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Ecology

The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

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Biotic and Abiotic Factors

Biotic

  • The living factors in an organism’s environment

Abiotic

  • The nonliving factors in an organism’s environment

Bio

Abio

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Biotic or Abiotic?

  • Water temperature in a lake
  • Rabbits in a field
  • Type of trees in a forest
  • Amount of pollution in the air
  • Mineral content of the soil
  • Types of bacteria living in the soil
  • A hurricane disrupting a river ecosystem

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Levels of organization

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Ecological Levels of Organization

  • Organism: An individual
  • Population: Individual organisms of a single species that share the same geographic location at the same time.
  • Community: A group of interacting populations that occupy the same area at the same time.

Part 1: Organisms and their Relationships

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Levels of Organization

  • Ecosystem: is a community of living organisms (biotic factors) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (abiotic factors), interacting as a system.
  • Biome: A large group of ecosystems that share the same climate and have similar types of communities.
  • Biosphere: All biomes together; the Earth

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Practice

What level of organization?

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  • A colony of prairie dogs
  • A single blue jay
  • All the world’s deserts
  • All the living things in a lake in Greenbelt, Md.

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Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

  • Autotroph: An organism that collects energy from sunlight or inorganic substances to produce food, also called a (Producer)
  • Heterotroph: An organism that gets its energy requirements by consuming other organisms, also called a (Consumer)

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Different types of Heterotrophs

  • Herbivore: Eats only plants
      • (Deer, rabbits, grasshoppers, etc.)
  • Carnivore: Prey on other heterotrophs
      • (Wolves, lions, cats, etc.)
    • Scavengers feed on carrion (dead animals)
      • (Hyenas, vultures, some crabs, etc.)
  • Omnivore: Eat both plants and animals
      • (Bears, humans, mockingbirds, etc.)
    • Detritivores: Eat fragments of dead matter
      • (Earthworms, millipedes, etc.)
  • Decomposers: Chemically breaks down dead matter
      • (Bacteria and fungi)

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Habitat & Niche

  • Habitat is where a living thing lives.
  • Niche is the organism’s role it plays in the community.

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  • Competitive Exclusion Principle: The idea that two species cannot occupy the same niche in the same place for a long period of time.

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