Ecosystems What effects do biotic and abiotic factors have on an ecosystem?

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EcosystemsWhat effects do biotic and abiotic
factors have on an ecosystem?

• Diane Gioia
• Bells Crossing Elementary

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What makes up an ecosystem?

• Ecosystem all the living and nonliving parts of
  an environment
• Biotic factors the living parts of an ecosystem
• Abiotic the nonliving parts of an ecosystem
• BrainPOP movie

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• An ECOSYSTEM is an interacting system of plant,
  animals, and humans and the surrounding
  environment. An ecosystem contains living and
  non-living things that contribute to the
  functioning of other organisms. An ecosystem is
  NOT just a collection of organisms. It is a
  system of interactions and interrelationships.

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• An ecosystem can be as small as a puddle
  or a rotting log.
• An ecosystem can
• also be a whole forest or the planet.

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Can you name some abiotic and biotic factors?

• ABIOTIC
• Rocks
• Air
• Temperature
• Soil
• sunlight

• BIOTIC
• Trees
• Flowers
• Cats
• Dogs
• you

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Create a flip chart with 3 flips to display
each of the upcoming vocabulary words.

• 1. On the outside write each word and draw a
  picture of the word.
• 2. On the inside bottom flap write the
  definition.
• 3. On the top flap create a sentence with your
  new vocabulary word and draw a picture
  illustrating the word.

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Populations

• All members of one kind of organism
• that live in a
• particular area.

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Communities

• A group
• Of different
• Populations of organisms

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Habitat

• A place where an organism lives

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• Ecology Organisms in their Environment
• (15 min)

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What are the characteristics of different
ecosystems?

• There are many types of ecosystems, each with its
  own characteristics.
• Differences in abiotic factors in ecosystems lead
  to differences in the living things there.
  Factors such as sunlight and precipitation affect
  how organisms adapt to these ecosystems.

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Different Ecosystems

• Terrestrial ecosystems these are land based
  such as forests and grasslands
• Aquatic ecosystems these are water ecosystems
• Fresh water ponds and lakes
• Saltwater oceans, estuaries, and saltwater
  marshes

16 min.
2 min. aquatic
3 min marine
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Deciduous Forests

• Deciduous forest ecosystems have trees such as
  oaks, elms, and maples. These ecosystems are
  found in the eastern part of the United States,
  including South Carolina. These forests grow in
  moderately warm places where there is a lot of
  rain.
• The trees lose their leaves in the fall. Food
  and shelter are hard to find in the winter so,
  some animals hibernate.

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Coniferous Forests

• Coniferous forests are made up of mostly
  conifers, trees that have cones. These forests
  are found mostly in the northern part of the
  Northern Hemisphere.
• Trees include spruces, hemlocks, pines, and firs.
• Animals include moose, deer, caribou, wolves,
  bears, and elk.

The northernmost coniferous forests are called
taiga.
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Rainforests

• Rain forests get large amounts of rain. Tropical
  rain forests are warm all year. These conditions
  enable large populations of many kinds of
  organisms to live there. Hawaii is the only
  state with tropical rain forests.

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Grasslands

• Grasslands are ecosystems in which grasses are
  the main plant life. Grasslands have fertile
  soil and have few trees. These ecosystems do not
  receive much rain during the year, so trees do
  not grow well. These are found in the midwestern
  United States. Much of the grassland in the U.S.
  has been turned into farms causing some animals
  like bison to lose their habitat.

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Estuaries and Salt Marshes

• Estuaries are places where rivers flow into the
  ocean. Estuaries have water that is saltier than
  a river, but not as salty as the ocean.
• Salt marshes are grassy wetlands at the edges of
  estuaries. South Carolina has many estuaries and
  salt marshes and is home to many living things
  such as fish, blue crabs, shrimp, and oysters.

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Oceans

• The ocean has many kinds of ecosystems. The
  oceans are so large that the conditions in one
  part of the ocean are very different from the
  conditions in another part of the ocean.
• Some ocean ecosystems are close to land and
  receive more sunlight. In the deep sea, sunlight
  cannot reach the ocean floor and the ecosystems
  are quite different.

