Ecology

Ecology• Study of the Interactions between Organisms and the

Nonliving Components of their Environment • Each organism Depends in some way on other living

and nonliving things in its Environment

Levels of Organization• Organism- a single life form

Population• Population- all the organisms of the same species

living in one place at one time

Community• Community- all of the populations in one area at one

time

Habitat• Habitat- the physical location of the community

Ecosystem• Ecosystem- All organisms and the non-living

environment in an area• Can be as small as your back yard or as large as the

world.

Diversity• Diversity- measure of the number of different species

there are and how common each species is.• Ecosystems flourish more with more diversity

Niche• Niche- an organism’s role in the community (like a job)• It includes the way an organism interacts with its

environment. (ex. How it gets food, how it finds shelter, when it reproduces, how many offspring it has, etc)

Generalist• Generalists- species with broad niches, they can

tolerate many conditions and use many resources (ex cats, deer, roaches)

Specialists• Specialists- Species that have narrow Niches, they

can only tolerate certain conditions. (ex. Koala and Panda)

Abiotic Factors• Abiotic factors- non-living factors in the ecosystem that

affects that ecosystem• Ex. Sunlight, Climate, Water supply, Chemicals, etc

Biotic Factors• Biotic factors- living components of an ecosystem• Interactions between organisms that can affect the

ecosystem

Competition• competition- two species or organisms struggling for

the same resource (- and -) • ex. lions and hyenas.

Mutualism• Symbiosis- organisms living in a close

relationship• mutualism- two species cooperating (+ and +) • ex. bees and flowers, hippos and fish

Commensalism• commensalism- one species benefits from another,

the other species is not affected (+ and no affect) • ex. Sea anemones and clown fish

Predation• predation- one species hunting and eating

another (+ and -)

• leopards and gazelles

Parasitism• parasitism- one species benefits from another, the

other species is harmed (+ and -) • dogs and ticks, humans and tape worms