Competition & Interdependence

• Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, and ecosystem level.
• A habitat is the place where an organisms lives. 
• A population refers to all of the organisms of a particular species that live in the same habitat. 
• An ecosystem is the interaction of a community of living organisms (biotic) with the non-living (abiotic) parts of their environment.
• Competition is an interaction between organisms or species in which they both try to use the same limited resources.
• In ecology, what is a 'community'?

  All the populations of different species that live together in a habitat
• Give three resources that animals compete for.

  • Food
  • Water
  • Mates
  • Territory
• Give three resources that plants compete for.

  Mineral ions

  Water

  Light

  Space
• All organisms in an ecosystem depend upon one another, with countless complex relationships between them all. 

  What do we call this concept? 

  Interdependence 
• The diagram above shows the relationship between grass, rabbits, snakes, and hawks in a habitat. 

  If the population of snakes falls, what is likely to happen to the rabbit population?

  • Increase 
  • The rabbit population is likely to increase as there will be less predation from snakes.