Ecology notes

Ecology – study of how organisms interact with their physical and biological environments and how those influence the distribution and abundance of living things ecosystem – community of organisms interacting with their physical environments ex: island, lake, meadow, Earth

biosphere – Earth’s life-supporting environment and all the organisms associated with it (14 mi. thick) - provides many habitats – places where organisms live biomes – major ecosystems of the biosphere with like temperature, precipitation, wind patterns -ex: Tropical Rain Forests, Temperate Deciduous Forests, Desert, Grassland, Tundra, Taiga, Lake, Ocean, River (see p. 376 – 382)

niche – organism’s role in the environment biotic – living factors in the environment; ex: plants, animals, bacteria, fungi... abiotic – non-living factors in the environment; ex: soil, rainfall, moisture...

Energy flow Ecological pyramid – shows the relative amounts of energy or matter contained within each trophic level in a food chain or web food chain –shows a linear path for energy flow in an ecosystem food web –shows all the possible interconnected food chains in an ecosystem

Consumers – organisms that eat other organisms (heterotrophs) Producers – organisms that make food (glucose) through the process of photosynthesis or chemosynthesis (autotrophs) Decomposer – organisms that feed on decaying organisms, recycling organic matter (bacteria and fungi)