Ecosystems, Food Chains

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Ecosystems, Food Chains Food Webs
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Ecosystems

• An ecosystem is all of the organisms living in an
  area, along with their physical environment

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Interdependance

• The components of an ecosystem depend on each
  other
• For food
• For shelter
• For water
• As a habitat
• For protection
• If part of the ecosystem disappears or is
  removed, it impacts all of the other parts

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Components - Biotic

• Anything that is or was living, or comes from
  something that was once living
• Dead or living organisms
• Parts of dead organisms (leaves)
• Waste products

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Components - Abiotic

• Non-living parts of an ecosystem
• Air
• Water
• Rocks
• Sand
• Light
• Sun
• Temperature

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Name the biotic and abiotic factors
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• BIOTIC

• ABIOTIC

• Bird
• Man
• Fish
• Trees
• Turtle
• Tree Stump
• Lily Pads

• House
• Fishing Pole
• Air
• Water
• Sun
• Temperature

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Assignment

• Complete Abiotic vs. Biotic Venn Diagram in your
  packet

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Levels of Organization

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Levels of Organization

• Organism One individual of a species (An ant)
• Population A group of the same species living
  in the same area (100 ants)
• Community Several populations living in the
  same area (100 ants, 50 spiders, grass)
• Ecosystem The community abiotic factors

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Assignment

• 1. Complete Levels of Organization Worksheet
  check answers with me
• 2. Choose an Ecosystem to draw. You must
  identify the ecosystem. It can be anything an
  open field, an empty lot, a lake, etc.
• You must include at least five each abiotic and
  five biotic factors
• You must color it it must be neat
• Please list the biotic abiotic factors on the
  back

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Food Energy

• Photosynthesis
• Trapping suns energy for food
• Plants make food, not energy
• Foundation of ecosystem
• Green plants algae
• All ecosystems depend ultimately on the sun

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Producers (Autotrophs)

• Makes its own food via suns energy
• Contains chlorophyll
• Creates sugar from H2O CO2
• Crucial to ecosystem, why?
• food for all other species

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Consumers (Heterotrophs)

• Cannot make own food
• Herbivores - plants
• Carnivores - meat
• Omnivores - both
• Decomposers dead organisms
• Decomposers incl.
• Bacteria, fungi
• Crucial recycle nutrients

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What Eats What?
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Consumers

• Primary Consumers eat producers
• Secondary consumers eat primary consumers
• Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers

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Energy Transfer

• Transfer of energy occurs when 1 organism eats
  another
• Food chains, food webs trophic levels depicts
• How it is transferred
• How much energy is transferred

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Energy Maps

• Food Chain
• Energy flow from plants/algae to various
  consumers
• Primary, secondary, tertiary
• Grass grasshopper frog heron
• Arrow direction shows flow of energy, who does
  eating

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Energy Maps

• Food Web
• Multiple food chains
• More food chains more stability
• Why?
• More food choices than simple chain

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A Food Web
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Energy Pyramids - Trophic Levels

• Upper trophic level organisms store less energy
  than herbivores producers
• The closer to the top, the smaller the level, the
  less energy is available

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Assignment

• Choose a partner
• Choose an ecosystem.
• Research the biotic and abiotic factors found
  there.
• Design a food web AND an energy pyramid.
• See directions for details

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5-2 Cycling of Materials
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Carbon Cycle (C Cycle)

• Movement of Carbon from non-living to living and
  back
• Essential ingredient in
• proteins, fats, and carbohydrates

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Carbon Cycle

• Found in
• air, water, and living organisms.
• Producers
• convert CO2 in atmosphere into carbs during
  photosynthesis.
• Consumers
• Obtain C form carbs in producers they eat

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Carbon Cycle

• Cellular respiration releases C into atmosphere
• Some C stored in limestone, aka Carbon Sink
• One of largest on Earth
• Organism dies, releases C into atmosphere

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Carbon Cycle

• Molecules may form deposits of coal, oil, or
  natural gas, known as fossil fuels.
• Fossil fuels store carbon left over from bodies
  of organisms that died millions of years ago.

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Human Effect on C Cycle

• Burning of fossil fuels
• Increased Carbon levels contribute to global
  warming
• Global warming is an increase in the temperature
  of the Earth

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Nitrogen Cycle (N Cycle)

• Nitrogen (N2) circulates among the air, soil,
  water, plants, and animals in an ecosystem
• N is essential ingredient in proteins
• 78 of gases in Earths atmosphere

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Nitrogen Cycle (N Cycle)

• To be used, must be altered or fixed
• Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are only species capable
• Live within roots of beans, peas, and clover
  (legumes)
• Converts N2 into NH4 (ammonia)

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Nitrogen Cycle (N Cycle)

• Bacteria use sugar from legumes to turn into
  Nitrates (Symbiotic relationship)
• Excess N2 gets released into soil

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Decomposers N Cycle

• Organisms die, Nitrogen stored in body gets
  released
• Decomposers break down decaying material
• Small amount of N2 gets turned into gas
  released into atmosphere

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Phosphorus Cycle (P Cycle)

• Plants Get Phosphorus from soil
• Animals Get Phosphorus from plants
• Rock erosion releases phosphorus into soil
• Washes off land into ocean
• Many dont dissolve in H2O
• End up at bottom as sediments

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The Phosphorus Cycle
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Fertilizers and the Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycles

• Fertilizers contain N P
• can enter terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
  through runoff
• Excess can cause rapid growth of algae

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Fertilizers and the Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycles

• Excess algae can deplete an aquatic ecosystem of
  important nutrients such as oxygen, on which fish
  and other aquatic organisms depend

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Acid Precipitation

• When fuel is burned, large amounts of nitric
  oxide is released into atmosphere.
• Nitric oxide can combine with O2 and H2O vapor to
  form nitric acid.
• Dissolved in rain or snow, nitric acid falls as
  acid precipitation.

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Ecological Succession

• Gradual process of change and replacement of the
  types of species in a community
• New community makes it harder for previous one to
  survive

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Primary succession

• occurs on surface where no ecosystem existed
  before
• Previous conditions made it difficult
• Examples
• rocks, cliffs, or sand dunes

Pickens County, SC
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Secondary succession

• Area where an ecosystem previous existed has
  been destroyed
• Caused by humans or Natural processes
• Examples
• storms, floods, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions

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Ecological Succession

• pioneer species - colonizes an uninhabited area,
  starts an ecological cycle in which many other
  species become established
• Makes area habitable for other species
• climax community - final, stable community in
  equilibrium with environment
• If left undisturbed, will remain relatively
  unchanged

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Ecological Succession

• Fires caused by lightning necessary 2
  succession
• Removes out of control brush
• Animals rely on new vegetation that sprouts after
  land is cleared

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Ecological Succession

• Old Field abandoned farmland
• Weeds grass grow quickly on once cultivated
  field
• Taller plants trees then take over

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Ecological Succession
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Ecological Succession 1

• -New islands created by volcanic eruptions
• -Areas exposed when a glacier retreats
• -Any other surface that has not previously
  supported life
• -Much slower than 2, why?

Mauna Loa, island of Hawaii 
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Ecological Succession

• First pioneer species to colonize bare rock will
  probably be bacteria and lichens, which can live
  without soil.
• The growth of lichens breaks down rock, and with
  water, begins to form soil.