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Journal 4/12/17 What happens to your physical body after you die? Why does this happen? Objective To learn about specific interactions animals have in their environment Tonight’s Homework p 471: 1, 2, 3, 5 Niches and Limiting Factors We said before that we can have producers and consumers. However, there are a number of other relationships between animals we can investigate. Niches and Limiting Factors We said before that we can have producers and consumers. However, there are a number of other relationships between animals we can investigate. Neutralism: There are many species in ecosystems that don’t directly affect each other. For example, if we have a bird that eats only seeds, and a lizard that eats only insects, the two never directly interact. Your exhibit will likely have a lot of these since they shouldn’t hurt or attack each other. Niches and Limiting Factors Competition: Many animals that eat the same thing are in competition. Both hyenas and lions eat springbok and zebras. They have to compete sometimes to see who gets the most. Your exhibit can have some of this as well, since we assume you’ll feed your animals. Amensalism and Commensalism: These happen when one organism hurts or helps another without the second hurting or helping the first one back. Mold killing other things nearby would be amensalism, while lions leaving remains behind for vultures would be commensalism. Niches and Limiting Factors Parasitism: In parasitism, one creature (the parasite), lives by harming – but usually not killing – a second creature (the host). The parasite is usually much smaller than the host. Examples include mosquitoes and leeches. Mutualism: In mutualism, both creatures benefit from working together. Some of these “teams” are necessary. Termites can’t digest wood without bacteria to help. Some are optional. Sometimes birds will clean a hippo’s teeth. The birds get a free meal and the hippo gets annoying stuff off its teeth. Niches and Limiting Factors [pictures] Niches and Limiting Factors The stuff before explains how animals interact with each other. But animals can interact with their environment as well. The specific part of an ecosystem that an animal inhabits is called its habitat. The way that the animal interacts with the ecosystem is called its niche (pronounced “nitch”). Habitats can range from being as simple as a cave for a bat, to a specific temperature and type of water for a frog. Niches and Limiting Factors In an ecosystem, every creature fills a niche. Think of this sort of like a creature’s job. What role does the creature fill that’s important to the ecosystem? For example, look at bees. Without bees, plants can’t pollinate and bears no longer have one of their sources of food. The bee fills a niche that helps both other organisms (among others). The kinds of niches we find in an ecosystem help determine the organisms that will live in the ecosystem. If a field needs a pollinator, bees could move in and fill that niche. Niches and Limiting Factors But we can’t just add more and more niches to an ecosystem. Remember the stuff we said about energy? Eventually, we won’t have enough for everyone. This brings us to limiting factors. Every ecosystem can have dozens of potential limiting factors. Take a desert for example. A cactus has few predators and gets tons of sunlight. So why doesn’t it grow tall super fast? Because it lacks water. In a desert, lack of water is often a limiting factor. We could also have too much water. Give a cactus too much and it’ll drown. Niches and Limiting Factors There are many possible limiting factors: Temperature Water Brightness Minerals Air Physical Space Sound Etc etc. A lot of limiting factors and a lot of animals are connected. If rabbits multiply in a field, they could eat all the grass, which leaves not enough for the cows, which start to die out. Then we get more foxes as they eat all the dead cows, which reduces rabbits again. That sort of thing. Adding to your Project We can add today’s concept to your project. Be thinking about the niches and limiting factors for each of your animals. This may require some research but may be something you can do with mostly just using your brain. Lastly, think about relationships between animals. Most will exhibit neutralism, but not all! Exit Question Imagine we’re looking at 2 animals. The animals interact and both get something positive out of the relationship. What kind of relationship is this? a) Neutralism b) Competition c) Amensalism or Commensalism d) Predation e) Parasitism f) Mutualism