1. The student is expected to: 2F collect and organize qualitative and quantitative data and make measurements with accuracy and precision using tools...; 3E evaluate models according to their limitations in representing biological objects or events; 10C analyze the levels of organization in biological systems and relate the levels to each other and to the whole system

2. EQ:
Summarize a food web from producer to tertiary consumer including justification for each organism’s placement in the food web in order to create an ecological pyramid poster.

3. Examine the flow of energy through an ecosystem.
Obj
Examine the flow of energy through an ecosystem.

4. KEY CONCEPT Ecology is the study of the relationships among organisms and their environment.
Ecologists study environments at different levels of organization.
Ecology is the study of the interactions among living things, and between living things and their surroundings

5. An organism is an individual living thing, such as an alligator.

6. A population is a group of the same species that lives in one area.
Organism

7. A community is a group of different species that live together in one area.
Population
Organism

8. An ecosystem includes all of the organisms as well as the climate, soil, water, rocks and other nonliving things in a given area.
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism

9. Biome
A biome is a major regional or global community of organisms characterized by the climate conditions and plant communities that thrive there.
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism

10. Ecological research methods include observation, experimentation, and modeling.
Observation is the act of carefully watching something over time.
Observations of populations can be done by visual surveys.

11. Experiments are performed in the lab or in the field.
Lab experiments give researchers more control.
Lab experiments are not reflective of the complex interactions in nature.
Field experiments give a more accurate picture of natural interactions.
Field experiments may not help determine actual cause and effect.

12. The student is expected to: 12F describe how environmental change can impact ecosystem stability

13. KEY CONCEPT Every ecosystem includes both living and nonliving factors.

14. An ecosystem includes both biotic and abiotic factors.
Biotic factors are living things.
plants
animals
fungi
bacteria
plants

15. Abiotic factors are nonliving things. moisture temperature wind
sunlight
soil
moisture
sunlight

16. A keystone species is a species that has an unusually large effect on its ecosystem.

17. Keystone species form and maintain a complex web of life.
creation of
wetland
ecosystem
increased waterfowl
Population
increased fish
population
nesting sites for birds
keystone species

18. The student is expected to: 11C summarize the role of microorganisms in both maintaining and disrupting the health of both organisms and ecosystems and 12C analyze the flow of matter and energy through trophic levels using various models, including food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramids

19. KEY CONCEPT Life in an ecosystem requires a source of energy.

20. Producers provide energy for other organisms in an ecosystem.
Producers get their energy from non-living resources.
Producers are also called autotrophs because they make their own food.

21. Producers provide energy for other organisms in an ecosystem.
Consumers are organisms that get their energy by eating other living or once-living resources.
Consumers are also called heterotrophs because they feed off of different things.

22. Almost all producers obtain energy from sunlight.
Photosynthesis in most producers uses sunlight as an energy source.
Chemosynthesis in prokaryote producers uses chemicals as an energy source.
carbon dioxide + water +
hydrogen sulfide + oxygen
sugar + sulfuric acid

23. The student is expected to: 11C summarize the role of microorganisms in both maintaining and disrupting the health of both organisms and ecosystems and 12C analyze the flow of matter and energy through trophic levels using various models, including food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramids

24. KEY CONCEPT Food chains and food webs model the flow of energy in an ecosystem.

25. A food chain links species by their feeding relationships.
A food chain is a model that shows a sequence of feeding relationships.
A food chain links species by their feeding relationships.
A food chain follows the connection between one producer and a single chain of consumers within an ecosystem.
DESERT COTTONTAIL
GRAMA GRASS
HARRIS’S HAWK

26. Consumers are not all alike. Herbivores eat only plants.
Carnivores eat only animals.
Omnivores eat both plants and animals.
Detritivores eat dead organic matter.
Decomposers are detritivores that break down organic matter into simpler compounds.
carnivore
decomposer

27. Specialists are consumers that primarily eat one specific organism or a very small number of organisms.
Generalists are consumers that have a varying diet.

28. Trophic levels are the nourishment levels in a food chain.
Primary consumers are herbivores that eat producers.
Secondary consumers are carnivores that eat herbivores.
Tertiary consumers are carnivores that eat secondary consumers.
Omnivores, such as humans that eat both plants and animals, may be listed at different trophic levels in different food chains.

