Download Ecosystems

Ecosystems
The interconnectedness of all things
(The Very Basics)
Objectives
• SWBAT describe what an ecosystem is and
how it functions.
• SWBAT compare and contrast abiotic and
biotic factors in an ecosystem.
• SWBAT evaluate a species and describe its
habitat and ecological niche.
Key Vocabulary
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Ecology
Ecosystem
Biotic factor
Abiotic factor
Organism
Species
Population
Community
Habitat
Niche
The science of ecology
• Ecology is the study of the interactions of
living organisms with one another and with
their environment.
Sage Grouse – there is a lot of
concern about the sage grouse
because of it plummeting
numbers. Its habitat is quickly
be destroyed to make way for
more cornfields, wheat fields,
sheep and cattle, and a flood of
humans on the once sparsely
populated short grass prairies
of the Great Plains.
Ecosystem (the defining unit of
ecology)
What is an
ecosystem?
Ecosystems
are never
completely
selfcontained.
They are
connected
to other
ecosystems.
Abiotic Factors
• Abiotic factors are
the non-living
parts of the
ecosystem.
– Examples:
minerals (rocks),
sunlight, water,
air, chemicals
(natural and
human caused),
etc.
What Abiotic Factors Do You See?
Biotic Factors
• Biotic factors are the living
and once living parts of an
ecosystem.
– Examples include: all of the plants,
protists, bacteria, animals, etc.
– What abiotic factors are produced by
the algal species shown here?
Why are
these
microscopic
organisms
important
to us and
the history
of the
Earth?
What Biotic Factors Do you See Here?
What biotic and abiotic factors do you see interrelated here?
What is an organism? What organisms can you
identify?
Organism
• An organism is an individual living thing.
– You are an organism.
What is a species? What species can
you identify?
Species
• A species is a group of organisms that can
mate to produce fertile offspring.
What is a population? Look at the
pictures below and make a guess.
Porcupine barren ground caribou
herd – Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge.
Population
• A population is all the member of the same species that live in
the same place at the same time.
Flamingos on a desert saline lake in the
Patagonia; bison at Neal Smith National
Wildlife Refuge; chlorella algae on a
microscope slide.
Communities: what is an ecological community? Describe the
possible “communities” represented in the photos below.
A coyote during winter in Iowa
to the left and a southern right
whale off of the Argentine
Patagonian coast.
Community
• Every population is part of a community
– Communities are made up of populations that occupy the
same place in time.
What is habitat? Identify some habitats in the pictures.
Honduran cloud Forest (Sierra de
Agalta)
Habitat
• A place an organism lives is called its habitat.
Habitat can be thought of as a species’ address.
– Example: Sierra de Agalta is habitat for howler, spider,
and white throated capuchin monkeys.
– The Patagonia is habitat for guanacos, Andean
condors, ñandú, and pumas.
A ñandú, also known as Darwin’s
rhea, is a large flightless bird that
inhabits South America’s Patagonian
desert. Patagonia’s cold desert is the
ñandú’s habitat.
Niche
• A niche can be thought of as a specie’s job –
what it does to survive.
– Each species has its own unique “job” in an
ecosystem. Its niche affects the niche of every
other species in an ecological community.
– What determines the number of niches in a
particular ecosystem? Which ecosystems have the
most ecological niches – and thus the most
diversity?
Biome
• A major regional or global community of
organisms.
– Typically characterized by climatic conditions and
plant communities (tropical rain forests, tallgrass
prairie, and tropical savannah).
Tallgrass Prairie Biome (Our Biome)
Iowa is the heart
of the tallgrass
prairie biome.
Originally, 80% of
Iowa was covered
by it. Only .01% of
Iowa’s tallgrass
prairie is left. Only
4% of the original
tallgrass prairie
survives – most of
it in the Flint Hills
of Kansas.
Biosphere
The biosphere is
the global sum of
all ecosystems.