1. Ecology Guided Notes

2. What is Ecology?
Ecology: the study of interactions of living organisms with one another and with their environment

3. What is an Ecosystem?
Ecosystem: a community of organisms and their environment

4. What Shapes an Ecosystem?

5. Organisms are influenced by:
Biotic Factors (living) – include all the living things with which organisms interact
Abiotic Factors (non-living) – include temperature, soil type and other non-living factors

6. Together biotic and abiotic factors determine the survival and growth of an organism and the productivity of the ecosystem in which an organism lives  

7. Habitat – where an organism lives, more than one species can live in the same habitat Includes both biotic and abiotic factors   Niche – consists of all the physical and biological conditions in which an organisms and the way in which the organism uses those conditions Includes what an organism eats, how it gets food  

8. Relationships between Organisms
Producer (Autotroph) – a photosynthetic or chemosynthetic autotroph that serves as the basic food source in an ecosystem
Consumer (Heterotroph) – an organism that eats other organisms or organic matter instead of producing its own nutrients or obtaining nutrients from inorganic sources
Decomposer – an organism that feeds by breaking down organic matter from dead organisms

9. Relationships between Organisms
Primary Producer
Primary Consumer
Secondary Consumer
EXAMPLE

10. Energy Flow in an Ecosystem – One direction!
Sun -> Autotrophs -> Heterotrophs

11. Trophic levels – each step in a food chain or food pyramid is a trophic level
Producers always make up the first trophic level, consumers the higher ones
Each consumer depends on the trophic level below it for energy

12. Every time I increase a trophic level only 10% of the energy is transferred to the next level.

13. If fox eats a snake that has eaten an insect that fed on a plant, the fox is a… a) Primary producer b) Primary consumer c) Secondary producer d) Tertiary consumer

14. Is it possible to be a secondary producer? Why or why not?

15. If only 10% of the energy stored in an organism can be passed on to the next trophic level, of the remaining energy some is used for an organism’s life processes, the rest is used for?

16. If only 10% of the energy stored in an organism can be passed on to the next trophic level, of the remaining energy some is used for an organism’s life processes, the rest is used for? Eliminated as heat

17. Ecosystem Changes:
-As an ecosystem ages, older inhabitants gradually die out and new organisms move in.
-Changes can occur from disturbances, long-term climate changes, introduction of nonnative species, human interactions

18. Diversity
The greater the diversity of species there is… it creates an increase chance that at least some living organisms will survive in the face of cataclysmic changes in the environment.
Increased diversity = increased stability