1. ECOLOGY

2. Ecology is the study of the interactions
among living things and the environment.
The environment includes other living things and also nonliving things like water and oxygen that are essential to life.

3. Ecosystem
Community
Population
Organism

4. LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION
Organism - an individual species.
Population - a group of the same species living in an area.
Community - all the different populations
that live together in one area.
Ecosystem - all of the organisms as well as
all the nonliving things in an area.
Biome – a group of ecosystems that share similar
climates and typical organisms.
Biosphere – our entire planet with all the organisms
and their physical environment.

5. BIOMES

6. BIOSPHERE

7. Biotic factors are all the living things that inhabit an environment.
All ecosystems are made up of living and nonliving things.
Biotic factors are all
the living things
that inhabit
an environment.
animals
plants
fungi
algae
protists
bacteria

8. Abiotic factors are the nonliving things
in the environment that are essential to life.
sunlight
water
air
minerals
soil
heat
precipitation

9. An ecosystem is a complex web of connected biotic
and abiotic factors.

10. Some ecosystems, such as the tropical rainforest,
have many, many complex interactions,
while others, such as the tundra, have few.

11. Biodiversity is the variety of living things in an ecosystem.

12. Tropical rainforests account for 50 percent
of the Earth’s plant and animal species.

13. Researchers have estimated that there are
between million species on Earth.
Currently, we have identified only 1.7 million species.
# OF SPECIES
Bacteria ,000
Protists (algae, protozoa, etc) ,000
Animals, vertebrates ,000
Animals, invertebrates ,272,000
Fungi ,000
Plants ,000
Total number of described species... 1,750,000
Possible # of unknown species: ,000,000
From the United Nations publication: UNEP-WCMC (2000).
Global Biodiversity: Earth's living resources in the 21st century.
Cambridge, World Conservation Press.

14. The most diverse group of animals are invertebrates.
Invertebrates are animals without backbones,
including sponges, jellyfish, starfish, clams, worms,
insects, crustaceans, and many other kinds of organisms.
Over half of all the animals already identified are invertebrates.
Beetles are some of the most numerous species.
# OF SPECIES
Bacteria ,000
Protists (algae, protozoa, etc) ,000
Animals, vertebrates ,000
Animals, invertebrates ,272,000
Fungi ,000
Plants ,000
Total number of described species... 1,750,000
Possible # of unknown species: ,000,000
From the United Nations publication: UNEP-WCMC (2000).
Global Biodiversity: Earth's living resources in the 21st century.
Cambridge, World Conservation Press.