Transcript September 2012 Ecology PowerPoint

ECOLOGY
INTERDEPENDENCE
OF
LIFE
WHAT DOES AN ORGANISM NEED IN ORDER TO SURVIVE?
HABITAT:
A place to live, Soil, water, air, gasses
RAW MATERIALS:
Food, water, minerals
TWO PARTS OF AN ORGANISMS HABITAT
BIOTIC FACTORS
INCLUDES ALL LIVING PARTS:
Animals
Plants
Fungus
Bacteria
Protists
ABIOTIC FACTORS
INCLUDES ALL NON-LIVING PARTS:
Water
Sunlight
Oxygen
Temperature
Soil
Levels of Organization
• Ecologist study
organisms ranging
from the various
levels of
organization:
– Species
– Population
– Community
– Ecosystem
– Biome
– Biosphere
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
• HOW ARE ORGANISMS AND THEIR
ENVIRONMENTS LINKED TOGETHER?
• WHAT DOES MODERN SCIENCE TELL
US ABOUT ECOLOGY?
• HOW IS LIFE LIKE A WEB?
• WHAT EFFECT DOES THE
ENVIRONMENT HAVE ON ORGANISMS?
• WHY CAN’T THERE BE A SOLE
SURVIVOR?
Ecology
is the study of the way living things
interact with each other and their
physical surroundings. It looks at the
ways an organism is molded by its
surroundings, how they make use of
these surroundings, and how the
area is altered by the presence and
activities of organisms.
These interactions involve energy
and matter, which must flow through
the organism if it is to stay alive.
LEVELS OF
ORGANIZATION
WITHIN OUR
WORLD
Species
• Group of similar organisms that can breed
and produce fertile offspring
Population
group of organisms, all of the same species, which
interbreed and live in the same area.
The place where a population lives is known as its habitat.
Community
Is an assemblage of different populations of all the
different species occupying and interacting in a particular
place.
Ecosystem
• Collection of organisms that live in a place with
the nonliving environment
Biome
• Group of ecosystems with the same climate and
dominant communties of plants and animals.
Tropical rain forest
Temperate grassland
Temperate forest
Tundra
Tropical dry forest
Desert
Mountains and
ice caps
Tropical savanna
Temperate woodland
and shrubland
Northwestern
coniferous forest
Boreal forest
(Taiga)
Biosphere
• The part of the earth where life exists including
land, water, air, and atmosphere
CHANGES IN POPULATION
SIZES
• BIRTHS VS DEATHS • IMMIGRATION VS EMIGRATION
Birth rate> death rate= increase
in population
Death rate > birth rate= decrease
in population
immigration- moving into a population
emigration- leaving a population
POPULATION DENSITY- the number of individuals in an area of a specific
size.
Population Density= Number of individuals
Unit Area
• Carrying capacity usually refers to the
population level that can be supported for
an organism, given the quantity of food,
habitat, water and other life infrastructure
present.
• Carrying capacity is thus
the number of individuals
an environment can support
without significant negative
impacts to the given organism
and its environment.
•
•
• A limiting factor is one that controls
a process, such as organism growth
or species population size or
distribution. The availability of food,
predation pressure, or availability of
shelter are examples of factors that
could be limiting for a species
population in a specific area.
DIVERSITY
• is the presence of a wide range of
VARIATION (differences) in the qualities
or attributes under discussion
Biodiversity is the genetic diversity, species diversity and
ecological diversity that are so important to life on this planet. It is
the result of adaptations that have evolved over billions of years
due to environmental changes in the Earth’s past.
Interactions Among Living
Things
Organisms have adaptations that
help them survive in their
environment
All organisms have their own Niche.
Niche is the role of an organism in its environment or how
it makes its living.
NICHE INCLUDES:
• type of food the organisms eats
• how it obtains this food
• which other organisms use this organism as food
• when and how it reproduces
• physical conditions it requires to survive
SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS
• MUTUALISM-An association between
organisms of two different species
in which each member benefits.
•
EXAMPLE
Example: Rainforest ants and the Whistling Thorn and Bullhorn Acacia
trees.
ants nest inside the plant's thorns.
ants protect acacias from attack by herbivores (which they frequently
eat, introducing a resource component to this service-service
relationship)
• Commensalism- the relation between two
different kinds of organisms when one
receives benefits from the other without
affecting or damaging it.
