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Environmental Science
Studying the web of life
• All living things are
connected in a web of life.
Scientists who study the
connections among living
things specialize in the
science of Ecology.
Ecology
•The study of the
interaction
between
organisms and
their environment.
Organisms
•a living thing such
as a plant, animal,
or bacterium.
Every organism has a habitat
and a niche.
Habitat
•The environment
where an
organism lives.
Includes:
biotic factors
abiotic factors
An environment has two parts.
•Biotic- Living factors in
the environment; things
that are alive.
•Abiotic- nonliving
factors in the
environment.
Identify if they are bioitic or abiotic
Niche
•An organism’s way
of life and its
relationship with its
abiotic and biotic
environment.
Organization in the environment
• At first glance, the
environment may
seemed disorganized.
The environment can be
arranged into different
levels.
Populations
•A group of individuals
of the same species
that live together in the
same area at the same
time.
Community
•All of the populations
of different species
that live and interact
in an area.
Ecosystem
•A community of
organisms and their
nonliving
environment.
Biosphere
•The part of
earth where life
exists.
Organism
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biosphere
Let’s ask the experts
• Tim and Moby.
• http://www.brainpop.com
/science/populationsand
ecosystems/ecosystems/
• All living things need energy to
survive.
• Organisms in any community can
be divided into three groups
based on how they obtain energy.
• Let’s examine to see how energy
passes through these groups in
an ecosystem.
There are three groups
•Producers
•Consumers
•Decomposers
Producers
• Organism the uses
sunlight directly to make
food.
• They do this by using a
process called
photosynthesis.
Autotrophs
•Are known as
producers. They are
the green plants that
produce their own
food.
Photosynthesis
•Plants are able to
capture light energy
from the sun and
convert it into food.
Consumers
• Organisms that eat the producers or other
organisms for energy.
• There are several kinds of consumers;
herbivore, carnivore, omnivore and
scavengers.
Hetetrophs
• Are known as consumers in
the environment. They
consume the energy of
other organisms.
Herbivore
•A consumer
that eats
plants.
Carnivore
•A consumer
that eats
animals.
Omnivore
•A consumer that
eats a variety of
organisms.
Omnivore
• Greater Dwarf
Lemur
• Bonobo
Scavenger
•An animal that
feeds on the
bodies of dead
animals.
Decomposers
•Organisms that gets
energy by breaking
down the remains of
dead organisms.
Food Chains and food webs
•Food chain- A diagram
that represents how
the energy in food
molecules flows from
one organism to the
next.
Food web
•A complex diagram
representing the
many energy
pathways in a real
ecosystem.
Energy Pyramid
•A diagram shaped like
a triangle showing the
loss of energy at each
level of the food chain.
Types of interaction
• Most living things produce more
offspring than will survive.
• An organism, such as a frog,
interacts with biotic or abiotic
factors in its environment that
can control the size of its
population.
Interaction between organisms
• There are four ways that
species and individuals
affect each other:
competition, symbiotic,
predator and prey.
• Let’s look at each one.
Competiton
• When two or more
individuals or populations
try to use the same
resource, such as food,
water shelter, space or
sunlight.
Prey
•An organism that is
killed and eaten by
another organism.
Predator
•An organism that
eats all or part of
another organism.
Symbiosis
•A relationship in
which two different
organisms live in
close association
with each other.
Mutualism
•A relationship
between two
species in which
both species
benefit.
Commensalism
•A relationship
between two
organisms in which
one organisms
benefits and the other
is unaffected.
• Barnacles adhering to the
skin of a whale or shell of
a mollusk: Barnacles are
crustaceans whose adults
are sedentary.
Parasitism
•A relationship
between two species
in which one species
benefits and the other
is harmed.