The Living Environment

1
The Living Environment

• Chapter 6Ecology

2
Organisms and Their Environment

• Key Terms
• Ecology-the study of how organisms interact with
  the living and nonliving things that surround
  them
• Environment- every living and nonliving thing
  that surrounds an organism
• Biotic- living things. Ex plants, animals
  bacteria

3
Organisms and Their Environment Continued

• Abiotic- nonliving things. Ex water,soil,
  energy.
• Habitat- the specific environment or home of a
  species
• Population- all the organisms of a species that
  live in the same area
• Community- all the different populations combined
• Biosphere- the biologically inhabited portions of
  the planet

4
Environmental Limits on Population Size

• Key Terms
• Competition- the struggle for resources among
  organisms
• Limiting factors- factors in the environment that
  limit the size of populations
• Predators-those that kill and eat other organisms
• Prey- those that are killed for food

5
Environmental Limits on Population Size

• Carrying capacity- the number of organisms of any
  single species that an ecosystem can support.
• Ecological niche- the role that each species
  plays in the ecosystem

6
Food Chains

• Key Terms
• Food Chains- illustrate the relationship between
  prey and predator
• Autotrophs- self-feeders or producers
• Heterotrophs- those that must acquire food by
  consuming other organisms
• Herbivores- heterotrophs that survive on plant
  tissue

7
Food Chains Continued

• Carnivores- heterotrophs that eat other animals
• Decomposers- consume the wastes and dead bodies
  of the organisms listed above
• Scavengers- consumers that eat dead organisms,
  such as vultures
• Parasites- organisms that attack other live
  organisms but rarely kill them
• Food webs- diagrams that show the more complex
  feeding relationships among producers, consumers,
  and decomposers