The Living Environment

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The Living Environment

• The study of organisms and their interactions
  with the environment.

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Topics

• Unit 1 Ecology
• Unit 2 The Cell
• Unit 3 Genetics
• Unit 4 History of Biological Diversity
• Unit 5 The Human Body

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Unit 1 Ecology

• Principles of Ecology
• Communities, Biomes, and Ecosystems
• Population Ecology
• Biodiversity and Conservation

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Ecology

• The study of living organisms and their
  interaction with the environment.

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Biosphere

• The portion of Earth that supports life.

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Ecosystem

• a biological community and all of the abiotic
  factors that affect it.

Biotic Factors (Living) Abiotic Factors (Non-living)
Animals Plants Decomposers Single-celled organisms Sunlight Water Soil Air
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How can we tell if something is living, dead, or
non-living?

• Living things are currently alive. For example,
  a frog, dog, or tree.
• Dead things were once living but are not living
  anymore. For example, a dead frog, dead dog, or
  dead tree.
• Non-living things were NEVER living. For
  example, water, soil, sunlight, or air.

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Life Functions

• Respirate use oxygen to make energy
• Reproduction maintain the species
• To obtain and use energy
• Grow and develop

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Population

• A group of the same species living together in
  the same geographic area.

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Community

• A group of interacting populations that occupy
  the same geographic area.

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Biome

• A large group of ecosystems that share the same
  climate and have similar types of communities.

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BIOMES

• Tundra
• Forest
• Grasslands
• Mountains
• Polar Region
• Rainforest
• Desert

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How do we organize levels of ecology?

• Individual organism Population Community
• Ecosystem Biome
  Biosphere

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Ecosystem Interactions

• Habitat An area where an organism lives.
• Niche The role or position an organism has in
  its environment.
• How an organism meets its needs for food,
  shelter, and reproduction.

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Community Interactions

• Competition
• When more than one organism uses a resource at
  the same time.
• Examples of resources
• Food
• Water
• Space
• Light
• Mate

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Competition
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Community Interactions

• Predation
• The act of one organism hunting and killing
  another organism for food.
• The organism pursuing another organism is the
  predator.
• The organism being pursued is the prey.

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Predation
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Symbiotic Relationships

• Symbiosis Relationship between two or more
  different species.
• Types of Relationships
• Mutualism
• Commensalism
• Parasitism

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Mutualism /

• Relationship between two different species that
  benefit from each other.

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Commensalism /0

• Relationship in which one organism benefits and
  the other is neither helped nor harmed.

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Parasitism /-

• Relationship in which one organism benefits at
  the expense of the other organism.

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Energy In An Ecosystem
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How do organisms in a ecosystem get their energy?

• Autotrophs
• Collect energy from sunlight and turn it into
  food.
• Autotrophs are known as producers because they
  can produce their own food.
• Heterotrophs
• Collect energy by consuming other organisms.
• Heterotrophs are known as consumers because they
  must consume other organisms to obtain energy.
  They can NOT make their own food.

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Autotrophs are producers.

• Examples are
• Bacteria
• Grass
• Trees
• Algae
• All other photosynthetic organisms

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Heterotrophs are consumers.

• There are four types of Heterotrophs
• Herbivores consume only producers
• Carnivores consume only consumers
• Omnivores consume both producers
• and consumers
• Detritivores consume dead matter and
• waste materials

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Herbivores

• Consume only producers.
• They are plant eaters.
• Examples are
• Horses
• Cows
• Rabbits
• Giraffes

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Carnivores

• Consume only other consumers.
• They do not eat any plant material.
• Examples are
• Snakes
• Lions
• Owls
• Fox

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Omnivores

• Consume both producers and other consumers.
• They will eat plant material and meat.
• Examples are
• Bears
• Turtles
• Humans
• Lizards

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Detritivores

• Consume fragments of dead matter and waste
  materials.
• Help return nutrients to the soil, air, and water
  to be reused by organisms.

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Models of Energy Flow

• Trophic Levels Different levels of nourishment
  in a food chain or food web.
• Food Chain a simple model that shows how energy
  flows through an ecosystem.
• Always start with a producer.
• Arrows represent the direction of energy flow.

