1. Ecology

2. I. Animal Relationships
A. Producer/Autotrophs
1. Producers (autotrophs): organisms that can use energy directly from the sun to produce simple sugars (glucose) that other organisms can use for food
a. The sun is the ultimate source for most life on earth
b. Less than 1% of the suns energy that reaches the earth is used by living organisms

4. 2. Do not have to eat other organisms to survive
Ex: plants, algae, some protists, some bacteria
** Remember the equation for photosynthesis:
CO2 +H2O+light  C6H12O6+O2

5. Consumers/Heterotrophs
1. Get energy by eating (consuming) food either plant or animals and therefore must depend on other organisms for food
2. Get energy through the process of cellular respiration
C6H12O6+O2  CO2+H2O+ATP
3. Consumers that eat producers are considered to be primary consumers since they are the primary (first) things to eat in the food chain.
4. When you eat the cow you are then a secondary consumer since you are the second thing that eats.
Ex: some protists, all fungi and animals

7. Decomposers and Detrivores
Both are consumers since they don’t make their own food
Decomposers break down dead organisms into matter called detritus.
Detritus- non-living particulate organic matter (as opposed to dissolved organic material).
It typically includes the bodies or fragments of dead organisms as well as fecal material
Detrivores convert the detritus (organic matter) into inorganic matter like nitrogen which plants need to survive
Ex: earthworms, neamtodes, most bacteria, some protists

9. Plant-Herbivore Herbivore: an animal that eats producers
Ex: Cows eating grass
Herbivores usually have special adaptations to chew and digest their food
Ex: Cows have large molar teeth designed to chew grass and break down cellulose; they also have special bacteria that help them to digest their food; most have longer digestive systems since plants take longer to digest
Plants have adaptations like thorns and poisons to keep herbivores from eating them

11. Predators: capture and feed on members of another species
Prey: the organism getting chased and eaten Ex: A hawk(predator) hunting and eating a rabbit(prey)
Predators have adaptations that help them to capture their prey
Ex: A hawk has keen eyesight, sharp talons, and a sharp beak
Ex: Mountain lion has fur that allows it to blend into its environment
Prey have adaptations to avoid being eaten
Ex: poisonous frogs have bright colors to warn predators of dangers
mimicry: looking like a dangerous organism
Ex: King snake (harmless) mimics a coral snake (dangerous)
Camouflage: Organisms blending in with their environment
Ex: Leaf bug looking life a leaf

15. Competition
whenever organisms try to use the same resource like food, water, light, or space
Ex: Two birds are competing for the same food source, nesting space, or water supply one species will be more successful than the other.
competitive exclusion: the extinction of one species due to competition with another species

17. Symbiotic Relationships: two species live together (Symbiosis means living together)
Mutualism
Both species benefit
Ex: Insects and bees; the flowers provide insects with nectar and pollen and the insects provide the flower with pollination

18. Commensalism
One species benefits and the other species is neither harmed nor benefited
Ex: Barnacles on whales; the whale is neither harmed nor benefited while the barnacles hitches a ride on the whale, the water moves and the barnacle traps food (filter feeding)

19. Parasitism
one species benefits and one is harmed and possibly killled
Parasite: lives in or on another organism (the host); it gets its nutrients from the host; the host is not usually killed, but is weakened
Ex: Heartworms on your dog

20. Ecosystem organization
Organism
An individual living thing
Ex: mouse
Population
Organisms of the same species live in the same place
Ex: group of mice in a field
Community
All the different species that live in the same place ant the same time
Biotic factors: Living things in the environment (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, protists)
Ex: Field of grass, field mice, earthworms, insects, lizards, etc

21. Ecosystem
All the living organisms (biotic factors) and their environment such as rocks, soil, etc.
abiotic factors: Non-living parts of the environment (water, rocks, soil, sunlight)
Biosphere
All the ecosystems in the world; the portion of earth where living organisms can survive
Ex: Earth

23. Food Chains and Food Webs
Food chain: a simple explanation for the flow of energy from autotrophs to heterotrophs to decomposers
Food chains don’t show the natural flow of energy in an ecosystem so food webs are used

25. Food webs are dependent upon each other
Food webs are dependent upon each other. What would happen if to rabbit population if the grass population was wiped out? Decrease in size
If the rabbit and mouse population declined, what would happen to the owls? Decline and foxes? Decline
What would happen to the rabbit population if the rainfall increased? Increase
If the rabbit population increased, what would happen to the owl population? Increase
If there are more producers, then the first level consumers increase; if they increase, then the secondary consumers would increase

