1. What is Ecology?
The study of the interactions between organisms and their environment
Interactions between organisms is not simply who eats who but varied, some good some bad

2. Organization in the Environment
Organism
Populations
Communities
Ecosystems
Biomes
Biosphere
Single animal
Group of the same animal
Different populations in the same area
Includes the abiotic factors
Geographic area characterized by certain types of plant and animal communities
Earth where life exists

4. 2 parts of ecology Biotic factors The living part of the environment
Animals, plants, insects, humans
Abiotic factors
The non-living part of the environment
Water, soil, light, temperature

6. Habitat vs. Niche Habitat – the environment in which an organism lives
When things like deforestation, building of roads and buildings occur, habitats are being destroyed
Niche – organisms way of life in the ecosystem
Includes its habitat, food, predators, competitors and abiotic factors

7. Niche of the Gray Wolf Consumers
Carnivores, eating moose, deer, reindeer, sheep and small animals such as birds and snakes
Social Structure – hunt in packs
Nurture and teach their young
Important in population control

8. Producers Make their own food/energy
Use the sun to go through the process of photosynthesis
Includes plants, algae and some bacteria

9. Consumers
Can’t make their own energy, get it by eating producers or other consumers
Herbivore – eats only plants
Carnivore – eats only animals
Omnivores – eats both plants and animals

10. Scavenger vs. Decomposer
Scavengers eat dead animals for energy
Examples include turkey vultures
Decomposers get energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms
Recyclers, bacteria and fungi

12. Predation Prey – the organism that is eaten
Predator – the organism doing the eating
Adaptations
Predator – speed or ambush prey
Prey – run away, camouflage, poisonous, bright colors, groups

14. Competition
Can occur among individuals within a population or between populations
Competition for resources, mates, space

15. Symbiosis
Long term, association between two or more species

16. Mutualism
Both organisms benefit

17. Commensalism
One organism is benefiting and the other is unaffected

18. Parasitism
One organism is harmed and the other is benefiting

19. Limiting factors
Populations cannot grow indefinitely because the environment contains only so much food, water, living space and other resources
When one or more becomes scarce, it becomes a limiting factor

20. Carrying Capacity
The largest population that a given environment can support over a long period of time
When the population gets larger than carrying capacity, limiting factors will cause the population to get smaller

22. Herbivores evolving with the plants they eat
Coevolution
Long term change that takes place in two species because of their close interactions with each other
Herbivores evolving with the plants they eat
Flowers and their pollinators

23. Food Chains Represent how energy flows from one organism to the next
Rare in nature because animals usually eat more than one organism

24. Food Webs
More common
Show the many pathways that energy flows in an ecosystem

25. Represents the loss of energy by each organism in a food chain or web
Energy Pyramids
Represents the loss of energy by each organism in a food chain or web