Transcript Ecology of organisms - Sonoma Valley High School

Ecology of organisms
Ever changing environment
 Organisms must be able to adjust to
change in both the abiotic and biotic
factors
 These factors influence each other
 For example the amount of rainfall
influences plant growth which impacts the
number of insects in an ecosystem
Range of tolerance
 All organisms have a range of conditions
that they can tolerate
 This is represented as a tolerance curve
 There are optimal levels of conditions
(such as light, heat, humidity) that an
organism can thrive in, but each is able to
survive conditions outside of the optimal
level
Acclimation
 Living things can adjust or acclimate to changing
conditions such as changes in light intensity or
temperature
Don’t confuse
acclimation with
adaptation.
Acclimation
happens quickly to
individuals where as
adaptation happens
slowly to
populations
Control of internal conditions
 Regulators maintain homeostatic through metabolic means (mammals
& birds)
 Conformers maintain homeostasis through their behavior (fish &
reptiles)
 Each has its advantages regulators can be active under a wider range of
conditions but they must consume more energy to do so.
how
Regulators
control
temp.
how conformer control temperature
Escaping unsuitable conditions
 If an organism can’t acclimate
it can either migrate or
become dormant
 Migration is leaving the area
(bird flying south for the
winter)
 Dormancy is slowing down
metabolism (e.g. trees loosing
leaves in the winter)
Species Niche
 A species role, how and where it lives is it’s niche
 generalist can tolerate a wide range of habitats & foods
 Rats are generalists
 specialist can only live and consume certain things
 Most butterflies are specialist, their larva can only eat one genus of
plants
There are advantages and
disadvantages to both
strategies. Generalist can
acclimate to a verity of
conditions but they face
more completion. Specialist
have less competition but
are limited in the resources
they can exploit. How does
specialization relate to
about adaptive radiation?
The mission blue butterfly eats only one
species of lupine and their larva are tended
by ants. They are endanger of extinction.
Summary review
 How do different organisms adjust to their
environment? What strategies do species have
for surviving change and utilizing a niche? Think
of examples of each strategy and the pros and
cons of each.