HS Biology Class notes

1. ECOLOGY

2. What is Ecology?
Ecology is the study of the relationships among
organisms and their environment.

3. Ecologists study environments at different levels
of organization.
• Ecology is the study of the interactions among living things,
and between living things and their surroundings.

4. Organism
Organism
• An organism is an individual living
thing, such as an alligator.

5. Organism
Organism
Population
Population
• A population is a group of
the same species that lives in
one area.

6. Organism
Organism
Population
Population
Community
Community
• A community is a group of
different species that live
together in one area.

7. Organism
Organism
Population
Population
Community
Community
Ecosystem
Ecosystem
• An ecosystem includes all of
the organisms as well as the
climate, soil, water, rocks and
other nonliving things in a given
area.

8. Organism
Organism
Population
Population
Community
Community
Ecosystem
Ecosystem
Biome
• A biome is a major regional or
global community of organisms
characterized by the climate
conditions and plant communities
that thrive there.

10. • A biosphere is the global
ecosystem
– The sum of all the
planet’s ecosystems and
biomes

11. Biotic and Abiotic Factors

12. What factors both
living and non living
will affect my life?
3 minutes To
THINK

13. Factors affecting mouse
• Predators
• Food
• Shelter
• Temperature
• Weather
• Competitors
• Pathogens
• Parasites
• Clean Water

14. Would the same factors affect this
flower?

15. Factors Affecting Plant
• Predators
• Food
• Shelter
• Temperature
• Weather
• Competitors
• Pollinators
• Soil
• Nutrients
• Wind
• Aspect
• Daylight

16. Keywords for today
• Biotic
• Abiotic

17. At the end of today’s lesson you will be
able to
• Define biotic and abiotic
• Give examples of each type of factor

18. Classify the factors in the picture as
either biotic factors or abiotic factors

19. List the Biotic and Abiotic Factors in
the Image

20. Decide whether the following items are Abiotic, Biotic, or can be
argued to be both, place in the Venn diagram.
Abiotic Biotic

21. Biotic or Abiotic or Both?
 Fish
 Chair
 Water
 Train
 Atom
 Plastic
 Insects
 Wood
 Sea Shell
 Dirt
 Dog
 Worm
 Burger
 Wheat
 T.V.
 Broccoli
 Pine Tree
 Energy
 Flower
 Dead animal
 Wooden Table
 Cotton Shirt
 Sunlight
 Ice
 Hydrogen
 Strawberries
 Wind

22. Abiotic Factors
• Factors that relate to the weather
• Factors that relate to the soil

23. What climatic factors could we
measure?
• Light Intensity
• Humidity
• Wind speed
• Temperature
• Aspect
• Slope

24. What soil factors could we measure?
• Soil pH
• Amount of water in soil
• Soil Temperature
• Soil Air
• Soil Texture

25. List the Biotic and Abiotic Factors in
the Image

26. The Deer Population
A field study was conducted to
observe a deer population in a
given region over time.
The deer were counted at different
intervals over a period of 40 years.
During this period of time both
ranching and hunting increased in
the study region.
A summary of the data is
presented in the table.

27. Questions on Deer Population
• During which 10 year period did the greatest
increase in the deer population occur?
• State one possible action that could have been
used to help maintain a more stable population
of deer in the area.
• Identify an abiotic limiting factor for the deer
populations.
• Identify a biotic limiting factor for the deer
populations.
• List two problems an overpopulation of deer can
cause in the environment.

