1. What is Ecology?

2. Levels of Organization

3. 1st Level of Organization
Organism: An individual living thing that is made of cells, uses energy, reproduces, responds, grows, and develops.

4. 2nd Level of Organization
Population: A group of organisms, all of the same species, which interbreed and live in the same place at the same time.

5. 3rd Level of Organization
Community: All the populations of different species that live in the same place at the same time.

6. 4th Level of Organization
Ecosystem: All the living populations of organisms and the nonliving factors of a community together.
They can be either terrestrial (land) or aquatic (water)

7. 5th Level of Organization
Biosphere: The portion of Earth that supports life.

8. 1. What level of organization?
Organism

9. 2. What level of Organization?
Community

10. 3. What level of Organization?
Population

11. What is Ecology??
Ecology is the study of interactions that take place between organisms and their environment.
It explains how living organisms affect each other and the world they live in.

12. Habitat & Niche Habitat is the place a plant or animal lives
Niche is how an organism lives where it lives

13. The Nonliving Environment
Abiotic factors- the nonliving parts of an organism’s environment.
Examples include air currents, temperature, moisture, light, and soil.

14. The Living Environment
Biotic factors- all the living organisms that inhabit an environment.
All organisms depend on others directly or indirectly for food, shelter, reproduction, or protection.

15. 1. Abiotic or Biotic?
Biotic

16. 2. Abiotic or Biotic?
Abiotic

17. 3. Abiotic or Biotic?
Abiotic

18. 4. Abiotic or Biotic?
Biotic

19. Energy Flow Sunlight is the main source of energy for life on Earth.
Autotrophs (producers) use energy from the environment to make their own food.

20. Energy Flow Autotrophs
Many autotrophs use the power of the sun through photosynthesis to make their food.
Some autotrophs use chemical energy to make food. This is performed by several types of bacteria.

21. Energy Flow Consumers
Heterotrophs (consumers) must eat other organisms for their energy and food.
Herbivores only eat plants.
Carnivores only eat animals.
Omnivores eat both plants and animals.
Decomposers break down dead organic matter.

22. Food Chains and Food Webs

23. Feeding Relationships
Energy flows through an ecosystem in one direction, from the sun or inorganic compounds to autotrophs (producers) and then to various heterotrophs (consumers).

24. Food Chains
Food Chains are a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating or being eaten.
The arrows go from the food
and points to the organism
that eats it

25. Food Webs
Food webs show how multiple food chains are connected in an ecosystem.
Owl
Snake
Decomposers
Rat
Mouse
Grasshopper
Rabbit
Grass

26. Feeding Relationships
A trophic level is each step in a food chain or web.
Producers make up the first step, consumers make up the higher levels.

27. Energy Pyramids
An energy pyramid is a diagram that shows the amounts of energy contained within each trophic level in a food web or food chain.
Energy Pyramid only 10% of the energy available within one trophic level is transferred to organisms at the next trophic level.

28. Energy Pyramid

29. Predation
Predation is an interaction in which one organism eats another (Herbivores eat plants. Carnivores eat animals.)
Prey is the organism that is eaten
Predator is the organism that eats the prey