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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 • • • • • • • • • • 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.