and raccoons too.
Decomposers
• The last stop in the food chain.
Decomposer: recycle dead organic material so that
other organism can reuse the materials
• Recycle carbon and nitrogen.
• Creates fertile soil for plant growth
• Worms and larvae also feed on organic soil
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5.
In the space provided on your note packet.
Draw a producer
Draw a primary consumer
Draw a secondary consumer
Draw a tertiary consumer
Draw a decomposer.
Types of decomposers
• Bacteria
• Fungus
• All consumers are
examples of
heterotrophic
organisms,
• This includes
decomposers.
• Heterotroph: can not
make their own food
using the sun,
• They consume other
organisms to get
nutrition.
Label the producer, primary
and secondary consumers.
Three ways to represent the
energy flow in an ecosystem
1. Food chain
2. Food web
3. Energy pyramid
1. Food Chains
• food chain: shows the
flow of energy through an
ecosystem.
• When a predator eats the
prey, the energy is
transferred from one
organism to another.
• Food chains show this
transfer of energy
Note: arrows in the food chain point to the
organisms doing the eating.
The arrows in the food chain represent the flow of
energy through the ecosystem.
• In nature, the flow of energy is more complex than
a food chain
• 2. food web: a series of interrelated food chains
• More accurate picture of an ecosystem,
• More than one thing will usually eat a particular
species
Energy flow in a food web also starts with the producer
organisms.
Then it moves through each level of consumer and ends
with the decomposer.
3. Energy pyramid: pyramid shaped graph that
shows the biomass and energy transfer at
each level in an ecosystem
• Biomass: the total mass
of living matter in an
area. Includes all
living things.
• Producers have the
greatest biomass on the
planet
• Next is the primary
consumers, then
secondary, and up the
pyramid.
Energy pyramids
show:
1. Energy in the bonds
of living things is
transferred from
one trophic (eating)
level to another.
2. 90% of the energy is
lost as heat from
one level to the
next.
*Only 10% is used by
the next level
• Because most energy is lost as heat, a
continuous input of energy from sunlight
keeps the process going.
Material that cycle
All molecules on Earth cycle among the
living and nonliving components of the
biosphere
1.Water cycle
2.Carbon-oxygen cycle
1. Water Cycle: journey water
takes through the biosphere
as it circulates from the land
to the sky and back again.
• Biosphere, every living thing
on and in the earth, including
its atmosphere.
• The steps in the water cycle
are:
Water Cycle:
1. Evaporation: change of water from the liquid to
the gas state.
2. Transpiration: water lost to the atmosphere by
the activities of plants (as water vapor).
3. Condensation: This water vapor condenses to
form clouds,
4. Precipitation: water is returned to the earth as
rain or snow.
• This process is called the water cycle.
Water Cycle
2. Carbon-Oxygen cycle:
• Is the movement of carbon and oxygen
between the atmosphere, oceans, plants,
animals and the ground
Carbon dioxide molecules are
used in the process of
photosynthesis to make
sugar
• Animals eat the plants and
return the carbon to the
environment by cellular
respiration
• Oxygen is used in the process
to break sugar into energy.
• Plants release oxygen as a
waste product when they
make sugar.
• Some carbon is also returned to the
environment by the decomposition of
dead organisms.
• Role of Decomposers: break down dead organism
to recycle the nutrients.
• The number of organisms any environment can
support is the carrying capacity
• Carrying capacity is limited by the available energy,
water, oxygen, and minerals,
• It’s also limited by the decomposers ability to
recycle dead organisms
• Decomposers include bacteria and fungi.
Organism Relationships
• Feeding Relationships
Organisms interact with each other.
• One example is the producer- consumer relationship.
• A producer any organism capable of making its own
food, usually sugars by photosynthesis.
• Ex: Plants and algae.
• A consumer any organism which eats another
organism.
types of consumer organisms
• Herbivore: consumer which eats primarily plant
material. A deer is an example of a herbivore.
• Carnivore: consumes primarily animal
material.
• Omnivore: eats both plant and animal
matter. Humans are examples of omnivorous
organisms.
• A predator is a type of carnivore that hunts and
kills its food.
• The organism the predator feeds upon is called its
prey.
• A wolf and rabbit would provide an example of a
predator/prey relationship.
