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Ecology. What is a biosphere?. The part of the Earth that supports living organisms Includes the topmost crust, the water and the surrounding atmosphere. What is ecology?.
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What is a biosphere? • The part of the Earth that supports living organisms • Includes the topmost crust, the water and the surrounding atmosphere.
What is ecology? • The study of interactions that take place among organisms and the interactions between organisms and the physical features of the environment.
Define Abiotic factors • Non-living physical features of the environment.
What are the different abiotic factors? • Water • Soil • Sunlight • Temperature • Air
Why is water important? • All living things are made up of about 50-95% water. • Important part of the cytoplasm • Processes such as respiration, photosynthesis and digestion cannot take place without water.
Why is soil important? • Helps determine what kind of plants are going to grow in an area • Also going to help determine what kind of animals are going to be living in an area
Why is light important? • Light is needed in photosynthesis • Determines what plants lives where and where algae can live based on the availability of sunlight.
Why is temperature important? • The warmer the area, the more plants and animals there will be
Define biotic factors. • Living organisms in the biosphere.
What are the levels of biological organization for an organism? • Cell • Tissue • Organ • Organ system • Organism • Population • Community • Ecosystem • Biosphere
What is a population? • Organisms of the same species that live in the same place and can produce young.
What is special about members of a population? • They compete with each other for food, water, mates, and space • How the organisms use the resources that are available will determine how large the population can get.
What is a community? • Groups of populations that interact with each other in a given area.
What is special about members of a community? • Populations depend on each other for food, shelter and other needs.
What is an ecosystem? • Made up of the biotic communities and the abiotic factors that affect it.
Another thing that might affect a population is another population. How do you think this might be?
There are three kinds of ways that organisms can live together. They can have what is called symbiotic relationships.
Symbiosis:any close relationship between two or more different species.
One relationship is Mutualism:a symbiotic relationship that benefits both species.
Another relationship is commensalism:symbiotic relationship that benefits one partner and does not harm or help the other.
And the last one is parasitism:symbiotic relationship that benefits the parasite and does harm the host.
What is the physical place where an organism lives?It’s habitat!!
What is the role of an organism in an ecosystem?It’s niche!! This can be what a species eats, how it gets its food, and how it interacts with other organisms.
In every ecosystem there is a flow of energy from one individual to another. Firstly you need to know about a few more things before we start talking about energy.
Food chain:simple way of showing how energy from food passes from one organism to another.
There are usually 3 or 4 animals that are in one food chain. There is a portion of energy lost as you go from one part of the food chain to another. Plants are going to have the most energy and as you go up the food chain, the amount of energy that the animal gets is cut in half.Example:
Food web: series of overlapping food chainsThe food web works the same way as far as energy is concerned.
An ecological pyramid: shows the transfer of energy.Example:
Energy pyramid:shows the availability of each level of a food chain in an ecosystem.
Water cycle:involves the processes of evaporation, transpiration, condensation, and run off. The heat from the sun makes the water in lakes, streams, and oceans evaporate (liquid to gas). The water molecules that evaporate then travel upwards into the sky. When the molecules reach a certain height, the air temperature gets cooler causing the molecules to condense (gas to liquid). This is when clouds form. When the clouds are full of water, precipitation happens in the form of rain or snow. When there is a lot of water, run off occurs back into the lakes, streams and oceans.
Climate:There are certain things that can determine what kind of climate an area has. Temperature:sun supplies heat. Temperature is regulated by how much sun a region gets. This is determined by elevation and latitude.
Latitude:the closer you get to the North or South poles, the less energy the region gets from the sun and the colder the climate. Season changes also have to do with latitude.
Elevation:the higher you go the thinner the atmosphere (Earth’s insulation) so heat escapes easily so the climate is colder.
Precipitation:the amount of water that condenses and falls in the form of rain, snow, sleet, hail or fog.
Others:Mountain ranges can effect how much rain falls. Will rain on one side of a mountain and not on the other. Deserts are usually found on one side of a mountain.
What is a biome? • Large geographic areas with similar climates and ecosystems. • Examples: Grasslands, Deserts, Tundra, Taiga
What is a tundra? • Cold, dry, treeless biome, with a short growing season.
Where is a tundra found? • North Pole and South Pole and high elevations
How long are the winters in a tundra? • 6-9 months
Tell me about the sun in the tundra. • In winter, you do not see it. • In summer, it is out all the time.
Plants in the tundra • Lichens, grasses, mosses, and wild flowers
Animals in the tundra • Caribou, reindeer, Arctic wolves, polar bear and brown bears.
What is a taiga? • Largest Biome • Long cold winters
Where is a taiga found? • South of the tundra
Climate in taiga vs. tundra • Both have long cold winters but taiga is a little warmer and wetter.
Plants found in taiga • Balsam fir, white spruce, paper birch
Animals found in taiga • Black bear, bald eagle, gray wolf, canadian lynx
