1. Vocabulary
Ecology: study of the interactions among living things and their surroundings.
Community: collection of all the different populations that live in one area.
Biome: regional or global community of organisms characterized by the climate conditions and plant communities that thrive there
Biotic: living things in an ecosystem
Abiotic: nonliving factors in an ecosystem.
Keystone species: organism that has an unusually large effect on its ecosystem

2. Opener
Write the following things down and label if they are abiotic or biotic
Fish
Air
Water
Human
Turtle
Algae
Tree

3. KEY CONCEPT Ecology is the study of the relationships among organisms and their environment.

4. Ecologists study environments at different levels of organization.
Ecology is the study of the interactions among living things, and between living things and their surroundings.

5. An organism is an individual living thing, such as an alligator.

6. A population is a group of the same species that lives in one area.
Organism

7. A community is a group of different species that live together in one area.
Population
Organism

8. An ecosystem includes all of the organisms as well as the climate, soil, water, rocks and other nonliving things in a given area.
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism

9. Biome
A biome is a major regional or global community of organisms characterized by the climate conditions and plant communities that thrive there.
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism

10. Ecological research methods include observation, experimentation, and modeling.
Observation is the act of carefully watching something over time.
Observations of populations can be done by visual surveys.
Direct surveys for easy to spot species employ binoculars or scopes.
Indirect surveys are used for species that are difficult to track and include looking for other signs of their presence.

11. Experiments are performed in the lab or in the field.
Lab experiments give researchers more control.
Lab experiments are not reflective of the complex interactions in nature.
Field experiments give a more accurate picture of natural interactions.
Field experiments may not help determine actual cause and effect.

12. Computer and mathematical models can be used to describe and model nature.
Modeling allows scientists to learn about organisms or ecosystems in ways that would not be possible in a natural or lab setting.
Ecologists use data transmitted by GPS receivers worn by elephants to develop computer models of the animal’s movements.

13. KEY CONCEPT Every ecosystem includes both living and nonliving factors.

14. An ecosystem includes both biotic and abiotic factors.
Biotic factors are living things.
plants
animals
fungi
bacteria
plants

15. Abiotic factors are nonliving things. moisture temperature wind
sunlight
soil
moisture
sunlight

16. Who can label the most abiotic and biotic factors??

17. Changing one factor in an ecosystem can affect many other factors.
Biodiversity is the assortment, or variety, of living things in an ecosystem.
Rain forests have more biodiversity than other locations in the world, but are threatened by human activities.

18. A keystone species is a species that has an unusually large effect on its ecosystem.

19. Keystone species form and maintain a complex web of life.
creation of
wetland
ecosystem
increased waterfowl
Population
increased fish
population
nesting sites for birds
keystone species

20. Examples of keystone species
Elephants in the African grassland.
Without elephants,the grasslands actually cease to exist as grasslands and would overgrow with woody plants, convert to forests or to shrub-land.
Sea Otters
Without sea otters, the sea urchins (sea otter’s food) population would explode. Sea urchins feast on kelp beds which are critical habitat for spawning fish. Fish begin to decline. Fishermen can’t catch any more
Grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear is an ecosystem engineer. They transform nutrients from oceanic ecosystem to the forest ecosystem. First stage of the transfer is performed by salmon, rich in N and K, who swim up rivers. Bears catch salmon…carry them to dry land…disperse nutrient rich feces and 1/2 eaten carcasses.