1. Ecology

2. Ecology
Ecology – is the scientific study of the interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environments.

3. Habitats
The place where an organism lives and that provides the things the organism needs is called its habitat!
Food, water, and shelter.
Biotic Factors – The living parts of an ecosystem.
Animals, plants, fungi, bacteria.
Abiotic Factors – The nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
Water, Sunlight, Oxygen, Temperature, and soil.

4. Organism
The smallest unit of ecological study.
Wildebeest

5. Populations
A population is a group of individual organisms of the same species living in a particular area.
Herd of Wildebeest

6. Exponential Growth
Occurs when the population multiplies by a constant factor at constant time intervals.

7. Limiting Factors A factor that restricts the growth of a population.
Space
Food availability
Disease

8. Community
All of the organisms inhabiting a particular area make up a community.

9. Ecosystem and Biosphere
An ecosystem includes the abiotic and biotic factors in an area.
The biosphere is the sum of all Earth’s ecosystems.

11. How do organisms get energy?
Every organism requires energy to carry out life processes such as growing, moving, and reproducing.
Producers (autotroph) – synthesize their own food through the process of photosynthesis.
Consumers (heterotrophs) – obtain their energy by eating other organisms.
Decomposers -

12. Types of Consumers Herbivore – eats plants.
Omnivore – eats plants and animals.
Carnivore – eats animals.

13. Food Chains
The pathway of energy transfer form one organism to another is called a food chain.
What would happen if one organism is overhunted and removed from the food chain?
What is the source of all energy?

14. Food Web
A pattern of feeding represented by interconnected and branching food
chains is called a food web.

15. Energy Pyramid
Emphasizes the energy loss from one organism to the next in a food chain. Only 10 % is passed on to the next level, the rest is lost to the ecosystem in the form of heat.

16. Types of Relationships among species!
Predation – an interaction in which one organism eats another. There are two individuals that participate.
Predator and Prey
Fox is a predator and the rabbit is the prey.

17. Symbiotic Relationships
A symbiotic relationship is a close interaction between species in which one of the species lives in or on the other.
Parasitism – one benefits and the other is harmed.
Mutualism – both species benefit
Commensalism – one benefits and the other is neither helped or harmed

19. Ecological Succession
The process of community change is called ecological succession.
What would happen if you left the field behind Heritage uncut for a couple of years?

20. Primary Succession
When a community arises in a lifeless area that has no soil.
Pioneer species are the first to colonize barren rock.
Climax community takes hold several hundred or thousand years later. The forest has grown to its full capacity.

21. Secondary Succession
When a disturbance damages an existing community but leaves the soil intact, the change that follows is called secondary succession.
Fires
Land cleared for farming, then abandoned.

22. The Carbon and Oxygen Cycle
Carbon starts its cycle in the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide.
Plants take in the carbon dioxide and make organic compounds known as glucose.
That glucose gets passed on to consumers through the food chain.
They then release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere through the process of cellular respiration.

23. Human Activities can alter ecosystems!

25. Population Growth
As the human population continues to grow, the environment will be negatively impacted by the following.
Habitat destruction
Deforestation
Air Pollution
Acid Rain
Water pollution
Global Warming
Introduced Species
Reduced Biodiversity
Overexploitation

26. Deforestation
The clearing of forest for agriculture, lumber, and other uses also affects the carbon cycle by eliminating plants that absorb CO2 for photosynthesis.

28. Alternatives to Clear cutting
Don’t cut down every single tree!!!!!!
Selective Cutting

29. Greenhouse Effect They process by which atmospheric gases trap heat.
Greenhouses trap heat.

30. Global Warming Effects of Global warming
Rising sea levels
Large effects on weather
Loss of Species
The overall rise in Earth’s average temperature.
Caused by increasing carbon levels in the atmosphere.
What causes increased carbon levels in the atmosphere?
Deforestation
Burning of Fossil Fuels

32. Acid Rain
Precipitation that carries acid to the Earth’s surface.
Smokestacks and automobile exhaust pipes release nitrogen and sulfur compounds into the atmosphere. They then combine with water and form acid rain.
Can lower pH of soil and aquatic ecosystems causing species to become extinct.
Acid Rain

33. Water and Air Pollution
Burning Fossil Fuels – Releases chemicals into the atmosphere.
Fertilizers – end up in water supplies.

34. Introduced Species
Starlings and house sparrows are introduced species from Europe. They competed with the bluebird population drastically reducing its population.

35. Snakeheads
Snakeheads are very aggressive and are outcompeting all native fish populations. Examples include Bass, Pickerel,

36. Overexploitation The practice of overhunting.
Elephants were hunted for their tusks

37. What can Humans do to reduce our negative impact on the environment?
Selective cutting
Make our homes more energy efficient
Use cars get higher gas mileage
Tougher regulations