How do organisms interact with their environment? Agenda for Tuesday Jan 3rd Intro ecology notes Posters

Ecology Definition: The study of the interactions between organisms & their environment

Levels of Organization - Macroscopic

1) Organism An individual organism (just 1!).

Habitat vs. Niche Habitat - a place where a plant or animal can get the food, water, shelter and space it needs to live Niche (Job): - the role and position a species has in its environment how it meets its needs for food and shelter, how it survives, and how it reproduces what it eats and what eats it # of offspring

2) Population All the organisms of the same species in an area.

3) Biological Community Interacting populations living in same area

4) Ecosystem A biological community and all the abiotic factors that affect it Biotic – living Abiotic – not living

5) Biome A group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of biological communities

Minnesota Biomes:

6) Biosphere The parts of Earth that support life: Earth's crust/land All the waters that cover the surface Atmosphere that surrounds Earth.

So how can we simplify these levels of organization? Organism = a lone wolf Population = All wolfs in an area (ie a pack of wolves) Biological Community = wolves, moose, trees, foxes, grasses, caribou Ecosystem = all things from community AND snow, weather, temperature Biome = boreal forest, tundra Biosphere = Earth

Levels of Organization: Activity Directions: Work in groups of 3 Develop your own system of the levels of organization and write AND draw them on the poster paper Cannot be the same as the examples given by Novak Present tomorrow

What are the levels of organization from smallest to largest? Agenda for Wednesday Jan 4th Finish posters Present posters Food webs

Organism Population Community Ecosystem Biome Biosphere