Ecology Unit Notes:
Ecology vs. Biodiversity
- Ecology: the study of interactions among ______and their ______.
- Biodiversity: ______of different living organisms in an______.
–Ecology= study ecosystems and what lives there
–Biodiversity= variety or assortment of living things in an ecosystem
Biodiversity
- More ______in an ecosystem= greater it’s ______and ______
–EX: Jungle with 300 plant species and 60 animals VS. Jungle with 1 plant and 1 animal species
An ecosystem includes both biotic and abiotic factors:
–Biotic factors= ______. Each organism plays a particular role in the ecosystem
–Abiotic factors= ______. Balance of these factors determines what living things can survive in that area.
______Species- has an unusually large effect on its ecosystem.
- EX: Beavers: Falling trees to construct dams changes streams into ponds, wet lands, or meadows.
Changes in Populations
Changes can help people describe and understand what happened in a ______
Also used to make ______
Predictable Changes Unpredictable Disturbances
-Climate ______- ______Intervention
-Seasonal reproductive cycles -Destabilize Ecosystem
-Ex) Fall- trees lose leaves becoming dormant ex:) ______a new species can
-Population ______disrupt an ecosystem
-Migrations
–Ex) birds, butterflies
Ecosystem Structure:
Abiotic: ______parts of the environment.
- ______
- Sunlight
- ______
- Temperature
- ______
- Nutrients
Biotic: ______parts of the environment
a)______
b)______
c)______
- (Bacteria and Fungus)
I. General Organization
______=any individual living thing
______= Individual ______of a single species in ______
______= more than one ______living in the same area.
______= All the ______and ______factors in an area.
______= the environment that a particular species prefers within an ecosystem
______= the ______that an organism fills “job”
______= ______with similar characteristics.
Characteristics of a Biome
A.No distinct ______
B.Defined by types of ______
C.Similar ______, but may be located in a totally different part of the world (Africa and Asia)
II. Ecosystem Structure
A. Autotroph:______
Can make their own food through energy from the sun or inorganic substances
AKA: ______
B. Heterotroph:______
Obtains energy by eating other organisms,
AKA: ______
C. Types of Consumers:
Primary consumers: eat producers (______)
Secondary consumers: eats both producers & consumers (______)
Tertiary consumers: top predator (______
Trophic levels are a way of identifying what ______an organism uses.
1st Trophic level= ______
2nd Trophic level= ______
3rd Trophic level= ______
4th Trophic level= ______
Decomposers & Scavengers
A.Decomposers feed on wastes & dead material from all trophic levels
- Ex: ______, ______
Decomposers complete the ______in the ecosystem
- Covert ______matter in organisms back into a ______form
- These ______are returned to the ______, where ______can use them as raw materials for building ______organic material.
Without ______the ______in the ecosystem would quickly ______of nutrients
B.Scavengers are consumers that eat dead animals (like road kill)
- Ex: ______
Energy in an ecosystem is transferred through the ______of that ecosystem
- Energy flows from: _____ ______ ______ ______ ______
Very few animals feed on only one food source, ______are a more accurate picture of how animals feed.
Food Web:
In any food web, ______is lost each time one organism eats another.
–Because of this, there have to be many ______than there are plant-eaters. There are more ______than ______, and more plant-eaters than ______.
–Each level has about ______available to it because some of the energy is lost as ______at each level.
Food webs contain several ______
Biomass and Energy Transfer:
***** RULE OF 10*****
1 hawk
10 snakes
100 mice feed
1000 plants feed
Only 10% of the energy is transferred to the next organism
Biological Magnification
1)The build-up of toxins in living organisms with movement up the ______
2)The ______collect in the organisms at the top of food webs, because they eat so much.
Examples: ______and ______
III. Flow of Energy
______in an ecosystem is ______through the TROPHIC LEVELS of that ecosystem.
•When a ______eats other organisms, only a ______fraction of the energy taken is used for growth.
•About ______of food is ______digested or absorbed and is passed out as waste. About ______of the energy of the food is ______or used by the animal for cellular respiration, which ______for daily life.
•Only ______of the ______is used for growth and is ______as ______for the next ______level in the food chain.
This produces a pyramid of energy and a pyramid of numbers in an ecosystem.
•The ______amount of energy and the ______population is the ______of the pyramid with the ______. The ______amount of energy and ______population is at the ______of the pyramid
Ecological Pyramids
•______Pyramid: diagram that depicts the biomass (______) in each of an ecosystem’s trophic levels
•Pyramid of ______: shows the numbers of ______organisms at each ______in an ecosystem
•______Pyramid: diagram that depicts the energy that ______each of an ecosystem’s trophic levels. Illustrates how the amount of ______energy ______as it is ______through the ecosystem. (*rule of 10*)
Biomass:
any dry mass of organisms (______), which is available on a renewable basis; that is ______in a given ______.
•Includes: ______,plants and associated residues, plant fiber, ______, industrial waste, ______component of municipal solid waste.
IV. Community Interactions
In order to sustain an environment, ______and ______factors interact
Forms of Species Interactions:
- Symbiosis:______(3 types)
1.Parasitism: ______( Humans and tape worm)
2.Commensalism: ______(anemone and clown fish)
3.Mutualism: ______(rhino and bird)
- Competition: ______
- Predation:______
- Ecological Succession:______in the ______of species in a ______observed over ______.
