Ecosystems and Energy

Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______

Ecology: “eco” means ______, “ology”means ______

Biological organization

Atoms- smallest unit of ______

Example: ______

Molecules- a cluster of atoms with ______characteristics

Example: water, glycerol, etc

Cells – the ______unit of ______

Example: ______

Tissue – individual groups of ______cells with a similar ______

Example:

Organs – several types of tissues working together to perform a ______

Example: heart, brain, liver, skin

Organ systems – two or more ______working together to perform a job

Example: circulatory, nervous, etc.

Organisms – a ______living thing. A ______is a group of organisms that are alike.

Population – a group of individuals of the same ______that live in the ______area at a given time.

Example: a group of white-tailed deer in an oak-hickory forest in southeastern PA

Community - ______of living organisms that interact with one another in an ______.

Example: deer, mice, bushes and snakes in the forest community

Ecosystem: a community together with its ______environment

Biosphere: All of the Earth’s communities of ______

Ecosphere: includes the biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere

*Atmosphere – gaseous envelope around the worlds

*Hydrosphere – Earth’s supply of water

*Lithosphere – soil and rock in the Earth’s crust

Ecosystems

There are many types of ecosystems. There are two categories: ______and ______ecosystems.

Terrestrial ecosystems: ______

Most of PA is a forest ecosystem. Forty-seven percent is made of oak/hickory tree ecosystem. The remainder consists of Northern Hardwood ecosystem, which contains birch, sugar maple, beech and black cherry.

Abiotic Factors in an Ecosystem

Terrestrial Ecosystem

  • Surface water, groundwater
  • ______, Wind
  • ______
  • Temperature
  • Precipitation
  • ______

Aquatic Ecosystem

  • Currents
  • Salinity
  • ______
  • Penetration of sunlight in water (______)
  • Concentration of nutrients in the water

People’s actions can change the ______factors, which in turn affect the ecosystem.

Example: Constructing a dam across the river.

6 Kinds of Energy

Energy – the ability to do ______

Thermodynamics -study of energy and its transformations

  1. ______energy – energy stored in ______bonds such as food
  1. Radiant or ______energy – transported from the sun
  1. ______energy– thermal energy that flows from a ______object to a ______one.
  1. ______– energy found within an atomic nuclei
  1. ______energy – energy in the movement of matter.
  1. ______energy – energy that flows from charged particles
First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transferred from one form to another.

Organisms ______create energy. They must capture it & ______it.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

When energy is converted, some is usable and some is less usable. As a result, the amount of usable energy in the environment decreases over time.

No conversion of energy is ______%.

Energy from biotic factors in the ecosystem

Photosynthesis – producers use ______to create their own food

  1. Equation
  1. Importance
  2. Essential for ______
  3. Performed by plants, algae and some bacteria
  4. Energy stored in ______molecule
  5. Process also produces ______

Cellular respiration is the process by which chemical energy (______) is broken down to release energy for biological work.

A. Equation

B. Importance

  • ALL ______respire to obtain energy
  • Continues the cycle with plants

Food Webs and Pyramids Notes

Nutrients and energy flow through ecosystems in ______and ______.

A food chain is the ______of ______from one organism to another. Here is an example.

Tropic levels

–Contains all organisms in a feeding level that are the same number of steps away from the sun.

–Moving up each tropic level, there is a _____% loss of ______.

–That means that only _____% of energy is passed along from one level to another.

–Because of the huge loss of energy, there is usually no more that ___ or ____ trophic levels.

Vocabulary

1. Autotroph (producer) - ______

2. Heterotroph (consumer) - ______

3. Primary consumer - ______

4. Herbivore - ______

5. Secondary consumer - ______

6. Tertiary consumer - ______

7. Carnivore - ______

8. Omnivore - ______

9. Decomposer (saprophyte) - ______

10. Detritivore (detritus feeder) - ______

Food Webs

–Interconnecting food chains

–Gives us a better picture of the ecosystem

Ecological Pyramids

-Graphic way to represent the relationship of ______values in each trophic level.

-The bases of these pyramids represent the ______.

-Higher trophic levels are layered on top of one another. The source of energy for these pyramids is the ______.

-Three types of pyramids:

  • Pyramid of ______
  • Pyramid of Numbers
  • Pyramid of ______

Pyramid of Energy

  1. Illustrates the energy content of ______of each tropic level.
  2. Energy expressed in kilocalories/square meters
  3. Larger at the bottom and gets progressively ______
  4. Shows that most of the ______dissipates at the lower levels
  5. The energy lost in each successive trophic level is ______that enters the environment.
  6. Energy pyramids explain why there are ______trophic levels.
  7. No biological process is ______efficient. There will be unusable energy.

Example:

Pyramid of Biomass

  1. Illustrates the ______at each trophic level.
  2. Biomass is a quantitative estimate of the total mass or amount of ______material.
  3. Biomass units vary. It can be represented by total volume or live weight.
  4. Assumption – There is on the average a ____% reduction of biomass for each trophic level.
  5. Biomass is calculated by finding the average ______of an organism of each ______at that trophic level and then multiplying by the estimated number of organisms in each ______.
  6. Although carnivores do not eat a lot of producers, it takes a lot of producers to support them.

