The Place Where a Particular Population of a Species Lives Is a ______

Ecosystems

What is Ecology?

·  What is ______?

o  The study of the interactions of living organisms with one another and with their physical environment (soil, water, climate)

·  The place where a particular population of a species lives is a ______.

·  The many different species that live together in a habitat are a ______.

·  An ______consists of a community and all the physical aspects of its habitat.

·  The physical aspects of the habitat are called ______factors (soil, water, climate)

·  The organisms in a habitat are called ______factors (other animals, plants, bacteria)

o  Population –> habitat –> community -> ecosystem

Diverse Communities in Ecosystems

·  ______is the variety of organisms, their genetic differences, and the communities and ecosystems in which these differences occur.

o  Think about if you fenced off 1 sq. mile of the forest. What type of biodiversity would you find?

Change in an Ecosystem

·  ______– the first organisms to live in a new habitat where soil is present; tend to be fast growing plants

·  Make ground more welcoming to other species

·  Plant immigrants may then outcompete and replace the pioneer species.

Succession

·  ______is the regular progression of species replacement

·  ______succession occurs where life has not existed before.

·  ______succession occurs in areas where there has been previous growth, abandoned field or forest clearings.

Food Chains and Food Webs

Energy Roles

·  An ______energy role in an ecosystem may be that of a producer, consumer, detrivor or decomposer.

Producers

·  Producers are ______, which are organisms that can make their own food.

·  They are the ______source of all food in an ecosystem.

·  They capture energy from ______and store it as food energy.

Consumers

·  Consumers are ______, or living things that cannot make food for themselves.

·  A food chain contains several kinds of ______, each of which occupies a different trophic level.

o  ______: a specific level each organism's assigned based on the organism’s source of energy.

First Level

·  The ______level in an ecosystem is occupied by ______

o  Plants, Algae, and bacteria

Second Level

·  The second level is occupied by ______which are animals that eat plants

o  They are also called ______consumers

·  A herbivore must be able to break down a plant’s molecules, such as ______

o  They do this using ______in their gut

Third Level

·  The third trophic level is occupied by ______consumers, or animals that eat herbivores

·  Some of these animals can be ______(meat eaters) or omnivores

o  ______can use simple sugars and starches stored in plants as food, but they ______digest cellulose

Fourth Level

·  In many ecosystems, there is a fourth trophic level that is composed of carnivores that consume other carnivores. (______)

·  Occasionally ecosystems contain ______than four trophic levels

Detriviores

·  ______are organisms that obtain their energy from the organic wastes and dead bodies that are produced at all trophic levels.

o  Help break down wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the environment

·  Bacteria and fungi are known as ______because they cause decay.

Food Chains

·  A ______is the path of energy through the trophic levels of an ecosystem.

·  The first organism in the chain is the ______.

·  The second ______is the consumer that eats the producer, and so on…

Food Webs

·  In most ______, energy doesn’t follow a simple straight path. Many organisms often feed at ______trophic levels

·  This creates a complicated, interconnected group of food chains called a ______

Energy Pyramids

·  An ______is a diagram in which each trophic level is represented by a block

·  The blocks are stacked on top of one another with the ______trophic level on the bottom

·  Because the energy stored by the organisms at each trophic level is about ______the energy stored by the organisms in the level below, the diagram takes on the shape of a pyramid

Energy Loss and Use

·  ______is the dry weight of tissues and other organic matter found in a specific ecosystem.

o  10% of energy ______to next higher level.

o  90% of energy is ______by organisms’ life processes.

·  Due to energy loss, ecosystem cannot support many feeding levels.

Cycling of Materials in the Ecosystem

Biogeochemical Cycles

·  ______does not throw anything away.

o  A ______is a pathway that forms when a substance enters a living organism, stays in the living organism for a time and then returns to the nonliving environment.

·  ______, ______, and ______are especially important

·  All 4 are required by organisms in large quantities.

Water Cycle

·  Water has the greatest influence on an ecosystem’s inhabitants

·  Water vapor in the atmosphere condenses and falls to the Earth’s surface as ______or ______

·  Some of this water seeps into the soil and becomes part of the ______

o  This is water retained beneath the surface of the earth

·  Most of the water will reenter the ______via ______or ______

o  When water is taken up by plants and moves into the atmosphere by evaporating from leaves

Carbon Cycle

·  ______in the air or dissolved in water is used by ______plants, algae, and bacteria as raw materials to build organic molecules

·  Carbon atoms return to the pool of carbon dioxide in the air and water in 3 ways.

o  ______– use oxygen to oxidize organic molecules during cellular respiration, carbon dioxide is a byproduct

o  ______– carbon released when fossil fuels are burned

o  ______– exposed limestone erodes and releases carbon

Nitrogen Cycle

·  Organisms can’t use the nitrogen found in the ______, so it has to undergo ______.

·  Combining nitrogen atoms to ______to form ______.

·  This is done by nitrogen ______bacteria that live in the ______.

o  ______– the absorption of nitrogen into organic compounds by plants

o  ______– the production of ammonia by bacteria during the decay of organic matter

o  ______– the production of nitrate from ammonia

o  ______– the conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas