Principles of Ecology

1. Principles of Ecology

2. What is ecology? • Ecology: study of interactions that take place between organisms and their environment

3. Habitat vs. Niche • Habitat: place where organism lives • Niche: role or position a species has in its environment

4. Symbiosis: interactions between 2 species “living together” • Mutualism: both benefits • Commensalism: one benefits, the other unaffected • Parasitism: one benefits, one is harmed • Predation: one benefits, one dies

5. Mutualism Clownfish is protected, while providing a lure for the anemone. Some say that this relationship can be commensalistic.

6. Get food and pollination of flowers!!

7. Commensalism

9. Parasitism Head lice

11. Predation: is the interaction between two species in which one species uses another species as food.

12. Competition: is the interaction between organisms where the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Organisms will not benefit because they are competing for limited resources (food, water, space, mate, etc.)

14. Symbiotic Relationships worksheet!

15. How do organisms obtain energy? • Autotroph (producer): photosynthetic or chemosynthetic, makes own food • Heterotroph (consumer): “eat” other organisms, cannot make own food

16. HeterotrophConsumers are not all alike: • Herbivores eat only plants- primary consumers or 1st order consumers • Carnivores eat only animals- secondary, tertiary, quaternary consumers or 2nd, 3rd, 4th order consumers • Omnivores eat both plants and animals. • Detritivores eat dead or decaying organic matter- scavengers. • Decomposers are detritivores that break down organic matter into simpler compounds. They recycle!

17. Autotrophphotosynthesis

18. Heterotrophs - herbivores • consume only vegetative matter • mostly primary consumers. Or 1st Order Consumers.

19. Heterotrophs - carnivores • obtain energy from eating other consumers • Secondary, tertiary and quaternary consumers • 2nd, 3rd, 4th Order Consumers

20. Heterotrophs - omnivores • obtain energy from eating producers and consumers

21. Decomposers Typical examples: fungus and bacteria

22. Heterotrophs – Detritivores (scavengers) • Scavengers: feed off of dead or decaying living things but do not recycle matter back into the ecosystem

24. Food chain • shows how matter and energy move through an ecosystem (one route) berries → mice → black bear Starter 26

27. Food web • shows interactions among organisms (all possible routes) • Contains Multiple overlapping Food Chains

31. Food web activity-yarn!

32. 1. Label each of the organisms either as producers, primary, secondary tertiary or quaternary consumers, carnivores, herbivores and predators in this food web. Copy food web in your notebook 2. Analyze the food web and Explain the balance that is upset when a major predator is removed from an ecosystem.

33. Deer-wolf population LAB- work in class; if you don’t finish, it is homework!

34. Use foldable to take notesIf some info doesn’t fit in the foldable, add it to the side.

35. Energy pyramid Pyramid of Energy Heat 0.1% Consumers 1% Consumers Heat • Shows how much energy is available at each trophic (energy) level 10% Consumers Heat Heat Parasites, scavengers, and decomposers feed at each level. Starter 25

36. energy transferred Energy Pyramids Show • As you go up, you lose 90 % of energy as HEAT. • Only 10 percent of energy is carried over to the next organism Heat

37. Energy Pyramid

38. Biomass pyramid • Biomass is the total mass of living matter at each trophic level • Or Biomass is a measure of the total dry mass of organisms in a given area. mass

40. Number pyramid- A pyramid of numbers shows the numbers of individual organisms at each trophic level in an ecosystem. A vast number of producers are required to support even a few top level consumers

42. Four cycles in nature • Water cycle • Carbon cycle • Nitrogen cycle • Phosphorus cycle

43. Water cycle: The hydrologic, or water, cycle is the circular pathway of water on Earth.Organisms all have bodies made mostly of water

44. Carbon CycleCarbon is the building block of life. • The carbon cycle moves carbon from the atmosphere, through the food web, and back to the atmosphere. • Carbon is emitted during the burning of fossil fuels. • Some carbon is stored for long periods of time in areas called carbon sinks.

45. Photosynthesis/Cellular Respiration Cyclical process, whereby matter (carbon) is recycled in the environment.

46. Nitrogen cycle The nitrogen cycle mostly takes place underground • Some bacteria convert gaseous nitrogen into ammonia through a process called nitrogen fixation. • Some nitrogen-fixing bacteria live innodules on theroots of plants;others livefreely insoil.

47. Nitrogen cycle cont. • Ammonia released into the soil is transformed into ammonium. • Nitrifying bacteria change the ammonium into nitrate. • Nitrogen moves through the foodweb and returnsto the soil duringdecomposition.