Ecological Relationships

• Predator/Prey

• Symbiotic Relationships

  • Mutualism: Both species benefit from the relationship

    • Example of Mutualism: Flowers and Bees- Bees pollinate the flowers (helps the flowers) and the pollen is vital to bees.

  • Commensalism: One individual benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped

    • Example of Commensalism: Frogs use plants as protection and the plants are not helped or harmed.

  • Parasitism: One individual lives on/in another individual and causes harm.

    • Example of Parasitism: Mosquitoes take blood from humans and humans get itchy and can catch disease.

• Competition

  • Can occur between members of the same species or members of different species.

  • Competitive Exclusion Principle: Two species with identical niches cannot coexist for prolonged periods of time.

• Generalist: Organisms that feed on a wide variety of food and have a wider niche

• Specialist: Organisms that feed on specific things and have a narrower niche

• Niche: A role an organism plays in a community

Population Growth

• Logistics

  • Limiting Factors: Factors that cause population growth to decrease.

    • Density-dependent: Limiting factors that depend on population size.

      • Example: Overcrowding, disease, etc.

    • Density Independent: Limiting factors that have nothing to do with population size

      • Example: Unusual weather, natural disasters, seasonal cycles, human impacts, etc.

  • Carrying capacity: The max number of individuals an environment can support

• Exponential population growth: The trend that occurs when population growth increases with population size.

• Immigration: The movement of individuals into an area.

• Emigration: The movement of individuals out of an area

Succession

• Primary Succession: no soil, bare rock

• Secondary Succession: Soil is present

• Climax community: The state where populations of plants or animals remain stable and exist in balance with each other and their environment

• Pioneer Organisms: An organism that populates a region after a natural disaster, mass extinction, or any other event that kills off most life in the area.

• Producers: Organisms that capture energy from sunlight through photosynthesis and provide food from inorganic compounds

• Consumers

  • Primary Consumers: Organisms that feed on producers

  • Secondary: Organisms that feed on primary consumers.

  • Tertiary: Organisms that obtain energy by feeding on both primary and secondary consumers

Graphing

NEED:

• X and Y axis labeled

• Title

• Even scale on the axes

• Points plotted correctly

Scientific Method

• What is Scientific Method: An observation/Inference

• Steps: Observation, Ask a Question, Research or use prior knowledge, hypothesis, experiment, analyze data, conclusion, report

• Controlled Experiment: an experiment where all variables in an experimental group and a comparison control group are kept the same except for one variable that is changed.

• Dependent Variables: Measured during the investigation; represented on the y-axis

• Independent Variables: Set by the investigator; represented on the x-axis

• PURPOSE: To collect Data

  • Qualitative Data: Data collected that is NOT numbers (color/shape patterns, words, etc.)

  • Quantitative Data: Data represented by numbers and statistics

Levels of Organization

• Individual, population, community, and ecosystem

  • Biotic Factors: Living factors in an environment

  • Abiotic Factors: Non-living factors in an environment

Characteristics of Living Things

• Reproduce

  • Asexual: One organism makes an exact genetic copy of itself

  • Sexual: Two organisms merge genetics for a genetically mixed product

• Grow and develop

• Made of cells

• Responds to environment

• Obtains and uses materials and energy

• As a group, they evolve over time

• Universal genetic code (DNA/RNA)

• Maintain Homeostasis

  • Homeostasis: The state of steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions- Equilibrium