Ecology Georgia High School Graduation Test: Science Review Mrs. Kirby

Introduction  From the key vocabulary, circle the words that you can already define or use in a sentence.  Write down two or three things that you think are important for you to know today.

Biomes  Biome = a large area characterized by a certain climate and types of plants and animals  6 major biomes on Earth

Biome Characteristics NameCharacteristics Tundra permanently frozen subsoil Taiga long severe winters; summers with thawing subsoil Temperate Forest moderate precipitation; cold winters; warm summers Tropical Forest heavy rainfall; constant warmth Grassland variability in rainfall and temperature; strong winds Desert sparse rainfall; extreme daily temperature fluctuations

Biomes of the Earth

Ecosystem Vocabulary  Ecosystem = a part of the environment with its organisms, their interactions, and the physical and chemical factors that affect them  Community = populations of different species that interact in an ecosystem  Population = all the individuals of the same species living in a community

Members of an Ecosystem  Producers = organisms that can make their own food; autotrophs; examples: bacteria, protists, plants  Consumers = organisms that eat other organisms to get energy; heterotrophs; examples: fungi and animals

Consumer Classification  Herbivore = primary consumer who only eats plants; example: cow  Carnivore = secondary consumer who only eats other animals; examples: shark and tiger  Omnivore = consumer that eats both plants and animals; example: most humans  Scavengers = animals that find dead plants or animals and eat them; examples: flies, wasps, cockroaches, earthworms  Decomposers = break down dead organisms to receive energy; examples: fungi and bacteria

Predator versus Prey  All animals must eat to survive. Animals can be either predators or prey.  Predators hunt prey.  With predators always on the lookout for a meal, prey must constantly avoid being eaten.  Any adaptation the prey uses adds to the chances of survival for the species.  Some adaptations are defense mechanisms which can give the prey an advantage against enemies.

Survival Defense Mechanisms  speed  You can’t eat what you can’t catch!  physical or chemical features  physical examples: quills on a porcupine or hard shell of a turtle  chemical examples: stink of a skunk; poisons of a dart frog  camouflage  allows the animal to blend in with its environment to avoid being detected  used by both predators and prey

Parasite versus Host  A parasite is an animal or plant that lives in or on a host (another animal or plant)  Parasites obtain nourishment from the host without benefiting or killing the host  Examples: canine heartworms, malaria, hookworms, pinworms, tapeworm

Food Chain  a diagram that shows the way energy is transferred from one organism to another  each step in a food chain is called a trophic level  begins with producers and ends with decomposers

Food Web  complex, interconnect ing food chains in a community  more accurate than food chain

Pyramids of Biomass/Energy

Sample Question  Read and complete the sample question on page 10. We will discuss the answers as a class.

Discussion  An ecosystem is like the community that you live in. What are important factors in your community? How is waste handled? Who are the consumers and producers in your community? Are there any parasites within your community?

Lesson Summarized WWWWrite a sentence that explains the flow of energy in an ecosystem. DDDDraw a graphic organizer that shows the relationships between the various groups in a ecosystem.

Short Quiz Answers 1.See table summarizing characteristics. table 2.The answer is b. Because there are few macroinvertebrates in the stream and macroinvertebrates die in the presence of heavy pollution, one can conclude that there is a great deal of pollution in the observed stream. 3.The answer is a. The sun is the original source of energy because producers receive energy from the sun.