Vocabulary

Ecology: the study of organisms and how they interact with the environment around them.

Producer: an organism that is at the bottom of the trophic level (plants)

Biodiversity: is all the different organisms and life forms that live in a certain area

Scale of Disturbance: any event that disrupts the natural state of an ecosystem

Succession: order that plants and animals come back to areas that just suffered from a natural disaster. (i.e. fast growing comes first)

Predation

the setting…

Individual: one single living thing

Population: same species, same area

Community: different species, same area

Ecosystem: different species, an area that all together has the same climate

Biome: large area with the same climate

Biosphere: all the ecosystems together (i.e. Earth)

Symbiosis

Symbiosis: the relationship between two organisms

Mutualism: when two organisms benefit off of each other

Commensalism: when one organism is benefiting and the other is not affected.

Parasitism: when one organism is living in the other and benefiting off of it while the other is being hurt.

Food Chain and Food Webs

A food chain outlines who eats whom. A food web is all of the food chains in an ecosystem.

Trophic Levels

Trophic Level I, Trophic Level II, Trophic Level III, Trophic Level IV

Trophic Level I: autotrophs - producers

Trophic Level II: heterotrophs - primary consumers

Trophic Level III: herbivore - secondary consumers

Trophic Level IV: heterotrophs - tertiary consumers

10% method

Only 10% goes up each level.

The other 90% is lost through the metabolic process

Pyramids

Biomass Pyramid: the representation of total living biomass or organic matter present at different trophic levels in an ecosystem

Energy Pyramid: model that shows the flow of energy from one trophic, or feeding, level to the next in an ecosystem.

Number Pyramid: shows the total number of individual organisms at each level in the food chain of an ecosystem

Fluctuating Population Size

If the Birth rate is more than the death rate the population will increase.

If the Death rate is more than the birth rate the population will decrease.

Population Density Formula: # of organisms/ space

Population Growth Rate Formula: current population - initial population/ difference in time

Resiliency

In the Tropical Savanna, the organisms are quite resilient to the natural disasters in the area. There are a lot of fires in a tropical savanna, and trees have roots that go deep into the ground, so they can reach water. Their leaves fall off in the winter to save water and the bark of the trunk on the tree is thick so it can protect the tree from the scorching hot fires.

Scientific Method

• Make an observation.

• Ask a question.

• Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation.

• Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.

• Test the prediction.

• Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions.

Q&A

Q: How is a food web organized?

A: Trophic Levels

Q: General characteristics of a biome?

A: Temperature range, soil type, and the amount of light and water

Q: Can you explain resiliency of biomes to disturbances in a general way?

A: An ecosystem can display resilience in at least two ways: in the ability to resist an environmental perturbation and not switch to another state, and in how quickly it recovers after the disturbance.

Q: Can you identify what aspect(s) of a procedure tells you how reliable the experiment is? What are
reliability indicators?

A: If you continue to get the same answer we have a reliable answer. To increase liability you have to increase your testing size.
Q: Can you identify what aspect(s) of a procedure tells you how valid the experiment is? What are validity indicators?

A: The more controlled variables you have, the more valid your experiment is.

Carbon Cycle

Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants. Through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled from the air to produce food made from carbon for plant growth. Then, animals eat the food that is produces. Then the excretion , waste, and decomposition of the animals and plants are then broken down by bacteria doesn’t break down the waste, then it get burned in the soil and after millions of years it becomes fossil fuels, which when burned becomes carbon dioxide.

carbon in atmos. →through photo. plants pull in the carbon dioxide → gluc. is produced → Animals then eat the plant to get the sustenance→the excretion and decomp. from plant and ani. is decomposed by bact.→ bact. breaks it down →bact. respire → if the waste isn’t broken down →buried→millions of years→fossil fuels→burned→carbon dioxide.

Nitrogen Cycle

Nitrogen gas is in the atmosphere as N2 and by Nitrogen Fixation it reaches the soil and it is changed by bacteria into NH3, NO2, and NO3. Then plants use that and absorb it so it becomes proteins. Animals then can eat the plant to get the protein. The plant and animals excrete and decompose and that protein becomes NH3 NO2, and NO3 by bacteria. Then, either it goes back to the atmosphere through denitrification by bacteria and it becomes nitrogen gas again. However, bacteria could break down the excretion/ decomposition which makes it possible too be used by animals again.

nitrogen gas atmos N2. → with nitro fixation it reaches soil →bacteria changed into NH3 NO2 NO3 → then plants use it and absorb it→becomes protein→animals eat→plants and animals excrete and decompose →then becomes NH3, NO2, NO3 by bacteria → goes through denitrification and becomes nitrogen gas →or bacteria break the excretion and makes it possible for plants and animals to use it again.

• we have to break down glucose so we can ear it, aka respiration when we break it down carbon dioxide is one of the components that come out.

lovde at first lie