Bell Ringer: Feb. 11 th, 2015 Brainstorming: List everything you remember about Ecology.

Living Things and the Environment S7L4. Students will examine the dependence of organisms on one another and their environments. –Demonstrate in a food web that matter is transferred from one organism to another and can recycle between organisms and their environments. –Explain in a food web that sunlight is the source of energy and that this energy moves from organism to organism. –Recognize that changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of both individuals and entire species. –Categorize relationships between organisms that are competitive or mutually beneficial. –Describe the characteristics of Earth’s major terrestrial biomes (i.e. tropical rain forest, savannah, temperate, desert, taiga, tundra, and mountain) and aquatic communities (i.e. freshwater, estuaries, and marine).

Living Things and the Environment Vocabulary:  Organism  Habitat  Abiotic and Biotic Factors  Photosynthesis  Species  Population  Community  Ecosystem  Ecology  Biome  Biosphere

Habitats What is an organism?  An organism obtains food, water, shelter, and other things it needs to live, grow, and reproduce from it’s environment. Habitat: an environment that provides the things the organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce.  How could an area have more than one habitat?  Why do different organisms live in different habitats?

Biotic Factors Biotic Factors: the living parts of the habitat.

What are some more Biotic Factors? Think about biotic factors at your home or some that you have seen somewhere else.

Abiotic Factors Abiotic Factors: the nonliving parts of an organism’s habitat. Water Sunlight Oxygen Temperature Soil Space

Water Water is required by ALL living things  Your body, for example, is about 65% water.  Plants and algae need water, along with sunlight and carbon dioxide, to make their own food in a process called photosynthesis.

Sunlight Sunlight is an important abiotic factor because sunlight is needed for photosynthesis. In places that do not receive sunlight, such as dark caves or deep in the ocean, plants and algae cannot grow. If plants and algae cannot grow in places, will there be more organisms or less organisms in these places?

Oxygen Most living things require oxygen to carry out life processes. Organisms on land obtain oxygen from the air, which is only about 20% oxygen. Aquatic organisms obtain oxygen that is dissolved in the water. What system is responsible moving oxygen in to the body?

Temperature The temperatures that are typical of an area determine the types of organisms that can live in that area.

Soil Soil is a mixture of rock fragments, nutrients, air, water, and the decaying remains of living things. The type of soil in an area influences the kinds of plants that can grow there. Name some organisms that use the soil itself as a home…

Levels of Organization Species: are a group of organisms that are physically similar and can mate with each other and produce offspring that can also mate and reproduce. Population: all the members of one species living in a particular area.

Population or Not? All of the pigeons living in New York City All the bees in a bee hive All of the people who live in Lowndes County All of the trees in a forest All of the rocks on the beach All the prairie dogs in Texas (400 million)

Communities Community: all of the different populations that live together in a particular area. To be considered a community, the different populations must live close enough together to interact. How can different populations interact with each other?

Ecosystems Ecosystem: community of organisms that live in a particular area, along with their nonliving surroundings make up an ecosystem. Populations in an ecosystem interact with one another all of the time. Any change in an ecosystem will affect all the different populations that live there. Ecology: is the study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment.

How is an ecosystem self-sustaining? The production of chemical energy from sunlight. Transfer of energy from one organism to the next. Decomposition of dead organisms Reuse of nutrients by other living organisms.

Types of Ecosystems

Biome & Biosphere Biome: very large ecological areas on earth’s surface, with plants and animals adapting to their environment. It begins on the ocean floor and goes up into our atmosphere.  Biomes are often defined by abiotic factors  5 main types of Biomes Desert Tundra Aquatic Grassland Forest Biosphere: the global sum of all ecosystems or the zone of life on Earth.

Habitat or Ecosystem 1 2

Community or Population? 3 4

Ticket out the Door Place these levels of organization in order from the biggest to the smallest. Tissue Organelle Community Cell Ecosystem Atom Organ Biome Organism Population Biosphere Organ System Molecule