1. Ecological Organization and Matter Cycles
Ms. Henriksen
Biology

2. What is Ecology?
The scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment, or surroundings.
Study how living things interact with other living things and with non-living things.

3. Abiotic factors = nonliving Biotic factors = living
non-living components in the environment…
light
water
wind
nutrients in soil
heat
solar radiation
atmosphere, etc.
Living organisms…
Plants
Animals
microorganisms in soil, etc.

4. Levels of organization

5. Levels of Organization
Species - group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring
Population- group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area
Community – group of different populations that live together in a defined area
Ecosystem - collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place, together with their nonliving environment
Biome - group of ecosystems that have the same climate and dominant communities
Biosphere - part of Earth in which life exists including land, water, and air or atmosphere

6. Cycles of Matter Matter: anything that has weight and takes up space.
Matter cannot be used up.
It is transformed.
Matter is recycled within and between ecosystems.
Example: you eat food, it is assembled into living tissue or passed out as waste.

7. Nutrient Cycles
Nutrients: all the chemical substances that an organism needs to survive.
“Building Blocks”
To build tissues
2. To carry out life’s
essential functions

8. Diagram of the carbon cycle pg
How does carbon move to the air?
How is carbon cycled back to the soil?
How is carbon stored in water?

9. Diagram of the nitrogen cycle
What organisms are most important for fixing nitrogen into a form that other can use?
Where do we find these organisms

10. Diagram the phosphorous cycle
Is phosphorus ever cycled into the atmosphere?

11. Nutrient Limitation
Primary productivity: how fast producers create organic matter.
A Limiting Nutrient: a nutrient that is scarce or cycles slowly, limiting primary productivity.

12. Too much of a good thing…
Fertilizers are used to speed up plant growth.
Too much of a nutrient will cause an algal bloom
Algal bloom: algae grows quickly, without enough consumers to eat it up.
Algae takes over the surface of the water.
(p.80, figure 3-16)