Ecosystem Notes

Primary Learning Objectives To be able to explain what ecology is 2. To be able to explain what an energy pyramid is and what it represents.

What is Ecology? Ecology is the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their physical environment.

Species is a group of similar organistms that can breed and produce fertile offspring.

A population is a group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area.

An assemblage of different populations that live together in a defined area is called a community.

Ecosystem: The community of organisms living in an area, along with their nonliving surroundings.

A biome is a group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms

Our entire planet, with all its organisms and physical environment, is known as the biosphere.

Direction: Come up with an example of each level of organization, using yourself.

Ecosystems

What do the arrows in a food web represent?

Arrows represent the direction of energy flowing through the ecosystem. Which organism would have the greatest impact on this ecosystem?

Energy When an organism in an ecosystem eats, it obtains energy. The organism uses some of this energy to move, grow, reproduce, and carry out other life activities.

Energy This means that only some of the energy it obtains will be available to the next organism in the food web.

Energy Pyramid A diagram called an energy pyramid shows the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to the next in a food web. Each level is called a trophic level.

Energy Pyramid The most energy is available at the producer level of the pyramid. As you move up the pyramid, each level has less energy available than the level below.

Energy Pyramid In general, only about 10% of the energy at one level of the energy pyramid is transferred to the next higher trophic level.

Energy Pyramid The other 90% of the energy is used for the organism’s life processes and is eventually released as heat into the environment.

Energy Pyramid

Energy Pyramid Since there is less energy available to the higher levels in the energy pyramid, this means that there are fewer organisms as you go move up the pyramid.

Note that as we go up, there are fewer giraffes than trees & shrubs and even fewer lions than giraffes.

Where do the Producers get their energy from?

Producers get their energy from the Sun.

Exit Ticket Which of the following pairs of organisms belong to the same population? A. a dog and a cat B. a marigold and geranium C. a human mother and her child D. a spider and a cockroach

2. Groups of different species that live together in a defined area make up a(n) Population Community Ecosystem Biosphere