1. Everything is connected to everything else
Ecology
Putting it all together…
study of interactions between creatures & their environment, because…
Everything is connected to everything else

2. The Biosphere The portion of Earth that supports living things
Composed to two parts
Biotic factors
The living organisms that inhabit and environment
all plants & animals living in an area
Abiotic factors
the physical parts of an organisms environment
soil, rock, temperature, moisture, sunlight

4. Levels of Biological Organization
Population – a group of organisms, all of the same species, which interbreed and living in the same area at the same time
Biological community – made up of interacting populations in a certain area at a certain time (example: different types of flowers growing in the same field)
Ecosystem – made up of interacting populations in a biological community and the community’s abiotic factors
Species  Population  Community  Ecosystem  Biosphere

5. Creatures living in their environment
Populations

6. Community Ecology Community Ecology
study of interactions among all populations in a common environment
To answer:
In what way do the populations interact?

7. Niche vs Habitat A habitat where an organism lives its life
An organism’s niche is its ecological role
High tide
Competitive Exclusion
If Species 2 is removed, then Species 1 will occupy whole tidal zone. But at lower depths Species 2 out-competes Species 1, excluding it from its potential (fundamental) niche.
Species 1
Low tide
Chthamalus sp.
Species 2
Fundamental
niches
Realized
niches
Semibalanus sp.

8. Symbiotic interactions
competition (-/-)
compete for limited resource
Food, mate, territory
predation (+/-)
One animal eats another
parasitism (+/-)
One organisms feeds off of another mutualism (+/+)
Both organisms benefit
commensalism (+/0)
One benefits and the
other doesn’t change

9. Symbiosis- interactions between organisms
mutualism
+/+
…not very funny for a clown fish
commensalism
+/0
predation
+/-
competition
-/-