Download Chapter 2 Notes INB - Flushing Community Schools

Chapter 2: Ecology
Flushing High School
Trisha Ferris
Ch. 2 Learning Targets
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I can define biology
I can identify possible benefits from studying biology
I can summarize the characteristics of living things
I can describe the levels of biological organizations.
I can explain the difference between abiotic factors and biotic factors.
I can differentiate between an organism’s habitat and its niche.
I can describe the flow of energy through an ecosystem.
I can identify the ultimate energy source for photosynthetic producers.
I can describe food chains, food webs, and pyramid models.
I can describe how nutrients move through the biotic and abiotic parts of
an ecosystem.
• I can explain the importance of nutrients to living organisms.
• I can compare the biogeochemical cycles of nutrients.
Chapter 2 - Vocabulary
• Biology = The study of living things
• Organism = Anything that is or once was a living thing
• Organization = Orderly structure shown by living things
• Growth = Process that results in mass being added to an organism; may include formation of new cells
and new structures
• Development = Changes an organism undergoes in its lifetime before reaching its adult form
• Reproduction = Production of offspring
• Species = Group of organisms that can interbred and produce fertile offspring
• Stimulus = Any change in an organism’s internal or external environment that causes the organism to
react
• Response = An organism’s reaction to a stimulus
• Homeostasis = Regulation of an organism’s internal environment to maintain conditions needed for life
• Adaptation = Characteristics of a species that are passed on from generation to generation that develops
over time in response to the environment, enabling a species to survive
Chapter 2 Vocabulary
• Abiotic factors = nonliving factor in an organism’s environment
• Autotroph = organism that captures energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce its own food
• Biological community = all the interacting populations of different species that live in the same geographic location
at the same time
• Biomass = total mass of living matter at each trophic level
• Biome = large group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities
• Biosphere = relatively thin layer of Earth and its atmosphere that supports life
• Biotic factors = any living factor in an organism’s environment
• Carbon and Oxygen Cycles = process by which oxygen released into the atmosphere by photosynthetic organisms is
taken up by aerobic organisms while the carbon dioxide released as a by-product of respiration is taken up for
photosynthesis
• Carnivore = heterotroph that preys on other heterotrophs
• Commensalism = symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other organism is neither helped
nor harmed
• Detritivore = heterotroph that decomposes organic material and returns the nutrients so they are available to other
organisms
• Ecology = scientific study of all the interrelationships between organisms and their environment
• Ecosystem = biological community and all the nonliving factors that affect it
• Food chain = simplified model that shows a single path for energy flow through an ecosystem
Chapter 2 Vocabulary
• Food web = model that shows many interconnected food chains and pathways in which energy and matter flow
through an ecosystem
• Habitat = physical area in which an organism lives
• Herbivore = heterotroph that eats only plants
• Heterotroph = organism that cannot make its own food and gets its nutrients and energy requirements by feeding
on other organisms
• Matter = anything that takes up space and has mass
• Mutualism = symbiotic relationship in which both organism benefit
• Niche = role, or position of an organism in its environment
• Nutrient = chemical substance that living organisms obtain from the environment to carry out life processes and
sustain life
• Omnivore = heterotroph that consumes both plants and animals
• Parasitism = symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits at the expense of another organism
• Population = group of organisms of the same species that occupy the same geographic place at the same time
• Predation = act of one organism feeding on another organism
• Symbiosis = close mutualistic, parasitic, or commensal association between two or more species that live together
• Trophic level = each step in a food chain or food web
• Water cycle = the cycle of processes by which water circulates between the earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and land,
involving precipitation, evaporation, and transpiration
Nonliving Vs. Living
Nonliving: Plant A
Living: Plant B
• How do we know that this plant
ISN’T alive?
• How do we know that this plant
IS alive?
Made of Cells: All living
things are made of one or
more cells
Take in and Use Energy: All
living things require energy
for daily processes
Grow and Develop: All
living things grow and
change over time
Share Similar Chemicals:
Living things contain proteins,
DNA, etc…
Sense and Respond to
Change: Living things react
to stimuli in their
surroundings
Reproduce: All living
things spread their
genes via sexual or
asexual reproduction
life
air
bacteria
sunlight
reproduction
It provides
organisms with
energy for life
functions.
It helps organisms to:
breakdown food, grow,
move substances
within their bodies or
cells, and reproduce.
It provides organisms
with: A place where
they can get food,
water, find shelter,
appropriate
temperature, amount
of sunlight, and air.
Homeostasis: It allows
organisms to: maintain
stable conditions inside
the body (control
temperature and
amount of water) and
maintain cell functions.