1. Ecology Review
Ecology is the study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their environment.
Biotic – living
Abiotic – nonliving
Herbivore – plant eater
Carnivore – meat eater
Omnivore – eats plants and animals

2. Parts of the biosphere: (part of Earth where life exists)
population
ecosystem
organism
community

3. Extinct species – a species that is no longer alive.
Threatened species – a species at risk but not yet endangered
Endangered species – a species that is at risk of going extinct
Invasive species – a species that has thrived so well that it has become burdensome to other organisms and/or its habitat. Invasive species are usually non-native species that have been introduced to a new area and has no natural predators to keep its population in check.
Fire ants are invasive. Black rhinos are endangered.

4. Producer – makes its own food by using energy from its surroundings.
Consumer – eats other organisms or organic matter.
Predator – eats all or part of another organism.
Prey – is killed and eaten by another organism.
Competition – occurs when 2 or more individuals or populations try to use the same resource (food, water, shelter, etc.).
Carrying capacity – the maximum amount (largest population) that an environment can support at any given time.
A resource that is so scarce that it limits the size of a population is called a limiting factor.

5. Symbiosis: relationship in which 2 different organisms live in close association with each other.
1. Mutualism – relationship between 2 species in which both benefit (mutual benefit)
2. Commensalism – relationship between 2 organisms in which one benefits and the other is unaffected.

6. Also, know the difference between a vertebrate and an invertebrate!
3. Parasitism – relationship between organisms in which one, the parasite, benefits while the other, the host, is harmed.
Also, know the difference between a vertebrate and an invertebrate!

7. A food chain is the pathway of energy transfer through various stages as a result of the feeding patterns of a series of organisms.
A food web is a diagram that shows the feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem. (complex and stable due to the variety of interactions)
The arrows on a food web/chain always point the pathway of the flow of energy.

8. FOOD CHAIN

9. FOOD WEB

11. An adaptation is a characteristic that improves an individual’s ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.

12. The peppered moth has been studied in detail over the past couple hundred years. Originally, the vast majority of peppered moths had light coloration, which effectively camouflaged them against the light-colored trees and lichens which they rested upon. However, because of widespread pollution during the Industrial Revolution in England, many of the lichens died out, and the trees that peppered moths rested on became blackened by soot, causing most of the light-colored moths, or typica, to die off from predation. At the same time, the dark-coloured, or melanic, moths, carbonaria, flourished because of their ability to hide on the darkened trees.[1]
Since then, with improved environmental standards, light-colored peppered moths have again become common, but the dramatic change in the peppered moth's population has remained a subject of much interest and study, and has led to the coining of the term industrial melanism to refer to the genetic darkening of species in response to pollutants. As a result of this relatively simple and easy-to-understand circumstances of the adaptation, the peppered moth has become a common example used in explaining or demonstrating natural selection.[2]

13. Peppered Moths: