Ecology

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Ecology

• It is the scientific study in which the
  relationships among living organisms and the
  interaction the organisms have with the
  environment are studied

Part 1 Organisms and Their Relationships Part
2 Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem Part 3
Cycling of Matter
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Biotic and Abiotic Factors
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• How would something be classified as Biotic?
• They must be composed of cells.
• Complex organization patterns are found in all
  living organisms (i.e., cell ? tissue ? organ)
• Living organisms use energy.
• Living organisms must maintain a state of
  homeostasis.
• All organisms develop and change over time.
• All organisms have the potential to reproduce,
  either sexually or asexually.

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Biotic and Abiotic Factors
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Biotic
• The living factors in an organisms environment

• Abiotic
• The nonliving factors in an organisms environment

Bio
Abio
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Biotic or Abiotic?(Make a Venn Diagram with your
group)
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Whale
• Clock
• Water
• Fish
• Paper
• Glass
• Aluminum
• Wooden Ruler
• Sand
• Clouds
• Corpse
• Snail
• Steak

• Pork Chops
• Salad
• Bread
• Plant
• Hair
• Finger Nails
• Pipe
• Cotton Fabric
• Wool
• Gold
• Plastic
• Grapes
• Air

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Levels of Organization
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Just to review, lets start with the atom

Atom ?
Molecule ?
Organelle ?
Cell ?
Tissue ?
Organ ?
Organism ?
Population ?
Biological Community ?
Ecosystem ?
Biome ?
Biosphere
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Ecological Levels of Organization
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Organism An individual
• Population Individual organisms of a single
  species that share the same geographic location
  at the same time.
• Biological Community A group of interacting
  populations that occupy the same area at the same
  time.

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Levels of Organization
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Ecosystem A biological community and all of the
  abiotic factors that affect it.
• Biome A large group of ecosystems that share
  the same climate and have similar types of
  communities.
• Biosphere All biomes together the Earth

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Ecosystem Interactions
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Habitat An area where an organism lives
• Niche The role or position that an organism has
  in its environment

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Habitat vs. Niche
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• The ecological niche of an organism depends not
  only on where it lives but also on what it does.
  
• By analogy, it may be said that the habitat is
  the organism's address, and the niche is its
  profession, biologically speaking.
• Odum - Fundamentals of Ecology

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Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Habitat vs. Niche

A niche is determined by the tolerance
limitations of an organism, or a limiting factor.

Limiting factor Any biotic or abiotic factor
that restricts the existence of organisms in a
specific environment.
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Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships
Habitat vs. Niche
Examples of limiting factors-

• Amount of water

• Amount of food

• Temperature

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Left-side IntNB Reflection
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Differentiate between a local organisms habitat
  and niche found in your community.
• Refer to your notes and neighbors if you need
  help!

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Feeding Relationships
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• There are 3 main types of feeding relationships
• 1. Producer ? Consumer
• 2. Predator ? Prey
• 3. Parasite ? Host

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Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Autotroph An organism that collects energy from
  sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food.
  (Producer)
• Heterotroph An organism that gets its energy
  requirements by consuming other organisms.
  (Consumer)

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Different types of Heterotrophs
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Herbivore Eats only plants
• (Deer, rabbits, grasshoppers, etc.)
• Carnivore Prey on other heterotrophs
• (Wolves, lions, cats, etc.)
• Scavengers feed on carrion (dead animals)
• (Hyenas, vultures, some crabs, etc.)
• Omnivore Eat both plants and animals
• (Bears, humans, mockingbirds, etc.)
• Detritivores Eat fragments of dead matter
• (Earthworms, millipedes, etc.)
• Decomposers Chemically breaks down dead matter
• (Bacteria and fungi)

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Symbiotic relationships
Part 1 Organisms and their Relationships

• Mutualism When both organisms benefit
• Lichens
• Commensalism One organism benefits, while the
  other is neither helped nor harmed.
• Epiphytes (i.e., Bromeliads)
• Parasitism One organism benefits at the expense
  of the other.
• Parasitoid wasp eggs on a tomato hornworm

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Create and Fill in this table in the left side of
your IntNB
Part 1 Reflection Organisms and their
Relationships
1 species
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Community Interactions
Part 1 Review Organisms and their Relationships

• Competition More than one organism uses a
  resource at the same time.
• Predation The act of one organism consuming
  another organism for food.
• Symbiosis The close relationship that exists
  when two or more species live together.