28. Abiotic Factors

29. Biotic Factors

30. Decide if Factor is Biotic or Abiotic
Write A if Abiotic
_______ Mouse
_______ Rocks
_______ Water
_______ Fish
_______ Paper
_______ Glass
_______ Aluminum
_______ Wooden Ruler
_______ Sand
_______ Clouds
Write B if Biotic
_______ Corpse
_______ Snail
_______ Vegetation
_______ Bread Mold
_______ Trees
_______ Soil
_______ Plastic
_______ Pipe
_______ Air
_______ Wind

31. Habitat
• All of the biotic and abiotic factors in the area
where an organism lives
• Factors
– Grass
– Trees
– Water

32. Niche
• All of the physical, chemical, and biological
factors a species needs to survive, stay
healthy, and reproduce in an ecosystem.
Madagascar
South America

33. Animated Biology
• Survive within a Niche

34. Lion niche in African Savannah
Find 4 factors that help the lion survive.
An antelope may use the tall grasses of the
African plains as a food resource, a lion may use
the same grasses as camouflage for hunting. A
lion uses the antelope as a food resource and
hunts primarily during low-light times like dawn
or dusk. In order to avoid the intense heat of the
savannah, lions often spend afternoons in the
shade.

35. What are some of
the abiotic and biotic
factors of your habitat?
ABIOTIC:
air, temperature, buildings, roads, water
BIOTIC:
Pets, plants, people

36. COMMUNITY
INTERACTIONS

37. Competition
• Two organisms fight for the
same limited resource.
– Intraspecific competition
• Within a species
– Interspecific competition
• Two different species
compete for the same
resource

38. Predation
• Predator/Prey – one organism eats the other
• Predator – does the eating
• Prey – gets eaten

39. Symbiosis
• A close relationship between two or more
species where at least one benefits

40. Kinds of Symbiosis
1. Mutualism – Both species benefit from
the relationship
2. Commensalism – one species benefits
and one is not affected
3. Parasitism – one species benefits and
the other is harmed
 
 
 

41. Examples of Interactions
• National Geographic

42. Terminology Review
• Autotroph
– Make their own food
• A.K.A. Producer
• Heterotroph
– Get energy from eating other living resources
• A.K.A. Consumer

43. Terminology Review:
Types of Consumers
• Herbivore
– Eats only plants
• Carnivore
– Eats only animals (meat)
• Omnivore
– Eats both plants and animals
• Detritivores/Decomposers
– Eats dead organic matter

44. Trophic Levels:
Levels within the food chain where
an organism obtains its energy

45. Trophic Levels
• Primary Producer (autotrophs)
– Make their own food from sunlight and/or
chemical energy from deep sea vents
– The base of every food chain

46. Trophic Levels
• Primary Consumer
–Eat producers
• Herbivores

47. Trophic Levels
• Secondary Consumers
–Eat Primary Consumers
• Carnivores and Omnivores

48. Trophic Levels
• Detrivores/Decomposers
– Eat dead organisms

49. Trophic Levels
• Tertiary Consumers
–Eat secondary consumers
• Quaternary Consumers
–Eat tertiary consumers
• The top of the food chain has animals
with little or no natural enemies

51. Energy Flow
• 10% Rule
–Only about 10% of the energy in any
level of a food pyramid is available to
the next level.
Example: When you eat an apple, only about
10% of the energy in the apple will end up being
used by you.

52. Energy Pyramid

53. Energy Pyramid

54. Energy Pyramid Vocabulary
• Population size decreases as level
increases
• Biomass – total dry weight of living
matter at a level

55. Practice Questions

56. If we were trapped on a fertile grass
island, about the size of a soccer field,
should we plant food crops or graze
animals? Why?
• Island can produce 10,000 different edible
plants.
• Island can provide food to graze one small
cow, and two goats. They can produce a few
glasses of milk.

57. A: We should plant crops!
• There is more available energy in producing
vegetables than animals.
• We may get 10,000 plants
• The field may support one small cow which
will just give a small amount of milk, even less
energy if we use our one animal for BBQ.

58. Study the drawing to
the right.
Infer the effect on the
number of the
pyramid’s organisms if
an infection lowered
the number of primary
consumers to 100,000

59. Hypothetical Problem
AlgaeWater fleasMinnowFishHumans
A human weighs about 100 kg. According to the
above food chain, how many humans can 100
million kilograms of algae support?