Primary Succession
i.______
–Ex: volcanoes, rocks, etc
Steps of Primary Succession
- ______→ lichens
(Grow on rock & turn it into soil)
Pioneer Species: the ______organisms to ______an area
- ______
- ______
- ______(ex: pine trees)
- ______→ stable & final stage (ex: deciduous trees)
Climax Community: a community that has achieved ______and species ______
Secondary Succession
- ______(fire, etc)
faster than primary succession (______already ______)
Same as primary except pioneer species are ______
Succession will cause Population Growth…
V. Population Growth
A. FACTORS THAT AFFECT POPULATION GROWTH
a)______
b)______
c)______
d)______
B. TYPES OF POPULATION GROWTH
1. ______Growth
A. ______curve on a graph
B.Population ______every generation
C.Humans are reproducing this way!
2. ______Growth
A. ______curve on graph
B. How ______looks
C. Populations grow fast early, and then slow down, as we get closer to CARRYING CAPACITY
C. CARRYING CAPACITY
1. ______
-Populations will ______to Carrying Capacity, and they ______again once they have reached it.
1. Kind of like a balloon hitting a ceiling
2. LIMITS TO POPULATION GROWTH
2.Density-dependent limiting factors
- ______
- ______
- ______(for shelter, food, water)
- ______(predator eats prey)
Example: ______
3.Density-independent limiting factors
- ______(crowded or not)
- ______
- ______(fire, etc)
- ______
Example: ______
VI. Nutrient Cycles
Matter is recycled: Allmatter essential for life moves in cycles between living things & the environment.
A. Carbon Cycle
What is Carbon?
- basic building block of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, nucleic acids, and other organic compounds essential to life.
1. Why is carbon important to us?
a)Carbon is used to make ______
b)Carbon ______so living things can think, move, etc
c)______(gas, coal, oil) are made from carbon
2. Where is carbon found in the environment?
a)______(CO2)
b)______(limestone, diamonds)
c)______(oil, coal, etc.)
3. How does carbon enter living things?
a)CO2 gas ______
b)Photosynthesis allows plants to change ______
c)Animals then get carbon by ______the sugar found in plants
4. How does carbon get back into the environment?
- plants & animals ______during respiration
- ______of wood & fossil fuels
- ______
- ______(seriously)
- ______- when bacteria break down tissue of dead things
5. How are fossil fuels formed?
a.When living things die & fall to the bottom of water, they are buried & compressed
b.They eventually form coal, petroleum, or natural gas
6. So what’s the cycle?
The 2 main steps are ______!
- Photosynthesis- plants and algae take up CO2 from the air or water to make sugar
- Cellular Respiration- consumers use sugar for energy and release CO2 into the air or water
7. Future Predictions
- Due to humans using more fossil fuels, ______
- this may result in ______since CO2 traps heat (remember the greenhouse effect)
B. Nitrogen Cycle
- ______(N2)
- Living things ______(N2)
1. Step One: Why do living things need Nitrogen?
- To make ______
b. To make ______
Steps of the Cycle
a. Step 1: Nitrogen gas (N2) is found in the ______
b. Step 2: Nitrogen Fixation
- nitrogen is fixed into ______like ammonia or nitrates
- This is done by ______in soil or bacteria living on the roots of certain plants
- Lightning also “fixes” nitrogen
c. Step 3: ______then use the ammonia or nitrates in the soil
d. Step 4: ______get nitrogen from plants
e. Step 5: When plants & animals die, the nitrogen in them is released back into the atmosphere as a gas (N2)
- This is done by denitrifying bacteria
f. Step 6: Nitrogen gas is released back into the atmosphere
C. Other Cycles
- ______(Water)
- ______
- ______
Breaking the Water Cycle
The only way for water to get back to the atmosphere is through ______(plant sweating)
When we ______they ______
So water does not get into the air to become rain
The area becomes a ______in a very short time period
–Really bad in rainforest regions, because the soil is so shallow
VII. Human Impact
Human population growth and Natural Resources
As the human population ______the demand for Earth’s ______.
Recall that ______refers to the maximum population size that an ______can consistently ______.
As humans have ______their environment through agriculture, transportation, medical advances, and sanitation, ______.
Earth’s Natural Resources
______: natural resource that is used more quickly than it can be formed. (oil & coal)
–Over millions of years, natural processes ______dead organisms into the concentrated ______substances we use today as oil and coal.
______: resources that cannot be used up or can replenish themselves overtime. (wind energy, solar energy)
Ecological Footprint
Humans need natural resources to ______, but the way resources are used threatens the welfare of the ______.
Earth’s ______depends on how much ______is needed to ______each ______on earth
The amount of ______necessary to ______and ______enough food and water, shelter, energy and waste is called an ______.
The size of an ecological footprint depends on a number of factors:
–These include the amount and efficiency of resource use, and the amount and toxicity of waste produced.
Invasive Species
A species that is brought by ______ into a new environment and ______the ones already there. Example: Africanized Honey Bees, which will take over the hive of the honey bees.
An Ecological Mystery
Long term study of sea otter population along the ______
1970: ______healthy and populationsgrowing
1990: Sea Otter #’s ______
–Maybe due to emigration, not deaths
1993: 800 km area in Aleutian Islands studied
–Sea Otter #’s reduced by ______
Vanishing Sea Otters
1997: Study of area repeated
Sea Otter pop. had declined by 90%
–1970: > 53,000 Otters in the study area
–1997: < 6000
Why? - Reproductive issues - Starvation, Pollution, Disease?
Cause of the Decline
1991: one researcher observed an ______.
- Sea lions or seals are the normal prey of Orcas.
Decline in usual prey led to ______.
Single Orca could consume ______.
Declines in ocean fish ______and ______led to a ______for sea lions & seals, so their #’s ______.
This forced the orcas to enter into the coastal waters where they consumed ______.
Sea otters normally feed on ______. As sea otters decreased, the urchins numbers ______.
Urchins eat ______, and the large numbers of urchins ______.
The decline in the kelp forests has had an impact on many others species because of the ______.
- Other Species Affected