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ECOLOGY
• Biosphere
– Ecosystem
•Community
– Population
» Organism
Biosphere
the general area of Earth and its
atmosphere that supports life
About 20 km (13 miles) thick, about 8-10 km
(5 - 6 mi) above the Earth’s surface.
• Ecosystem: includes all of the
organisms and the nonliving
environment found in a
particular place
• Community: is all the
interacting organisms in an
area; ex: fish, turtles, plants,
algae and bacteria in a pond
• Population: all the members
of a species that live in one
place at one time
• Organism
2
• Biotic Factors: all living things that affect the
organism
– Root “bio” means “life”
• Abiotic Factors: all nonliving factors …
– Prefix “a” means “without”
– Includes temperature, humidty, pH, salinity, oxygen
concentration, sunlight, nitrogen, and precipitation
Response to Change of Abiotic Factors
• Acclimation – adjust tolerance
to abiotic factors; ex:
temperature change
• Conformers – change as the
external environment changes
• Regulators – use energy to
control some of their internal
conditions
• Dormancy – a state of reduced
activity (hibernation)
• Migration – moving to a climate
with a more favorable
temperature
Energy Transfer
• Autotrophs (Producers):
create their own food
– Include plants and some
kinds of protists and
bacteria
– Use photosynthesis and
chemosynthesis
• Photosynthesis: conversion of
light energy to chemical
energy
• Chemosynthesis: conversion
of energy from chemicals,
volcanic vents, etc…
Energy Transfer cont.
• Heterotrophs (Consumers ):
cannot make their own food
– Include all animals, most protists, all
fungi, and many bacteria
– Types include herbivores (plant
eaters), carnivores (meat eaters),
omnivores (plant and animal eaters),
and detritivores (eat dead plants,
animals, and animal waste; also
called decomposers)
Energy Flow
• Trophic Level:
organism’s position in a
sequence of energy
transfers
• Food chain: a single
pathway of feeding
relationships among
organisms in an
ecosystem that results in
energy transfer
• Food web: interrelated
food chains in an
ecosystem
Biogeochemical cycles: water carbon,
nitrogen, phosphorus
Water cycle: movement of water by
evaporation, transpiration, and
precipitation
– Groundwater: water that is in the soil or in
underground porous rock
– Transpiration: the process by which water
evaporates from the leaves of plants
Carbon Cycle
Nitrogen Cycle
Nitrogen fixation:
the process of converting N2 gas to
nitrate
Nitrogen fixing bacteria: transform
nitrogen gas into a useable form; grow
on the roots of legumes
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Biosphere
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism
Biotic and Abiotic factors
Acclimation
Conformers
Regulators
Dormancy
Migration
Producers
Autotrophs
Consumers
Heterotrophs
Herbivores
Carnivores
Omnivores
Detritivores
decomposers
- trophic level
-Food chain
-Energy transfer
-Biogeochemical cycles
-Groundwater
-Water cycle
-Transpiration
-Carbon cycle
-Nitrogen cycle
-Nitrogen fixation
-Nitrogen fixing bacteria