The Biosphere

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The Biosphere
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Vocabulary
Niche Food Chain Food Web Trophic
Level Ecological Pyramid Biogeochemical
Cycles Evaporation Transpiration Nitrogen
Fixation Denitrification Water Cycle Nitrogen
Cycle Carbon Cycle

• Ecology
• Biosphere
• Species
• Population
• Community
• Ecosystem
• Biome
• Producer
• Consumer
• Autotroph
• Heterotroph
• Decomposer
• Habitat

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Learning Target

• I can define and provide examples of biosphere,
  biome, ecosystem, population, species, habitat
  and niche.
• I can discuss biotic and abiotic factors that
  affect land and aquatic biomes.

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What is Ecology?

• It is the study of the interactions between
  organisms and their environment
• The interaction between the biotic and abiotic
  factors

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Abiotic Factors

• The environments nonliving componentsphysical
  and chemical components that shape the environment

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Abiotic Factors

• Energy source
• Temperature
• Water
• Nutrient Availability

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Energy Source

• Without a constant source of energy, living
  things die!!
• What is the primary source of energy for living
  things on Earth?

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You Are Correct! Its the SUN
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Temperature

• Directly affects metabolism
• All living organisms have a range of temperature
  in which they best operate
• At or below 0oC and above 45oC will destroy the
  enzymes of most organisms.

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Water

• Is essential for all life.
• Critical for most metabolic chemical reactions
• Helps maintain body temperature
• Helps prevent dehydration

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Nutrient Availability

• Nutrients are all the chemical substances an
  organism needs to sustain its life.

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Biotic Factors

• All of the living organisms in an area

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Ecology Levels Of Organization
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What is the Biosphere?

• It is the areas on Earth where life is found
• It includes any place on land, in the water or in
  the atmosphere where organisms live

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Where are living organisms found in the biosphere?

• Living organisms are found from about 8 km above
  the Earth to about 11 km deep in the ocean

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Ecosystem

• All the abiotic factors and biotic factors found
  in a certain place at any time.

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Community

• All the organisms living in a specific area at a
  specific time

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Population

• A group of individuals of the same species living
  in the same area at the same time

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Species

• A group of organisms so similar that they can
  breed and produce fertile offspring

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Habitat

• The area where an organism lives.

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Niche

• The full range of physical and biological
  conditions in which an organism lives and the way
  in which the organism uses those conditions.

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Points to Ponder

• In your own words, can you define and provide
  examples of biosphere, biome, ecosystem,
  population, species, habitat and niche.
• In your own words, can you describe biotic and
  abiotic factors that affect land and aquatic
  biomes and give examples of each.

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Learning Target

• I can explain how energy flows through ecosystems
  in one direction, from photosynthetic organisms
  to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers.
• I can diagram the flow of energy using food webs,
  food chains and pyramids of energy, biomass and
  numbers.

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Energy Flow

• The sun is the main source of energy for life on
  earth.
• lt 1 of all sunlight that reaches earth is used
  by living organisms.
• What happens to the rest?

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• Most is reflected off as heat energy.

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Producers or Autotrophs

• Use sunlight or chemicals to make their own
  food.
• Examples

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Photosynthesis

• 6CO2 6H2O C6H12O6 6O2
• Performed on land by plants and in water by algae.

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Can organisms make their own food without the aid
of sunlight?

• Chemosynthesis using chemical energy to make
  carbohydrates.
• Usually performed bacteria found in harsh
  environments
• Ocean vents, volcanoes, hot-acidic environments

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Consumers or heterotrophs Must get their energy
by eating other organisms

• Herbivores Omnivores
• Decomposers
• Carnivores Detritivores

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Food Chains
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Food Webs

• More complex than food chains
• A complex net of interactions among organisms.
  (interdependence)

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Trophic Levels

• Each location or step in a food chain or food web
  represents a trophic level.
• Examples producers, primary consumers, secondary
  consumers, etc.

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Ecological pyramids

• Only about ten percent of the energy available
  within a trophic level is transferred to
  organisms at the next higher level.

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Pyramid of Numbers
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Biomass Pyramids

• Biomass and numbers

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Points to Ponder

• With a partner, demonstrate that you can create a
  food chain and a food web.
• With a partner, demonstrate that you understand
  an ecological pyramid, a pyramid of numbers and a
  biomass pyramid

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Learning Targets

• I can explain how the amount of life any
  environment can support is limited by the
  available matter and energy and by the ability of
  ecosystems to recycle the residue of dead organic
  materials.
• I can differentiate between the biogeochemical
  cycles.

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Cycles of matter

• Unlike energy, matter is constantly being
  recycled in an ecosystem.
• Known as biogeochemical cycles

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Water Cycle

• Evaporationthe process by which water changes
  from liquid form to atmospheric gas.
• Transpirationwater evaporating from the leaves
  of plants and entering the atmosphere
• Condensationwater returning to a liquid state
  from a gaseous state
• Precipitationwater falling from the atmosphere
  in the form of rain, snow or some other form of
  liquid or solid.

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Transpiration

• The release of water from
• the leaves of plants.
• Water is exchanged through
• a plants stomata.
• Evaporation is the second
• process that releases water
• into the atmosphere.

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Carbon Cycle

1. Biological processes (photosynthesis,
   respiration, decomposition)
2. Geochemical processes (volcanoes)
3. Biogeochemical (fossil fuels)
4. Human activity (factories, deforestation, car
   exhaust)

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Nitrogen Cycle

• All organisms need nitrogen to live.
• Most abundant gas in atmosphere (80)
• Nitrogen gas is unusable for plants
• Must be fixed or changed into the nitrate or
  nitrite form by bacteria in the soil. Known as
  nitrogen fixation
• Other soil bacteria convert nitrates in to
  nitrogen gas in process called denitrification.

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Phosphorus Cycle

• Phosphorus is important in the production of DNA
  and RNA.
• Unlike water,oxygen, and nitrogen, phosphorus is
  NOT found in the atmosphere. Found in rocks and
  minerals.

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Nutrient Limitation

• Primary productivity is the rate at which organic
  matter is created by producers.
• Nutrient limitation occurs when a single nutrient
  is scarce for a particular ecosystem and limits
  the growth of organisms in that ecosystem.

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Points to Ponder

• How is the amount of life any environment can
  support limited by the available matter and
  energy and by the ability of ecosystems to
  recycle the residue of dead organic materials?
• How would you differentiate between the
  biogeochemical cycles?