ECOLOGY

1. ECOLOGY

2. 3-1 What is Ecology? • Ecologyis the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment, or surroundings. • Many levels • Biosphere is allllllll of life

3. 3-1 What is Ecology? The study of ecology ranges from the study of an individual organism to populations, communities, ecosystems, biomes—and, finally, to the entire biosphere.

4. 3-1 What is Ecology? • Some ecologists study interactions between a particular kind of organism and its surroundings. Such studies focus on the species level. A species is a group of organisms so similar to one another that they can breed and produce fertile offspring. Other ecologists study populations, or groups of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area. Still other ecologists study communities, or assemblages of different populations that live together in a defined area. • Ecologists may study a particular ecosystem. An ecosystem is a collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving, or physical, environment. Larger systems called biomes are also studied by teams of ecologists. A biome is a group of ecosystems that have the same climate and similar dominant communities. The highest level of organization that ecologists study is the entire biosphere itself.

5. ECOLOGY PROCESS BOX Keystone Anchor BIO.B.4.1.1 • Describe the levels of ecological organization (organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere) MUST BE A LEAST 4 LINES

6. ECOLOGY Practice Set #1

7. 3-2 Energy Flow • Sunlight is the main energy source for life on Earth. • Autotrophs directly use sun’s energy (Photosynthesis) to make energy supply • Aka Producers • Heterotrophs consume other organisms for energy supply • Aka Consumers

8. 3-2 Energy Flow • Heterotroph types • Herbivores • Primary (1) Consumers • Carnivores • Secondary (2) Consumers • Omnivores • Detritivores • Decomposers

9. 3-2 Energy Flow • The energy stored by producers can be passed through an ecosystem along a food chain, a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten.

10. 3-2 Energy Flow • A food web links all the food chains in an ecosystem together.

11. ECOLOGY PROCESS BOX Keystone Anchor BIO.B.4.2.1 • Describe how energy flows through an ecosystem (eg. Food chains, food webs, energy pyramids) • Compare and contrast energy flow in a food chain and a food web MUST BE A LEAST 4 LINES

12. 3-2 Energy Flow •  Each step in a food chain or food web is called a trophic level. Producers make up the first trophic level. Consumers make up the second, third, or higher trophic levels. Each consumer depends on the trophic level below it for energy.

13. ECOLOGY Practice Set #2

14. ECOLOGY Practice Set #2

15. 3-2 Energy Flow • An ecological pyramid is a diagram that shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or food web. • Can look at • Energy • Biomass • Numbers

16. 3-2 Energy Flow • The 10% Rule • When you go up a trophic level, only 10% of the previous level’s ______ is available. • Could be energy, mass, or numbers

17. 3-2 Energy Flow

18. ECOLOGY PROCESS BOX Keystone Anchor BIO.B.4.2.1 • Describe how energy flows through an ecosystem (eg. Food chains, food webs, energy pyramids) • Explain how the 10% Rule works. Give a specific example that applies to either biomass, energy, or numbers in an ecosystem MUST BE A LEAST 4 LINES

19. 3-3 Cycles of Matter • Unlike the one-way flow of energy, matter is recycled within and between ecosystems. Elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another through biogeochemical cycles. • C, H2O, N are key ones

20. 3-3 Cycles of Matter

21. 3-3 Cycles of Matter • Summary of the Water Cycle

22. 3-3 Cycles of Matter

23. 3-3 Cycles of Matter • Summary of the Carbon Cycle

24. 3-3 Cycles of Matter

25. 3-3 Cycles of Matter • Summary of the Nitrogen Cycle

26. BIO 4.2.3 Describe how matter recycles through an ecosystem (water cycle, carbon cycle, oxygen cycle, nitrogen cycle) ECOLOGY Practice Set #3

27. ECOLOGY Practice Set #3

28. ECOLOGY Practice Set #3

29. 3-3 Cycles of Matter • When an ecosystem is limited by a single nutrient that is scarce or cycles very slowly, this substance is called a limiting nutrient. • Nitrogen and Phosphorus major ones • Too much nutrients? Algal bloom

