Everything is Connected

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Everything is Connected

• Chapter 2 Principles of Ecology

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Work in groups and try to arrange the following
actual events that occurred in Borneo in
chronological order

• Rats brought plague
• Lizards ate roaches (with DDT)
• Cats died
• Caterpillar numbers went up
• WHO (World Health Organization) sent DDT to
  Borneo
• Mosquitoes were wiped out
• Caterpillars ate grass roofs
• Cats were parachuted in

• Cats caught lizards containing DDT
• Roaches stored DDT in their bodies
• Grass roofs collapse
• Lizards disappeared
• Lizards slowed down
• Rats increased

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Lessons from Borneo
DDT was used to kill mosquitoes that carried
malaria
There were some unintended consequences
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Malaria in Borneo

• In the early 1950s, there was an outbreak of
  malaria among the Dayak people in Borneo.

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World Health Organization

• Sprayed DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) to
  eradicate mosquitoes that carried malaria

Mosquitoes died. Malaria declined. Everyone was
happy
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Unintended Effects

• Until their thatched roofs started collapsing on
  their heads!

DDT killed parasitic wasps that ate thatch-eating
caterpillars
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Other Unintended Effects

• Cockroaches survived and stored DDT in their
  bodies
• Gecko lizards ate toxic cockroaches and their
  movement slowed down
• Cats were able to catch and eat toxic lizards
• Cats died
• Rat population exploded
• Outbreaks of typhus and plague carried by rats

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World Health Organization

• Initiated Operation Cat Drop
• Parachuted 14,000 cats into Borneo
• Rat population declined
• Everyone was happy

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Correct order of events

• WHO (World Health Organization) sent DDT to
  Borneo
• Mosquitoes were wiped out
• Caterpillar numbers went up
• Caterpillars ate grass roofs
• Grass roofs collapse
• Roaches stored DDT in their bodies
• Lizards ate roaches (with DDT)
• Lizards slowed down
• Cats caught lizards containing DDT
• Lizards disappeared
• Cats died
• Rats increased
• Rats brought plague
• Cats were parachuted in

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I. What is an ecosystem?

• All organisms living in a particular area, along
  with their physical environment
• A. Biotic Factors
• living organisms in an environment
• B. Abiotic Factors nonliving parts of an
  environment

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II. Organization of Living Things

• A. Building blocks of one organism
• Atom
• Molecule
• Cell
• Tissue
• Organ
• Organ System
• Organism

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• B. Building blocks of groups of organisms
• Species - group of organisms that share common
  genes, resemble each other, and are able to
  reproduce
• Population - organisms of the same species, which
  interbreed and live in the same place at the same
  time
• Biological Community groups of populations that
  inhabit a common environment
• Ecosystem groups of communities and their
  abiotic factors
• Biome group of ecosystems
• Biosphere portion of Earth that supports life

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III. Organisms in Ecosystems

• A. Habitat
• Place an organism lives
• (like its address)

Examples Burrow Water Nest Tree Thicket
Rock crevices or openings Cave Den Hollow log
or hollow stump Shallow indentation in the
ground
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• B. Niche
• How a species meets its needs for food, shelter,
  survival and reproduction (like its job)
• Includes biotic and abiotic interactions

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IV. Survival Relationships

• A. Symbiosis association between organisms of
  different species
• B. 3 kinds
• Mutualism when both species benefit
• Commensalism when one species benefits and the
  other species is neither harmed nor benefited
• Parasitism when one species benefits at the
  expense of another species

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V. How Organisms Obtain Energy

• A. Autotroph
• Uses light energy to make its own food
  (producer)
• B. Heterotroph
• Feeds on other organisms, cannot make its own
  food (herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, scavenger,
  decomposer)