Habitat, Species, Population, Community and Ecosystem

• Habitat: The natural surroundings or home of an organism.
• Species: A group of organisms that have a common characteristic and can reproduce to breed offspring.
• Population: A group of organisms of the same species that live in the same habitat.
• Community: A few populations of different organisms that live together in one habitat and have mutual interaction with one another.
• Ecosystem: A few communities that live together in one habitat and have mutual interaction with one another, including all the non-living components such as water, air, and soil.
• Balanced Ecosystem: Organisms in an ecosystem are interdependent on each other and non-living components such as water, light, air and soil.
• Adaptation of Living Things to the Environment: Living things adapt to factors such as rainfall, sunlight, extreme weather conditions, etc.
• Factors that Influence Population Size in an Ecosystem: Disease, presence of predators, source of food, change of weather
• In Tropical Climates, living things need to adapt to:

  • Rainfall
  • Sunlight
• In Desert Climate, living things need to adapt to:

  • Extreme hot and dry weather
• Competition is an interaction in which organisms compete for limited resources such as food, water, and shelter.
• Mutualism is an interaction in which both organisms benefit from each other's presence.
• Predation is an interaction in which one organism (the predator) kills and eats another organism (the prey).
• Parasitism is an interaction in which one organism (the parasite) benefits by living on or inside another organism (the host) and causing harm to the host.
• Commensalism is an interaction in which one organism benefits from another organism without causing harm or benefiting the other organism.
• In Tundra Climate, living things need to adapt to:

  • Long winters
  • Short summers
• Droughts cause

  • Soil to become dry
  • Increased risk of forest fire
  • The population of plants and animals decreases
• Migration is when an animal moves from one place to another due to a change in season


  Example: if the predator population migrates to an area, the number of prey in that area will decrease due to the increased number of predators
• Biological control is a method that uses organisms that are natural predators, parasites or pathogens to reduce the number of pests in an area.


  Advantages:

  1. More environmentally friendly because it does not involve any pesticides or chemicals
  2. Usually cheaper
  3. It does not affect human health

  Disadvantages:

  1. It takes a long time to show effect
  2. The balance of the ecosystem might be affected because of the introduction of new species.