Ecology

Definitions:

Ecology:The study of how organisms interact with eachother as well with there enviorment

Enviorment:Where all living things and non-living things that exist on earth

Biotic:All living organisms in an ecosystem

Ex:grass,skunks,lions,whales bacteria etc

Abiotic:All non-living things in an ecosystem

Ex:water,wind,soil

Ecosystem:a complex self-regulating system in which biotic factors interact with eacother and with abiotic factors

Sustainability of the enviorment:The population of living organisms can contiue to interact and reproduce indefinitely to perserve biodiversity

Biodiverstity:The number of different types of organisms in an area.The more organisms,the more biodiverse the area,and thherefore a more healthy and sutible enviorment

Habitat:Where organisms live

A niche:The role or job the organisms play in its ecosystem

Ex:Bears catch fish

Types of ecosystems:

Open Ecosystem:An ecosystem where organsims can freely eneter and leave

Ex:Forest,city,stream

Closed Ecosystem:An ecosystem where organsisms can not freely leave or enter

Ex:Aquariums,zoo,farm

Ecological levels of organizations

Biosphere:The region of the earth where all life exisits

Atmosphere:The layer of gases that surroned the earth

Lithosphere:The earths soil and outer layer

Hydrosphere:All water on earth

Biome:A large geographical area that contains simlar ecosystems

Biomes

Biome	Climate	Plant and animal popultaion
Dessert	very rain fall hot days cool nights	Droughts,resistan plants Plants-catus,prickly pears Animals-lizard,snakes,camals
Grassland	low rain falls hot days cold nights	Plants- grass,wheat,corn Animals-prarie dogs,bison,antelope
Marine (salt water,oceans and seas)	stableize gobal climate relase heat during winter aborbs heat during summer	Plants- red algae,blue-green algae,diatoms Animals-lobster,whales,cod barnicles,muscles,shrimp,tuna
Fresh water	not stable constantly changing insize,population etc…	Plants- grasses,ferns,lily pads Animals-trout,muskrat,beavers,clams
`Tropical Rain forest	`very hot very humid seasons of rain	Plants-cines,banboo,broad leafed plants Animals-Boa constrictor,phytons,monkey, sloths
Tundra	long severe winters but no darkness permant frost Bogs and marshes form in summer	Plants-shurbs,moss,lichen Animals-mostiqutos,caribou,polar bbear,artic fox,snowy owls
Boral forest	Long severe winters summer growing seasons	Plants-spurce trees,fir trees, blueberries Animals-Wolf, black bears, squirrels, eagles, hawk
Temperate deciduos forest	Moderate spring, summer, fall and winter seasons	Plants-Maple trees, roses, oak trees, grass Animals-Deer, fox, woodchuck

Definitions:

Ecosystem:A collection of communities that have similar population

Communities:formed from the interaction of imany ppopulations of different species

Populations:a group of members of the same species that lkive jin the same area

species:a group of similar organims that vcan reproduce with eachother and produce offspring that can reproduce

Producers:produce their own food through photosythesis

Consumers:dont produce there own food but eat plants and animals to surive

Decomposers:chemically breeakdown organic matter into its nutrients

*Importnt*: H2O+CO2+light energy→C6 H12 O6 +O2(for photosyntheseis)

Ecological Pyramid

its necessary that there is a relatioship between the 3 thropic levels
(autotrophic,heterotropic and decomposers)
As energey passes along the food chain, it deacreases due to energy loss from the transfer from one organism to the next

-Pyramid of numbers

The further up the food chain the more organisms would need to be eaten to supply enough energy to support life

Example:Grass100 →mice10→hawk1

-Pyramid of Biomass

Takes into account the mass of each organism in a food chain (not just the number of organisms as in a pyramid of numbers)

-Pyramid of Energy

Takes into account the energy transferred in a food chain (not just the number of organisms or their masses)
This is the most accurate type of ecological pyramid