Download Chapter 2: Living Things in Ecosystems Name: 2.1 Everything is

Chapter 2: Living Things in Ecosystems
Name: __________________________________
2.1 Everything is Connected
 Scientists don’t yet completely understand how the environment works because it is so complex and
interconnected
 Human actions have unexpected effects on the environment (ex: Borneo in Southeast Asia; pesticide
DDT)
 The unfortunate chain of events on Borneo occured because the living things were connected to each
other
What is an Ecosystem?
 An ecosystem includes all the different organisms living in a certain area, along with their physical
evironment (ex: coral reef, wetlands)
 Ecologists think of an ecosystem as an isolated unit, but ecosystems usually do not have clear, cut
boundaries; things move from one ecosystem to another (ex: birds fly from one ecosystem in summer
to another in winter)
 Ecosystems contain both biotic factors (living parts: animals, plants) and abiotic factors (nonliving
parts: temperature, sunlight, soil type)
 All parts work together in an ecosystem, if one part is destroyed, the entire ecosystem can be affected
Organism
 An organism is one individual living thin)g (ex: an ant, an ivy plant, a gorilla)
 A species is a group of organisms that are able to produce fertile offspring and share common genes,
therefore, resemble each other (ex: all humans, domestic dogs)
Population
 A population is a group of individuals of the same species living in a particular place (ex: the bullfrog
population of a pond, the lion population of a savanna)
Community
 Organisms don’t exist in isolation, neither does a population, every population is a part of a community
 Communities are all the living inhabitants of interacting populations of different species living in an
ecosystem (ex: a pond community includes the different plants, fish, insects, amphibians,
microorganisms the live in and around the pond)
Niche and Habitat
 Niche is an organism’s way of life (ex: a lion eats other animals (gazelle, zebra); the leftovers are
consumed by scavengers (vultures, hyenas, bacteria, insects); the lion itself is also food to ticks, fleas,
mosquitoes
 An organism’s relationship with its environment, both the living and the nonliving
 Niche includes when and how often it reproduces, how many offspring it has, what time of day it is
most active, where it finds food; it’s “lifestyle”
 Habitat is the actual place on organism lives (ex: lion’s habitat is a savanna, cactus’s habitat is a
desert); it’s “address”