Unit 11: Ecology

Describe the relationships between different levels of ecological organization.

  • population: group of individuals belonging to the same species

  • community: multiple groups of species inhabiting the same area

  • ecosystem: groups of organisms interacting with one another and the environment they inhabit, including both biotic and abiotic factors

  • biome: a specific geographic area with climate and geographical features, w/ organisms and vegetation

  • biosphere: all the living things on earth

Differentiate between abiotic and biotic factors in the environment.

Compare and contrast different consumers: herbivore, omnivore, carnivore, scavenger, decomposer

  • herbivore - only eats plants

  • omnivore - eats both plants and meat

  • carnivore - eats only meat

  • scavenger - eat large decaying biomass - preventing the spread of diseases and returns nutrients to soil

  • decomposer - breaks down microscopic dead matter into simpler inorganic compounds— returning it to the soil

Analyze food webs and food chains to describe energy flow and predator-prey relationships.

  • food chains - shows the linear feeding relationship from one organism to the next

  • food webs - shows the multiple and interconnecting food chains within an ecosystem

Use data to create an energy pyramid to describe energy transfer between trophic levels.

Analyze data to show how ecosystems maintain relative balance.

  • niche partitioning

    • dividing up roles and resources, using the environment in different ways in order to prevent competition and resource limitations

  • biodiversity

    • if one species is wipe out, another can pick up its function + role to maintain ecosystem

  • keystone species

    • an animal that has a huge impact on the ecosystem, not always the apex predators

  • predator - prey

    • predator keeps prey pop in check

  • limiting factors

    • factors such as resource limitation, environmental conditions, and competition determine the carrying capacity of an ecosystem

Create a food web and energy pyramid for an ecosystem.

Evaluate the effects of a keystone species on an environment.

  • they are vital to the balance of the ecosystem, if they are removed, it causes a trophic cascade

Identify factors that affect population growth.

  • competition, limited resources, natural disasters

Analyze and graph data showing how fluctuations in populations are affected by biotic and abiotic factors.

  • abiotic: density independent

    • natural disasters, water accessibility, weather, climate

  • biotic: density dependent, proportional to the increase of population

    • competition, disease, predation

Given a data set, identify the type of growth, describe what occurred to cause the growth, and graph.

Given a data set, identify the carrying capacity of a population and use evidence to support the claim.

  • carrying capacity is reached when the growth (rate of change) slows to a value of 0, and the population number stabilize or fluctuate over this steady value over time

Predict what would happen to a population given a list of limiting factors.

Energy does not cycle through ecosystems, matter does

  • Energy flows through ecosystems

  • sunlight → carbs (ChemE) → consumed ChemE → decaying matter → releasing heat into atmosphere

List the ecological levels of organization from smallest to largest.

  • population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere

List and describe different biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem.

Draw a food web. Identify producers and consumers.

Compare and contrast exponential growth and logistic growth.

  • exponential growth is when a population exponentially grows at a constant rate without any limiting factors (unrealistically)

  • logistic growth is when a population encounters environmental resistance as it grows, and reaches the carrying capacity, the population stabilizes and fluctuates over this average value and levels off

What are four factors that affect the size of a population?

  • birth rate, death rate, immigration, emigration

Describe a predator/prey relationship. Give an example.

Describe a parasite/host relationship. Give an example.

Compare and contrast symbiotic relationships: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.

Compare and contrast autotrophs and heterotrophs. How do they each obtain energy and nutrients?