29. A food web shows a complex network of feeding relationships.
An organism may have multiple feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
A food web emphasizes complicated feeding relationships and energy flow in an ecosystem.

30. 10% rule
10% of available energy is lost with each trophic level increase

31. The student is expected to: 11C summarize the role of microorganisms in both maintaining and disrupting the health of both organisms and ecosystems and 12E describe the flow of matter through the carbon and nitrogen cycles and explain the consequences of disrupting these cycles

32. KEY CONCEPT Matter cycles in and out of an ecosystem.

33. Water cycles through the environment.
The hydrologic, or water, cycle is the circular pathway of water on Earth.
Organisms all have bodies made mostly of water.
precipitation
condensation
transpiration
evaporation
water storage
in ocean
surface
runoff
lake
groundwater
seepage

34. Elements essential for life also cycle through ecosystems.
A biogeochemical cycle is the movement of a particular chemical through the biological and geological parts of an ecosystem.
The main processes involved in the oxygen cycle are photosynthesis and respiration.

35. Oxygen cycles indirectly through an ecosystem by the cycling of other nutrients.
respiration
carbon
dioxide
photosynthesis

36. Carbon is the building block of life.
The carbon cycle moves carbon from the atmosphere, through the food web, and back to the atmosphere.
Carbon is emitted during the burning of fossil fuels.
Some carbon is stored for long periods of time in areas called carbon sinks.
fossil fuels
photosynthesis
carbon dioxide
dissolved in water
decomposition
of organisms
respiration
carbon
dioxide
in air
combustion

37. The nitrogen cycle mostly takes place underground.
Some bacteria convert gaseous nitrogen into ammonia through a process called nitrogen fixation.
Some nitrogen-fixing bacteria live in nodules on the roots of plants; others live freely in soil.
nitrogen in
atmosphere
animals
denitrifying
bacteria
nitrifying
ammonium
ammonification
decomposers
plant
nitrogen-fixing
bacteria in soil
bacteria in roots
nitrates
nitrites

38. Ammonia released into the soil is transformed into ammonium.
Nitrifying bacteria change the ammonium into nitrate.
Nitrogen moves through the food web and returns to the soil during decomposition.
nitrogen in
atmosphere
animals
denitrifying
bacteria
nitrifying
ammonium
ammonification
decomposers
plant
nitrogen-fixing
bacteria in soil
bacteria in roots
nitrates
nitrites

39. The phosphorus cycle takes place at and below ground level.
Phosphate is released by the weathering of rocks.
Phosphorus moves through the food web and returns to the soil during decomposition.
Phosphorus leaches into groundwater from the soil and is locked in sediments.
Both mining and agriculture add phosphorus into the environment.
geologic uplifting
rain
weathering of
phosphate from rocks
runoff
sedimentation
forms new rocks
leaching
phosphate in solution
animals
plants
decomposers
phosphate
in soil

40. Natural and human activities can disrupt biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems.
Natural disruptions
volcanic eruptions
forest fires
landslides and earthquakes
living organisms

41. Disruptions caused by humans
poor farming practices
burning fossil fuels

42. The student is expected to: 12C analyze the flow of matter and energy through trophic levels using various models, including food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramids

43. KEY CONCEPT Pyramids model the distribution of energy and matter in an ecosystem.

44. An energy pyramid shows the distribution of energy among trophic levels.
energy transferred
energy
lost
Energy pyramids compare energy used by producers and other organisms on trophic levels.
Between each tier of an energy pyramid, up to 90 percent of the energy is lost into the atmosphere as heat.
Only 10 percent of the energy at each tier is transferred from one trophic level to the next.

45. Other pyramid models illustrate an ecosystem’s biomass and distribution of organisms.
Biomass is a measure of the total dry mass of organisms in a given area.
tertiary
consumers
secondary
primary
producers
75 g/m2
150g/m2
675g/m2
2000g/m2

46. A pyramid of numbers shows the numbers of individual organisms at each trophic level in an ecosystem.
tertiary
consumers
secondary
primary
producers 5
5000
500,000
5,000,000
A vast number of producers are required to support even a few top level consumers.