Download Ecology PP

Ecology Unit
Vocabulary
Food web and food chain
• Food chain: A series of events in which
one organism eats another.
• Food web: The pattern of overlapping
food chains in an ecosystem.
• In a food web arrows (
) represent
the direction and flow of energy.
Relationships
• Producer: An organism that can make
its own food. (plants/photosynthesis)
• Consumer: An organism that obtains
energy by feeding on another organism.
(plants and animals)
• Decomposer: An organism that breaks
down wastes and dead organisms.
Who eats what
• Herbivore: A consumer that eats only plants
•
•
•
(always a 1st level consumer)
Carnivores: Consumer that eats only animals.
(always a 2nd level consumer or above)
Omnivore: Consumer that eats plants and
animals. (1st and 2nd level consumer or above)
Scavenger: A carnivore that feeds on dead
animals.
Fencerow Habitat Food web
Coyote
2
Red Tail Hawk
2
Red Squirrel
1
Vole
1
Oak tree
Producer
Cotton tail Rabbit
1
Quail
1
Bluestem
Producer
1st and 2nd Level Consumers are represented by the numbers 1&2
Barred owl
Norway rat
2nd,3rd,4th,5th
level
consumer
2nd,3rd
level
consumer
Vole
caterpillar
2nd,3rd,4th
level
consumer
Black
snake
1st,2nd
level
White tailed deer
consumer
1st level
consumer daisies
1st level
consumer
Prairie
grass
producer
producer
Interaction within Ecosystems
• Species- a group of living things that are so
•
•
closely related that they can reproduce and have
offspring that can also reproduce.
Population- a group of organisms of the same
species that live in the same area.
Community- all the populations that live and
interact with each other in a particular place.
Levels of the environment from
smallest to largest.
• Organism
• Population
• Community
• Ecosystem
• Biome
• Habitat- the natural environment in which
a living thing gets all that it needs to live.
• Niche- the role a living thing plays in its
habitat.
3 Ways Organisms Interact in
an Ecosystem.
• Competition: The struggle between
organisms for the limited resources in a
habitat.
• Predation: An interaction in which one
organism kills and eats another.
Predator- an animal that hunts other animals and
eats them.
Prey- an animal that other animals hunt and eat.
• Symbiosis: A close relationship between
species that benefits at least one of the
species. (3 types)
Mutualism: A relationship between two
species in which both species benefit.
Commensalism: A relationship between
two species in which one species benefits
and the other is neither helped nor harmed.
Parasitism: A relationship between two
species in which one species benefits and
the other species is harmed.