Ecosystems

• Ecology

  • the study of the relationship

  between plants, animals,

  people and their

  environment
• Components of Ecosystems

  Abiotic and biotic
• HABITAT

  • the place where a living thing

  lives and grow naturally
• Ecosystem

  • a community of different

  kinds of organisms that live

  together in a particular

  environment
• Environment

  • refers to the immediate

  surroundings of an organism and

  all the things in it

  • it includes not only the living

  things but also non living things

  such as light, water, air and soil
• NICHE

  • refers to the function of an

  organism or a population

  • describes the organism’s or

  population’s overall way of life
• ORGANISM

  • an individual living thing of any

  kind
• POPULATION

  • organisms of one kind that live

  together in an area
• BIOME

  • a large community of plants and

  animals in a region that is more

  or less uniformly affected by the

  same prevailing climate
• BIOSPHERE

  • includes all forms of life on Earth
• What are the two types of Ecological Relationships?

  Symbiotic Relationships and Non-symbiotic relationships
• Symbiosis

  • a close relationship between two

  organisms in which one organism

  lives near, on, or even inside

  another organism and in which at

  least one organism benefits
• Symbiosis comes from a Greek term which means

  “living together”
• What are the three types of symbiotic relationships?

  Mutualism, commensalism, parasitism
• What are the two types of non-symbiotic relationships?

  Competition and predation
• Commensalism

  • only one organism in the

  partnership benefits, while

  the other organism is

  neither benefited nor

  harmed
• Commensalism


  orchids growing on branches
• Commensalism


  egrets perch atop cattle
• Commensalism


  remoras feed on food scraps

  left by larger animals
• Commensalism


  birds follow the army ants to find prey that

  are trying to escape the crawling swarm
• Commensalism


  barnacles growing on the back of a whale to get protection and access to food
• Mutualism

  • a partnership that benefits

  both organisms
• Mutualism


  pistol shrimps and gobies live together where shrimps dig burrows and gobies offer

  protection from predators using good eyesight
• Mutualism


  corals provide algae protection and in return algae produce oxygen for corals and help them remove wastes
• Mutualism


  oxpeckers feed on parasites on large mammals
• Mutualism


  anemones provide shelter and protect

  clownfish against predators; clownfish

  provides them food by attracting

  predators to be stung by the anemone
• Mutualism


  honeyguide birds guide humans to find

  beehives in the forest; honeyguides feed on

  the protein-rich larvae and calorie-rich wax

  left by humans after collecting honey
• Parasitism

  • a partnership in which

  one organism benefits

  and the other is harmed
• Parasitism


  ticks live on the skin of their animal host
• Parasitism


  fleas lives off the blood of warm-blooded creatures
• Parasitism


  leeches live off the blood of animals
• Parasitism


  lice consume dead skin cells and feed on blood or sebaceous fluid
• Parasitism


  helminths live off the digestive tract in mammals
• Non Symbiosis

  these are free living and independent
• Competition

  a type of relationship in

  which a population of

  organisms struggles against

  other populations for basic

  resources in order to survive
• Predation

  the relationship between a

  predator (an organism that kills

  and eats other organisms) and

  a prey (an organism that is

  killed and eaten)
• Competition


  lions vs. hyenas
• Competition


  trees vs. other trees
• Competition


  humans vs. wild
• Competition


  pollinators vs. pollinators