1. What is Ecology?

2. Questions for Today: What is the Basic Building Block of Life?
How many species are there in the World?
What are the levels of organization of matter in nature?

3. Cells are the Basic Units of Life
Any living organism, alive or dead, are composed of cells.
The smallest and most fundamental structural and functional units of life.
This is Called the Cell Theory and it states
All living things are composed of one or more cells.
Cells are the basic units of structure and function in living things.
New cells are produced from existing cells.

4. Cells are the Basic Unit of Life
Remember from Biology:
Two Types of Cells
Prokaryotic
No Nucleus or membrane bound organelles
Example: Bacteria
Eukaryotic
Contains a nucleus and membrane bound organelles
Animal and Plant Cells.

5. Structure of a Eukaryotic Call and a Prokaryotic Cell5

6. Species Make Up the Encyclopedia of Life
A species is a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring.
Named using the Binomial Nomenclature System developed by Carolus Linnaeus.
Remember from Biology
DKPCOFGS
Scientific names and the rules when writing them.

7. Species Make Up the Encyclopedia of Life
Scientists estimate that there could be 4 – 100 million species in the Environment.
Best guess is million
Biologist have identified and classified 1.8 million species.
Most species are insects
Over half of the animal and plant species are found in the Tropical Rainforests.

8. Have You Thanked the Insects Today?
Pollinators
Eat other insects
Loosen and renew soil
Reproduce rapidly
Very resistant to extinction 8

9. Species Make Up the Encyclopedia of Life
In 2007, Scientists began a $100 million, 10-year project to list and describe all1.8 million known species.

10. Levels of Organization
From the inclusive to the most exclusive:
Biosphere
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism
Cells
Molecule
Atom

11. Biosphere Ecosystem Community Population Organism Cell Molecule Atom
Stepped Art
Smallest unit of a chemical element that exhibits its chemical properties
Atom
Molecule
Chemical combination of two or more atoms of the same or different elements
Cell
The fundamental structural and functional unit of life
Organism
An individual living being
Population
A group of individuals of the same species living in a particular place
Community
Populations of different species living in a particular place, and potentially interacting with each other
Ecosystem
A community of different species
interacting with one another and with their
nonliving environment of matter and energy
Parts of the earth's air, water, and soil where life is found
Biosphere
Figure 3.3
Some levels of organization of matter in nature. Ecology focuses on the top five of these levels. See an animation based on this figure at CengageNOW.
Fig. 3-3, p. 52