Climate is important in shaping ecosystems and in understanding ecology

1. Climate is important in shaping ecosystems and in understanding ecology • It refers to the average, year to year conditions of temperature and precipitation in a certain region • Weather is the day to day condition of the atmosphere at a particular time and place • Climate can take hundreds to thousands of years to change • Weather can change in a matter of hours • What kinds of things effect weather and climate on Earth?

2. The earth has a natural insulating blanket of atmospheric gases Carbon dioxide Methane Water vapor These gases trap heat energy and maintain Earth’s temperature range This natural situation of retaining heat is called the greenhouseeffect and works much like this man made greenhouse

3. Another factor that affects climate is changing latitude, the distance N or S from the equator on the Earth’s surfaceThe increasing angle of sunlight causes a decrease of heating by the sun and temps get colder as we go further N or S

4. Ecosystems are influenced by a combination of biological and physical factors that interact in an area • Communities are affected mostly by predator-prey relationships • Ecosystems are affected by biological (living=biotic) and physical (nonliving=abiotic) factors • Biotic may include birds, trees, mushrooms, bacteria, etc. • Abiotic may include sunlight, rocks, water, and climate such as temp, precipitation, humidity

5. The area an organism lives is called its habitat The way an organism interacts with its ecosystem is called its niche (kind of like a need required for survival) The role of the predator here is called its niche It may interact as a predator It may act as a host for parasites

6. Community Interactions • When organisms live together in communities, they interact all of the time and they shape the ecosystem • Competition, predation, and symbiosis (mutualism, commensalism, parasitism), powerfully affect an ecosystem

7. No two species can share the same niche in the same habitat • Different species can share the same habitat but… competition will occur • Competition: organisms of the same or different species attempt to use a resource in the same place at the same time • Resource: a necessity in life such as water, nutrients, light, food, or space/shelter • In a forest, oak/hickory trees compete for sunlight by growing tall, spreading their leaves, and blocking ths=e sun from shorter trees • Two lizards may compete for the same insect which results in a winner and loser

8. COMPETITION If two species occupy the same niche in the same habitat, they will compete until one is excluded

9. Predation • One organism captures and feeds on another organism • The organism that kills and eats is the predator • The one killed is the prey • What are a few examples of predators?

10. Symbiosis • Any relationship in which two organisms live close together • Includes mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism • Mutualism is when both species benefit • Bees get nectar while the flower gets pollinated • The army ants get food and protect the acacia tree from herbivore mammals • The bird gets food and spreads seeds for the plant • The rhino gets cleaned of parasites and the birds get a meal

11. In Commensalism… • One member benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed • Remora fish ride the shark but don’t harm or benefit the shark • The clownfish gets food and protection from the sea anemone but the anemone is neither helped nor harmed • Small marine animals called barnacles don’t help nor harm the whale but benefit by getting a ride to the best feeding grounds

12. Parasitism • One organism lives on or inside another and harms it • Parasite obtains nutrition from the other organism which is called its host • Parasites weaken the host but usually will not kill it • Mistletoe on a tree • Tapeworms, fleas, ticks, lice • Leeches on a fish