1. Ecosystems
Chapter 2
Mr. Sierra

2. What is an “Ecosystem”? Chapter 2 - Section 1
All the different organisms living in a certain area, along with their physical environment.
This includes:
Biotic & Abiotic Factors

3. Biotic = Living Things Abiotic = Non-Living Things
Chapter 2 - Section 1
Biotic =
Living Things
Abiotic =
Non-Living Things

4. Biosphere Chapter 2 - Section 1 Individual Organism Population
Link to Prezi: Click Here
Individual Organism
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biosphere

5. Niche vs. Habitat Chapter 2 - Section 1
Niche: an organism’s way of life
Habitat: the actual place where an organism lives
Biomes: regions that have distinctive climates and organisms – may contain many separate but similar ecosystems.

6. Species Interactions Chapter 2 - Section 2 Interaction Definition
Examples
Competition
Two or more organisms of the same or different species attempt to use the same limited resource.
Oak trees and maple trees competing for light.
Fish and Frogs eating bugs in the water.
Predation/
Parasitism
Organisms that live in or on another organism and feed on it without immediately killing it.
(One species benefits, one is harmed.)
Predation: wolf and rabbit Parasitism: flea and wolf
Mutualism
A cooperative partnership between two species in which both species benefit. - (also called symbiotic relationships)
Insect pollination of flowers
Commensalism
A relationship in which one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped.
Birds on the back of a rhinoceros.
Amensalism/
Allelopathy
One species harms another (typically by releasing a chemical or toxic substance), but is not affected itself. affects the development and growth of neighboring plants.
Eucalyptus & Black Walnuts

7. “Survival of the Fittest”
Chapter 2 - Section 3
“Survival of the Fittest”

8. Natural Selection Chapter 2 - Section 3
The unequal survival and reproduction that results from the presence or absence of particular “traits”.
(Starburst Activity)

9. Evolution CoEvolution Chapter 2 - Section 3
A change in the genetic characteristics of populations from one generation to the next.
CoEvolution
When 2 or more species evolve in response to each other.

10. Adaptation Chapter 2 - Section 3
An inherited trait that increases an organism’s chance of survival and reproduction in a certain environment.

11. Threatened  Endangered  Extinct!
Chapter 2 - Section 3
Extinction
When the last individual of a species dies.
Threatened  Endangered  Extinct!
Biodiversity: The diversity of life forms in an environment.
Populations with high genetic diversity are better able to respond to environmental change than with lower genetic diversity.
Scientists have identified and cataloged approximately 2 million species on Earth. Estimates of the total number of species on Earth range between 5 million and 100 million, with the most common estimate at 10 million.
The average rate at which species go extinct over the long term, referred to as the background extinction rate, is very slow: about one species in a million every year. (With 2 million identified = two species per year).
Under conditions of environmental change or biological stress, species may go extinct faster than new ones evolve. Some scientists estimate that more than 10,000 species are currently going extinct each year—5,000 times the background rate of extinction.
(Friedland page 5)