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Food Chain

• Although it is never drawn into a food chain or
  food web, what is the original source of energy?
• THE SUN

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Food Web

• A food web is a model representing the many ways
  in which energy flows through a group of
  organisms.
• What do the arrows represent?

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Energy Pyramid

• In an energy pyramid, each level represents the
  amount of energy that is available to that
  trophic level.
• With each step up, there is an energy loss of
  about 90.

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Numbers Pyramid

• In a pyramid of numbers, each level represents
  the number of individual organisms consumed by
  the level above it.

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Stability in Ecosystem

• The presence of necessary abiotic factors
  including sunlight, water, space, air, etc.
• The presence of all trophic levels including,
  producers, primary consumers, secondary
  consumers, and detritivores.
• Must have more producers than any other group.
• Must have enough decomposers to recycle
  nutrients.

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Cycles in the Biosphere

• The Water Cycle
• The Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
• The Nitrogen Cycle
• The Phosphorus Cycle

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The Water Cycle

• All living organisms need fresh water, but only
  about 3 of the water on Earth is fresh. 69 of
  that fresh water is unavailable because it is
  locked up in glaciers and the polar ice caps.
• Water evaporates into the atmosphere from the
  ocean as well as from the surface of plant leaves
  through a process called transpiration.
• This evaporated water becomes fresh water through
  the evaporation process and eventually
  precipitates back to Earth.
• Some of this precipitated water runs off to the
  ocean, while some is captured by lakes and
  rivers, and some is percolated in the soil to
  become groundwater.

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The Water Cycle
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The Carbon and Oxygen Cycle

• Carbon and oxygen are necessary elements that
  help support life. Carbon is used in every
  organic molecule including those that make up
  cells. Oxygen is a necessary element used by
  cells to produce energy.
• During photosynthesis, green plants and algae
  convert carbon-dioxide and water into energy and
  return oxygen back into the atmosphere.
• This oxygen is used by autotrophs and
  heterotrophs who then release carbon-dioxide into
  the atmosphere during cellular respiration.

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The Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
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The Nitrogen Cycle

• Nitrogen is a key element in the development of
  proteins which are imperative to life.
• The most abundant gas in the atmosphere is
  nitrogen.
• Plants and animals cannot use nitrogen directly
  from the air. Bacteria that live in water, soil,
  and on plant root tips convert atmospheric
  nitrogen into another form of nitrogen that can
  be used by plants and animals. This is known as
  nitrogen fixation.
• Nitrogen is returned to the soil whenever an
  animal urinates or when plants and animals die.
  Decomposers return the leftover nitrogen in the
  dead organic material into ammonia which is then
  turned back into usable nitrogen by other
  organisms in the soil.
• Some soil bacteria convert fixed nitrogen into
  nitrogen gas through a process called
  denitrification which returns to the atmosphere.

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The Nitrogen Cycle
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The Phosphorus Cycle

• Phosphorus is an element that is essential for
  the growth and development of organisms.
• In the short term cycle, phosphorus is
  transferred from producers to consumers and then
  eventually returned to the soil by decomposers.
• In the long term cycle, weathering and erosion of
  rocks that contain phosphorus slowly adds
  phosphorus to the cycle.

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The Phosphorus Cycle
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How are population sizes limited by their
environment?

• Limiting Factors
• Sunlight
• Climate
• Temperature
• Water
• Nutrients (Food)
• Fire
• Soil
• Space
• Other living organisms Competition/Predation

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Range of Tolerance

• Tolerance is the ability to survive any
  particular limiting factor.
• The diagram to the right shows a plants
  tolerance to a range of temperatures.
• At optimal temperature, the plant will grow the
  tallest. Once outside the range of tolerance, the
  plant will not survive.

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Carrying Capacity

• The carrying capacity of an environment is the
  largest number of an individual species that can
  be supported.
• What factors affect the carrying capacity of a
  particular environment?

