Download ECOLOGY interaction between and among organisms and their

ECOLOGY
interaction between and among organisms and
their environment or surroundings
Three basic approaches to studying the living world:
Observing
Experimenting
Modeling
What makes up an environment??
Everything living and nonliving that supports life
living:
nonliving:
The food, shelter, and ability to reproduce
Environment must be able to support life. If it can’t the
organisms will die.
Here on Earth, everything on the planet and around the planet
constitutes the environment. This everything is what we call
the BIOSPHERE.
The biosphere includes all parts of the planet:
land
water = hydrosphere 11 km below surface of oceans
air = atmosphere 8 km above the surface of the Earth
biosphere
Biome:
There are two types of
biomes:
aquatic
terrestrial
The biomes of South America can support different and numerous
Life forms. This constitutes ecosystems.
An ecosystem is a collection of all organisms that can live in that
Biome. An ecosystem includes living and nonliving components.
Community: all organisms co existing in an
ecosystem
Population: all the same species
Species: a group of organisms so similar that they
can breed and produce fertile offspring.
Individual: one within a species
All living things require energy. The amount of energy in
the biosphere remains constant.
The Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy:
Autotrophs
Photosynthesis
chemosynthesis
Heterotrophs
Energy flows in one direction: from the sun or inorganic
compounds to autotrophs and then to heterotrophs.
Food chains pass energy from producers to consumers.
Food webs:
Each level is referred to as a trophic
level.
Only about 10% of the energy
available in one trophic level is
transferred to the next trophic
level.
Energy within each level is used to
Support life functions and some of
the energy is lost as heat energy
To the environment
Biomass: the amount of living tissue
supported by each trophic level.
Similar to the energy pyramid, the
greatest amount of biomass is at
the bottom of the pyramid.
In a pyramid of numbers, the
relative size and number of
organisms able to live at any given
trophic level.