1. Warm Up 4/6 What is an autotroph? What is a heterotroph?
Draw a food chain containing at least three organisms.
Turn in late plant packets
Get your plant packet out of your folder, tear apart and glue into your spiral

2. Ecology
Ecology is the study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment.

3. Ecology: Levels of Organization
Individual
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biome
Biosphere

4. Ecological Methods
Observing: simple or complex; first step in asking ecological questions
Experimenting: test hypotheses in a lab or in the field
Modeling: gain insight into complex phenomena (global warming)

5. Ecological Niche Niche defines an animal’s lifestyle… habitat
nutrition
foraging
territory
Niche includes everything
an animal does or uses in
order to survive.

6. Ecology: Energy Flow Every organism needs energy. Sunlight is the main
energy source for life.
Less than 1% of sunlight is used by organisms.
Where does the rest of the sunlight go?
Photograph courtesy philip.greenspun.com

7. Ecology: Energy Flow photosynthesis: use of light energy to produce
carbohydrates
autotrophs make their own food.
autotrophs are producers
Why?

8. Ecology: Energy Flow sunlight is not available to all organisms
chemosynthesis: use of chemical energy to produce carbohydrates
most chemotrophs are bacteria and algae
are they autotrophs?
Deep sea hydrothermal vent worms

9. Let’s Review

10. Ecology: Energy Flow autotroph: produces its own food
heterotroph: acquires energy from other organisms
What is a producer?
What is a consumer?
Are heterotrophs producers or consumers?
consumers:
primary
secondary
tertiary
quaternary

11. Ecology: Energy Flow heterotrophs are consumers herbivores eat plants
carnivores eat meat
omnivores eat plants and meat
insectivores eat _____________
detritivores feed on remains
decomposers break down organic matter
Where are decomposers in a food chain?

12. Let’s Review

13. Ecology: Feeding Relationships
Energy flows through an ecosystem in one direction (arrows) from the sun or inorganic compounds to producers to consumers.
Food chain: diagram that shows simple feeding relationships.
Trophic level: each step in a food chain
All food chains start with a producer.

14. Feeding Relationships: Food Chain
squid (tertiary consumer)
small fish (secondary consumer)
zooplankton (primary consumer)
algae (producer)

15. Students be careful! Remember: the arrow shows the direction
energy flows in an
ecosystem.
In this example, the
Leopard seal eats the
penguin and as a result,
gets the energy.

16. Ecology: Feeding Relationships
A food web is a network of complex feeding relationships that connects multiple food chains.
If one species is lost from a food web, all other species are affected.

17. Terrestrial Food Web

18. Aquatic Food Web

19. My Favorite Food Web
Matt Pendley, Buford High School, Buford, GA

20. Ecology: Community Interactions
Competition: when organisms try to use a resource in short supply at the same time and same place.

21. Ecology: Community Interaction
Predation: when one organism captures and eats another organism.

22. Ecology: Community Interaction
Symbiosis: any relationship in which two species live closely together.

23. Ecology: Symbiosis Mutualism: when both species benefit from the
interaction.
In this example, the sea
anemone is cleaned by
the clown fish, who in
turn is protected by the
anemone’s stinging
tentacles.

24. Ecology: Symbiosis Commensalism: when one species benefits
from the interaction
and the host species is
unaffected.
The leafy plant is an
epiphyte, growing on
another plant only for
support.

25. Ecology: Symbiosis Parasitism: interaction in which one organism
benefits and the other
organism (host) is
harmed.
Does the host die as a
result?
Asian tiger mosquito

26. Let’s Review

27. Ecological Pyramids: Energy Pyramid (energy flow in a community)
each trophic level represents a different group of organisms in a food chain
about 10% of the energy available at each trophic level is transferred to organisms at the next trophic level
energy is lost as heat and in life processes

28. Ecological Pyramids: Biomass Pyramid
biomass is the total amount of living tissue
expressed as grams of organic matter per unit area
biomass pyramid represents the potential amount of food available at each trophic level
normally the greatest biomass is at the base

29. Ecological Pyramids: Numbers Pyramid
based on the numbers of individuals at each trophic level
some number pyramids look like biomass & energy pyramids, some do not
in this example, the oak tree has a large amount of energy and biomass, but it is only one organism

30. Laws of Ecology All things are interconnected.
Everything goes somewhere.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Nature bats last.
Ecology: A Pocket Guide by Ernest Callenbach

31. Pyramid Activity Glue in instructions and questions to your spiral
The pyramid will be a daily grade – graded on effort, neatness and accuracy.
Don’t forget to put your name on it.
DUE at the end of class!!!

32. First Level (Bottom)
Fourth Level (Top)