Example:

Pyramid of Numbers

  1. This pyramid is based on the ______of organisms at each level.
  2. Not as useful as the other pyramids because it provides no information about energy levels or biomass.
  3. Inverted pyramid of numbers – higher ______level organisms have more than lower trophic levels.

Example:

Inverted Pyramid of Numbers

Primary Productivity (Producers)
  • Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) - ______at which energy is captured during photosynthesis.
  • Net Primary Productivity (NPP) – energy that remains in the plant tissues after cell ______has occurred.
  • NPP represents the ______at which this organic matter is in the plant tissue that will produce growth.
  • Consumers can only use the ______represented in the NPP and only consumers use a portion of it.
  • GPP and NPP are expressed as energy per unit per unit of time.
  • 20, 820 kilocalories per m2
  • Productivity is limited by whatever ______needed for photosynthesis is on the ______supply. This becomes the ______factor that prevents productivity from ______.
  • ______often a limiting factor.
  • Most productive land ecosystem ______
  • Least productive land ecosystem ______
  • Most productive aquatic ecosystems: algal beds, coral reefs and estuaries
  • Least productive is the open ocean.
  • Swamps, wetlands and ______are very productive ecosystems.

Secondary Productivity (Consumers)

  • Secondary productivity is the ______of formation of new ______by organisms that feed on other organisms.
  • Animals convert only ______% of the energy they consume into new animals (by growing or reproducing).
  • Humans consume more ______when they eat plant food.

Interactions among Organisms

Species diversity: the ______of species in any ecosystem

Biological description of an organism includes:

  • Whether it’s a producer, ______or decomposer
  • Whether it’s a predator or ______
  • Type of symbiotic ______if forms

Ecological niche – organisms’ role in the ecosystem. The ecological niche takes into account all aspects of an organism’s existence: all ______,

Chemical and biological factors that is needs to survive, remain healthy and ______.

______– local environment where organism lives, encompasses everything

Fundamental niche – potential ______niche of an organism

Realized niche – the lifestyle the organism actually pursues and lives

______– species that are more ______than others

No organism exists independently of another. There are three types of interaction.

Competition

The interaction among ______that vie for the same ______in an ecosystem (such as ______, living space or other resources.
Example: green anole and the brown anole (lizards)
The green anole is native of Florida but the brown anole was introduced. Green anoles perch on trees, walls and shrubs and wait for insect and spiders prey. The brown anole, which is a larger species, was introduced into the ecosystem from Cuba. Suddenly it was difficult to find the green anole. The brown anole had driven it out of the ecosystem to the wetlands.
Interspecies competition –
Intraspecies competition -
Competitive exclusion – one ______is excluded because of ______from another.
No two species can indefinitely occupy the same niche because of ______.

Predation

The consumption of one species, the ______by another (______)
Examples: brown pelican and fish
Defenses against predators:
1.
2.
3.

Symbiosis

Symbiosis is any relationship between two or more species.
There are three types of symbiosis.
  1. ______– symbiotic relation where both partners ______

Example:

  1. ______– symbiotic relationship where one organism ______

and other one is neither ______or helped

Example:

  1. ______– a symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits

(______) and the other is harmed (host)

Example:

Parasites that cause diseases and sometimes death are called a ______.

Biomagnification

Biomagnification: The process of increasing a ______concentration through the food chain (Examples: DDT and PCB)

  • Animals that eat other ______have higher levels of contaminants than animals that eat______.
  • Some contaminants are persistent - once they are in the animal's body, they stay there for a ______time.
  • So when ______animals eat smaller animals, all the contaminants stored in their ______are then passed on to the bigger animal.
  • The result of ______is that animals at the "______" of their food chain have higher contaminant levels than animals at the "______".
  • The top ______at the end of along food chain, such as lake trout, large salmon and fish-eating gulls, may accumulate ______of a toxic chemical high enough to cause serious deformities or death even though the concentration of the chemical in the open water is extremely low.
  • The concentration of some ______in the fatty tissues of top predators can be millions of times higher than the concentration in the open water.
  • The ______of aquatic birds often have some of the highest concentrations of toxic chemicals, because they are at the ______of a long aquatic food chain, and because egg yolk is rich in fatty material. Thus, the first harmful effects of a ______chemical in a lake often appear as dead or malformed chicks.

Research of this kind is important to ______as well, because they are consumers in the Great Lakes food chain. ______are at the top of many food chains, but do not receive as high an exposure as, for example, herring gulls. This is because humans have a ______diet that consists of items from ______levels of the food chain, whereas the herring gull depends upon fish as its ______food source. Nevertheless, the concerns about long-term effects of low-level exposures in humans, as well as impacts on people who do eat a lot of ______fish and wildlife highlight the importance of taking heed of the well-documented adverse effects already seen in the ecosystem.

Organisms & their Interactions

Organisms interact with their ecosystem. Some interactions are beneficial & others are not. Organisms also compete with other species & species of their own kind. All living things are interconnected & have an impact on each other. We are going to be focusing on symbiotic relationships.