• Scavengers feed upon organisms that other
organisms have killed.
• A crow feeding off dead animal on the
highway is an example of scavenger.
Symbiotic Relationships: Close living associations
Types of Symbiosis
1. parasitism: the parasite benefits at the expense of the
host
2. mutualism: both organisms benefit from the association.
Ex: flower and butterfly
3. commensalisms: one organism is benefited and the other
is unharmed. Ex: mushroom on tree
Example of Parasitism:
• parasite feeds upon another
organism,
• Usually does not kill the
organism
• this would destroy its food
supply.
• Host: The organism the parasite
feeds.
Other examples:
• fleas on a dog or
• athlete's foot fungus on a
human.
Biodiversity
• As a result of evolution, nature is filled with
diversity
• Biodiversity refers to the differences in living
things in an ecosystem.
• As biodiversity increases, there is an increase
the ecosystem becomes more stable.
• it provides for more genetic variation among
species.
• The more diversity a species has, the higher
chance that some will survive when the
environment changes, keeping the species alive.
Monoculture involves planting one variety of a
species over a huge area.
• This is one example of human activity that has
decreased biodiversity.
• leaves this area more vulnerable to disease and the
loss of many species
• biodiversity ensures the availability of a rich variety
of genetic material
• This may lead to future agricultural or medical
discoveries with significant value to humankind.
• As diversity is lost, we are losing resources.
Succession:
• The environment may be harmed through human activities
or by natural disasters, such as climate changes and volcanic
eruptions.
• The result may be long-term changes in ecosystems.
• ecological succession: attempt of the ecosystem to reach a
natural balance after the change.
• Its a gradual long term changes in an altered ecosystems
• Ecosystems tend to change with time until a stable
system is formed.
• A Typical New York State Succession
succession
• Pioneer organisms the first organisms to reoccupy an area
which has been disturbed.
• Typical pioneers in a succession include grasses in a plowed
field or lichens on rocks.
• These pioneer organisms change their environment, eventually
creating conditions which are less favorable for themselves
• but establishing conditions under which more advanced
organisms can live.
• Over time, the succession occurs in a series of plant
stages
• which leads to a stable final community.
• very similar to the plant community which was there
before it was disrupted.
• This final stable plant community is called a climax
community.
• It could remain stable for for hundreds or thousands of
years.
2. They may remain
dead for a while.
1. Forests burn to the ground some
times. Or humans chop them down
for money.
3. and then comes a
spark of life.
5. The competition for
survive begins. Who
will have best suited
traits?
Time will tell.
4. Things begin to
grow.
6. Eventually that ecosystem is
thriving with life. All seems happy,
but the competition for life never
ends.
Pond
succession
A Pond Succession Sequence
• There are many roles in an ecosystem
(niche),
• Niche: a specific area where a species lives
and how it makes its living.
• Niche include its home, mating, eating,
hiding, living, surviving.
• Only one species occupies any given niche.
• If there's more than one, they compete and
only one will win.
• competition between species results in only one
species occupying a niche at any one time.
• Often, organisms with similar needs will divide
resources to reduce competition (ex: birds eat
insects during the day, bats eat them at night).
• Biodiversity refers
to the variety of life
on earth.
• As habitats are lost
and species become
extinct, biodiversity
is reduced.
Loss of biodiversity is bad because
1) ecosystems with low diversity take
longer to recover from environmental
changes and
2) we use organisms for many things
such as food and medicine; by reducing
biodiversity we are losing potentially
valuable resources.
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Know the following
terms
Habitat: The area or
environment where
an organism or lives a
marine habitat
Population: All the
organisms that make
up a specific group or
occur in a specified
habitat. Ex: Deer
population
• community: A group of
plants and animals living
and interacting with one
another in a specific
region under similar
environmental
conditions.
• Ecosystem: A community
of organisms together
with its environment,
functioning as a unit.
• Biosphere: All the regions
of the earth and its
atmosphere in which living
organisms are found or
can live.
• Pollution: undesirable
state of the natural
environment being
contaminated with
harmful substances as a
consequence of human
activities
• renewable resource:
any natural resource
that can replenish
itself naturally over
time
ex: wood, coal, fresh
water etc.