B7 - Ecology

• `Ecosystems consist of ecological communities and their interactions within a defined geographical area.
• Habitat - The place where an organism lives and the conditions with where It lives
• Population

  All the organisms of a particular species that lives in that habitat
• Community

  All the populations of different species that live together in a habitat.
• BIOTIC factors - living factors of the environment

  e.g. food availability or no. of predators
• ABIOTIC factors - non-living factors of the environment


  e.g temperature, soil pH
• ECOSYSTEM - habitat, population, comMunich, biotic factors and abiotic factors


  The interacting of a community of living organisms with the non-living parts of their environment
• COMPETITION - for different limited resources
• competition

  • Animals
  • Plants
• Competition - Animals

  • space (territory)
  • food and water
  • mates
• Competition - Plants

  • Light
  • space
  • water and mineral ions from soil
• Competition between:

  • DIFFERENT species
  • SAME species
• INTERDEPENDENCE

  All species depend on other species in some way
• Interdependence

  • if anything happened to one of these species all the others would be affected
• Interdependence - example of change

  1. More mice
  2. More mice eat more grass
  3. less grass availability
  4. less grass for rabbits and grasshoppers
  5. POPULATIONS OF RABBITS AND GRASSHOPPERS WOULD DECREASE
• BUT

  1. Hawks have more mice to eat
  2. the Hawk population INCREASES
• PREDATORS - Animals that kill prey
• PREY - The organism that is killed by predator
• BIOTIC factor

  Any living factor that affects another organism of shapes the ecosystem
• (e.g.) PREDATION - biotic factor that affects the size of one species by killing or eating another.
• BIOTIC factors - examples

  • predation
  • Competition for resources or habitats
  • amount of disease
  • availability of food
• ABIOTIC - non living parts of the environment that can affects organisms

  • CHEMICAL
  • PHYSICAL
• ABIOTIC factors - examples

  • Light intensity
  • CO2 concentration
  • temperature
  • moisture levels
  • wind direction/intensity
  • Soil’s pH and mineral content
• (e.g) increase in temperature

  
  

  PLANTS

  1. increases the rate of photosynthesis
  2. because enzymes involved can work faster
  3. overall increase in the rate of plant growth
• (e.g.) increase in temperature

  ANIMALS

  • Animals spend less energy staying cool
  • more energy spent for growth or less time searching for food
• ALL organisms need to need be ADAPTED to its ENVIRONMENT to SURVIVE.
• categories of ADAPTATIONS

  • Behavioural
  • Structural
  • Functional
• STRUCTURAL adaptations - physical features that we see

  • Shape
  • Colour
• (e.g) Seals - live in COLD

  1. Rounded shape - stores fat
  2. Low surface area: volume

  both feature help to CONSERVE BODY HEAT
• BEHAVIOURAL ADAPTATIONS - the way an organism behaves or acts
• (e.g.) Elephants - behavioural

  1. Flap their ears
  2. Spray themselves with water

  Cool them down
• FUNCTIONAL - processes inside an organism

  • Metabolism
  • Reproductive system
• (e.g. question)

  Describe how brown bears are adapted to live in their environment (6)

  The brown bear, also known as ‘Ursos arctos’ is found across the northern latitudes of america and eurasia. Their diet is extremely diverse and variable, including plants, fungi, fish, invertebrates and mammals like deer?

  m

  
  

  what to do?

  6 different points

  3 adaptations - 3 explanations for each
• Extremophiles - adapted to live in extreme environments

  • Bacteria
  • Archaea
• EXTREME environments

  1. High Temperatures - hot springs
  2. High Salt concentrations- salt lakes
  3. High Pressures - deep sea vents
• Food Chains - show what gets eaten by what in an ecosystem

  1. PRODUCER - photosynthetic organism (e.g. grass)
  2. PRIMARY CONSUMERS - eats the producers (e.g. mice)
  3. SECONDARY CONSUMER - some type of predator that eats the primary consumer (e.g. owl)
  4. TERTIARY CONSUMER - eats the secondary consumer
• producer to tertiary consumer

  ENERGY IS LOST
• Predator Prey Cycles - interactions

  OUT OF PHASE - Change in the predator population always lags behind that of the prey slightly.

  Cycle just repeats again and again

  NO EQUILIBRIUM because it takes ALONG TIME (generations) for entire populations to increase or decrease.

  
• Recycling - ATOMS CAN BE USED OVER AND OVER AGAIN

  • Water Cycle
  • Carbon Cycle
• WATER CYCLE

  1. Energy from the sun comes down and causes some water to evaporate (water from lakes, oceans, rivers, puddles or even in soil and leaves in plants, which we call transpiration)
  2. Evaporate into water vapour in the air
  3. Water vapour accumulates in the sky
  4. Water vapour condenses down into clouds
  5. The clouds are blown from one region to another
  6. The clouds get too heavy
  7. Some point the water will fall back down to earth as rain - PRECIPITATION