Ecology

Living Things and Their Environment

Introduction to Ecology

Ecology

• Environment

• Ecosystem

• All of the living and nonliving things in an area

• All the living and nonliving things in an area that interact with one another

Living Things Interact with One Another

• Community

• Population

• All of the living things that live in an area

• A group of organisms that are the same species living together in an area

Roles in an Ecosystem

• Habitat

• Niche

• The place where an organism lives

• The role the organism plays in the ecosystem

(its job)

Ecosystems

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Food and Energy in the Environment

• Producers (autotrophs)

• Consumers (heterotrophs)

• Decomposers

• Organisms that go through photosynthesis to make food

• Organism that feeds directly or indirectly on producers

• Organisms that break down dead organisms

Producers, Consumers, Decomposers

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Types of Consumers

• Herbivores

• Carnivores

• Omnivores

• Animal that eat only plants

• Animal that eats only meat (other animals)

• Animals that eat both plants and animals

Food Chains

• When energy is transferred from one organism to the another

• Sun Corn Deer Coyote

Food Webs• A diagram that consists of many food chains

• Snakes mountain lionhawk

• Miceowl rabbits deer

• Grass carrots trees• SUN

Food Chains & Food Webs

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Energy Pyramids

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Food Web

Energy Pyramid

Competition/Predation

• Competition

• Predation

• Organisms struggle with one another for food, mates, territory

• Organisms catch, kill, and eat other living things

• Predator- hunts• Prey - gets hunted

Succession

• The natural progression of an ecosystem from start to finish.

• Happens after a disaster wipes an area out.

• Examples: volcanoes, forest fires, flooding

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