26. Ecological Pyramids
Pyramid of Energy: Shows how energy is transferred through each trophic level
Trophic Level: Each step in a food web or food chain; each trophic level indicates how many times energy has been transferred
First trophic level: producers, next trophic level is heterotrophs
Energy Pyramid : Shows how energy is transferred through each trophic level; Only 10% of the energy at each level is transferred to the next higher level the rest of the energy is lost as heat
Producers have the most energy and top consumers or decomposers have the lowest amount of energy
Energy is not recycled it is lost

28. Pyramid of Biomass and Numbers
Biomass: Mass of dry organic material in an organism (putting things on a big imaginary scale.
Shows the amount of living (organic, must contain carbon) material in a given trophic level; biomass decreases as you move up the pyramid.
Usually expressed in kilograms per unit area
Producers usually have the highest biomass and top consumers usually have the least amount

30. Pyramid of Numbers
Shows the approximate number of individual organisms at each level that an ecosystem can support (instead of grams, its numbers)
Unlike the biomass pyramid, the producers are not ALWAYS the most numerous.

32. Biogeochemical Cycles
Remember CHON carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen make up the majority of living things
These elements are cycled in the biosphere (Earth)
Biogeochemical cycle: chemicals moving through both living (biotic) and geological (abiotic) parts of the ecosystem
Unlike energy which flows only one way, chemicals can be recycled through the biosphere and reused.

33. The Water Cycle
Shows how water moves from the atmosphere to the ground, and then back into the atmosphere again.
Precipitation: how water gets from the atmosphere to the ground; rain, snow, sleet, or any water form from the atmosphere
Evaporation: Water moving to the atmosphere from lakes, rivers, streams, and other bodies of water. It is called water vapor
Transpiration: Plants giving off water
If water sinks into the ground it is called ground water
Condensation: water vapor condenses and forms clouds, when clouds get too heavy to hold any more water vapor, precipitation occurs

36. The Carbon Cycle Remember carbon is found in ALL living things
Most carbon in the atmosphere is in the form of carbon dioxide
Photosynthesis changes the carbon dioxide into organic molecules (glucose).
The producers use some of this glucose to grow and carry out life processes.
Consumers eat the producer they use the glucose made by plants for energy through cellular respiration

37. Cellular Respiration changes these organic compounds back into carbon dioxide (what you breathe out)
Decomposers break down molecules and release more CO2 into the atmosphere
When an organism dies some of the carbon is trapped. The organism may decompose or become fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal, wood, paper)
When these fossil is burned (burning wood, oil) the CO2 is released back into the atmosphere
Plants absorb this CO2 and the process starts over

39. Oxygen Cycle
During photosynthesis water molecules are split and releases oxygen into the air as a by-product
Oxygen is taken by organisms during cellular respiration.
Some oxygen is found in the ozone.
It has 3 oxygen atoms.
It is harmful to breathe
it is needed in the upper atmosphere to help shield earth from harmful UV rays

41. The carbon and oxygen cycles work together through photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
Cellular respiration takes in O2 and releases CO2
Photosynthesis releases O2 and takes in CO2

42. The Nitrogen Cycle
Nitrogen is used to make amino acids (amino acids build proteins)
Nitrogen makes up 78% of the earth’s atmosphere; most organisms can not use this form of nitrogen
Some bacteria live on the nodules on the roots of some plants and in the soil
These bacteria take in nitrogen gas, (N2) and covert it to ammonia (NH3) This is called nitrogen fixation.

43. Other bacteria then change ammonia into nitrates (NO3-) and nitrites (NO2-). This process is called nitrification.
Plants use the nitrites and nitrates formed by bacteria to make proteins.
Consumers eat plants and the nitrogen is reused to make protein in the consumer.
Human activities fertilizing their yard put nitrogen back into the soil for the bacteria to break down.
Waste products of animals or animals dying puts ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites back into the soil.
Some bacteria break down dead bodies and waste products are broken down into usable forms by plants
Other bacteria change the nitrates in the soil back into gas.
This process is called denitrification.
Nitrogen found in oceans is put back into the atmosphere through denitrification.

45. Human Impact
Natural Population Growth
Follows an S-shaped curve

46. When the population levels off, it has reached carrying capacity
A new population in an ecosystem will grow slowly at first and then more quickly since there will be unlimited resources.
When the population levels off, it has reached carrying capacity
Carrying capacity: the largest number of organisms the environment will support.
As long as the birth/death rate and immigration/emigration rates are the same the organisms could live at carrying capacity.
This rarely happens therefore populations are limited by limiting factors.
Limiting Factors: Factors that limit the population growth
food
water
habitat

48. Unrestricted Population Growth
When a non-native species is introduced into an ecosystem, it normally has few or no natural predators and has plenty of food.
This causes the J-shaped curve
Ex: Two dozen rabbits were introduced into Australia in the 1800’s. They had no natural predators and unlimited food so they overpopulated. They multiplied quickly and now hunters can shoot 1200 rabbits a day and it would make no difference. They wiped out the plant population causing the extinction of 1/8th of the mammal species.

