1. Chapter 3 – Communities, Biomes, & Ecosystems
Flushing High School
Ms. Ferris

2. Chapter 3 Objectives
I can recognize how unfavorable abiotic and biotic factors affect a species (3-1)
I can describe how ranges of tolerance affect the distribution of organisms (3-1)
I can sequence the stages of primary and secondary succession (3-1)

3. Ch. 3-1: Community Ecology
Wherever you live, you probably are used to the conditions of your environment. If it is cold outside, what do you do?
Just like you adapt to your environment, so do other organisms.

4. Communities What is a community?
A group of interacting populations that occupy the same area at the same time.
What does the community and ecosystem that you live in look like? How would you describe it to someone from another country?
What changes do you think your community & ecosystem have gone through in the last yrs?

5. Does every community have the same type of plants and animals?
How would an urban community differ from a rural community?

6. Review questions from Ch. 2:
What are abiotic and biotic factors?
How can they affect an organism?
Just as abiotic and biotic factors can affect an individual organism, they also affect entire communities.
For example: Think about soil. How could soil affect a community?
Organisms also adapt to the conditions that they live in.
For example: How have plants and animals adapted to living in the desert?

7. The presence of certain factors, such as water or temperature, influence which organisms can survive in some ecosystems.
Any abiotic (nonliving) or biotic (living) factor that restricts the numbers, reproduction, or distribution of an organism is called a limiting factor.
Abiotic limiting factors include sunlight, climate, temperature, water, nutrients, fire, soil chemistry, and space.
Biotic limiting factors include other plant and animal species
Factors that restrict the growth of one population might enable another to thrive.

8. Name at least one limiting factor of these desert oasis’:

9. Range of Tolerance
There are limits to what an organism is able to survive.
Organisms have an upper limit and a lower limit that define the conditions that they can survive in.
An organisms ability to survive abiotic and biotic factors that it is subjected to is called its tolerance.

11. Ecological Succession
Ecosystems are constantly changing – these changes can be small changes, like a tree falling, or a big change like a forest fire.
The change in an ecosystem that happens when one community replaces another as a result of abiotic and biotic factors is called ecological succession

12. There are two types of ecological succession:
Primary succession – the establishment of a community in an area of exposed rock that does not have top soil.
Very slow!
Soil must be formed before organisms like fungi and plants can move in.
Example: Underwater volcano eventually becoming a lush island.
Pioneer species (lichens, mosses, & ferns) help to form soil
Eventually a mature community is formed with very little change – a climax community

13. Secondary succession – orderly & predictable change that takes place after a community of organisms has been removed but the soil remains intact.
Example: A forest fire will destroy/cause organisms to leave the area however the soil remains there.
Secondary succession happens faster because soil is already there.
Succession Module