Ecology Basics

1
Ecology Basics

• The flow of matter and energy through an
  ecosystem.

2
What are we learning?

• Standard Element SB4.b
• Explain the flow of matter and energy through
  ecosystems by
• Arranging components of a food chain according to
  energy flow.
• Comparing the quantity of energy in the steps of
  an energy pyramid.
• Explaining the need for cycling of major
  nutrients (C, O, H, N, P).

3
What's alive?

• Characteristics of Living things
• Require food for energy to carry out life
  processes
• Use energy to maintain homeostasis
• Respond to stimuli in their environment
• Reproduce similar offspring, passing genetic
  information to them
• Made of cells
• Also called Biotic
• Nonliving factors are called Abiotic

4
Organization of Life

• Biosphere
• Ecosystem
• Community
• Population
• Organism
• Biomes- the major ecosystems on the Earth.

5
Food chains

• A food chain shows how matter and energy flow
  through an ecosystem.
• The energy typically starts with the sun.
• Producers harness this energy for photosynthesis.
• Primary producer is plants
• Others are bacteria and algae

6
Food chains.. the rest of the picture.

• Producers are eaten by consumers
• Herbivores eat plants only
• Omnivores eat everything
• Consumers are eaten by other by other consumers
• Carnivores- eat meat (other consumers)
• Omnivore eats everything
• Decomposer are a special type of consumer that
  break down the dead and waste. They recycles the
  essential nutrients.

7
(No Transcript)
8
Trophic levels

• Organisms are grouped according to their source
  of energy.
• The first trophic level is the producers
• Second are the herbivores and the omnivores
  eating plants
• Third and up are the consumers and the omnivores
  eating other consumers.

9
A food web

• Many food chains tied together
• Many organism feed on more than one species.
• The links between these organisms create a web.
  They show the flow of energy as it travels
  through the system.

10
(No Transcript)
11
The Energy pyramid

• Shows the decrease of energy at each succeeding
  trophic level.
• The total energy transfer up is about 10
• Not all food that is eaten can be digested
• Some of the digested food is used as energy
• Most organism use up most of the energy instead
  of storing it.
• Some of it is lost as heat

12
The other pyramids

• Pyramid of numbers
• Shows the number of organisms on each trophic
  level
• Biomass pyramid
• Shows the mass of organisms on each trophic level

13
(No Transcript)
14
The elements

• The elements that are the components in all
  organic molecules must be recycled because there
  are a finite amount on our planet.
• The elements are
• Carbon (C)
• Oxygen (O)
• Hydrogen (H)
• Nitrogen (N)
• Phosphorus (P)