50. Effects of Technology
Technology has allowed rapid population growth causing an increased competition for other space, food, and water.
This disrupts how nutrients are recycled.
After people were hunters and gathers, we became farmers.
This caused a need to clear land and for people to live closer to each other. Intern causing large areas of land to be cleared.
Technology has allowed us to: irrigate, have chemical fertilizers, and chemical pesticides.
When it rains the fertilizers run-off into the water causing an algal bloom.
When the algae dies off, decomposition depletes the oxygen from the water causing the aquatic animals to die.

52. Pesticides have caused a problem in nature as well.
Some pest are resistant so stronger pesticides are needed.
Some pesticides like DDT build up inside tissues.
This build up is called biological magnification.
EX: When a big fish eats a small fish it takes in the DDT. As the big fish eats more small fish it steadily accumulates. When an eagle eats the bird, it accumulates in the bird. DDT causes the eggs to become frail so when mama bird sits on the egg they crack. This almost caused the extinction of the bald eagle.

54. The Use of Natural Resources
After the industrial revolution people started using more machines.
Machines need to be powered using natural resources such as oil.
Non-renewable resources: take millions of years to form; coal, oil, natural gas.
Renewable resources: can be renewed quickly, but they are not available in renewable amounts; trees, fresh water
Both renewable and non-renewable resources are in limited supply so conservation is necessary
Burning fossil fuels to power these machines often results in acid precipitation which damage many plants and other resources

56. Land pollution or trash is more common and most of these products take a long time to decompose
natural products like banana peels or cotton clothing or paper biodegrade quickly since they are easily broken down by microorganisms and are returned to the soil in a matter of days, week, or months
man-made products like rubber and plastics, chemicals, and metals take hundreds of years since they are not broken down easily by microorganisms

57. Glass bottle 1 million years Monofilament fishing line: 600 years Plastic beverage bottles: 450 years Disposable diapers: 450 years Aluminum can: years Boot sole: years Styrofoam cup: 50 years Tin can: 50 years Leather: 50 years Nylon fabric: years Plastic film canister: years Plastic bag: years (???) Cigarette filter: 1-5 years Wool sock: 1-5 years Plywood: 1-3 years Waxed milk carton: 3 months Apple core: 2 months Newspaper: 6 weeks Orange or banana peel : 2-5 weeks Paper towel: 2-4 weeks

58. Effects of Urban Development
Humans need places to live and so they take homes from many organisms
When large areas of land are used for humans, the biodiversity of organisms is decreased
Biodiversity: variety of life in an area
Fertilizing and chemicals on lawns and garden also cause problems
native plants “weeds” are often killed for grass to take their place
slugs, aphids, and grasshoppers are killed by the pesticides
chemicals seep into groundwater or local water supplies
Non-native (exotic) species are often introduced which compete with the native species.
(Non-native plants/animals bought as pets are released into the wild, when they get too large or families no longer want or care (or do not know how to care) for them)
Non-native species have no natural predators and so they may take over the niches of native species

60. World-Wide Environmental Concerns
Thinning Ozone
ozone:
20 kilometers above the surface of earth
Made of 3 oxygen atoms
a pollutant at ground level
important because it blocks out harmful UV radiation which causes sunburn, eye damage, cancer, damages plant tissue, and a lowers resistance to disease
30 years ago scientists noticed the hole in the ozone above Antartica with another hole appearing over the Artic latter.

61. By 1995 the whole in the artic was so big parts of the US had higher levels of UV radiation.
CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) which are used as a propellant in aerosol cans, air conditioners, freezers, and refrigerators, and to make plastic foam products are the cause of the thinning ozone
CFCS break ozone molecules apart
they are being phased out in the US and other countries
The CFCs already in the atmosphere will remain for years
Scientists hope that the ozone layer will begin to recover from some of the damage by the middle of the 21st century

63. Global Warming
Temperature increases are normal as part of natural temperature cycles, but scientists are worried about he temperature increasing more quickly that normal
carbon dioxide concentrations have increased due to burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees. (messing up the carbon cycle)
A change of 1-2 degrees Celsius can causing polar ice caps to melt, rising ocean levels, flooding coastal areas, and severe droughts

65. Sustainable Use Conservation
People who are using less of the resources on earth without damaging the biosphere are conserving
How??
By using less non-renewable resources
Protecting the endangered species
reintroducing species into areas where they once lived
reusing and recycling and being aware of everyday activities that can affect the biospehre