Niche competition
Carnivore
Mutualism
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Models of Energy Flow
Part 2 Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

• Trophic Levels Each step in a food chain or
  food web.
• Autotrophs always make up the first trophic level
  in ecosystems.
• Heterotrophs make up the remaining levels

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Models of Energy Flow
Part 2 Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

• Food chains A simple model that shows how
  energy flows through an ecosystem

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Models of Energy Flow
Part 2 Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

• Food webs
• A model representing the many interconnected food
  chains and pathways in which energy flows.

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How many connections can we make?
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Models of Energy Flow
Part 2 Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

• Ecological pyramids A diagram that can show the
  relative amounts of energy, biomass, or numbers
  of organisms at each trophic level in an
  ecosystem.
• Biomass The total mass of living matter at each
  trophic level

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Activity Deadly Links(On the left-hand side of
your IntNB, write the following)
Part 2 Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

• Objective To understand how food (energy) moves
  through an ecosystem
• My role is ____________________.
• I am a/an herbivore, omnivore or carnivore
  (Circle one)

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What does your graph tell you?
Part 2 Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem
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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Cycles in the Biosphere
• Natural processes cycle matter through the
  atmosphere
• The exchange of matter through the biosphere is
  called the biogeochemical cycle.
• Bio Involves living things
• Geo Geological Processes
• Chemical Chemical Processes

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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• The Water Cycle

Solar Energy
Movement of clouds by wind
Precipitation
Evaporation
Precipitation
Transpiration from plants
Percolation in soil
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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• The Water Cycle
• Most precipitation falls into the ocean
• Over land
• approximately 90 of the water evaporates
• 10 transpires from plants
• Only about 2 of water is retained in a reservoir
  
• i.e., a glacier, ice cap, aquifer or lake

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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Carbon and Oxygen Cycles

CO2 in atmosphere
Burning
Cellular Respiration
Photosynthesis
Plants, Algae Cyanobacteria
Higher level Consumers
Wood Fossil Fuels
Primary Consumer
Detritivores(soil microbes others)
Detritus
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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
• Short term cycle
• Autotrophs use CO2 for ____________.
• Heterotrophs produce CO2 during ________
  __________.

Photosynthesis
Cellular
Respiration
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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
• Long term cycle Fossil Fuels
• Organic matter is buried underground and
  converted to peat, coal, oil or gas deposits.
• 5.5 billion tons are burned each year and 3.3
  billion tons stay in the atmos-phere, the rest
  dissolves in sea water

http//www.ucar.edu/ (The National Center for
Atmospheric Research)
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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
• Long term cycle Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)
• Marine animals are able to use Carbon to build
  their skeletal material
• These organisms fall to thebottom of the ocean
  floor,creating limestone rock.

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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
• Oxygen is found in the atmosphere at a stable
  concentration of approximately 21.
• Because it is a very reactive element, it can
  quickly combine with other elements and disappear
  from the atmosphere.
• Some of the atmospheric oxygen (O2) finds itself
  lofted high into the upper reaches of the
  atmosphere called the stratosphere, where it is
  converted into Ozone (O3)
• Ozone serves to absorb biologically damaging
  ultra-violet (UV) radiation from the sun.

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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
• Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas and
  traps heat in the atmosphere.
• Humans have burned so much fuel that there is
  about 30 more Carbon Dioxide in the air today
  than there was about 150 years ago.
• The atmosphere has not held this much Carbon for
  at least 420,000 years according to data from ice
  cores.

http//www.ucar.edu/ (The National Center for
Atmospheric Research)
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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Nitrogen Cycle

Nitrogen in atmosphere
Plants
Assimilation
Denitrifying bacteria
Nitrates (NO3-)
Nitrogen fixingbacteria in rootnodules
oflegumes
Decomposers (aerobic anaerobic bacteria and
fungi)
Nitrifying bacteria
Ammonification
Ammonium (NH4)
Nitrites (NO2-)
Nitrogen fixing bacteria in soil
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Cycling of Matter
Part 3 Cycling of Matter

• Nitrogen Cycle
• Nitrogen comprises the bulk of the atmosphere
  (approximately 78).
• Most of it is unusable.
• A molecule of nitrogen gas is made up of 2 atoms
  very tightly bound together.
• It takes tremendous amounts of energy, such as
  produced by lightning or fires, to break the
  bond.
• Bacteria can release nitrogen from organic
  material
• These bacteria also release nitrogen from organic
  material back into the atmosphere.
• Nitrogen is the one element found almost entirely
  in the atmospherethere's very little on land or
  in the sea.
• Nitrogen is essential to life, a key element in
  proteins and DNA.