Ecology

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Ecology

• Notes green

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Studying the web of life

• All living things are connected.
• Ecology is the study of interactions between
  organisms and their environments.

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What is an environment?

• The environment is anything that affects that
  organism. This includes two main groups.
  Abiotic and biotic factors.
• Abiotic factors are parts of the environment that
  are not alive. They are the physical factors
  such as water, soil, light, and temperature.
• Biotic factors are parts of the environment that
  are alive and interact with each other. This
  includes animals, plants, and other organisms

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Abiotics/Biotics

• Biotics- Alive

• Abiotics- Not alive

In science, the addition of an A to the
beginning of a word usually means not or
opposite of
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5 levels of the Environment

• When talking about Ecology, it is important to
  arrange the scope of discussion.
• In order to organize our discussion, we classify
  the environment from the most specific to most
  broad.

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Specific The Organism

• When talking about the organism, we are talking
  about a SINGLE animal, plant, or other organism.
  It is a biotic factor of the environment.

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Population

• Above the organism is the population. A
  population is a group of similar organisms in the
  same area.

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Community

• When groups of populations are discussed, we
  refer to this as a community.

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Ecosystem

• The ecosystem is the community of biotic factors
  AND all the abiotic factors of the area.

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Biosphere

• The biosphere is the part of Earth where life
  exists. The biosphere is another way to refer to
  the Earth.

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Organism Draft

• In the next few weeks we will learn more about
  organisms. As a way to become familiar with a
  specific organism, you will be doing a research
  webquest on a specific organism. But there are
  rules!

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Organization

• How do we classify biotic factors?
• Physical characteristics
• Genetic similarities

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Naming

• After we have sorted living organisms into
  similar groups based on how they look or on their
  DNA, we use a scientific naming system.
• Taxonomy- the science of naming things in an
  structured way.

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Taxonomy

• For example, you can use taxonomy to show levels
  of specificity (how specific you are)
• My car from MOST specific to LEAST specific
• Beige 2002 Camry-gt2002 Camry-gtCamry-gtToyota
  Car-gtCar-gtVehicle
• Can you create a similar list? Try for a few min!

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Taxonomy for organisms

• In the same way, there is a naming system for
  living things.
• Know this chart order!
• I memorize it using this phrase
• Keep Pans Clean Or Family Gets Sick
• Feel free to take a moment to try and create your
  own phrase

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Scientific names

• When we want to identify an organism we often use
  its COMMON name, however, all organisms have a
  scientific name that is made of its GENUS and
  SPECIES
• For example Homo sapien
• In this instance, Homo is the genus, Sapien is
  the species.
• Another example Your name
• Your last name is like a genus, while your first
  name is like the species.

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Specifics

• Just so we have it right
• A few rules about naming
• The Genus name always goes before species name
• The Genus name is capitalized and species name is
  not.
• Both the Genus and species names are italicized.

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Webquest rules

• No two people in class can have the same
  organism.
• Organisms can be from any of the 5 kingdoms. (to
  be explained)
• Once you pick your organism, you cannot change.

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How the draft works

• Part of your homework is to start a draft list
  for animals.
• Think of at least 5-10 organisms that you are
  interested in.
• Write them in order from most favorite to least
  favorite.
• Next class we will draft organisms and you will
  cross off any choices that are picked by other
  people before your turn.