1. Beneath the Surface
Observing an Aquatic Ecosystem

2. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Investigate and understand
the carbon, nitrogen and
water cycles

3. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Differentiate among key
processes in the water,
carbon and nitrogen cycles
and analyze how organisms
function to recycle matter into
the ecosystem

4. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Recognize that the carbon
dioxide oxygen cycle is part
of photosynthesis

5. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Define and/or identify the
living (biotic) and nonliving
(abiotic) components /factors
of an ecosystem

6. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Observe local ecosystems
and measure and classify the
biotic and abiotic factors

7. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Define and describe a simple
food chain

8. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Compare and contrast
complex relationships
between terrestrial,
freshwater and marine
ecosystems

9. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Use a food web and energy
pyramids to analyze the flow
of energy in ecosystems

10. Key Objectives:
 The student will:
– Relate the role of humans in the
ecosystem

11. Key Terms
 Ecosystem
 Biotic factor
 Abiotic Factor
 Water Quality
 Limiting Factors
 Habitat
 Community
 Population
 Food Chain
 Food Web
 Predator – prey

12. Ecosystem
 An ecosystem is made up of living
organisms which interact with
others in their own population, the
community and the non-living
parts of the community
 Can be large or small

13. Ecosystem

14. Biotic Factor
 All living things in an environment

15. Abiotic Factor
 All non-living and never lived
things in an environment
 They determine which organisms
are able to live in the environment

16. Abiotic and Biotic Factors

17. Limiting Factors
 Factors that prevent the
continuing growth and survival of
an organism

18. Limiting Factors

19. Water Quality
 How healthy or how good the
water is to support a
community

20. Water Quality

21. Habitat
 The environment where a species
exists

22. Habitat

23. Community
 All the living parts of an
ecosystem that live in the same
place at the same time

24. Community

25. Population
 All individuals of one species
living together in a given area

26. Population

27. Food Chain
 The order in which energy travels
– Producers
Plants
– Consumers
Herbivores, Carnivore, Omnivores
– Decomposers

28. Food Chain
 or… More simply put:
– Algae makes food (glucose)
– Tiny fish eats algae
– Bigger fish eats tiny fish,
– Bear eats fish

29. Food Chain

30. Food Web
 The intricate food web of food
chains that shows interactions
between many sources of food
from producer to the consumer

31. Food Web

32. Predator - Prey
 The relationship between what
animals (the predator) do the
eating and what animals are
eaten (Prey)

33. Predator – Prey

34. Lab Time
Now it is time to introduce
the new lab.
Pease open your Green lab
guides
Read the introduction
silently as I read it aloud

35. Essential Learnings
 There are four levels of
organization within a Biome
– An Ecosystem
– A Community
– A Population
– An Organism

36. Essential Learnings
 Living things in the environment
are called Biotic Factors

37. Essential Learnings
 Nonliving features of the
environment, such as water
quality/quantity, sunlight, range
of temperature, soil composition,
air quality, and water chemistry
are called Abiotic Factors

38. Essential Learnings
 The number of different types of
organisms an ecosystem can
support depends on biotic and
abiotic factors

39. Essential Learnings
 Factors that prevent survival of
an organism are called Limiting
Factors

40. Essential Learnings
 Limiting factors could include:
– Lack of resources
– Predation
– Unsuitable climate
– Disease

41. Essential Learnings
 Ecosystems are dynamic and
change over time

42. Essential Learnings
 Changes that effect organisms
can be :
– Daily
– Seasonal
– Long-term

43. Essential Learnings
 Large Scale events such as
Eutrophication (the addition of
excess nutrients) or catastrophic
events like drought, flood or fire
also change ecosystems

44. Essential Learnings
 Organisms have specific
structure, functions and
behaviors that enable them to
survive in their ecosystem

45. Essential Learnings
 Populations of organisms are
categorized by the way they
obtain food in an ecosystem
 Plants and many
microrganisms make their own
food

46. Essential Learnings
 Anything that makes its own
food is called a Producer

47. Essential Learnings
 Most everything else must
obtain food from another
source.
 Consumers consume food
made by producers

48. Essential Learnings
 There are three types of
consumers
– Herbivores – Plant eaters
– Carnivores – Meat eaters
– Omnivores – Meat and Plant
eaters

49. Essential Learnings
 There is a third member of the
food cycle that starts at the end
of life
 These break down dead plants
and animals
 They are called decomposers