1. New Vocab: Ecology Community Ecosystem Review Vocab: Biome Organism
KEY CONCEPT Ecology is the study of the relationships among organisms and their environment.
New Vocab:
Ecology
Community
Ecosystem
Biome
Review Vocab:
Organism
Population

2. Main Idea 1: Ecologists study environments at different levels of organization.
Ecology is the study of the interactions (relationships) among living things, and between living things and their surroundings.
Studying how life interacts within the biosphere.
Scientists used to study each organism separately
as if they existed in isolation.

3. Levels of Organization (There are 5 levels)
However, now scientists study nature on different levels, from local to a global scale. This organization reveals the complex relationships found in nature.

4. First level:
An organism is an individual living thing, such as an alligator.
Organism

5. Second level:
A population is a group of the same species that lives in one area.
What can cause populations to change?
Population
Organism

6. Limiting Factors of Populations
Birth & death rates eventually balance
Factors: Disease, food, predators, climate, space, mates
Carrying Capacity:
Greatest number of individuals that a population can sustain
What stage is the human population in?

7. Human Population: Fast Growth Stage
How have humans extended our carrying capacity?
Farming
Medical innovations
Clean water
Public assistance

8. Third level:
A community is a group of different species that live together in one area.
Community
Population
Organism

9. Fourth level:
An ecosystem includes all of the organisms as well as the climate, soil, water, rocks and other nonliving things in a given area.
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism

10. Fifth level:
A biome is a major regional or global community of organisms characterized by the climate conditions and plant communities that
thrive there.
Biome
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism

11. Basically, a biome is a large area with distinct climate, plant, and animal life.
Climate factors that affect biomes: sun, rain, topography
Climate determines life.

12. New Vocab: Biotic Abiotic Biodiversity Keystone Species
KEY CONCEPT Every ecosystem includes both living and nonliving factors.
New Vocab:
Biotic
Abiotic
Biodiversity
Keystone Species

13. Main Idea 1: An ecosystem includes both biotic and abiotic factors.
Biotic factors are
living things, like:
plants
animals
fungi
Bacteria
Bio = Life
If something has life,
then it is living.
plants

14. Abiotic factors are nonliving things, like: moisture temperature wind
sunlight
soil
rocks
moisture
sunlight
A = Without Bio = Life
If something does not have life, then it is not living.
The balance of these factors determines what can live in a particular environment.

15. Main Idea 2: Changing one factor in an ecosystem can affect many other factors.
An ecosystem is a complex web of connected biotic and abiotic factors.
Biodiversity is the assortment, or variety, of living things in an ecosystem.
The amount of biodiversity in an ecosystem depends on many factors.
Rain forests have more biodiversity than other locations in the world, but are threatened by human activities.
Why is this?

16. A keystone species is a species that has an unusually large effect on its ecosystem.
Because there are complex relationships within an ecosystem, a single change (a few broken strings in a web) in biotic or abiotic factors could have a variety of effects.
keystone
What would happen if the keystone in the arc was missing?

17. Here is an example of a Keystone species and how they form and maintain a complex web of life.
creation of
wetland
ecosystem
increased waterfowl
Population
increased fish
population
nesting sites for birds
keystone species