Transcript Ecology - borglumscience

Ecology
The interaction of all
living and non-living
things
Basic Needs of Living Things
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Water – to transport material and maintain
temperature
Shelter – what would need to leave Earth?
Air – What is in Air? What gas to animals need?
Plants? Do we need Nitrogen?
Minerals – N, P, K, Fe, Zn, Mg, Mo
Food – carbohydrates, fats, proteins
Decomposers – recycle sewage and dead stuff.
What if there weren’t any?
Space – too many in one place uses up food, water,
Ecosystems
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Ecosystems – living organisms and nonliving substances interacting in a specific
area of nature. Major ecosystems are often
called biomes
Habitat – place where an animal lives
Niche – the role of an animal
Energy Flow - Producers
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The energy from the
sun is trapped by
producers and turned
into food
Even the most efficient
can only STORE 10%
of the sun’s energy
The rest is used in
metabolic processes
Energy Flow – Producers Cont.
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Producers turn the
energy from the sun
into sugar, starch, fat
etc.
Plants, algae, diatoms
Energy Flow - Consumers
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Consumers eat producers and get energy from the
food made by producers
There should always be more producers than
consumers
Primary Consumers = Herbivores (deer)
Secondary Consumers = Carnivores (mountain
lions).
Consumers get 10 % of the energy from the sun
which was stored by producers
They can only STORE 10% of what they eat (1% of
the sun)
Energy Flow - Decomposers
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Fungi, bacteria and worms
Digest dead plants and animals
Break complex molecules into simple
compounds
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Sugar (C6H12O6) into water (H2O) and carbon
dioxide (CO2)
Recycle fixed amounts of matter
Energy Flow
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Producers
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Primary consumers
(herbivores)
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10 %
Secondary consumers
(carnivores)
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100 %
1%
Tertiary Consumers (top
level carnivores)
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0.1 %
The Sun
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The Ultimate Source of Energy
However, not all of it is put to work
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Photosynthesis
0.08%
Wind and Waves
0.2%
Evaporation and precipitation
Heat
47%
Reflected
31%
22%
Law of Conservation of Matter
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Matter can neither be created or destroyed
The chemical elements (atoms) that make up
living and non-living ecosystem components
are recycled.
Example: the atoms that make up your body
use to make up the bodies of the plants and
animals you have eaten. Some day these
atoms will be returned to the soil and be
available to other organisms.
Law of Conservation of Energy
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Energy can neither be created or destroyed,
it can only be transferred
Energy cannot be recycled; it can only flow
through a system.
Energy Flow
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Every time energy is transferred some of the useable
energy is lost as heat energy
With each transfer the amount of useable energy
goes down
This means as energy moves up trophic levels less
energy is available.
You can support more humans with grain than with
meat from animals eating the grain.
Only 10% of the energy gets transferred from one
trophic level to another.
Energy Flow
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2nd Law of
Thermodynamics
(Simplified)
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Energy is lost at each
trophic level
Trophic Level
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Feeding position in a
food chain
Producer, Consumer
(herbivore/carnivore),
Decomposer
The Ecosystem Cycle
Levels of Organization
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Organisms – any living thing
Populations – a group of the same type of
organism
Communities – a group of populations living
in a given area
Ecosystems – you know this now
Ecosphere – the global system
Relationships
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Mutualism: Both species benefit. The two organisms help each other. An
example would be a honey bee and a dandelion. The honey bee gets to eat the
pollen from the flower. The dandelion uses the bee to spread its pollen to
another flower.
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Commensalism: One species benefits. The other species is unaffected. A
common example is an animal using a plant for shelter. An American Robin
benefits by building its nest in a Red Maple tree. The tree is unaffected.
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Parasitism: Ones species benefits. The other species is harmed. An example
would be a deer tick and a White-tailed Deer. The tick gets food from the deer
without killing it. The deer is harmed by losing blood to the tick, and possibly by
getting an infected wound.
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Neutralism: Neither species benefits or is harmed. Both organisms are
unaffected. An American Goldfinch is a bird that eats mostly seeds. It may share
a tree with a Great Crested Flycatcher, which eats mostly insects. Neither
affects the other.
What makes Earth unique?
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Write 3 things that make Earth unique.
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Write 3 things that the Earth shares with
other planets.
Escape to Mars
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If the world were to end and we had to
escape to Mars, what are the top ten most
important things we will need to bring from
Earth to Mars?
What would life be like there after ten years?
Escape to Mars Facts
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Earth
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1 AU from the sun
365.25 days/year
24 hours/day
Gravity 1
Atmosphere
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78% N, 21% O, 1%
Argon, 0.04% CO2
Temperature range
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Mars
-130 to 130
Average 57 F
1.5 AU from the sun
687 days/year
24 hours 20 minutes/day
Gravity .38
Atmosphere
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95% CO2, 3% N, 1.6%
Argon, 0.1% O
Temperature range
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-190 to 98
Average -81 F
Other places on Earth that can help us
understand Mars include:
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Death Valley, California, where Ubehebe crater and "Mars Hill" have
geologic features similar to those on Mars
Mono Lake, California, which is a 700,000-year-old evaporative lake
that compares to Gusev Crater, a basin on Mars where water once
was likely
Channeled Scabland in Washington, where catastrophic floods swept
through the land much like what happened long ago in the Ares Vallis
flood plain where Mars Pathfinder landed
Permafrost in Siberia, Alaska and Antarctica, where subsurface waterice and small life forms exist
Volcanoes in Hawaii, which are like those on Mars, though much
smaller
Google Earth, Google Mars
Ecology Issues
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Invasive Species
Reduction in predators
Reduction in prey
Habitat loss
Habitat fragmentation
Hunting
Pollution
Tourism
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Climate change
Wildfire prevention
Restoration
http://ed.fnal.gov/help/p
rairie/Prairie_Res/index
.html
Refuges
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http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/st
udent_activities_menu.htm