Download Ecosystems

Ecosystems
Levels of Organization in an
Ecosystem
• Organism – Any living thing
– Ex. An elephant
• Species – A group of organisms that share
characteristics and can breed with each other
– Ex. African Elephant
• Population - A group of individuals in the same
species, living and interacting together
– Ex. A herd of African Elephants in the
Serengeti
Organization of Living things
continued
• Community – Multiple Populations living in
the same area.
– Ex. Antelopes, elephants, and giraffes in the
Serengeti
• Ecosystem – One or more communities
and their non living environment
– Ex. The Serengeti (all organisms plus climate,
etc).
• What is a habitat?
– A habitat is the place where an organism
lives.
• Different organisms require different
habitats…
How organisms chose their
habitat
• All species have requirements for
conditions on where they can live. These
factors are broken down into two main
categories
– Abiotic factors – non living factors
(temperature, precipitation, sunlight, water,
etc)
– Biotic Factors – living factors (other animals,
predators, prey, plants, animal waste, dead
organisms, etc.)
Is this a biotic or abiotic factor?
Is this a biotic or abiotic factor?
What is a Niche?
• Organisms have different ways of feeding,
reproducing, and defending themselves in
their ecosystem.
• How an organism acts within its
ecosystem is called its niche.
• Niche = organisms role in ecosystem.
Types of Ecosystems
• There are 3 main types of ecosystems
– Freshwater – Includes ponds, lakes, streams.
– Ocean – All ocean ecosystems
– Terrestrial – Ecosystems on land that include
forests, deserts, etc.
Energy in Ecosystems
• Within ecosystems there is a constant flow
of energy since all organisms need energy
for their cells to function.
Food and Energy are found in many
ways in an ecosystem.
• The central source of all energy in
ecosystems is Sunlight.
–
(used for food in plants, plants eaten by other animals, those
animals eaten by bigger animals)
• Producers – Producers make their own
food (mostly through photosynthesis).
Producers are also called autotrophs.
• What is an example of a producer in your
habitat?
• Consumers - consumers must get their
food by eating other organisms.
– Consumers are also called heterotrophs.
– ALL animals are consumers
• Decomposers – get energy by breaking
down the remains and waste of other
organisms.
– Are decomposers autotrophs or heterotrophs?
• Example – Many Fungi and Bacteria
• Autotrophs use sunlight to make their own
food and heterotrophs must consume
energy rich foods.
• The easiest way to show energy being
transferred by autotrophs to heterotrophs
is by using a food web or a food chain.
Food webs
• Food chains show the flow of energy
always begin with sunlight (remember
sunlight is the original source of all energy
in an ecosystem!)
• Food webs show how many food chains
interact and overlap.