1. Ecology: Ecosystem Notes

2. Do Now Take out your research brief
You will take some notes today, so take out paper or do this on the back of the handout you received:
Order the following from smallest to largest.
Atom
Cell
Body System
Organ
Tissue
Molecule
Organism

3. How many ecosystems did you interact with over break?

4. Ecology: study of interactions among organisms and their environment
Ecosystem: all the living and non-living factors in a particular place
Biotic factors: living factors
Abiotic factors: physical or nonliving factors
Processes: actions for survival

5. Circle of Life
Record observations of: biotic, abiotic, and processes that are occuring

6. Categorizing our observations
Biotic
(living)
Abiotic
(non-living)
Processes
(actions for survival)

7. Levels of Organization

8. Smallest       Largest
Individual
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biome
Biosphere
Definitions
 One organism
 group of same species individuals that live in the same area
 different populations that live together
Collection of living organisms and non-living environment
Group of ecosystems that have the same climate and communities
Where life exists on Earth (land, water, air, atmosphere)
Examples

9. Salmon species that live in the Pacific Ocean are called anadromous.
This means that they migrate (= move) on a regular basis. Salmon are born in fresh water, then migrate to the ocean and return to fresh water at the end of their lives in order to reproduce. Once they reproduce, the salmon die. In fact, salmon return to the exact spot where they were born thanks to their olfactory (= having to do with smell) memory.
What did this paragraph tell you about the level of organization of the salmon?
Term
Example from story
Individual
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biome

10. Research Brief Wrap-Up
Take out your research brief.
Go around the table and share out three main points from your research.