What is Ecosystem?

1. What is Ecosystem? Text 1.1: Pages 8-14

2. Agenda • Case Study & Big Idea – Cootes Paradise • Four Corners – Is this an Ecosystem? • Introduction to Ecology • What is an Ecosystem? • Stewardship and Sustainability • Biodiversity • Components of an Ecosystem • Biomes & Biosphere • Ecosystem Field Study

3. Success Criteria • By the end of this class I can • Compare and contrast abiotic and abiotic factors • Identify factors within an ecosystem that make it sustainable or unsustainable

4. Case Study & Unit Big Idea • Case Study Instructions • Read the article on “Cootes Paradise” p.g. 4-5 • Have each person take a role: • What – is the issue? • Where – location, geography, details • When – events leading up issue • How – is the issue being solved? Big Idea – How can we balance our need for resources and protect the environment?

5. 1 2 3 4

6. What is an Ecosystem? • A community of living organisms (plants, animals, & microbes) in conjunction with the non-living components of their environment (air, water, mineral, soil) interacting as a system. • Nutrient Cycles • Carbon Cycle • Nitrogen Cycle • Water Cycle • Energy Flows • Photosynthesis • Cellular Respiration

7. What is an Ecosystem? • Interaction between living and non-living factors • Abiotic = non-living • Biotic = living • Activity – Biotic vs. Abiotic

8. What is Sustainability? • How would you explain the word sustainability?

9. What is Sustainability? • A sustainable environment has populations that can interact and reproduce indefinitely • Includes plants, animals and any other living things • It also means biodiversity is maintained • The number of different types of organisms in an area

10. What is Stewardship? • A way of acting that takes into account personal responsibility for the management and care of something • Environmental stewardship is acting in a way that benefits the planet • This type of attitude is very common in First Nations communities

11. The Environment?? • All the living and non-living things on earth and the interactions between them • The environment can be thought of as a system of components • Some interactions are positive: Bee pollinating a flower • Some are negative: Bee stinging you and dying

12. When Self-Sustaining goes Wrong…

13. Representing Earth’s Biodiversity • In groups of 3-4 complete the quick lab on p.g. 6 ‘Representing Earth’s Biodiversity’

14. What is a Species? • A species is a group if similar organisms in an ecosystem which can reproduce and whose offspring can reproduce • i.e. grey squirrel species ≠ red squirrel species • Sciuruscarolinensis ≠ Sciurus vulgaris

15. Terminology • Population: a group of individuals of the same species within a specific area • Habitat: the specific location a population lives in • Community: is made up of populations of different species that live and interact in an area or habitat • Species Niche: is the total of all the interactions of a given species within its ecosystem

16. Ecology Unit • Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with one another and the environment itself

17. Ecosystems Combine to Form Biomes • Biome = a large geographical area that contains similar ecosystems.

18. Biomes Combine to Make the Biosphere • Biosphere – is the part of the planet, including water, land, and air, where life exists.

19. Biomes Combine to Make the Biosphere

20. Ecosystem Field Study • Complete an ecosystem field study in groups of 3-4 using the ecology tools provided by the teacher.