•Barnacles adhering to the skin of a whale or shell of a mollusk:
barnacle is a mollusks that benefits by finding a habitat where
nutrients are available. (In the case of lodging on the living organism,
the barnacle is transported to new sources of food.)
•The presence of barnacle populations does not appear to hamper or
enhance the survival of the animals carrying them.
PARASITISM
• symbiosis in which one organism lives as
a parasite in or on another organism and
usually does some harm to it.
Ticks on
a bird
• Hosts is the
organism that the
parasite lives
on
PREDATOR/PREY
• Predator- organisms that obtain their nutritional
energy by killing and eating other organisms.
• Prey – Any creature that is hunted and caught to be
eaten for food.
COMPETITION
• The simultaneous demand by two or more
organisms for limited environmental
resources, such as nutrients, living space,
or light.
• In Australia, Rabbits compete with
herbivores like the western Quoll which
became extinct
• rabbits were brought in; invasive species
whose destruction of habitats is
responsible for the extinction or major
decline of many native animals such as
the Western Quoll.
ENERGY ROLES IN AN
ECOSYSTEM
• All living things are classified based on
shared characteristics, hereditary (genetic)
information, development and their
phylogeny
(evolutionary history).
– They are also classified based on how
they get their food.
Producer are organism that can make
their own food and will have chloroplast
to absorb energy from the sun to help
make their food. Producers are also
known as autotrophs
.
• Consumers are organisms that cannot make
their own food and have to get their food from their
environment.
•They are also known as heterotrophs.
Examples:
Animals, some protists, fungi and some bacteria
• http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/
tdc02/sci/life/oate/decompose/assets/tdc0
2_vid_decompose/tdc02_vid_decompose_
56_mov.html
Decomposer – Fungus and Bacteria
A decomposer is an organism that breaks
down organic matter. Some bacteria and fungi
decomposers. What they leave behind is used by
primary producers as fertilizers.
• VOUR- MEANING TO DEVOUR
• ANIMALS are consumers that are also
characterized by what they eat and their
type of teeth and beaks.
CARNIVORE
Carnivores are animals that eat meat.
Carnivorous animals often have sharp
canine teeth and powerful jaws. They
also have incisors and molars.
HERBIVORE
Herbivores are animals that eat plants.
Herbivores are also called primary
consumers. Most animals are herbivores.
Herbivores types of teeth are incisors for
cutting and molars for chewing.
• OMNIVORE
• Omnivores are animals that eat both
animals and plants. Some omonivores
include people, many monkeys and
marmosets, lion tamarins, chimpanzees, and
most bears.
• Omnivore have canine teeth that are not as
prominent most of the time, incisors and
molars.
Detritivore
A detritivore is an organism that feeds on
detritus, dead and decomposing organisms. What
they leave behind is used by decomposers. Dung
bettles and crabs are detritivores.
detritus -- Accumulated organic debris from dead
organisms, often an important source of nutrients
in a food web
Detritivores:
consume litter, debris, and dung
Scavengers:
Decomposers:
clean-up dead carcasses
microorganisms that complete final
breakdown of organic matter
Energy Flow in Ecosystems:
Energy is transferred
in a system from
one organism to another.
How does Energy flow
through an Ecosystem?
• Energy flows
through an
ecosystem in ONE
direction,
– sun or chemicals
– Autotrophs
– heterotrophs
Feeding Relationships
• Food Chain – steps of
organisms transferring
energy by eating &
being eaten
• Food Web – network
of all the food chains
in an ecosystem
Food Chains
Plants and Animals build structures from the nutrients, detritus feeders and
decomposers break the structures into the base nutrients once the organisms
die.
The organisms involved make up a food chain.
At the bottom of the food chain are the photosynthetic producers which
range from single-celled bacteria to redwood trees.
Next come the primary consumers who are eaten by the secondary
consumers who are eaten by… you get the idea.
Each level of consumption is called a trophic level. Primary producers are
therefore in the first trophic level.
LINKS IN FOOD CHAINS
Primary Producer
plant/ algae
Primary consumer
herbivores
Secondary consumer
primary carnivore
Tertiary consumer
top carnivore
autotrophs
99%
hetrotrophs
Usually no more than 5 links in a food chain. Why?
