1. Year 9 Ecosystems: Introduction

2. Biological Organisation
Arrange the following terms from smallest to largest to represent the composition or structure of life:
Organism, ecosystem, tissue, macromolecule, community, organelle, cell, population, organ, biosphere.
Biological terms that you probably know already
Ecological terms that you need to know

3. Biological Organisation
When we put lots of macromolecules together we get an organelle
When we put organelles together we get a cell
When we put cells of the same type together we get a tissue
When we put different tissues together we get an organ
When we put different organs together we get an Organism
And this is where ecology comes in….
Biological terms that you probably know already
Ecological terms that you need to know

4. A population of king penguins
Populations
And this is where ecology comes in….
When we put several organisms of the same species together we get a population
A population of king penguins

5. Communities
When we put several populations together in a particular area we get a community
A forest community composed of populations of many different plant species

6. Ecosystems
When we put several communities together in a particular area, and the organisms in those communities interact with the non-living parts of the environment e.g. water, soil, air, etc., we get an ecosystem
A coral reef ecosystem where the living organisms- fish, coral, anemones, etc., are interacting with each other and their physical surroundings- rocks, water, etc.

7. Biomes
The climate and geography of a region determines what type of organisms can exist in a certain place. A large geographical area of distinctive plant and animal groups, which are adapted to that particular environment is called a biome.
Freshwater, marine, desert, forest & tundra are all examples of common biomes

8. Biotic & Abiotic Factors
Ecosystems are made up of both living and non-living parts interacting together. We call these biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors.
Biotic factors – Living things including the availability of mates, trees, food, predators and parasites
Abiotic factors – The non-living things (the physical surroundings) including soil, rainfall, temperature and salinity.

9. The Biosphere
When we consider all of the parts of the earth where organisms live as a whole we refer to it as the biosphere.
As the Earth is large and complex, we need to break it down in to smaller bits in order to study it. This is why when we look at the interactions between different organisms and their environment we look at ecosystems.

10. Summary
Check out these videos on youtube: Then have a go at this quizlet set: Go to Quizlet!
Ecosystem video 1
Ecosystem video 2