Objective

1. Objective Students will summarize the different levels of organization that ecologists study AND will be able to describe research methods ecologists use to study the environment

2. Standard 6 b. Students know how to analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting from changes in climate, human activity, introduction of nonnative species, or changes in population size.

3. Key Concept Ecologyis the study of the relationships among organisms and their environment.

4. What does the word relationship mean to you?

5. Ecology is the study of the interactions among living things, and between living things and their surroundings. In what ways could we study this bear?

6. A bear’s interactions with other living things • Social interactions with other animals • Plants • Between living things • What animals and plants does it interact with? • In its surrounding • Where it lives • What does it eat?

7. Study this picture

8. What sorts of things do you notice

9. Organism Organism 1. An organism is an individual living thing Ex: alligator

10. Population Population 2. A population is a group of the same species that lives in one area Ex: alligators

11. Community Community 3. A community is a group of different species that live together in one area. Ex: alligators, turtles, and birds.

12. Ecosystem Ecosystem 4. An ecosystem includes all of the organisms as well as the climate Ex: All animals, plants, soil, water, rocks and other nonliving things

13. Biome 5. A biome is a major regional or global community of organisms characterized by the climate conditions and plant communities that thrive there.

14. Ecologistsstudy environments at different levels of organization.

15. With your table: Pick an animal • Organism: 1 animal (Alligator) • Population: animals (Alligators) • Community: animals and plants (Alligators, turtles, birds, moss,) • Ecosystem: living and non-living • Biome: desert, ocean, chaparral, rainforest, forest, mountains, fresh water, grassland, savanna, etc… (p. 463)

16. Ecological research methods: • Observation is the act of carefully watching something over time.

17. Observations of populations can be done by visual surveys. • Direct surveysused for species that are easy to follow. Ex: You count how many deer are in the field • Indirect surveysare used for species that are difficult to track and include looking for other signs of their presence. Ex: Looking for feces or a recent kill

18. Experiments can be performed in the lab or the field • Lab experiments • Give researchers control Ex: You want to test how a fungus reacts to heat, so in your lab experiment you turn up the temperature. • Done inside Negative: not reflective of the complex interactions in nature.

19. Field experiments • give a more accurate picture of how organisms interact in a natural setting • performed where the organisms live. Ex: In the forest Negative: may not help determine actual cause and effect. Ex: You want to know the effect deer have on a type of grass in the forest, so you block off a part of the forest to keep out the deer. By monitoring the fenced and unfenced area, you can determine the deer’s effect on the grass.

20. Ecologists use data transmitted by GPS receivers worn by elephants to develop computer models of the animal’s movements. If observation and experimentation don’t work…turn to modeling • Computer and mathematical models can be used to describe and model nature. Ex: GPS transmitter • Modeling allows scientists to learn about organisms or ecosystems in ways that would not be possible in a natural or lab setting. GPS transmitter

21. Discuss with your neighbor: What are the 5 levels of organization? Name the 3 general methods used by ecologists to study organisms.