What to Study – Ecology

  1. Vocabulary:
  2. Biotic Factors – LIVING
  3. Abiotic Factors - NONLIVING
  4. Ecosystem – all the BIOTIC and ABIOTIC factors an area
  5. Niche – the ROLE an organism plays
  6. Habitat – where an organism lives
  7. Producers – autotrophs
  8. Consumers - heterotrophs
  9. Predators – hunt prey
  10. Scavengers – feed on dead organisms
  11. Decomposers – break down dead organisms and return nutrients back into the soil
  12. Food Chains/Food Webs/Energy Pyramids
  13. The arrow represents the direction of energy flow.
  14. Energy DECREASES as move through food chain.
  15. Energy is used for life processes.
  16. Energy is also released as heat.
  17. Food web – many food chains put together
  18. Primary consumers eat producers,
  19. Secondary consumers eat primary consumers.
  20. Tertiary consumers eat secondary consumers.

  1. Material Cycles
  2. Carbon and Oxygen photosynthesis and respiration
  3. Water evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, respiration, photosynthesis, excretion
  4. NitrogenNitrogen is cycled between the air, organisms and soil and back to the air again.

-important because all organisms need nitrogen to make PROTEINS

  1. Symbiotic Relationships
  2. Mutualism +, +

-Birds and flowers, bacteria in our large intestine, etc…

  1. Commensalism +, 0

-Barnacles on the bottom of whales, remora fish that stick to sharks, etc…

  1. Parasitism +, -

-Tapeworms, fungus that causes athletes foot, ticks, lice, etc..

  1. Succession – one community is replaced by another until a stable community is reached
  2. Pioneer organisms: first organisms to inhabit an area (bacteria, lichens, fungi)
  3. Climax community: last stage of succession that is not replaced
  4. Can be disrupted by:
  5. Natural disasters (forest fires, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc…)
  6. Human activity (deforestation)
  7. Succession will start all over again until climax community very similar to the original forms
  8. Human Impact
  9. Global Warming: increase in earth’s average temperature
  10. Cause: increase in carbon dioxide in atmosphere

-deforestation, industrialization, BURNING OF FOSSIL FUELS

  1. Effects: melting of polar ice caps (coastal flooding), warmer weather, more storms and hurricanes, changes in weather patterns
  1. Water Pollution
  2. Causes: industrialization, dumping of wastes by factories, burning of fossil fuels
  3. Effects: habitat destruction, kills organisms that live in the area
  4. Acid Rain
  5. Causes: more S and N in air due to the burning of fossil fuels and industrialization
  6. Effects: air pollution, water pollution, removes nutrients from the soil
  7. Ozone Depletion
  8. Causes: release of CFC’s
  9. Effects: skin cancer, destroys producers, eye damage