Ecology
• Ecology – is the scientific study of the interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environments.
Habitats
• The place where an organism lives and that provides the things the organism needs is called its habitat!– Food, water, and shelter.
• Biotic Factors – The living parts of an ecosystem. – Animals, plants, fungi, bacteria.
• Abiotic Factors – The nonliving parts of an ecosystem.– Water, Sunlight, Oxygen, Temperature, and soil.
Populations
• A population is a group of individual organisms of the same species living in a particular area. – Herd of Wildebeest
Exponential Growth
• Occurs when the population multiplies by a constant factor at constant time intervals.
Limiting Factors
• A factor that restricts the growth of a population. – Space– Food availability– Disease
Ecosystem and Biosphere
• An ecosystem includes the abiotic and biotic factors in an area.
• The biosphere is the sum of all Earth’s ecosystems.
How do organisms get energy?
• Every organism requires energy to carry out life processes such as growing, moving, and reproducing. – Producers (autotroph) – synthesize their own food
through the process of photosynthesis. – Consumers (heterotrophs) – obtain their energy
by eating other organisms. – Decomposers -
Types of Consumers
• Herbivore – eats plants.• Omnivore – eats plants
and animals.• Carnivore – eats
animals.
Food Chains
• The pathway of energy transfer form one organism to another is called a food chain.
• What would happen if one organism is overhunted and removed from the food chain?
• What is the source of all energy?
Food Web
• A pattern of feeding represented by interconnected and branching food chains is called a food web.
Energy Pyramid
• Emphasizes the energy loss from one organism to the next in a food chain. Only 10 % is passed on to the next level, the rest is lost to the ecosystem in the form of heat.
Types of Relationships among species!
• Predation – an interaction in which one organism eats another. There are two individuals that participate.
• Predator and Prey• Fox is a predator and
the rabbit is the prey.
Symbiotic Relationships
• A symbiotic relationship is a close interaction between species in which one of the species lives in or on the other. – Parasitism – one benefits and the other is harmed.– Mutualism – both species benefit– Commensalism – one benefits and the other is
neither helped or harmed
Ecological Succession
• The process of community change is called ecological succession.
• What would happen if you left the field behind Heritage uncut for a couple of years?
Primary Succession
• When a community arises in a lifeless area that has no soil.
• Pioneer species are the first to colonize barren rock.
• Climax community takes hold several hundred or thousand years later. The forest has grown to its full capacity.
Secondary Succession
• When a disturbance damages an existing community but leaves the soil intact, the change that follows is called secondary succession. – Fires– Land cleared for
farming, then abandoned.
The Carbon and Oxygen Cycle• Carbon starts its cycle in the
atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide.
• Plants take in the carbon dioxide and make organic compounds known as glucose.
• That glucose gets passed on to consumers through the food chain.
• They then release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere through the process of cellular respiration.
Population Growth
• As the human population continues to grow, the environment will be negatively impacted by the following.– Habitat destruction– Deforestation– Air Pollution – Acid Rain– Water pollution– Global Warming– Introduced Species– Reduced Biodiversity– Overexploitation
Deforestation
• The clearing of forest for agriculture, lumber, and other uses also affects the carbon cycle by eliminating plants that absorb CO2 for photosynthesis.
Global Warming
• The overall rise in Earth’s average temperature. – Caused by increasing
carbon levels in the atmosphere.
• What causes increased carbon levels in the atmosphere?– Deforestation– Burning of Fossil Fuels
• Effects of Global warming– Rising sea levels– Large effects on weather– Loss of Species
Acid Rain• Precipitation that carries
acid to the Earth’s surface. – Smokestacks and automobile
exhaust pipes release nitrogen and sulfur compounds into the atmosphere. They then combine with water and form acid rain.
– Can lower pH of soil and aquatic ecosystems causing species to become extinct.
• Acid Rain
Water and Air Pollution
• Burning Fossil Fuels – Releases chemicals into the atmosphere.
• Fertilizers – end up in water supplies.
Introduced Species
• Starlings and house sparrows are introduced species from Europe. They competed with the bluebird population drastically reducing its population.
Snakeheads
• Snakeheads are very aggressive and are outcompeting all native fish populations. Examples include Bass, Pickerel,