Interactions in Ecosystems: Living Things and Habitats

1. 7th Grade Ms. De Los Rios Populations and Communities 14.1 Living Things and the Environment Essential Question: How Do Living Things Affect One Another? What Does an Organism get From Its Environment? What are the Two Main Parts of an Organism’s Habitat? How is an Ecosystem Organized? Living Things and the Environment Pgs. 476-481

2. Vocabulary 14.1 • Organism- one type of living thing • Habitat- an environment that provides the things a specific organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce. • Biotic factor- a living or once living part of an organism’s habitat • Abiotic factor- a nonliving part of an organism’s habitat • Species- a group of similar organisms that can mate with each other and produce offspring that can also mate and reproduce • Population- all of the members of one species living in the same area • Community- all the different populations that live together in a particular area • Ecosystem- The community of organisms that live in a particular area, along with their nonliving environment • Ecology- The study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment.

3. My Planet Diary pg. 476 • Love Song • The gray, golden brown, and Goodman’s mouse lemurs are some of the world’s smallest primates. These three lemurs look so similar they cannot be told apart. Looking so similar makes it difficult for the lemurs to find members of their own kind or species during mating season. However, it seems that the lemurs can identify their own species by song. Scientists recorded the mating calls of the three species of lemurs and discovered that the lemurs reacted more to the calls from their own species. This allows the lemurs to pick the right mate, even at night. • If you were looking for your sneakers among several pairs that looked just like yours, what characteristics would make it easier for you to find them? • What do you think would happen if a lemur mated with a different kind of lemur?

4. What Does an Organism Get From Its Environment? Pg. 477 • In a forest, you might see ferns growing in the damp soil and woodpeckers building nests in tree trunks. It might even feel cool and shady, as if there isn’t much sun breaking through the treetops. • What is the main energy source of this living system? • The sunis the main energy source in this living system. • The sun’s energy is transferred between organisms, such as when an animal eats a plant. This is one of the many ways in which living things interact with their environment and depend on it for survival.

5. A woodpecker is one type of organism, or living thing • An organism gets food, water, shelter and other things it needs in order to • live, grow, and reproduce • from its environment/ • Habitat • Habitat- The environment that provides the things a specific organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce.

6. What Does an Organism Get From Its Environment? Pg. 477 • An organism gets food, water, shelter, and other things that it needs from its environment or habitat. • Figure 1 What’s Wrong With This Picture? List Give three reasons why this prairie dog would not survive in this habitat. • A prairie dog gets food, shelter, and other things from a prairie habitat that has flat land, tall grasses, and little rainfall. • A rocky ocean shore habitat would not provide what a prairie dog needs to survive.

7. Assess Your Understanding pg. 477 • I get it! Now I know that an organism’s environment provides • __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What are the two parts of an Organisms Habitat? Pg. 478 • An organism interacts with both the living and nonliving parts of its habitat. • Biotic Factors • Biotic factors are the living, or once living, parts of a habitat. In the prairie dog’s habitat, plants that provide food and decomposing plants are biotic factors. • Ferrets and eagles that hunt the prairie dog are also biotic factors. • Worms and bacteria that live in the soil are biotic factors too.

9. Abiotic Factors Pg. 478 • Abiotic factors = The nonliving parts of a habitat. • Water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, and soilare all abiotic factorsin a prairie dog’s habitat.

10. figure 2 Factors in a Prairie Habitat pg. 478 Factors in a Prairie Habitat A prairie dog interacts with many biotic and abiotic factors in the prairie habitat. Add another biotic factor to the picture. For each abiotic factor, draw a line from the text box to an example in the picture.

11. Biotic and Abiotic Factors • Brine shrimp eggs are used in Florida, and across the world to feed fish hatcheries. • Salt is an abiotic factor found in some environments. To see how the amount of salt affects the hatching of brine shrimp eggs, varying amounts of salt were added to four different 500-mL beakers. • Observe: In which beaker(s) did the eggs hatch? _____________ • Infer: The manipulated Variable was _______________________ • Challenge: Beaker ______was the control. • Draw Conclusions: What can you conclude about the amount of salt in the shrimps’ natural habitat? ___________________ Apply it! Pg. 479

12. Assess Your Understanding pg. 479 • 1a. Interpret Diagrams: List two biotic and two abiotic factors in figure 2. • ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • 2. Explain: Name two abiotic factors in your habitat and explain how your life would be different without them. • __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • I get it! Now I know that the two parts of an organism’s habitat are • _____________________________________________________

13. How is an Ecosystem Organized? Pg. 480 An ecosystem is organized into 4 levels. • 1. Organisms • A species is a group of organisms that can mate with each other and produce offspring that can also mate and reproduce. The black-tailed prairie dogs of the Nebraska plains are all members of one species. • 2. Populations • A population refers to all the members of one species living in a particular area. All of the prairie dogs in a prairie dog town are a population.

14. How is an Ecosystem Organized? Pg. 480 • 3. Communities • All of the different populations that live together in an environment are a community. For example, a prairie includes prairie dogs, hawks, grasses, snakes, and many other organisms. • 4. Ecosystems • All the living and nonliving things in an area. An ecosystem is made up of the community of organisms that live in a particular area, as well the nonliving surroundings.

15. How is an Ecosystem Organized? Pg. 480 • The study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment is called ecology. • The smallest level of organization is a single organism, which belongs to a population that includes other members of its species. The population belongs to a community of different species. The community and abiotic factors together form an ecosystem.

17. Fig. 3 Levels of an Ecosystem pg. 480 Ecological Organization The smallest level of organization is the organism. The largest is the entire ecosystem. Describe: Draw or write how an ecosystem of your choice is organized. Identify each level. Include biotic and abiotic examples.

18. Assess Your Understanding pg. 481 • 2a. Define: How would you define a species? __________________ • _______________________________________________________ • b.Classsify: All of the different kinds of organisms in a forest are a (community / population) • I get it! Now • I know that ecosystems are organized into ____________________ • ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________