1. Ecology
The scientific study of the relationships among living organisms and the interaction they have with the environment
Part 1: Organisms and Their Relationships
Part 2: Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem
Part 3: Cycling of Matter

2. Organisms and Their Relationships
Day 1
Organisms and Their Relationships

3. First, let’s review: What is a “Living Thing”?
Composed of cells.
Complex organization patterns
Use energy.
Have stable internal conditions.
Grow and change.
Reproduce
Let’s Review!

4. Biotic and Abiotic Factors
The living factors in an organism’s environment
Abiotic
The nonliving factors in an organism’s environment

5. Biotic or Abiotic? (Make a Venn Diagram with your group)
Whale
Clock
Water
Fish
Paper
Glass
Aluminum
Wooden Ruler
Sand
Clouds
Corpse
Snail
Steak
Pork Chops
Salad
Bread
Plant
Hair
Finger Nails
Pipe
Cotton Fabric
Wool
Gold
Plastic
Grapes
Air

6. Levels of Organization
We have covered very small living things.
Just to review, let’s start with the cell…
Cell 
Tissues 
Organs 
Organisms 
Population 
Let’s Review!
Biological Community 
Ecosystem 
Biome 
Biosphere

7. Levels of Organization
Organism: An individual
Population: Organisms of a single species that share the same geographic location
Community: A group of interacting populations (different species) that occupy the same area at the same time.

8. Levels of Organization
Ecosystem: A community and all of the abiotic factors that affect it.
Biome: A large group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities.
Biosphere: All biomes together; the Earth

9. Community Interactions
Competition: More than one organism uses a resource at the same time.
Predation: The act of one organism consuming another organism for food.
Symbiosis: The close relationship that exists when two or more species live together.

10. Symbiotic relationships
Mutualism: When both organisms benefit (ex. Lichen = photosynthetic algae and fungus)
Algae provides food (sugar) for the fungus
Fungus provides algae with water
Commensalism: One organism benefits, while the other is neither helped nor harmed.
Parasitism: One organism benefits at the expense of the other.

11. Ecosystem Interactions
Habitat: An area where an organism lives
Niche: The role or position that an organism has in its environment

12. Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem
Day 2
Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

13. Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem
Autotroph: An organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food. (Producer)
Heterotroph: An organism that gets its energy requirements by consuming other organisms. (Consumer)

14. Different types of Heterotrophs
Herbivore: Eats only plants
(Deer, rabbits, grasshoppers, etc.)
Carnivore: Prey on other heterotrophs
(Wolves, lions, cats, etc.)
Omnivore: Eat both plants and animals
(Bears, humans, mockingbirds, etc.)
Detritivore: Eat fragments of dead matter
(Worms, organisms on stream bottoms, fungi)

15. Models of Energy Flow
Trophic Levels: Each step in a food chain or food web.
Autotrophs always make up the first trophic level in ecosystems.
Heterotrophs make up the remaining levels

16. Models of Energy Flow
Food chains: A simple model that shows how energy flows through an ecosystem

17. Models of Energy Flow Food webs:
Show flow of energy through many interconnected food chains

18. How many connections can we make?

19. Activity: Deadly Links (In your IntNB, record the following on top of page 95)
Objective: To understand how food (energy) moves through an ecosystem and to understand the phenomonon called “biological magnification.”
Once your teacher assigns you a role in the food chain, circle whether you are a grasshopper, shrew, or a hawk in the “GET STARTED” box

20. Now that you have completed the activity…
Explain in the notes section of your interactive notebook, copy the questions on the left and answer the following questions on the right hand side:
What happened to the animals at each level of the food web
Summarize your understanding of biological magnification

21. Models of Energy Flow
Ecological pyramids: A diagram that can show the relative amounts of energy, numbers of organisms, or biomass at each trophic level in an ecosystem.
Biomass: The total mass of living matter at each trophic level

22. Activity #2
Create the biological pyramid represented in the deadly-links game on page 97

23. Day 3
Cycling of Matter

24. Warm-up: What does your DDT graph tell you?

25. Cycling of Matter Cycles in the Biosphere
Natural processes cycle matter through the atmosphere
The exchange of matter through the biosphere is called the biogeochemical cycle.
Bio: Involves living things
Geo: Geological Processes
Chemical: Chemical Processes

26. The Water Cycle Solar Energy Movement of clouds by wind Precipitation
Evaporation
Precipitation
Transpiration from plants
Percolation in soil

27. The Water Cycle Most precipitation falls into the ocean Over land
approximately 90% of the water evaporates
10% transpires (evaporated) from plants
Only about 2% of water is retained in a reservoir
i.e., a glacier, ice cap, aquifer or lake

28. Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
CO2 in atmosphere
Burning
Cellular Respiration
Photosynthesis
Plants, Algae & Cyanobacteria
Higher level Consumers
Wood & Fossil Fuels
Primary Consumer
Detritivores (soil microbes & others)
Detritus

29. Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
Classified in two groups
Short term cycles
Long term cycles

30. Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
1) Short term cycle
Autotrophs use CO2 for ____________.
Heterotrophs produce CO2 during ________ __________.
Photosynthesis
Cellular
Respiration

31. Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
2) Long term cycle:
a) Fossil Fuels
Organic matter is buried and converted to peat, coal, oil or gas deposits.
5.5 billion tons are burned annually
3.3 billion tons stay in the atmos- phere, the rest dissolves in sea water*
(The National Center for Atmospheric Research)

32. Carbon and Oxygen Cycle
b) Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3)
Marine animals use Carbon to build skeleton
They fall to the bottom of the ocean, creating limestone rock.

33. Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
c) Atmosphere (atm)
21% Oxygen (O2) is found in the atm
very reactive element that combines with other elements and disappear from the atmosphere.
Some of the O2 is converted into Ozone (O3) in higher atm
Ozone absorbs damaging UV radiation from the sun.

34. Carbon and Oxygen Cycles
d) Green house effect
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere.
30% more CO2 in air today than 150 years ago due to human activity (burning of fossil fuels)
The atm has not held this much Carbon for at least 420,000 years
(The National Center for Atmospheric Research)

35. Nitrogen Cycle Plants Assimilation Denitrifying bacteria
Nitrogen in atmosphere
Plants
Assimilation
Denitrifying bacteria
Nitrates (NO3-)
Nitrogen – fixing bacteria in root nodules of legumes
Decomposers (aerobic & anaerobic bacteria and fungi)
Nitrifying bacteria
Ammonification
Ammonium (NH4+)
Nitrites (NO2-)
Nitrogen – fixing bacteria in soil

36. Nitrogen Cycle Nitrogen is 78% of atmosphere Most is unusable.
nitrogen gas (N2) is made of 2 strongly bonded atoms.
Lots of energy needed to break these bonds, such as produced by lightning or fires
Little Nitrogen on land or sea
Bacteria can release nitrogen from organic material
Bacteria can also release nitrogen from organic material back into the atm
Nitrogen is a key element in proteins and DNA.