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Ecological Succession

• Primary Succession the establishment of a
  community in an area of exposed rock.
• The first organisms to appear on the rock are
  lichens and mosses. These are known as pioneer
  organisms.
• They are followed by small plants and eventually
  trees.

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Ecological Succession

• Climax Community stable, mature community that
  results when there is little or no change

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Ecological Succession

• Secondary Succession the change that takes place
  after a community of organisms has been removed
  but the soil has remained intact.

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What are the causes of ecological succession?

• Forest fire
• Volcanic eruption
• Tsunamis
• Hurricanes
• Tornadoes
• Flooding
• Landslides/Mudslides
• Earthquakes
• Glaciers receding

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Terrestrial Biomes

• Weather vs. Climate
• Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a
  specific place and time.
• Climate consists of the average weather
  conditions in an area including temperature
  ranges and the amount and type of precipitation.

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Major Land Biomes

• Tundra treeless with a permanently frozen soil
  layer called the permafrost.

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Boreal Forest aka coniferous forest or taiga.

• Summers are longer than in the tundra so there is
  no permafrost layer but with long, cold winters
  this is still a very cold biome.

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Temperate Forest aka Deciduous Forest

• Known for its beautiful fall colors due to the
  lack of evergreens and more oak, beech, and maple
  trees.
• Also known for having all four seasons.

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Temperate woodland and shrubland

• This biome is aka chaparral. They typically
  contain evergreen shrubs and receive less
  rainfall than temperate forest.

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Temperate grassland aka praire

• Characterized by fertile soil, grasses, and
  grazing animals.

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Desert exist on every continent except Europe

• Any area where the rate of evaporation exceeds
  the rate of precipitation.
• Surprisingly contain a wide variety of flora and
  fauna.

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Tropical savanna

• Characterized by grasses and scattered trees.

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Tropical Seasonal Forest aka tropical

dry forests
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Tropical Rain Forest

• Characterized by warm temperatures and large
  amounts of rainfall.
• Contain the most diverse grouping of organisms
  compared to all other land biomes.

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Biomes of the World
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Aquatic Ecosystems
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Freshwater Ecosystems

• Freshwater ecosystems include rivers, streams,
  lakes, and ponds.
• Only about 2.5 of the water on Earth is
  freshwater and only about 0.3 of the water on
  Earth is found in these ecosystems.

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Where is the other 2.2 of the freshwater?

• 1.52 is frozen in glaciers
• 0.68 is groundwater

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Rivers and Streams

• Water in these ecosystems is constantly in motion
  in one direction.
• Areas of slow moving water can sustain benthic
  plant life as well as insect larvae and fish.
  Crabs, worms, newts, tadpoles, and frogs may also
  be found.

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Lakes and Ponds

• There are 3 major zones in freshwater lakes and
  ponds littoral zone, limnetic zone, and
  profundal zone.
• The littoral zone is the shallow area close to
  the shore.
• The limnetic zone is the open water photic zone.
• The profundal zone is the deeper aphotic zone.

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Transitional Aquatic Ecosystems

• Transitional aquatic ecosystems are areas where
  freshwater mixes with saltwater.
• These ecosystems include wetlands and estuaries.

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Marine Ecosystems

• Include the intertidal zone, open ocean zone, and
  coastal ocean and coral reef zones.
• These are saltwater ecosystems.

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Intertidal Zone

• The intertidal zone is the area along the
  shoreline where the ocean meets land.
• This area is divided into smaller zones dependant
  on how long the area is underwater.
• These zones include the low tide zone, middle
  tide zone, high tide zone, and spray zone.

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Open Ocean Ecosystem

• The open ocean is divided into 4 major zones
• The photic zone is the upper portion that
  receives plenty of sunlight to sustain
  photosynthetic organisms
• The aphotic zone that is deeper and does not
  receive any sunlight.
• The benthic zone which is the area along the sea
  floor.
• The abyssal zone which is the deepest region of
  the ocean.

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Coral Reef Zone

• The coral reef zone is the equivalent of an
  underwater rainforest in biodiversity.
• They are very delicate and are largely studied
  and protected by governments all over the world.

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Aquatic Biomes