1. Environmental Science
Chapter 1 Section 1

2. Living Things and the Environment
Ecosystem:
All the living and nonliving things that interact in a particular area
Ex: Prairie, dense forest, deep ocean, and mountain stream
The ecosystem is the type of place an organism
Habitat:
Specific part of the ecosystem that meets an organism’s needs and in which it lives – where it lives

3. Living Things and the Environment
Habitat examples

4. Living Things and the Environment
Biotic Factors: The living parts of an ecosystem
Grass, plants, animals, worms, and fungi
Abiotic Factors: The nonliving parts of an ecosystem
Water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, and soil
Organisms interact with both biotic and abiotic factors in an environment

5. Living Things and the Environment
Abiotic Factors:
Water:
All living things require water
Our body is made up of 65% water
Water is important to plants along with sunlight and carbon dioxide to make food through the process of photosynthesis

6. Living Things and the Environment
Abiotic Factors:
Sunlight
Necessary for photosynthesis
Without sunlight for plants we wouldn’t have oxygen to breathe
Oxygen
Most living things need oxygen to survive
Organisms that live on land obtain oxygen from air
Organisms that live in water obtain oxygen from water

7. Living Things and the Environment
Abiotic Factors
Temperature
The temperature of an area determines the organisms that can live there
Ex: Warm tropical island – palm trees, bright hibiscus flowers, and tiny lizards. These organisms could not survive here in Minnesota
Some organisms overcome the temperature of their environment by digging dens to hide from the heat and lining their den with grass to keep in warm in the winter

8. Living Things and the Environment
Abiotic Factors:
Soil
Mixture of rock fragments, nutrients, air, water, and decaying remains of living things
Soil will contain different amounts of these components in different areas
Type of soil dictates the type of plants that can grow there

9. Living Things and the Environment
Species:
Group of organisms that are physically similar and can reproduce with each other to produce fertile offspring
Population:
All the members of a species living in a specific area
Ex: All of the daisies in a field or all of the pigeons in New York City
Populations can be large – the whole planet or small like a blade of grass

10. Living Things and the Environment
Community:
All of the different populations that live together in an area
The prairie includes prairie dogs, hawks, grasses, badgers, snakes, and many other organisms
To be considered a community the different populations must interact
Levels of organization in an ecosystem
Species – most specific or narrow
Population
Community
Ecosystem

11. Living Things and the Environment
Ecology: study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment
Ecologists look at how biotic and abiotic factors are related in an ecosystem
Study how organisms react to changes in their environment