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Ecology

Ecology. What is ecology? . The study of interactions between organisms with living and nonliving components of the environment. The Environment. Levels of organization: Biosphere Ecosystem Community Population Organisms. Interconnectedness.

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Ecology

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  1. Ecology

  2. What is ecology? • The study of interactions between organisms with living and nonliving components of the environment

  3. The Environment • Levels of organization: • Biosphere • Ecosystem • Community • Population • Organisms

  4. Interconnectedness • All organisms interact with other organisms and their surroundings, living and nonliving

  5. Models • Ecologists use models to study ecology • Create models to test hypothesis • Models are used to make predictions about the environment • Experiment • Observe

  6. Environmental Factors • Bioitc - living components of the environment • Plants, animals… • Abiotic - nonliving components • Physical and chemical characteristics • Temperature, pH, salinity…

  7. Identify the biotic and abiotic factors

  8. Humans and the Environment • Exploding human population • Over 6 billion people • Habitat destruction • Thinning ozone layer • Climate changes

  9. Ever Changing Environment • Organisms have a range of tolerance • Tolerance Curve • Able to withstand a wide range of environmental factors

  10. Responses to Change • Acclimation • Conform • Regulate • Escape • Migrate • Dormancy

  11. Niche • The role of a species in its environment • Habitat - address • Niche - profession • Fundamental niche-potential • Realized niche-actual • Specialists-narrow niche

  12. Measuring Populations • A population is all the members of a species that live in a given area at one time. • How do we measure a population?

  13. Growth Rate • Affected by • Birth rate • Death rate • Immigration • Emigration • Growth rate = birth rate - death rate

  14. Exponential

  15. Logistic • Accounts for influence of limiting factors • Carrying capacity - K

  16. Cycles

  17. Human Growth

  18. Changes in Population Size • Human Activity • Natural Causes • Invasive and Non-native Species

  19. Communities • Group of populations living close together that have potential for interaction

  20. Symbioses • Relationship between different species living in close association with one another.

  21. Predator - Prey • Predator - captures, kills, and consumes other individuals. • Prey - indiviual that is captured, killed, and consumed by another individual

  22. Natural Selection • Mechanism of evolution • Organisms adapt to improve efficiency • Mimicry - a harmless organism resembles an organism that maybe poisonous or distasteful

  23. Plant - Herbivore Interaction • Plants can form secondary compounds to avoid predation • chemicals that are poisonous, irritating, or bad-tasting

  24. Parasitism • Species interation with another where one benefits and one is harmed • Parasite • Ecoparasite • Endoparasite • Host

  25. Competition • Occurs when fundamental niches overlap. • Niche - role the species plays in its environment • Compete for Resources

  26. Types of competition • Competitive exclusion • Resource partitioning • Invasive species • Non-native species

  27. Mutualism and Commensalisms • Mutualism - cooperative relationship • Both species benefit • Commensalisms - • One species benefits, the other is unaffected

  28. Richness and Diversity • Species richness – the number of species in a community • Species diversity – number of species in a community relative to the abundance of each species

  29. Patterns of Richness

  30. Changes in Communities • Succession – series of predictable changes that occur over time • Primary • Secondary

  31. Succession after a volcanic eruption

  32. Energy • Essential to carry out functions such as growth, movement, maintenance, and reproduction. • Energy flows through ecosystems through organisms

  33. Producers - Autotrophs • Capture energy to make their own organic molecules • Primary productivity - rate at which producers capture energy • Biomass - the organic material

  34. Consumers - Heterotrophs • Carnivores • Herbivores • Omnivores • Detrivores • Decomposers

  35. Food Chain • Single pathway of feeding relationships

  36. Food Web • Interrelated food chains in an ecosystem

  37. Energy Flow • Trophic level - position of an organism in the sequence of energy flow

  38. Energy Transfer

  39. Ecosystem Recycling • Biogeochemical cycles • Water and minerals such as carbon, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorous are recycled and reused

  40. Water Cycle

  41. Carbon Cycle

  42. Oxygen Cycle

  43. Nitrogen Cycle

  44. Biomes • Large ecosystems, terrestrial and aquatic, that contain a number of smaller but related ecosystems within

  45. Tundra • Cold, and mostly treeless belt across northern North America, Europe, and Asia • Permafrost - permanently frozen later of soil under the surface • Little precipitation, short growing periods • Caribou, musk oxen, snowy owls, artic foxes, lemmings, and snow shoe hares.

  46. Taiga • Forest dominated by cone bearing evergreens • Across Northern Europe, Asia, and America • Snow cover insulates the ground, protecting tree roots from freezing • Moose, bears, wolves, and lynx.

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