Ecology Organisms and Their Relationships

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Ecology Organisms and Their Relationships

• Textbook Chapter 2
• Review Book Topic 6

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Ecology

• The study of
• Relationships among living
• organisms
• Interactions between organisms
• and their environment
• First introduced in 1866
• Ecologists scientists who study ecology

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The Biosphere
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• The biosphere is the portion of Earth which
  supports life
• Very thin
• Consists of the
• Lithosphere - surface of the earth
• Atmosphere
• Hydrosphere - under the oceans
• surface

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Environmental Factors

• Biotic factors
• Living factors in the environment
• Examples
• Fish
• Fern
• Protist
• Tree
• Mushroom

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• Abiotic factors
• Nonliving factors in the environment
• Needed for the survival of biotic factors
• Examples
• Temperature
• Air
• Water
• Sunlight
• Soil
• Nutrients/minerals
• pH

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Environmental Organization

• The biosphere is too large for an ecologist to
  study
• Ecologists study relationships in the biosphere
  based on different levels of organization
• Levels increase in complexity as the numbers and
  interactions between organisms increase

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• Levels of organization
• Organism
• Population
• Biological
• community
• Ecosystem
• Biome
• Biosphere

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• Organism
• Lowest level of organization
• Individual organism
• Ex. A single fish

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• Population
• Individual organisms of a single species that
  share the same geographic location at the same
  time
• May have
• competition
• between organisms
• Ex. A school of fish

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• Community
• Group of interacting populations that occupy the
  same geographic area at the same time
• May or may not have
• competition between
• populations
• Ex. A school of fish
• as well as other plants
• and animals which live
• in the same area

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• Ecosystem
• A biological community and all of the abiotic
  factors that affect it
• Can be large or small
• in size
• Flexible boundaries
• which can change or
• overlap
• Ex. Lake Ontario

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• Biome
• Large group of ecosystems that share the same
  climate and have similar types of communities
• Ex. Marine biome
• The combination of all of the Earths biomes
  forms our biosphere