Ecology

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Ecology
Characteristics of Living Things
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All living things are made of cells Structure
relates to function

• Unicellular 1 celled organism

• Multi-cellular organisms made of many cells
• Differentiation cells taking specific shape to
  perform specific functions

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All living things maintain internal stability

• Internal stability constancy of organisms
  internal environment relative to the exterior

• Homeostasis refers to the organisms ability to
  maintain ones internal environment regardless of
  exterior environment

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All living things reproduce pass along genetic
traits

• DNA a double stranded molecule containing
  hereditary info

• Sexual reproduction sperm egg, ½ DNA from
  each parent to offspring

• Asexual reproduction cloning

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Evolution

• A theory that allows us to understand how
  populations change over time
• Natural selection is a process that drives
  evolution

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All living things grow and develop
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All living things require matter energy

• Matter all parts of every living organism is
  composed of atoms
• Metabolism sum of the rxs occurring in an
  organism to grow obtain energy
• Energy homeostasis, growth, maintenance,
  reproduction
• Autotrophs produce their own food, photosynthesis
• Heterotrophs are those who consume other organisms

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Levels of Organization
biosphere biome ecosystem community population org
anism organ system organs tissue cells molecule at
oms
ecology
biology
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The Living WorldJust how much do we know?

• Up to 10 million insects yet to be discovered
• New species of monkey just found
• A drop of sea water contains 1-2 million unknown
  viruses

and the list goes on and on!
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Graphing

• Line graph
• relationship between 2 variables
• both must be numerical

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• Bar graphs or histograms
• relationship between 2 variables
• only one variable must be a number, other maybe
  any category, i.e. trees

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• Pie graph
• Shows parts of a whole, generally as percents
• If 20 out of 32 students had a B in biology we
  could determine the piece of the pie chart with
  the following relationship
• 20 x x 225
• 32 360

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Graphing Variables

• Independent variable
• data that influences outcome of experiment,
  often you can control this variable, i.e. time
• always plotted on the x-axis
• Dependent variable
• the outcome variable, depends upon the
  independent variable
• plotted on the y-axis

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Simple Graphing Rules

• Every increment on the x- or y-axis must equal
  every other increment
• Utilize the entire graph from left to right top
  to bottom
• Every graph must have a title
• the x- y- axis must be labeled show the units
  of measure

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Chapter 3 The Biosphere

• What do ecologist study?
• the flow of energy through an ecosystem
• the interactions amongst the organisms
• the interactions between the biotic abiotic

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Energy Flow

• Producers, a.k.a. autotrophs
• Photosynthetic autotrophs use sunlight to produce
  carbohydrates from inorganic cmpds, water
  carbon dioxide
• Chemosynthetic autotrophs extract energy from
  inorganic cmpds to produce carbohydrates

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• Consumers, a.k.a. heterotrophs
• Herbivores
• Carnivores
• Omnivores
• Detrivores
• Decomposers

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Feeding Relationships Energy Flow

• Food chains show a direct flow of energy
• Food web shows all the possible food chains in an
  ecosystem

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• Trophic level refers to the position in a food
  chain at which one feeds. Producers are always
  the 1st trophic level

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Ecological Pyramids

• 3 types
• Energy pyramids
• Biomass pyramids
• Numbers pyramid
• Energy flows only one way

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• 10 rule says the energy available at each level
  transfers only about 10 to the next level upward

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Biogeochemical Cycles

• Water cycle evaporation, transpiration,
  precipitation

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• Carbon cycle

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• Phosphate cycle either land locked or ocean
  locked, but does not enter atmosphere
• Nitrogen cycle

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Chapter 4 Ecosystems Communities

• Weather refers to day by day temps
  precipitation
• Climate refers to year by year averages of temps
  precipitation
• The Greenhouse Effect CO2 forms a global blanket

Global warming occurs with or without
human intervention. The question is, are we
accelerating the process? Most would say yes!
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• NOTE The Greenhouse Effect is not related to the
  depletion of the ozone layer.
• Latitude affects climate
• Heat transfer
• Uneven heating by sun causes convection currents
• Air bunches up causing area of high pressure
  (lots of air), which rushes towards an area of
  low pressure. Because the Earth spins, fluids
  (winds water) are deflected. In the northern
  hemisphere, fluids are deflected in a clockwise
  fashion (opposite in southern), so high pressure
  air flows off clockwise to low pressure area.
  This deflection of fluids is known as the
  Coriolis effect.
• El Niño is a reversal of the Pacific equatorial
  current

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Components of the Ecosystem

• Physical biological aspects
• Biotic factors include all living parts
• Abiotic factors include all non-living parts
• pH salinity nitrogen
• Temp oxygen humidity
• nutrients sunlight wind

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Organization w/in the Ecosystem

• Habitat is where an organism lives, address
• Niche defines organisms life style, trophic
  level, climatic tolerance, reproduction, etc.
• Competitive exclusion principle no 2 species may
  occupy the same niche 1 out competes the other

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Community Interactions

• Competition, hawk a fox after a rabbit
• Predation, a tiger eating a gazelle
• Symbiosis a close association between 2
  different species
• Mutualism both benefit, i.e. flowers/pollinators
• Commensalism 1 benefits, the other not harmed
  nor benefits, i.e. cow cow bird
• Parasitism 1 benefits 1 harmed

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Changes in Ecosystems a.k.a. Successionorderly
change over time

• Primary succession baron rock to mature biome,
  i.e. glacial retreat, volcanic action, 103s to
  106s of years

• Secondary succession occurs when nature or
  humans disrupt an ecosystem or biome, i.e.
  farming, tornado, fire, rebounds in tens or
  hundreds of years

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Biomes

• Biomes are large areas on Earth in which soil,
  water, temps are characteristic.
• tropical rainforest temperate woodland shrub
• tropical dry forest temperate forest
• tropical savanna boreal forest, a.k.a. taiga
• desert northern coniferous forest
• temperate grassland tundra

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Aquatic Ecosystems

• Flowing water rivers, streams
• Standing water lakes, ponds
• Freshwater wetlands standing or flowing,
  including the bog (standing), marsh (along a
  river part time) swamp (wet all time w/trees)
• Estuaries river meet ocean
• Marine ecosystem divided vertically and
  horizontally for study
• Note You should study the differences in the
  above