1. STANDARD 02
Biological Processes

2. Students will understand that energy from sunlight is changed to chemical energy in plants, transfers between living organisms, and that changing the environment may alter the amount of energy provided to living organisms.

3. Objective 1
Compare ways that plants and animals obtain and use energy

4. The Sources of Energy
All energy on the surface of Earth comes originally from the sun (photosynthesis)
Energy on the bottom of the ocean comes from chemicals (chemosynthesis)

5. Photosynthesis
The process by which plants are able to convert the sun’s energy into chemical energy
Chlorophyll (the green pigment inside plants and some algae) absorbs energy in sunlight and combines CO2 and H2O
6CO2 + 6H2O→C6H12O6 + 6O2

7. Respiration
The process by which animals convert food (chemical) energy into mechanical and heat energy
Takes place in the animal’s cells using a chemical called ATP – sugar is broken down into CO2 and H2O, releasing energy
C6H12O6 + 6O2 →6CO2 + 6H2O

8. The Path of Energy Solar energy Mechanical energy Chemical energy
Chemical energy, Mechanical energy, Heat energy
Chemical energy, Heat energy

9. Objective 2
Generalize the relationships between organisms

10. Energy Roles An organism’s energy role is determined by:
how it obtains energy and
how it interacts with the other living things in its ecosystem

11. Producers
Some organisms are able to capture the sun’s energy and store it as food energy
They are called producers because they produce all the energy used in an ecosystem

12. Consumers Can not make their own food or produce their own energy
They must eat producers or other consumers

13. The Cycle
Energy enters an ecosystem and moves from producers to consumers to decomposers

14. Herbivores
Consumers that eat only plants

15. Carnivores
Consumers that eat only animals

16. Omnivores
Consumers that eat both plants and animals

17. Decomposers
Break down wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the ecosystem
Bacteria and fungi

18. Scavenger
Carnivores that feed on dead organisms

20. Carrying Capacity
The largest population that an ecosystem can support

21. Predators
An animal that hunts and eats other animals

22. Prey
The animal hunted by a predator

23. Symbiosis
A close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species

24. Mutualism The relationship in which both species benefit
Saguaro cactus and long-eared bats
The saguaro benefits because the bat carries its pollen to another plant
The bat benefits because the cactus flowers provide it with food

25. Commensalism
One species benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed
Not very common in nature because two species are usually either helped or harmed a little by any interaction
Saguaro and red-tailed hawks
The hawk has a place to build a nest
The saguaro is not affected

26. Parasitism One organism lives on or inside another and harms it
The parasite is usually smaller and rarely kills the host because it then loses its food supply.
A flea, tick, or leech on your body.

27. Food Chain Shows the movement of energy through an ecosystem
A series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy

28. Grass →crickets→frog→snakehawk

30. Food Web All of the many overlapping food chains in an ecosystem
Food Webs are more accurate but more complicated

33. Relationships between producers and consumers in a food chain
The first organism is always a producer
The second is always a consumer (first-level consumer)
The third is the second-level consumer
The fourth is the third-level consumer
The different levels are called trophic levels

34. Energy Pyramid
Used to show the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to another in a food web.

35. Energy Passed on to the Next Higher Feeding Level
At each level, 90% is used to support the organism’s life processes or is lost as heat, so only 10% is passed on
Because of this, most food webs only have 3 or 4 feeding levels because there is not enough energy to support more

36. Objective 3
Analyze human influence on the capacity of an environment to sustain living things.

37. Species
A group of organisms that are physically similar and can reproduce with each other (have “viable” offspring)
Hybrids (like a liger) are not a new species because they are sterile (cannot reproduce).

38. Population
All the members of one species in a particular area are a population

39. Community
All the different populations that live together in an area and interact with one another

40. Ecosystem
All the living and nonliving things that interact in a particular area
Examples are prairies, mountain streams, deep oceans, or dense forests

41. Ecology
The study of how living things interact with each other and with their ecosystem

42. Extinction
The disappearance of all members of a species

43. Endangered A species in danger of becoming extinct in the near future
Utah sucker

44. Threatened
Species that could become endangered
Desert tortoise

45. Environmental Issues
Habitat destruction, pollution, global warming, acid rain, and ozone are all environmental issues that interfere with food chains