Within you assigned biome, research some of these interactions & be prepared to discuss with the class.

Biome: ______

Specific location: ______

Brief description:

Average temperature: ______

Average precipitation (cm): ______

Create a food web including 10 organisms.

Find examples in your biome of the three types of symbiosis.

Symbiosis / Organism / Organism / Relationship
MUTALISM
COMMENSALISM
PARASITISM

Analysis Questions:

  1. What are three types of symbiosis?
  1. A clownfish & sea anemone relationship is an example of ______.
  1. What is the difference between interspecies competition & intraspecies competition?
  1. What are some factors that organisms compete for?
  1. What is a keystone species?
  1. Identify the relationship in the examples below: predator/prey, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism
  1. Lichen: ______d. Clownfish & sea anemone: ______
  2. Pork tapeworm: ______e. Robin & earthworm: ______
  3. Army ant & silverfish: ______f. Frog & flies: ______

eCOSYSTEM AND eNERGY rEVIEW wORKSHEET

Organization of the Biosphere

Answer the following questions (#4-10) by using the words in below.

BiospherePopulationCommunityNiche Ecosystem Abiotic Habitat Organism

  1. What is a population? ______
  2. What is a community? ______
  3. What is an ecosystem? ______
  4. All the dogs that live in Enola could be said to make up a(n) ______.
  5. The plants and animals of a self-sustaining aquarium could be said make up a(n) ______.
  6. A pond and all the organisms it contains make up a(n) ______.
  7. The place where an organisms lives is its ______.
  8. Competition will arise between two different species in a community when they both occupy the same ______.
  9. The portion of the earth on which life exists is the ______.
  10. A complete living thing ______.

Food Chains and Food Webs

A food chain and webs show us how energy flows throughout an ecosystem. All food chains and webs are powered by the sun and must begin with a producer. Food chains and webs also usually end with decomposers.

Grass--- Rabbit - Mountain lion

  1. Identify the producer in the food chain. ______
  2. Identify the primary consumer in the above food chain. ______
  3. Identify the secondary consumer. ______
  4. What do the arrows represent in the food chain or food web?

PRODUCERS / PRIMARY CONSUMERS / SECONDARY CONSUMERS / HERBIVORES / CARNIVORES

Nutritional Relationships

Each species within a community plays a role in relation to the other species o the community. This role may primarily be defined in terms of nutrition – how and where an organisms gets its food. This is the species’ NICHE.

Again, use the words below to answer the questions.

ProducersConsumersCarnivores

OmnivoresHerbivoresBacteria

FungiNicheSun

AutotrophsScavengers

  1. Within a community, the autotrophs serve as the ______.
  2. All animals are heterotrophs or ______.
  3. Plant-eating animals are ______.
  4. Meat-eating animals are ______.
  5. Animals that feed on both plants and meat are called ______.
  6. All animals are directly or indirectly dependent for their food on the ______.
  7. The two major groups of microorganisms that serve as decomposers are ______and ______.
  8. ______feed on dead animals that have been killed by another organism.
  9. Ultimate source of energy for the earth is the ______.
  10. The way an organism gets their food is considered to be their ______.
  11. What would happen to the materials of an ecosystem if there were no decomposers?

Pyramids

Producers convert energy from sunlight to chemical energy in organic compounds. Some of this energy is used to carry out life processes for plants and some energy is lost.

Pyramids of Energy

  1. In the pyramid of energy, the topmost layer would be the ______.
  1. Why does the amount of available energy from food decrease with each level of consumers?
  1. In terms of energy, is it more efficient for humans to obtain their nutrients from plants or from meat? Why?

Pyramids of Numbers and Biomass

  1. The most numerous organisms in the pyramid are the ______.
  2. At each level in the pyramid of numbers the number will ______.
  1. In the pyramid of mass, the organisms with the greatest mass are the ______.
  2. At each higher level in the pyramid of mass, the mass of the organisms ______.
  3. In both pyramids, which level represents the greatest amount of energy?

Biomagnification and Pesticides

  1. ______is the increasing concentration as a chemical moves up the food chain or food web.
  2. Give an example of a pesticide. ______
  3. Which organism gets the highest concentration of pesticide: producer or top predator? ______
  4. Where does the pesticide get stored in animals? ______
  5. How does a pesticide affect the food web?

Symbiotic relationships

Use the following vocabulary to answer the questions below:

SymbiosisMutualismParasitism

CommensalismHostParasite

CompetitionPredatorPrey

  1. Various types of relationships in which organisms of different species live in close association with one another are ______relationships.
  2. The relationship in which both organism benefit is ______.
  3. The relationship where one organisms benefits and the other in unaffected is ______.
  4. The relationship in which one organism benefits and the other harmed is ______.
  5. ______is the interaction among organisms that vie for the same resources such as food and living space.
  6. The species that is consumed by another is the ______.
  7. The organism that hunts another is called the ______.
  8. In parasitism, this organisms benefits: ______and the other does not: ______.
  9. List an example of all types of symbiosis.
  10. Parasitism: ______
  11. Commensalism: ______
  12. Mutualism: ______

Unit Learning MapEcosystems & InteractionsMrs. Sim

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