EcologyThe scientific study of the relationships

among living organisms and the interaction they have with the

environment

Part 1: Organisms and Their RelationshipsPart 2: Flow of Energy in an EcosystemPart 3: Cycling of Matter

Day 1

Organisms and Their

Relationships

First, let’s review: What is a “Living Thing”?

1. Composed of cells.2. Complex organization patterns 3. Use energy.4. Have stable internal conditions.5. Grow and change.6. Reproduce

Biotic and Abiotic Factors

Biotic• The living factors in

an organism’s environment

Abiotic• The nonliving factors

in an organism’s environment

Biotic or Abiotic?(Make a Venn Diagram with your group)

• Whale • Clock • Water • Fish • Paper • Glass • Aluminum • Wooden Ruler • Sand• Clouds • Corpse • Snail • Steak

• Pork Chops • Salad • Bread • Plant • Hair• Finger Nails • Pipe • Cotton Fabric • Wool • Gold • Plastic • Grapes • Air

Levels of Organization

We have covered very small living things.

Just to review, let’s start with the cell…

Cell Tissues Organs

Organisms Population Biological Community Ecosystem Biome Biosphere

Levels of Organization

• Organism: An individual

• Population: Organisms of a single species that share the same geographic location

• Community: A group of interacting populations (different species) that occupy the same area at the same time.

Levels of Organization

• Ecosystem: A community and all of the abiotic factors that affect it.

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

• Biosphere: All biomes together; the Earth

Community Interactions

• Competition: More than one organism uses a resource at the same time.

• Predation: The act of one organism consuming another organism for food.

• Symbiosis: The close relationship that exists when two or more species live together.

Symbiotic relationships

• Mutualism: When both organisms benefit (ex. Lichen = photosynthetic algae and fungus) Algae provides food (sugar) for the fungusFungus provides algae with water

• Commensalism: One organism benefits, while the other is neither helped nor harmed.

• Parasitism: One organism benefits at the expense of the other.

Ecosystem Interactions

• Habitat: An area where an organism lives

• Niche: The role or position that an organism has in its environment

Day 2

Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

• Autotroph: An organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food. (Producer)

• Heterotroph: An organism that gets its energy requirements by consuming other organisms. (Consumer)

Different types of Heterotrophs

• Herbivore: Eats only plants– (Deer, rabbits, grasshoppers, etc.)

• Carnivore: Prey on other heterotrophs– (Wolves, lions, cats, etc.)

• Omnivore: Eat both plants and animals– (Bears, humans, mockingbirds, etc.)

• Detritivore: Eat fragments of dead matter– (Worms, organisms

on stream bottoms, fungi)

Models of Energy Flow

• Trophic Levels: Each step in a food chain or food web.– Autotrophs always make up the first trophic

level in ecosystems.– Heterotrophs make up the remaining levels

Models of Energy Flow

• Food chains: A simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem

Models of Energy Flow

• Food webs:

Show flow of energy through many

interconnected food chains

How many connections can we make?

Activity: Deadly Links(In your IntNB, record the following)• Objective: To understand how food

(energy) moves through an ecosystem and to understand the phenomonon called “biological magnification.”

• My assigned role in this food chain is ____________.

Now that you have completed the activity…

Explain in your interactive notebook:

1) What happened to the animals at each level of the food web

2) Summarize your understanding of biological magnification

Warm-up Activities

• Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem question 4 (121)

• do page 123-125

• Do page 129-130

Models of Energy Flow (page 121)

• Ecological pyramids: A diagram that can show the relative amounts of energy, numbers of organisms, or biomass at each trophic level in an ecosystem.– Biomass: The total mass of

living matter at each trophic level

Activity #2 (page 129-130)

• DDT in Real Life

Day 3

Cycling of Matter

Cycling of Matter

• Cycles in the Biosphere– Natural processes cycle matter through the

atmosphere– The exchange of matter through the

biosphere is called the biogeochemical cycle.• Bio: Involves living things• Geo: Geological Processes• Chemical: Chemical Processes

The Water Cycle

Solar Energy Movement of clouds by wind

Precipitation PrecipitationEvaporation

Transpiration from plants

Percolation in soil

• Most precipitation falls into the ocean

• Over land– approximately 90% of the water evaporates– 10% transpires (evaporated) from plants

• Only about 2% of water is retained in a reservoir – i.e., a glacier, ice cap, aquifer or lake

The Water Cycle

Carbon and Oxygen Cycles

CO2 in atmosphere

Photosynthesis

Plants, Algae & Cyanobacteria

Primary Consumer

Higher level Consumers

Detritus

Detritivores(soil microbes &

others)

Cellular Respiration

Burning

Wood & Fossil Fuels

Carbon and Oxygen Cycles

Classified in two groups

• Short term cycles

• Long term cycles

Carbon and Oxygen Cycles

1) Short term cycle– Autotrophs use CO2 for ____________.

– Heterotrophs produce CO2 during ________ __________.

Photosynthesis

CellularRespiration

Carbon and Oxygen Cycles

2) Long term cycle: a) Fossil Fuels

– Organic matter is buried and converted to peat, coal, oil or gas deposits.

– 5.5 billion tons are burned annually

– 3.3 billion tons stay in the atmos-phere, the rest dissolves in sea water*

http://www.ucar.edu/ (The National Center for Atmospheric Research)

Carbon and Oxygen Cycle

b) Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)

– Marine animals use Carbon to build skeleton– They fall to the

bottom of the ocean,creating limestone rock.

Carbon and Oxygen Cycles

c) Atmosphere (atm)• 21% Oxygen (O2) is found in the atm

– very reactive element that combines with other elements and disappear from the atmosphere.

– Some of the O2 is converted into Ozone (O3) in higher atm

– Ozone absorbs damaging UV radiation from the sun.

Carbon and Oxygen Cycles

d) Green house effect

• Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere.

• 30% more CO2 in air today than 150 years ago due to human activity (burning of fossil fuels)

• The atm has not held this much Carbon for at least 420,000 years

http://www.ucar.edu/ (The National Center for Atmospheric Research)

Nitrogen Cycle

Nitrogen in atmosphere

Nitrogen – fixingbacteria in rootnodules oflegumes

Nitrogen – fixing bacteria in soil

Decomposers (aerobic & anaerobic

bacteria and fungi)Ammonification

Ammonium (NH4+) Nitrites (NO2

-)

Nitrifying bacteria

Nitrates (NO3

-)

Denitrifying bacteria

AssimilationPlants

Nitrogen Cycle

Nitrogen is 78% of atmosphereMost is unusable.

– nitrogen gas (N2) is made of 2 strongly bonded atoms. – Lots of energy needed to break these bonds, such as

produced by lightning or fires

Little Nitrogen on land or sea– Bacteria can release nitrogen from organic material– Bacteria can also release nitrogen from organic

material back into the atm

Nitrogen is a key element in proteins and DNA.

Warm-up: What does your DDT graph tell you?

0

5

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Wate

r

Plankt

on

Sheepsh

ead M

innow

Picke

rel

Needle

fish

Mer

ganser

duck

Cormora

nt

DDT in ppm