Ecological �Concepts & Terms

Habitat

• The home or environment where an organism lives.

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• Habitat requirements
• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• Space

Ecosystem

• A group of elements, living and nonliving, interacting overtime to produce a stable system within an environment

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Community

• All of the same species in an area

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• All interacting organisms in an area

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Population

How do communities interact with their non-living surroundings to form ecosystems?

Biodiversity

• Ecosystem
• A great variety of environments produced by the interplay of biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) elements
• Species
• The variety of different living things
• Genetic
• The variation of genes between individuals of a species

What are the implications of biodiversity loss at each level? Genetic �Species� Ecosystem

Limiting Factor

• Factors that limit population size

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• Food & water
• Nesting structures & shelter
• Space
• Predation
• Climatic conditions

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Decimating Factor

• Factors that are the cause of reducing or depressing population size
• Disease
• Weather
• Predators

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How do limiting and decimating factors affect wildlife management?

Endemic

• Native or restricted to a certain area
• Kangaroos are endemic to Australia
• Pronghorn and BBF are endemic to North America

Keystone Species

• A species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance.
• Predators
• Engineers
• Mutualists

Adaptations

• Anatomical

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• Physiological

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• Behavioral

Anatomical Adaptations

• Physical characteristics, shape, color
• Long legs of a rabbit
• Shape of an owl, looks like a branch
• Camouflage coloring of an owl

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Physiological Adaptations

• Internal, systematic responses to external stimuli
• Make venom - rattlesnakes
• Regulate heat – warm-blooded animals
• Delay implantation
• Black Bears
• Spotted Skunks
• Torpor

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Behavioral Adaptations

• Things organisms do to survive that may be inherited or learned
• Wolves hunt in packs
• Elk – safety in numbers
• Rabbits freeze in place to hide

Population Dynamics

Mortality

• Death rate

Birth Rate

• Proportion of births to total population in a given time
• Usually # / 1000

Age Structure

• Number of individuals of each age
• Used to predict population growth

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• # Bucks
• # Does
• # Fawns

Sex Ratio

• Number of males per 100 females

Mating Systems

• Monogamy – one male and one female pair bond
• Bald Eagles

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• Polygamy
• Polygyny – one male and multiple females
• Yellow-bellied Marmots
• Polyandry – one female and multiple males
• Honey bees

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• Promiscuity – no pair bonds, mate randomly
• Greater Prairie Chicken

Food Webs

Trophic Levels

• Producers
• Plants

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• Consumers
• Herbivores, omnivores, carnivores

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• Decomposers
• Scavengers, fungi, bacteria

Only 10% of energy is passed upwards to each trophic level!

What level are these?

Consumers

• Primary consumer
• herbivores

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• Secondary consumer
• eats herbivores

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• Tirtiary consumer
• eats secondary consumers

Consumer levels continue until you reach the apex predator, whose only natural enemy is people.

Time for you to teach!

• Find an example of each of these things to share with the other groups:

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• Brief description of your ecosystem, what makes it unique?
• List 3 abiotic factors
• Describe a community and population within this ecosystem
• Describe a possible limiting or decimating factor
• Adaptation of an animal on the poster, what kind of adaptation is it?
• Keystone species
• 1 food chain with examples of a producer, decomposer, and two types of consumer
• What living organism would you want to be in this ecosystem and why?

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