1. Can’t we all just get along?
Ecology Notes
Can’t we all just get along?

2. Chapter 2 Biosphere-All areas that sustain life
Biosphere-All areas that sustain life
Biotic Factors-living factors
Abiotic Factors-non living factors

3. Organization Revisited
Population (interbreeding species)
Biological Community (all species in a given area that depend on each other)
Ecosystem All biotic and abiotic factors in the community
Biome: Areas of similar climatic conditions
Biosphere: All areas that sustain life

4. Communities Ex: Pond Community:
Habitat: The place where a plant or animal lives.
Example: Squirrel lives in several different trees in the forest, skunk lives in a single hollow log.
Niche: An organisms role in the community.
Example: Most green plants convert sunlight into energy and release oxygen. Other animals are dependent on the plants for survival. VERY important.

5. Community Interactions
Competition refers two organisms or species competing for some limiting resource.
be food or nutrients, space, mates, nesting sites
A lion fending off a hyena for food.

6. Predation
A predator is an animal or other organism that hunts and kills other organisms, called prey, for food in an act called predation.

9. OUCH!!!!

10. The living together of two different organisms
Symbiosis
The living together of two different organisms

11. Neutral
Not taking part or giving assistance when it comes to organisms living together.
Gets along with other organisms, but do not give assistance to life in any way

12. Commensalisms
A symbiotic relationship between two organisms of different species one benefits the other is unaffected.
Remora’s attaching to a shark

13. Barnacles on a whale
Birds on a cow

14. Mutualism
An interaction between two or more species in which both species benefit from the other.

16. Acacia Tree – Ants live in the horns and bring nutrients to the tree while the tree gives them protection off the ground.

17. Parasitism
A symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives off of the other organism, but does not kill it.
Parasites (mosquitoes & Head Lice)

19. Energy in an Ecosystem Autotroph-
Organisms that can make their own food for energy from the sun (Plants and some protists and bacteria)
Heterotroph
obtain energy from other sources

20. Energy in an Ecosystem Herbivore :
organisms that eat plants almost exclusively
Carnivore
organisms that eat other organisms almost exclusively
Detritivore

21. Energy in an Ecosystem Omnivore:
can utilize both plants, animals and other organisms as energy sources

22. Energy in an Ecosystem Detritivores:
break down dead and decaying materials for energy

23. The figure below shows a simple food chain for land production.
1) How much solar energy does a vegetarian utilize when eating 1,000 calories of plant material?  Use the information from the figure to calculate this.
2) How much solar energy (in calories) does a meat eating person utilize when eating 1000 calories of meat?  Use the diagram above to make your determination.  The numbers below each figure are the number of calories stored at each trophic level.

24. Food Web= The path that energy moves along from one trophic level to the next and back again in a complex fashion.

25. Grassland Food Web

26. Ecological Pyramids

27. Primary Producers :
Plants, Algae, Protists
Consumers:
Anything that uses producers for energy
Decomposer
Break down dead material

29. Biochemical Cycles
The physical parts of the ecosystems cycle constantly.
water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus pass from nonliving environments to living organisms, and back to nonliving environments.
These paths form closed circles, or cycles, called biogeochemical cycles.
biogeochemical cycle, a pathway forms when a substance enters living organisms such as trees from the atmosphere, water, or soil; stays for a time in the living organism; then returns to the nonliving environment.

30. The Water Cycle, Draw This

31. The Water Cycle,
Water Shed: an area where rainwater, snow, and ice converge on a single point.
Condensation: when water vapor is cooled it becomes a liquid
Precipitation When enough liquid accumulates in the atmosphere, it falls back to earth. As precipitation or rain

32. The Water Cycle,
In the living portion of the water cycle, much water is taken up by the roots of plants.
Transpiration: After passing through a plant, the water moves into the atmosphere by evaporating from the leaves

33. The Phosphorus Cycle
Phosphorus is an essential part of both ATP and DNA.
Phosphorus is usually present in soil and rock as well as animal wastes
We use this waste as fertilizer

34. The Phosphorus Cycle

35. The Phosphorus Cycle
Eutrophication: the accumulation of biomass like phosphorous in water sheds and basins causing algae growth and killing native plants and organisms
Can be caused by humans or occur naturally.

36. The Carbon Cycle
In the carbon cycle, carbon atoms may return to the pool of carbon dioxide in the air and water in three ways:
1. Photosynthesis: CO2 goes into plants while O2 comes out of plants
2. Respiration Carbon dioxide produced because of cellular respiration.
3. Combustion Carbon also returns to the atmosphere through combustion, or burning.

37. Section 3 Cycling of Materials in Ecosystems
Chapter 41
Carbon Cycle

38. The Nitrogen Cycle
Organisms need nitrogen to build proteins and nucleic acids.

39. The Nitrogen Cycle, continued
The nitrogen cycle is a complex process with four important stages:
1. Nitrogen Fixation. When bacteria help provide plants with usable nitrogen
2. Ammonification ammonia is produced by bacteria during the decay of nitrogen-containing urea.
3. Nitrification is the production of nitrates from ammonia.
4. Denitrification is the conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas.

41. Population Density
The total number of individuals living in a specific area
Example person/km2

42. Population Distribution
A. Randomly ex. Deer in the woods
B. Clumps ex. Elk on Highway 52 (Before CWD)
C. Uniformly ex. Birds on a wire

43. Gains and Losses in Population Size
Immigration- Organisms that move into a population
Emigration- Organisms that move out of a population
Mortality-similar to death rate; the number of organisms that have died
Natality- birth of organisms

44. Exponential Growth: growth that occurs very rapidly
Doubling Time: Amount of time it takes for a population to double it’s size
r-selected life strategy curve
Examples (insects

45. Biotic Potential
The rate at which a population could grow if nothing was holding it back, no limits
Limiting factors:
Space
Water
Nutrients
Shelter

46. What will happen in the future?
Density Dependent Factors:
Food
Water
Disease
Waste
Density Independent
Light
Temperature
Weather

47. Carrying Capacity and K-Selected Life Strategies
When populations birth rate equals the death rate
K-selected life strategy
“K” stands for carrying capacity
Examples “ humans, whales