Habitats and inter-relationships of organism

What is symbiosis?

act of living together

What are the types of relationships?

Predation

Mutualism

Commensalism

Parasitism

Competition

Ammensalism

Antibiosis

What are the types of roles in the food chain?

Producers

Consumers

Decomposers

What are the types of consumers?

Herbivores

Carnivores

Omnivores

Scavengers

Detritivores

What can biotic factors do to the ecosystem?

Biotic factors that affect the distribution of organisms may include

Interactions with other species

Predation

Competition

What are producers?

Autotrophs: Autotrophic nutrition (way of feeding)

Capable of synthesising complex organic substances from simple inorganic substances

What are the type of autotrophs?

Photoautotrophs

Chemoautotrophs

What are photoautotrophs?

Use light energy to make food

What are some examples?

Plants, algae

What are chemoautotrophs?

Bacteria that obtain energy from chemical reactions

Examples?

Oxidising inorganic substances such as hydrogen sulfide or ammonia

What are consumers known as, and why? (Primary consumers)

Heterotrophs

Cannot synthesise complex organic substances from inorganic substances → depend on other organisms for their organic requirement.

What are consumer levels differentiated into?

Primary

Secondary

Tertiary

Quaternary

Herbivores - define + examples

Animals that consume plants only (horse/deer)

carnivore, define + examples

Animals that consume other animals (lion/tiger)

omnivore, define + examples

Animals that consume both plants and animals (pig/bear)

Scavengers - define + examples

Animals that consume dead organic matter (vulture/hyena)

What are decomposers?

Organisms that secrete digestive enzymes onto dead organisms and absorb the products of digestion; saprotrophic nutrition

They break down organic matter chemically

Why are they so important?

Recycles nutrients within an ecosystem

Break down organic matter into simple inorganic substances so producers can absorb it and make food.

What are some decomposers?

Fungi and bacteria (main)

What are detritivores?

Animals that feed on partially broken down organic matter (detritus) (type of heterotroph) PHYSICALLY

They also recycle detritus, returning it into the food chain. (decompose organic material)

OR

Break down partially decaying organisms to speed up the decomposition process

Examples of detritivores:

Earthworms → eat rotting plant leaves and other debris

Dung beetles → eat faeces

Sea Slug

What is detritus?

Partially/fully decomposed matter.

What is the definition of the relationship of predator-prey

An interaction between species in which one species, the predator, kills and eats the other, the prey.

What are the adaptations of most predators?

Acute senses

• to locate and identify potential prey

Claws, teeth, fangs, stingers, poison

• help catch and subdue prey which they feed on

Adaptations of prey

camouflage

• escape predation by blending into surroundings (minimise detection)

Mimicry

• Appear more like a more aggressive organism and scare off the predator

Examples of camouflaged prey

White-tailed deer

• uses counter shading, where they are lighter on their bellies and darker on their backs. When seen from a distance, the two colours blend, making it difficult for the predator to identify the animal’s outline from the surrounding plants.

Examples of a mimicry prey

Viceroy butterfly

• Black and orange wing pattern that closely matches the Monarch Butterfly’s pattern. Monarch is a bad-tasting nsect that most birds will not eat. Birds which see the viceroy will leave it alone, thinking it is a Monarch.

Define parasitism

A NON-MUTUAL relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host.

Example of parasitism

A parasite (tapeworm) absorbs nutrients at the expense of the host (human), which experiences discomfort.

Define mutualism

The way in which two organisms of different species biologically interact in a relationship in which each individual derives a fitness benefit

Examples:

Ants and aphids

• Sugar-rich honeydew (by-product of feeding on plant sap) is traded by aphids for ant protection from predators like the ladybird beetles.

Define commensalism

Relationship between organisms where one organism benefits without affecting the other (host)

examples:

Sea anemone (host) and shrimp (commensal).

Shrimp benefits by gaining protection living amongst the tentacles of the sea anemone, which neither benefits nor harmed/unaffected

Define competition

Contest between organisms/groups for a niche, resources &/mates.

Usually occurs in the same environment where they co-exist

Diff types of competition

Intraspecific (Competition between individuals of the same species)

Interspecific competition (competition between different individuals of different species)

Define ammensalism

Relationship between two organisms of different species where one organism hurts the other but is not affected in this interaction

Example:

Grazing mammals trample and destroy vegetation around waterholes, creating bare zones. The mammals are unaffected by the loss, as they go there primarily to drink and not to feed.

Define antibiosis

Interaction between organisms in which one party chemically inhibits the other.

One party is harmed, other is unaffected/benefits from it

What is the release of chemicals called? and examples

Allelopathy

• plant releases toxic compounds (phenols/alkaloids) which inhibit growth of nearby plants

Plants:

Eucalyptus and black walnut

What is the inhibition of its own offsprings called?

Autotoxicity - parent plant produces chemicals to inhibit growth of its own seedlings

One example of antibiosis?

Fungi/bacteria producing antibiotics to inhibit the growth of bacteria

Why do they want to do so?

Reduce competition for resources like food, water and other limited resources.