WARM-UP Questions

1. What do you think the basic needs of life

are?
2. What is the environment?
3. How do you define life…what are 4 things all
living organisms have in common?
 Ecosystem
Interactions in the Environment
What is Ecology?
 The science of ecology includes
everything from global processes
(above), the study of various marine
and terrestrial habitats (middle) to
individual interspecific interactions
like predation and pollination
(below).
 Ecology is…

 the study of the interactions

between living organisms
and their biotic and abiotic
environments.
 Ecology is therefore the
study of the relationship of
plants and animals to their
physical and biological
environment.
 And the ENVIRONMENT is…

The surroundings of an organism that affect its life

and development.
 An Ecosystem is characterized by the ABIOTIC and
BIOTIC factors.
 ECOSYSTEM: all of the communities that live in
an area together with the abiotic factors in the
environment
 Species Population Community
 Abiotic factors are non-living.
 Abiotic factors include science like chemistry, physics and geology.
 Interactions of abiotic factors result in weather, seasonal changes, tides,
air quality, and water quality
 Biotic factors are living and can be categorized within an
ecosystem structure…
A dead tree is not
alive but not
considered
abiotic….why?
It was
once
living!
Biotic features are all living things in the
biosphere.
 The biosphere is all the parts
of Earth that support life.

 This measures approximately

20km thick (12.4 miles)!
Most life on Earth exists
between 500m below the
surface of the ocean and about
6km above sea level.
 What types of
communities make
up these ecosystems?

What types of abiotic

factors are
influencing these
ecosystems?
 Abiotic and Biotic factors are
intimately intertwined….
Geographic location (latitude and
longitude) determines abiotic
factors such as temperature and
climate….which in turn, dictates or
forces a certain type of ecosystem
to exist.
 Habitat: the actual place an
organism lives
 Niche: both living and non-
living parts of an ecosystem
that determines an organism’s
role in the ecosystem.
 If two species share the same
niche, they will have various
interactions.
 How can species interact?
 These relationships are complex. Each population
of species interacts with other species, or biotic
factors, as well as with the all of the abiotic
factors.
 The niche of an organism and it’s interactions is
determined by where it stands in the ecological
structure of the ecosystem.
-Producers
-Consumers
-Decomposers
-Scavengers
 Producers are autotrophic
organisms that make their
own food.
 Phototrophic organisms use
photosynthesis and contain
chlorophyll
(Carbon Dioxide + Water +
Sunlight =Sugar +
Oxygen)
 Chemotrophic organisms use
chemicals other than H20,
such as H2S
PRODUCERS!!!
 Consumers are heterotrophic organisms that cannot
make their own food. They must ingest (eat) other
organisms.
-Herbivores feed on vegetation (producers).
-Carnivores feed on herbivores or on other
carnivores.
 Secondary carnivores feed on herbivores,
 Tertiary consumers feed on other carnivores
-Omnivores feed on both producers and consumers
-Scavengers feed on dead or decaying organisms
CONSUMERS!!!
Scavengers feed on CARRION (dead or injured
animal corpses) and dead plant biomass.
Scavengers reduce the size of dead organic
matter…Decomposers will finish the job!
DECOMPOSERS are heterotrophs that recycle small,
often microscopic bits of dead organic matter into
inorganic nutrients availbe for plants to take up from the
soil. Decomposers RECYCLE nutrients!

BACTERIA and FUNGI are decomposers…most worms

are plant scavengers!
Energy in the Ecosystem
 Energy from the sun enters and
ecosystem when producers used the
energy to make organic matter
through photosynthesis.
 Glucose is the primary energy
source (carbohydrate) produced by
photosynthesis.
 Consumers take in this energy when
they eat producers or other
consumers.
 Energy in the Ecosystem
 Plants absorb less than 1% of the sunlight
that reaches them!
 However, photosynthetic organisms make
170 billion metric tons of food each
year!
 The energy captured by producers is used
to make cells in both producers and
consumers.
 Trophic levels are the different
feeding levels of organisms in an
ecosystem. Producers are the
first trophic level and consumers
make up several more.
 These relationships can be seen
in an ecological pyramid.
 Biomass: the total amount of
organic matter present in a
trophic level. The biomass in
each trophic level is the amount
of energy- in the form of food-
available to the next trophic
level.
 Remember
scavengers and
decomposers can
enter at any level!

Tertiary Consumers= CARNIVORE

EATING OTHER CARNIVORES

Secondary Consumers= CARNIVORES

EATING HERBIVORES

Primary Consumers= HERBIVORES

PRODUCERS = Autotrophic Plants

 Ecological Pyramids
 Relative amounts of energy are represented in an
ecological pyramid: a diagram that shows the
relative amounts of energy in different trophic
levels in an ecosystem. An ecological pyramid can
show energy, biomass, or the number of organisms in a
food web.
Ecological Pyramid: Energy

Shows the relative transfer of energy (joules) from one

trophic level to the next.
Ecological Pyramid: Biomass

Shows the relative amounts of organic matter (gram) from

one trophic level to the next.
 Ecological Pyramid:
Number of Organisms

Shows the relative number of organisms at each trophic level.

Food Chains
A Food CHAIN is a series
of organisms that
transfer food between
the trophic levels of an
ecosystem using only
one species at each
level…a simple chain.
 The arrows represent the
flow of energy from one
organism to the next.
 The arrow points toward
the organism doing the
‘eating’.
Food Webs
Ecosystems are not as simple
as shown and not often
explained by a single food
chain… Food WEBS more
accurately show the network
of food chains representing
the feeding relationships
among organisms in an
ecosystem.
 Most organisms feed on
more than one type of
organism at different trophic
levels.
How do Food Webs show complexity?
 The diversity and stability of an ecosystem is
represented by more complex webs that have many
species and many interactions (lots of arrows)
because they are more stable…more resistant to
disturbance by natural disaster or human
interference. Why?
 Predator/Prey: One organism (predator) will
actively hunt and consume another (prey).

 Competition: two or more organisms of same or

different species compete to use the same limited
resources or basic needs
 Symbiotic Relationships
 Parasitism: an organism (parasite)
lives in or on another (host) and
feeds on it without immediately
killing it

 Mutualism: a cooperative partnership

between two
species (both benefit)
 Commensalism: a relationship where
one species benefits and
the other remains unaffected
 Coevolution
 When two or more species evolve in response to each other, it is
called coevolution.
 Examples of coevolution may be found between predators and

their prey.
 Plants and insects represent a classic case of coevolution — one that is
often, but not always, mutualistic. Many plants and their pollinators are so
reliant on one another and their relationships are so exclusive that biologists
have good reason to think that the “ match” between the two is the result of
a coevolutionary process.