1. Ecology
The study of interactions that take place between organisms and their environment.

2. Organisms and Their Environments
Species interact with both other species and their nonliving environment.
Interdependence
theme in ecology—one change can affect all species in an ecosystem.

3. Levels of Organization

4. Biosphere Part of the Earth that supports living things
From high in the atmosphere
To the bottom of oceans

5. Abiotic Factors Non-living parts of an organisms environment
Air currents
Temperature
Moisture
Light
soil

6. Biotic Factors All the living organisms that inhabit an environment
Animals
Plants
Fungi
Protists—weird group including algae and amoebas
Bacteria

8. Organization
Ecosystem (made of biological communities and abiotic factors)
Biological Community (made of populations)
Populations (made of organism of the same species)

9. Ecosystem Terrestrial: Located on land Aquatic:
Forest, Meadow, and rotting log
Aquatic:
Fresh water: ponds, lakes, and streams
Marine (salt water): 70% of Earth’s surface

10. Biological Community Contains many populations (species)
Interact with one another
Changes in one can cause changes in the others

11. Population Same species Interbreed Live in the same area
At the same time
Members still compete with one another

12. Organisms in a Changing Environment
Acclimation
Some organisms can adjust their tolerance to abiotic factors
Control of Internal Conditions
Conformers: organisms that do not regulate their internal conditions; they change as their external environment changes.
Regulators use energy to control some of their internal conditions.

13. Who is a conformer? Regulator?

14. Escape from Unsuitable Conditions
Some species survive unfavorable environmental conditions by becoming dormant or by migrating

15. Habitat Where an organism lives out its life
Lawn, forest, pond, can you think of any?
Can change because of natural and human causes
Many species can share a habitat

16. Niche Strategies and adaptations a species uses in its environment
Meets specific needs for food and shelter
All interactions with biotic and abiotic
No two have exact same niche
Adaptations

17. Generalists vs. Specialists
relatively tightly defined niches and have a narrow range of tolerance
better off when their preferred environment remains stable
have broad niches and tolerate larger changes in the environment
can survive in a variety of different conditions

18. Next…..
Nutrition and Energy Flow

19. Nutrition and Energy Flow

20. Energy Role in an Ecosystem
Determined by:
How it obtains energy
How it interacts with other living organisms in its ecosystem
The sun: provides energy
Producers: harness energy from the sun
ex. plants
Consumers: organisms that eat something else
ex. animals
Decomposers: return energy to the environment
ex. fungus, bacteria

21. Producers
Autotroph: Uses light energy or energy stored in chemical compounds to make energy
Grass
Trees
Green Algae

22. Consumers Heterotrophs: Feeds on other organisms
Herbivores: Eat plants
Carnivores: Eat other heterotrophs (meat only)
Omnivore: Eat both (meat and plant)
Scavengers: Eat animals that are already dead
Decomposers: Break down other organism into simpler compounds

24. Food Chain Berries  Mice  Black bear Simple model
Two – Four transfers
Trophic Levels—feeding levels

25. Energy flow through biological systems

26. Aquatic Food Chain

27. Food Chains
series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy

28. Food Chains Continued
Arrows always points in the direction of energy flow
1st organism is always the producer
2nd organism is the consumer that eats the producer
Primary consumer
3rd organism is the consumer that eats the 1st level consumer
Secondary consumer
4th organism is the consumer that eats the 2nd level consumer
Tertiary Consumer
And so on…

29. Energy Pyramid
2nd Law of Thermodynamics: energy is not transferred from one object/organism to the next with 100% efficiency
Some of the energy is lost to the environment
Energy Pyramid shows the amounts of energy that moves from one level to the next

30. Sample Energy Pyramid

31. Energy Transfer
Only about 10% of energy is transferred from one level to the next
The other 90% is used by the organism to carry out its life processes or it is lost to the environment

32. Food Web
Shows all possible feeding relationships at each trophic level in a community

33. Aquatic Food Web

34. Pyramid of Numbers

35. the total mass of living matter in a given unit area
Pyramid of Biomass
generally expressed in dry weight (after removal of all water from the sample) per unit area of land or unit volume of water