The deep-sea anglerfish has a body that glows in
the dark. It has a rod that glows and dangles in
front of its mouth which attracts prey.
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Lakes and Ponds

• Most lakes and ponds are freshwater ecosystems.
  The water in each of these ecosystems does not
  move much. Ponds are smaller than lakes. Ponds
  sometimes dry up during hot, dry summer weather.
  Because lakes are larger, they are usually
  permanent.

Lakes, ponds, pools 10 min.
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• World Biomes

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How do organisms interact and depend on one
another in an ecosystem?

• A food chain shows how organisms get their food.
  The first organism in a food chain is a producer
  consumers or decomposers follow
•    
• Producer consumer decomposer

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Most energy comes from the sun

• Plants, also called producers, convert energy
  from the sun into food through a process called
  photosynthesis.  
• Photosynthesis is a process which uses water,
  carbon dioxide, and sunlight energy to make
  sugars.  Plants do this in special cells called
  chloroplasts.  These are usually green because of
  a pigment called chlorophyll.  Most
  photosynthesis happens in a plant's leaves, which
  is why they are green.
• When an animal eats a plant, some of the energy
  gets passed from the plant to the animal.  A food
  web shows this passage of energy, by showing what
  animals can eat what, and who gets eaten by who

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Consumers

• Animals, fungi, and some kinds of microorganisms
  do not make their own food. Living things that
  cannot make their own food are consumers.
  Consumers get energy by eating other living
  things.
• Herbivores eat only plants
• Carnivores eat only meat
• Omnivores eat both plants and animals.

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Decomposers

• Decomposers are bacteria, microorganisms, fungi
  or other animals (termites and worms) that feed
  on decaying matter. These decomposers speed up
  the decaying process that releases nutrients back
  into the food chain for absorption by plants.
  They are Earths natural recyclers.
• What would happen if a forest had no decomposers?
  
• Plants would use up all the nutrients in the
  soil, and the ground would be covered in animal
  wastes and dead organisms.

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Predators and Prey

• Predators are animals that eat other animals.
  The animals they hunt and eat are called the
  prey.

Predators often have eyes that are in front of
the head. This placement helps the animals judge
how far away their prey is.
The eyes of prey are often on the side of its
head. This placement allows the prey to avoid
predators by seeing a wide area.
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Parasites and Hosts

• A parasite is an organism that feeds off another
  organism, called a host. Fleas, leeches, and
  ticks are parasites. Ticks bite their hosts.
  Then they take blood from their host for food.
  Unlike a predator, a parasite does not usually
  kill the animal it feeds on. If the host dies,
  the parasite loses its source of food.

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Food Chains and Food Webs

• A food chain shows a single path that energy and
  nutrients take through an ecosystem. Arrows in a
  food chain show how energy and nutrients move.
• sun plants hare owl bacteria
• A food web is a system of overlapping food
  chains. In a food web, energy and nutrients can
  flow through many branches and gives a better
  picture of the complex way that energy and
  nutrients move in an ecosystem.

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What affects populations?

• The number of living things that can live in any
  ecosystem is limited. A limiting factor is an
  environmental factor that determines how large a
  population can be.
• The most common limiting factors are
• Water
• Food
• Space
• shelter

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Some factors that influence populations

• Shelter Availability
• Climate change
• Human intrusion
• Natural events

• Amount of Space
• Overcrowding
• Change in

Population Size

• Water Availability
• Pollution
• Climate/Weather

• Competition for Food
• Predators
• Parasites
• Disease

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Population Increase

• If there are more plants than usual in an area,
  populations of animals that eat that plant may
  increase. If one animals population increases,
  the population of animals that eat that animal
  might also increase.
• Increases in population are not always good.
  Sometimes a population will grow too large for
  the environment to support.

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Population Decrease

• Other changes in limiting factors will cause a
  population to decrease. If the water supply in
  an area decreases, the population that needs
  water may decrease.
• Then the population of animals that eat that
  animal could decrease too.