Day 76

Finishing the Ecology Unit

Review Key Terms

• Biotic vs Abiotic

• Three biotic interactions

• Five abiotic characteristics

• Primary producers vs consumers

Review Key Terms

• Biomass

• Trophic energy

• Trophic efficiency

• Nutrients

Review Key Terms

• Four nutrient cycles

• Earth’s four spheres

• Photosynthesis

• Two ways energy is extracted from biomass

Review Key Terms

• What fuel is produced at landfills?

• Acid Precipitation

• Ecosystem

• Sustainable Ecosystem

Category of Organisms

• Primary Producers

Category of Organisms

• Primary Producers- an organism that makes its own food

Category of Organisms

• Primary Producers- an organism that makes its own food

• Primary Consumer - an organism that feeds on plants (i.e., herbivores like rabbits)

Category of Organisms

• Secondary Consumers

Category of Organisms

• Secondary Consumers- an animal feeding on smaller plant-eating animals (i.e., fox)

Category of Organisms

• Secondary Consumers- an animal feeding on smaller plant-eating animals (i.e., fox)

• Tertiary consumers

Category of Organisms

• Secondary Consumers- an animal feeding on smaller plant-eating animals (i.e., fox)

• Tertiary consumers- a carnivore at the topmost level of the food chain; eats only secondary consumers (i.e., lion, bear)

• Decomposers -

• Decomposers - break down dead or decaying organisms(i.e., worms)

Factors Affecting Growth

• Limiting Factors and Exponential Growth

Factors Affecting Growth

• Limiting Factors and Exponential GrowthExponential growth cannot be sustained in

nature. It cannot continue forever because no ecosystem has an unlimited supply of the things that organisms need.

Factors Affecting Growth

• Limiting Factors and Exponential GrowthExponential growth cannot be sustained in nature.

It cannot continue forever because no ecosystem has an unlimited supply of the things that organisms need.

• Limiting Factor – A factor that limits the growth, distribution, or amount of a population in an ecosystem.Ex: Humans – resources for homes and food

Factors Affecting Growth

• Carrying CapacityThis is the size of a population that can be

supported indefinitely by the available resources and services of an ecosystem.

• Exponential Growth – Accelerating growth that produces a J-shaped curve when the population is graphed against time.

• See link on Wiki under today’s date

CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder)

• Textbook reading (STSE Case Study)

Ecosystem Services• Ecosystem Services – The benefits experienced by organisms,

including humans, which are provided by sustainable ecosystems. Services provided by forests1) Billions of dollars worth of economic activities.2) Influencing climate.

– Add water vapour to the atmosphere– Desertification – can happen if trees are removed from an ecosystem.

3) Reducing erosion.– Prevents excess run-off by absorbing rainwater and meltwater.– Mention difference in nitrate concentration between forested and

deforested run-off.

4) Provides a habitat for thousands of species.

Services by Insects to our Ecosystem – that we benefit from

• The role of insects in the ecosystem that benefit humans:

• 1. Many plants rely on animals to move pollen from one flower to another. The most common pollinators are insects such as bees and beetles.

• 2. Cross-pollination by insects deserves the credit for up to 1/3 of all our food.

• 3. Decomposition – insects are one of the three main groups of organisms that serve as decomposers in ecosystems.