How Ecosystems Work

Review: Everything is connected. Yarn Game from G2G

How Wolves Change Rivers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

Make a list of all of the things you would need for survival: Separate your list into “Have to have” and “would be nice to have”

Ecosystems An ecosystem is all of the organisms living in an area together with their physical environment. Examples of ecosystems?

Components of an Ecosystem In order to survive, ecosystems need certain basic components: energy mineral nutrients carbon dioxide water, oxygen living things.

Biotic and Abiotic Factors Biotic Factors are living things. Animals Fungi Bacteria Plants Dead organisms Dead parts of organisms (leaves) Waste products

Biotic and Abiotic Factors Abiotic Factors are nonliving things Air Water Rocks Sand Light Temperature

Organisms An organism is an individual living thing. Organisms have a role and interact in ecosystems A species is a group of organisms that can mate to produce fertile offspring.

Population A population is a group of the same species that live in the same place.

Communities A community is a group of various species that live in the same place and interact with each other.

Habitat The place an organism lives is its habitat.

Energy Flow in Ecosystems

Life Depends on the Sun Energy from the sun enters an ecosystem when organisms use sunlight to make energy/carbs in the process of photosynthesis. As organisms consume other plants or animals, energy is transferred from one organism to another.

Producers vs. Consumers A producer is an organism that makes its own food. aka: autotrophs A consumer is an organism that gets its energy by eating other organisms. aka: heterotrophs

What eats what? Carnivore – eats meat Herbivore – eats plants Omnivore – eats both Decomposer – break down organic matter from dead organisms Allows nutrients in rotting material to return to soil, water, and air.

Energy Transfer Each time one organism eats another, a transfer of energy occurs. Scientists study how energy flows through different parts of an ecosystem to find out how organisms depend on one another to survive.

Food Chains and Food Webs A food chain is the path in which energy is transferred from one organism to the next as each organism eats another In nature ecosystems, energy does not flow in a simple chain. A food web includes more organism and shows the feeding relationships between organisms that are possible.

Trophic Levels Each step through which energy is transferred in a food chain is known as a trophic level. Each time energy is transferred from one organism to another, less energy is available to organisms at the next tropic level. Only 10% of the energy is transferred from one tropic level to the next.

Trophic Levels Energy pyramids – the higher the trophic level, the less stored energy there is to be passed on. Because energy is lost at each level, there are fewer organisms at the top levels.

“One-Pagers”

One Pager Requirements Title – use creative fonts to reflect the content Symbolic border to represent the theme At least three images Include essential/relevant vocab terms and their definition. Main idea: A paragraph that summarizes the information. Include real-life connections. Ignore the Costa questions thing for now. Do not include quotations. (that would be if we were doing this for an article.)