1. Ecology
Ecosystems and Biomes

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

3. What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a community of organisms and the environment in which they live (biotic and abiotic factors).

4. What is the difference between biotic and abiotic factors?
Biotic factors are environmental factors that are alive or were once living.
Abiotic factors are environmental factors that are nonliving or have never been living.

5. Examples: Biotic & Abiotic
Examples of biotic factors:
Animals
Plants
Fungi
Wood
Examples of abiotic factors:
Water
Oxygen
Metal
Rocks
**Note: Soil is a difficult example to categorize because it is a mixture that contains both biotic and abiotic factors.

6. Vocabulary: Population: an interbreeding group of the same species.
Community: all of the populations (biotic factors) in an area.
Biosphere: the part of the earth and its atmosphere in which living organisms exist

7. Hierarchy of Ecology:
organism  population  community  ecosystem  biome  biosphere

8. What is a biome?
A biome is a major biological community that occurs over a large area of land.

9. Seven of the most widely occurring terrestrial biomes include:
Tropical rain forest
Savanna
Taiga
Tundra
Desert
Temperate grassland
Temperate forest (deciduous and evergreen)

10. Biomes:
Biomes differ greatly from one another because they are in regions with very different climates.
Temperature, precipitation, soil type, and wind play important roles in where biomes occur.
Each different biome can contain many different ecosystems.

11. Homework:
Create an informational book or travel brochures explaining the 10 main biomes on pages in your textbook.
For each biome include:
Average climate
Abiotic factors
Common vegetation
Common animals
Where it is located on Earth
Must include pictures and color!
If you make a book, one biome per page. If you make brochures, one biome per brochure.