30. ECOLOGY PROCESS BOX Keystone Anchor BIO.B.4.2.5 • Describe the effects of limiting factors on population dynamics and potential species extinction MUST BE A LEAST 3 LINES

31. 4-1 The Role of Climate • Carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and a few other atmospheric gases trap heat energy and maintain Earth's temperature range

32. 4-2 What Shapes an Ecosystem? • The biological influences on organisms within an ecosystem are called biotic factors. These include the entire living cast of characters with which an organism might interact, including birds, trees, mushrooms, and bacteria—in other words, the ecological community. • Physical, or nonliving, factors that shape ecosystems are called abiotic factors . For example, the climate of an area includes abiotic factors such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity.

33. 4-2 What Shapes an Ecosystem?

34. ECOLOGY PROCESS BOX Keystone Anchor BIO.B.4.1.2 • Describe characteristic biotic and abiotic components of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems MUST BE A LEAST 3 LINES

35. 4-2 What Shapes an Ecosystem? • Community interactions, such as competition, predation, and various forms of symbiosis, can powerfully affect an ecosystem.

36. ECOLOGY Practice Set #4 BIO B.4.2.2 Describe biotic interactions in an ecosystem (competition, predation, symbiosis) BIO.B.4.1.2 Describe characteristic biotic and abiotic components of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

37. ECOLOGY Practice Set #4 BIO B.4.2.2 Describe biotic interactions in an ecosystem (competition, predation, symbiosis) BIO.B.4.1.2 Describe characteristic biotic and abiotic components of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

38. 5-2 Limits to Growth • In the context of populations, a limiting factor is a factor that causes population growth to decrease.

39. 5-2 Limits to Growth • Predation Populations in nature are often controlled by predation. The regulation of a population by predation takes place within a predator-prey relationship, one of the best-known mechanisms of population control. The relationships between sea otters and sea urchins and between sea otters and killer whales are examples of predator-prey interactions that affect population growth.

40. 5-2 Limits to Growth • A well-documented example of a predator-prey relationship is the interaction between wolves and moose on Isle Royale, an island in Lake Superior. The graph in the figure at right shows how periodic increases in the moose population—the prey—on Isle Royale are quickly followed by increases in the wolf population—the predators. As the wolves prey on the moose, the moose population falls. The decline in the moose population is followed, sooner or later, by a decline in the wolf population because there is less for the wolves to feed upon. A decline in the wolf population means that the moose have fewer enemies, so the moose population rises again. This cycle of predator and prey populations can be repeated indefinitely.

41. 5-2 Limits to Growth

42. ECOLOGY PROCESS BOX Keystone Anchor BIO B.4.2.2 • Describe biotic interactions in an ecosystem (competition, predation, symbiosis) • Describe how predator-prey relationships result in “cycles” when graphed over time MUST BE A LEAST 3 LINES

43. ECOLOGY Practice Set #5

44. ECOLOGY Practice Set #5

45. 5-3 Human Population • Exponential Growth

46. 6-1 A Changing Landscape • Among human activities that affect the biosphere are hunting and gathering, agriculture, industry, and urban development.

47. 6-2 Renewable and Nonrenwable Resources • Renewable resources can regenerate if they are alive, or can be replenished by biochemical cycles if they are nonliving. • Water, wind, sun • A nonrenewable resource is one that cannot be replenished by natural processes. • Fossil fuels (reasonable rate) • Uranium Ore

48. 6-2 Renewable and Nonrenwable Resources • Human activities can affect the quality and supply of renewable resources such as land, forests, fisheries, air, and fresh water.

49. 6-3 Biodiversity • Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the sum total of the genetically based variety of all organisms in the biosphere. • 3 Levels • Ecosystem diversity • Species diversity • Genetic diversity • Human activity can reduce biodiversity by altering habitats, hunting species to extinction, introducing toxic compounds into food webs, and introducing foreign species to new environments.

50. 6-3 Biodiversity • Habitat destruction decreases numbers • Threatened < Endangered < Extinct • Pollution accumulates in food chains • In this process, called biological magnification, concentrations of a harmful substance increase in organisms at higher trophic levels in a food chain or food web.