There cannot be too many links in a single food chain
because the animals at the end of the chain would not get
enough food (and hence energy) to stay alive.
LAST LINK IN FOOD CHAINS ARE:
and decomposers
Detritivores, scavengers,
Example
Food
Chains
Food Web
• ALWAYS DRAW THE ARROW FROM
TOWARDS THE ANIMAL THAT THE
FOOD’S ENERGY GOES INTO AND
READ IT LIKE:
•
•
Sun
marsh grass
ribbed mussel
heron
You would say the suns energy goes into the marsh grass, the marsh grass
energy goes into the ribbed mussel, the ribbed mussel energy goes into the
heron
•
Sun
•
•
algae
zooplankton
plankton eating fish
heron
(microscopic animals)
You would say the sun’s energy goes into the algae, the algae’s energy goes
into zooplankton, the zooplankton’s energy goes into plankton eating fish
and the plankton eating fish goes into the heron
YOU TELL ME YOUR FOOD CHAIN
Energy Pyramids
• Shows the relationship of organisms in a food
chain as the biomass (numbers) decrease as
you go up the pyramid representing energy
that is lost. 10% is lost at each level.
• Trophic Level – each step in a food chain or food
Biomass Pyramid
web
PYRAMID OF NUMBERS
Pyramid
of PYRAMID
Numbers
BIOMASS
Energy Pyramid
ENERGY
PYRAMID
• Only 10% of the energy from each trophic level
is passed on to the next level
• Energy is used by the organisms for
life processes
• Some of the energy is lost as
heat
Energy and the Food Chain
• If 10% of the
energy can be
transfered from
one trophic level
to the one above
it, each trophic
level must have
10x the energy as
the one above it.
• The number of
trophic levels
depends upon the
primary producers
Energy Pyramid
Nutrient Cycles
• Nutrients
(Carbon,
Oxygen,
Nitrogen,
Phosphorus )
stay in a
biological
system and
are recycled
continually.
Hydrogen and Oxygen
(Water) Cycle
Water never stops
moving. Snow and rain
fall to the earth from
clouds.
The rain and melted
snow run downhill into
rivers and lakes,
sometimes crashing
over waterfalls.
Eventually the water
flows into the ocean.
During evaporation,
the water turns from
liquid into gas
and moves from
oceans and lakes into
the atmosphere
where it forms clouds.
Then the cycle begins
all over again.
Carbon Cycle
The combined
processes,
including
photosynthesis,
decomposition,
and respiration,
by which carbon
as a component
of various
compounds
cycles between
its major
reservoirs—the
atmosphere,
oceans, and
living organisms.
The nitrogen cycle is the
biogeochemical
cycle
Nitrogen Cycle
that describes the
transformations of
nitrogen and nitrogencontaining compounds in
nature.
Add this to the back of
your sheet:
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria is
the organisms responsible
for converting nitrogen gas
into a usable form of
nitrogen. Bacteria that are
decomposers, recycle
nitrogen compounds in the
soil by breaking down
animal wastes and dead
plants and animals. Other
bacteria, break down
nitrogen compounds and
release free nitrogen to
the air.
Animals eat plants and obtain the nitrogen compounds
they need to make certain body chemicals. Animal wastes
and dead animals and plants are broken down by bacteria
to release nitrogen compounds back into the soil.
Phosphorus Cycle
The
phosphorus
cycle is the
biogeochemical
cycle that
describes the
movement of
phosphorus
through the
lithosphere,
hydrosphere,
and biosphere.
Succession communities:
2.
Intermediate
species
1. Pioneer
species
3. Climax
community
Pioneer species:
• Are the first plants
to grown in an
area
• Lichens (algae &
fungi) break apart
rock to make soil
• Grasses
• Annual flowers
• Mosses
Intermediate Community
Is
characterized
by trees that
grow fairly fast
like pine trees
that needs
lots of sun.
CLIMAX COMMUNITY
Plant community that no longer
undergoes changes in species
composition due to
succession.
Hard
woods like
oak &
maple trees
Types of Succession
Primary
• 1st time plants
or animals are
established
• New island
• Volcanoes
• Bare soil, rock
Secondary
• After a “blowout”
• Re-establish a
community
• Already had
living organisms
• Fire, flood,
human
disruption