Ecology is the science that studies the interactions between living organisms and their environment. It focuses on ecosystems, which consist of organisms and the physical characteristics of their habitat. In an ecosystem, organisms obtain matter and energy through trophic levels - producers, like plants, generate their own food; consumers feed on other organisms or producers; and decomposers break down waste and remains. Feeding relationships between organisms are modeled through food chains, which link producers to different consumer levels, and more complex food webs.
Ecology is the science that studies the interactions between living organisms and their environment. It focuses on ecosystems, which consist of organisms and the physical characteristics of their habitat. In an ecosystem, organisms obtain matter and energy through trophic levels - producers, like plants, generate their own food; consumers feed on other organisms or producers; and decomposers break down waste and remains. Feeding relationships between organisms are modeled through food chains, which link producers to different consumer levels, and more complex food webs.
Ecology is the science that studies the interactions between living organisms and their environment. It focuses on ecosystems, which consist of organisms and the physical characteristics of their habitat. In an ecosystem, organisms obtain matter and energy through trophic levels - producers, like plants, generate their own food; consumers feed on other organisms or producers; and decomposers break down waste and remains. Feeding relationships between organisms are modeled through food chains, which link producers to different consumer levels, and more complex food webs.
Ecology is the science that studies the interactions between living organisms and their environment. It focuses on ecosystems, which consist of organisms and the physical characteristics of their habitat. In an ecosystem, organisms obtain matter and energy through trophic levels - producers, like plants, generate their own food; consumers feed on other organisms or producers; and decomposers break down waste and remains. Feeding relationships between organisms are modeled through food chains, which link producers to different consumer levels, and more complex food webs.
Living organisms do not live in isolation. They all inhabit a physical space and interact with their environment, that is: ➔ with the organisms they live together with and relate to: their prey, predators, those competing over the same resources, etc. ➔ with the physical and chemical conditions around them: temperature, light, moisture, water salinity, etc.
Ecology is the science that studies the interactions among living organisms and the physical and chemical factors surrounding them. Therefore, ecology doesn't focus on organisms living in isolation, but on the ecosystem, a complex system consisting of organisms and the characteristics of the space they live in.
DEFINITION OF AN ECOSYSTEM:
Is the set of organisms that inhabit a physical space, the physical and chemical conditions of this space, and the interactions among these elements.
FEEDING RELATIONSHIPS.
All living organisms obtain matter and energy from food.
In an ecosystem, some organisms produce their own food from the nonliving environment and some others feed on other organisms.
Depending on how they obtain their food, the organisms of an ecosystem are grouped into TROPHIC LEVELS:
● PRODUCERS: autotrophic organisms are the producers in an ecosystem.
These organisms take inorganic matter from their environment and produce their own food by using an external energy source. In most ecosystems, producers are typically plants, algae (unicellular and multicellular), or cyanobacteria. These organisms obtain energy from sunlight and transform inorganic matter into organic matter (their food) through photosynthesis.
Producers are the source of organic matter that, directly or indirectly, will feed all consumers and decomposers.
● CONSUMERS. Heterotrophic organisms are the consumers in an
ecosystem. These organisms need to feed on other organisms (hunt) or feed on the matter these organisms produce. ○ PRIMARY CONSUMERS = consumers that feed on producers (mostly herbivores). ○ SECONDARY CONSUMERS = consumers that feed on primary consumers (mostly carnivores or omnivores). ○ TERTIARY CONSUMERS = predators that feed on secondary consumers, while quaternary consumers feed on tertiary consumers and so on.
● DECOMPOSERS. Heterotrophic organisms that eat the remains and
wastes of other organisms: non living plant matter, corpses, etc.
Decomposers are essential to all ecosystems → they cause the transformation of
organic matter into inorganic or mineral matter. Without this matter, producers would not be able to produce food.
In land ecosystems, decomposers live in the soil. There, the action of tiny invertebrates (earthworms, insects, springtails, etc.) on wastes precedes the action by bacteria and fungi, ultimately responsible for the transformation of organic matter into inorganic matter.
In an ecosystem, the interactions among organisms aimed at obtaining food are
called feeding or trophic relationships. FOOD CHAINS AND FOOD WEBS.
Two models are used to describe the multiple feeding relationships among organisms: ★ A food chain is a linear path that describes links between the organisms in an ecosystem, from producers to consumers. Each population in the chain feeds on the one that precedes it and is consumed by the one that follows.
But feeding relationships tend to be more complex: a population may be consumed
by more than one consumer. Actually, a consumer rarely feeds only on one population.
★ That is why an ecosystem is more accurately modeled using a food web, a
model that links together an ecosystem´s food chains. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/food-chain/
1. Classify these organisms into producers, consumers or decomposers.
FUNGI - SEA ALGAE - GRASS - LION - OAK TREE - UNICELLULAR ALGAE -
WOOD MOUSE - SHOAL OF TUNA - BACTERIA 1. Interpreting a Food Web. 3. Balancing a Food Web. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/cadenas-alimentarias-marinas-y-bi odiversidad/
