Ecology and Ecosystems
•Ecology is the study of the relationships between plants, animals, people, and their environment, and the balances between these relationships.
•All around the globe, from the ocean floor to the tallest mountain ranges, animals are interacting with one another as part of a cycle of life and death.
•Animals are eating and being eaten.
•They are competing for resources like food, water, and space.
•Each living thing is part of a giant web of inter-connected species.
•Removing a single organism from this web and it will create a ripple effect.
•Simply by being alive, animals and humans interact with their environment.
•Humans build houses, drive to work or school, swim in a lake, breathe air.
•Right now, we are all taking up space, generating heat, and impacting our environment.
•Who did you interact with today?
•Animals….like humans affect each other in both positive and negative ways.
•Ecologists recognize 2 different types of interaction: interaction among animals of the same species and interaction among animals of different species.
Types of Animal Interactions
•A population is a group of animals living in the same time and place that are part of the same species.
•Each individual animal within a population needs room to live and uses resources.
•When a population get’s too big for it’s environment to support, some organisms die or are forced to move because they don’t all have the resources they need to survive.
•A community is made up of animals that are part of different species.
•Think of a forest and all of the living plants and animals that co-exist.
•Each member of the community has a role, also called a niche.
•One example occurs on the island of Madagascar when a fossa, hunts, kills, and eats a lemur.
•This type of interaction is called predation. The goal is always survival.
•Another type of interaction in communities is calledparasitism. This is a lopsided relationship where one animal benefits from harming the other.
•An example is a tick that latches on to a deer or dog and drinks it’s blood. Other examples?
•Commensalism is a relationship in which one animal benefits and the other isn’t affected.
•One example are barnacles which are a type of crustacean that attach to whales. Barnacles cannot move on their own, so they use the whale to move around and find locations with food.
•The cattle egret is a type of heron that will follow livestock herds. The cattle egret benefits because it eats insects that are stirred up when the livestock move through the grass.
•Another type of interaction in communities is called parasitism. This is a lopsided relationship where one animal benefits from harming the other.
•An example is a tick that latches on to a deer or dog and drinks it’s blood. Other examples?
•Commensalism is a relationship in which one animal benefits and the other isn’t affected.
•One example are barnacles which are a type of crustacean that attach to whales. Barnacles cannot move on their own, so they use the whale to move around and find locations with food.
•The cattle egret is a type of heron that will follow livestock herds. The cattle egret benefits because it eats insects that are stirred up when the livestock move through the grass.
•An animal’s community and the environment in which it lives forms it’secosystem.
•An ecosystem is made up of both non-living (rocks, dirt, sun, air) and living species (plants and animals).
•Examples of ecosystems include tropical rainforests, deserts, rivers and streams, and coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the largest and most diverse examples of an ecosystem.
•Within each ecosystem is a flow of energy….also called a food chain.
•Each food chain begins with plants. Sun provides the energy for plants to grow.
•In a food chain, plants are called producers.
•The animals in the next level of the food chain are called primary consumers- animals that eat only plants (herbivores).
•A secondary consumer is an animal who eats herbivores….otherwise known as a carnivore (meat eater).
•A tertiary consumer is one who eats both plants and meat.
•At the top of the food chain are the animals who don’t have any natural predators. Nothing eats them.
• They are called apex predators.
•The last part of the food chain includes scavengers. These animals feed on the dead organisms of every creature in the food chain.
•It is all part of the great circle. Even the remains of animals serve a purpose and provide energy for other animals.
•They are nature’s clean up crew. Examples include vultures, crows, and catfish.
•Some people in the U.S. prefer to live on the East coast, while others prefer to live on the West coast. Some prefer to live in the mountains while others prefer the desert.
•Each region has a unique set of characteristics that make it a good fit for a person or family.
•Humans decide where to live based on weather, climate, and taxes.
•Non-human animals live in the places where they are most likely to survive.
•A biome is a collection of ecosystems that share a similar climate.
•The 5 most common biomes are aquatic, desert, forest, grassland, and tundra.
•Which animal has the power and the resources to sit on top of every food chain?
•What can we do to preserve the biodiversity of our world?