Transcript Relationships in Ecosystems

Introduction to Ecology
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ECOLOGY
• The study of the
interactions that take
place among organisms
and their environment
1. Organism – an individual
living thing
2. Population
All the organisms in an
ecosystem that belong to the
same species
3. Community
All the populations in an
ecosystem
4. Ecosystem
All the organisms living in an
area AND the nonliving
features of their environment
organism
population
community
ecosystem
Within An Ecosystem…
• Habitat- provides shelter and
resources so that animals can
survive
• Niche- the role of an organism in
its ecosystem- how does it
survive?
Producers & Consumers
• Producer: makes its own energy through
photosynthesis (aka autotroph)
• Consumer: must consume other
organisms to gain energy (aka
heterotroph)
• Energy is constantly being transferred
between organisms and their
environments!
Factors in an Ecosystem
• Organisms depend on biotic and
abiotic factors for survival
– Biotic: living
– Abiotic: nonliving
• Biotic & abiotic factors influence what
organisms can live in a certain area
• *Limiting Factor- any resource that limits
how large a population can grow
Find as many biotic and abiotic factors
as you can!
Community Interactions
• Powerfully affect an ecosystem!
• Include:
–Competition
–Predation
–Symbiosis
Competition
• Organisms attempt to use an
ecological resource at the same place
and the same time
– Resource anything necessary to survive
• Food, water, space, mate, shelter, oxygen,
sunlight, etc
– Plants and animals compete
– Winner and losers
Predation
• Interaction where a consumer
captures and feeds on another
consumer
• Predator (consumer)
– Organism that does the killing and eating
• Prey (consumer)
– Organism that is being killed and eaten
(victim)
Symbiosis
• Any close
relationship between
two species
• Symbiosis literally
means “living together”
• 3 types:
– Mutualism (+/+)
– Commensalism (+/0)
– Parasitism (+/-)
Mutualism
• Both species
benefit from the
relationship
• A Happy couple
• (+/+)
Mutualism
• How do both species benefit?
• Who is helping who?
Ants and Aphids
• Aphids provide honeydew to the
ants, while the ants will take the
aphids into their nests at night
to protect them from predators
and escort them back to a plant
the next morning.
• The ants collect the aphid's
eggs and place them in their
nests to survive the cold winter
months!
Commensalism
• One member of the relationship
benefits while the other is neither
harmed nor helped
• One-sided (+/0)
• Usually for food or shelter
Parasitism
• One organism lives on or inside another
organism and harms it (+/-)
• Parasite obtains all or part of its nutrients
from the other organism
• Host
– Organism that is harmed in relation ship; the
one that provides the nutrients to the parasite
• Parasite
– Organism that gets its nutrients from the host
• Do they want to kill their host?
– No, because they need them…they will weaken
or hurt the host in some way
Can You Answer These?
• What is Ecology?
Study of interactions between organisms & environment
• What are 3 relationships in
ecosystems?
Competition, Predator-Prey, Symbiosis
• What are 3 types of symbiosis?
Mutualism, Commensalism, Parasitism
• What is the difference between an
ECOSYSTEM and a BIOME?
Ecosystem- all living & nonliving factors of an environment; Biomelarge geog. area w/similar climate & organisms