Ecosystems

• Producers are organisms that can reproduce to produce fertile offspring.
• Consumers are organisms that eat other animals.
• Carnivores are organisms that eat plants and animals.
• Omnivores are organisms that can reproduce and can feed on both plants and animals.
• Predators are organisms that hunt and eat prey.
• Prey are organisms that are eaten by predators.
• Biodiversity shows feeding relationships from producer to consumer.
• Food webs show all feeding interactions between organisms in an ecosystem.
• A community is all the organisms living in a particular area, including non-living components that they interact with.
• A habitat is the place where an organism lives.
• Predation is a niche where a wolf predates rabbits.
• Competition occurs when there are a lack of available resources, such as light for plants.
• Cacti can only survive in places with high temperatures and low water availability, indicating their tolerance conditions.
• The distribution of two species of barnacles on a rocky seashore in Scotland is an example of a niche.
• Competition in ecosystems occurs when resources are in short supply.
• There are two types of competition: Interspecific competition, which is competition between members of different species for one or a few of the resources they require, and Intraspecific competition, which is competition between members of the same species for all resources required.
• Interspecific competition is more intense than intraspecific competition because members of the same species occupy the exact same niches so have no other choice but to compete.
• Different species have some niches which are not the same, so if they can’t get one type of food, they can just find another type.
• An ecosystem includes all organisms living in a habitat and non-living components that they interact with.
• Food webs show all of the feeding interactions between producers and consumers within an ecosystem.
• Niche relates to the resources it requires in its ecosystem, such as light and nutrient availability and its interactions with others in the community.
• The role an organism plays within a community is referred to as its niche.
• Niches involve every interaction that an organism has such as competition, predation and the conditions it can tolerate.