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Ecology. Levels of Organization . Biosphere Biome Ecosystem Community Population Individual. FoodChain . Producer Consumer Path of food therefore energy from a given top order consumer back to a producer. Food Web All the feeding relationships in an ecosystem. Pyramids.
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Levels of Organization • Biosphere • Biome • Ecosystem • Community • Population • Individual
FoodChain • Producer • Consumer • Path of food therefore energy from a given top order consumer back to a producer.
Pyramids • Biomass decreases going up in the food chain because: • 1. Not everything in the lower levels gets eaten • 2. Not everything that is eaten is digested. • 3. Energy is always being lost as heat.
10% rule • Only 10% of the energy available in one trophic level is transferred to organisms at the next trophic level • Would it make more ecological sense then to be a vegetarian?
Absolutely!! • Eating from the top of the pyramid all the time we are essentially consuming more land to get our energy needs met. • Environmentalists say eating vegetarian reduces your footprint more than any other lifestyle change.
Laws of Thermodynamics • Energy is neither created or destroyed but may change forms. • Energy is moving toward disorder, entropy, or unusable energy such as heat.
Extinction • Extinction of a species occurs when it ceases to exist; may follow environmental change - if the species does not evolve • Evolution and extinction are affected by: • large scale movements of continents • gradual climate changes due to continental drift or orbit changes • rapid climate changes due to catastrophic events
Extinction • Background extinction - species disappear at a low rate as local conditions change • Mass extinction - catastrophic, wide-spread events --> abrupt increase in extinction rate • Five mass extinctions in past 500 million years • Adaptive radiation - new species evolve during recovery period following mass extinction
Niche a species’ functional role in its ecosystem; includes anything affecting species survival and reproduction • Types of resources used • Interactions with living and nonliving components of ecosystems • Range of tolerance for various physical and chemical conditions • Role played in flow of energy and matter cycling
Niche is the species’ occupation and its Habitat location of species (its address)
Competition any interaction between two or more species for a resource that causes a decrease in the population growth or distribution of one of the species Could be a Limiting Factor: Density Dependent Density Independent
Predation: prey adaptations • Avoid detection • camouflage, mimics, • diurnal/nocturnal • Avoid capture • flee • resist • escape • Disrupt handling (prevent being eaten) • struggle? • protection, toxins