1. Ecology
Chapter 14

2. What is Ecology?
The scientific study of how organisms interact with their environment and all the other organisms that live in that environment.

3. Ecosystem
A particular environment and all the living things that are supported by it.
Can be as small as a pond or as large as a desert.
It is important that all living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem can relate to one another.

4. Biotic vs. Abiotic Biotic Factors: Living parts of an ecosystem.
Plants, animals, microorganisms
Abiotic Factors: Non-living parts of an ecosystem.
Air, soil, water, sunlight

5. How do you think Biotic and Abiotic Factors interact?
With your 12 o’clock partner, choose an animal.
Then think about their habitats, and what they need to survive.
What are some biotic and abiotic factors that they need to survive?
Make a list/table to organize these factors as your brainstorm.
Draw a silhouette of this animal, then draw the biotic and abiotic factors that animal needs to survive.
The size should be close to a full sheet of paper.

7. The Circle of Life

8. Producer: an organism that captures energy and stores it as food.
Plants, photosynthetic bacteria and algae
Consumer: organisms that cannot produce their own food, and must get their food from other sources.
Herbivore, carnivore, omnivore.
Grasshoppers, deer, wolves, falcons, etc.
Decomposers: organisms that break down dead plants and animals.
Fungi and bacteria

9. Trophic Levels Producers Primary consumers Secondary consumers
Plants
Primary consumers
Herbivores
Secondary consumers
Carnivores that eat the herbivores
Tertiary consumers
Top carnivores that eat other carnivores

10. Food Chain
Describes the feeding relationship between a producer and a single chain of consumers in an ecosystem.

11. Food Web
A model of the feeding relationships between many different consumers and producers in an ecosystem.

12. Energy Pyramid
A model that shows the amount of energy available at each feeding level of an ecosystem.

13. Biomes
14.4

14. Biomes
Large geographic areas that are similar in climate and that have similar types of plants and animals.
There are 6 major land biomes:
Tundra
Taiga
Desert
Grassland
Temperate Forest
Tropical Forest

15. Tundra Small plants Long, cold winters and short, cool summers
Not much precipitation
Area is wet due to cold temperatures
No evaporation
Small plants
Permafrost: a deep layer of permanently frozen soil that lies just below the surface soil.

16. Taiga Cold temperatures More precipitation than the tundra.
More snow = insulates the soil below (keeps it from permanently freezing).
Coniferous trees (evergreens)

17. Desert Some are cold, and some are hot. All have dry soil.
Low precipitation.
Cannot support trees.

18. Grassland Moderate rainfall.
Enough to support grasses
Periodic wildfires and droughts keep smaller shrubs and tree seedlings from growing.
Warm summers, and cold winters.

19. Temperate Forest Winters are short. Enough rain to support trees.
Deciduous trees
Trees that drop their leaves as winter approaches, and grow new leaves in the spring.

20. Tropical Forest Located near the equator. Wettest land biome.
Warm all year.
Wettest land biome.
The trees have leaves year round.
More types of animals and plants live in the tropical rain forest than anywhere else on Earth.

21. Water Biomes Freshwater Biomes:
Affected by the qualities of the landscape in which they are found.
Plants take root in the soil under the water if the water is not too deep or moving too fast.
Estuary: the lower end of a river that feeds into the ocean, where fresh water and salt water mix.
Marine Biomes (saltwater biomes):
Coastal ocean: beaches and tidal pools
Open ocean: less sunlight than in coastal ocean, and temperatures are colder.
No plants
Deep ocean: much colder and darker than the upper ocean.
Animals feed on each other, or on material that falls from upper levels.