What is Ecology?

1. What is Ecology? • Ecology: the study of interactions between organisms and their environments. • The study of Ecology requires knowledge from many different fields of science

2. Biosphere • The portion of Earth that supports life • Extends from the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean

3. Terms to Know • Abiotic factors: non-living parts of the environment • Biotic factors: living parts of the environment

4. Terms to Know • Species: organisms that interbreed and produce fertile offspring • Organisms that interbreed and produce sterile offspring are NOT the same species + =

5. An organism • Any living thing that contains all the characteristics of life. • What are the levels of organization that make up a living organism?

6. Population • Individual organisms of a single species that share the same geographical location at the same time.

7. Biological Community – a group of interacting populations that share the same geographical area at the same time

8. Ecosystem

11. Biome – A group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities

12. Biosphere

13. Habitat or Niche • A dog within a fenced yard • Fleas on a dog • Yearly migration of butterflies • Snake in a hole • Moths mate in early summer • Bat in a cave • Frog under a log • Horse eating grass

14. Relationships Between Organisms • Symbiosis: living together • Commensalism: one species benefits/ one is neither helped nor harmed • Mutualism: both species benefit • Parasitism: one species benefits/ one species is harmed

15. How to remember the 3 symbiotic relationships 1 2 3

16. Hookwork: Lives in the intestines of animals Ascariasis is a infection of the intestines by parasitic roundworms that usually cause no symptoms, but can be very serious.

17. Caterpillar with wasp parasites

18. Schistosoma, a parasite contracted through contaminated water.

19. A leech must complete it’s lifecycle by laying it’s eggs in water after taking a blood meal

20. Relationships Between Organisms • Predation – The act of one organism consuming another for food. • Predator • Prey *An understanding of these relationships give farmers alternatives to pesticides. • Competition – When more than one organism uses a resource at the same time.

21. Energy in an Ecosystem • Producers/Autotrophs: organisms that capture energy from the sun and manufacture their own nutrients.

22. Obtaining Energy • Consumers/Heterotrophs: organisms that must feed on other organisms for nutrients

23. Types of Heterotrophs • Herbivores/ primary consumers: consume only plants • Carnivores: consume only animals

24. Types of Heterotrophs • Omnivores: consume both plants and other animals

25. Types of Heterotrophs Organisms that return nutrients to the air, soil and water • Scavengers: consume animals that are already dead • Decomposers: break down and absorb nutrients from dead organisms • Dentrivores: eat fragments of dead matter

26. Food Chains and Webs • Food chain: a simple model showing how energy flows from one organism to another

27. A Food Chain From the Ocean Trophic levels are represented by each organism. • Energy is lost at each trophic level as organisms: • Produce new cells • Regulate body temperature • Move about

28. Food Web from the Ocean

29. Food Chains and Webs • Food web: a more complex model that more accurately depicts how energy flows from organism to organism

30. Transfer of Energy Within a Food Chain Pyramid of Biomass / Energy Pyramid of Numbers

31. BioEd Online Ecological Pyramids of Energy

32. BioEd Online Ecological Pyramids of Biomass

33. QuizzyPoo Jason is watching a science fiction movie when he hears one of the characters mention the term biosphere. Jason has never heard the term before and looks it up. Which would be included in the definition of biosphere? • All parts of the earth where life can survive. • Regions of the earth where many organisms live • The inner core, the continents, and oceans of the earth • The living things that inhabit earth

34. QuizyPoo Mia takes an early morning hike through a forest near her home. She spots white tailed deer browsing on undergrowth vegetation and a raccoon eating an apple and tuna carelessly left behind by another hiker. Mia discovers bright yellow mushrooms growing on a rotting log. Mia shares her observations with workers at the local nature center. Which would Mia share with the center’s ecologist? • All organisms spotted during the hike are heterotrophs. • The oak trees and mushrooms are two types of forest autotrophs. • The raccoon is an omnivore because it eats plants and animals. • The deer are considered carnivores of forest plants.

35. Creating a Food Web Mini Lab 2.1 Follow the procedure on p. 42. Analysis: • Color code each type of organism and shade the names of each organism according to the color code you created. • Put circles around all heterotrophs and squares around all autotrophs. • Pull out one food chain and draw it on the side labeling primary, secondary, and tertiary consumer • Answer question # 2 on the back.

36. Herbivore Carnivore Omnivore Detrivore Autotroph Red Fox Racoon White Oak Tree