Environment, Ecology

1. Ecology And Environment

2. What is an environment?
• Everything that affects an animal
makes up its environment - where it
lives, the weather and all the living
things it comes into contact with.
• Every living thing, including people,
has an effect upon the environment.

3. Animal Adaptation
• All living things have to be suited to their
environment if they are to survive.
• Fish have streamlined bodies, fins and
specially shaped tails to help them move
quickly and easily through the water.
• Squirrels have sharp, strong claws for
gripping tree trunks and branches and
strong teeth for eating nuts.

4. How is the seal adapted to
its environment?
Flippers to
help it swim.
Streamlined
shape.
Thick layer of
body fat to
keep it warm.
Strong teeth
to catch fish.
Forward-facing
eyes for clear
vision ahead.
Hind legs have
evolved into a a
strong rudder-
like tail.

5. Homes and Habitats
• The place where an animal lives is
called its habitat.
• An animal lives where it can find food,
water, shelter and a mate.

6. Living things
• All living things (organisms) need food
(nourishment) to live.
• Living things in an ecosystem depend
on each other for food.

7. Intro to Ecology
Study of how organisms INTERACT
with each other and their environment

8. TEKS 8.6 (C)
Describe interactions within
ecosystems.

9. Life Levels and Organization

10. Biosphere
The biosphere is the
outermost part of the
planet’s shell —
including air, land,
suface rocks, and water
— within which life
occurs, and which
biotic processes in turn
alter or transform.

11. Biome
a biome is a major regional group of
distinctive plant and animal communities
best adapted to the region's physical natural
environment, latitude, elevation, and
terrain.
Examples of biomes include the desert,
rain forest, artic tundra, grassland,
coniferous forest, decidious forest, and
oceans.

12. Ecosystems
All the biotic (living) and abiotic
(nonliving) factors that will INTERACT
with each other in some subset of the
biosphere.
Abiotic factors: soil, water, temperature,
elevation, and location on the earth.

13. Coral Reef Ecosystems

14. Yellowstone National Park
Ecosystem

15. Community
Groups of many different species of
organisms interacting in a particular area
(predator prey relationships)
Only the biotic factors that interact
between different species of organisms

16. Population
A group of organisms of ONE species that
interbreed and live in the same place at the
same time. A population of aliens

17. A Population of Aliens

18. What is a food chain?
• A food chain is “a sequence of organisms,
each of which uses the next, lower member of
the sequence as a food source”

19. Important facts about food chains
• In a food chain each organism obtains energy
from the one at the level below.
• Plants are called producers because they
create their own food through photosynthesis
• Animals are consumers because they cannot
create their own food, they must eat plants or
other animals to get the energy that they
need.

20. Primary Producers
• Primary producers are “organisms capable of
producing their own food”
• We can also say that they are photosynthetic, use
light energy.
• Examples of primary producers include algae,
phytoplankton, and large plants.
• Primary producers are eaten by primary consumers
(herbivores)

21. Producer (autotroph)
• Producers
(autotrophs) are
always at the base of
the chain. Producers
are organisms that
make their own food.
Plants are producers.

22. Primary Producers of NJ Marshes
Cattails
MarshMallow
BlueFlagIris
MarshFern

23. Four types of consumer
• Herbivores: animals that eat only plants
• Carnivores: animals that eat only other
animals.
• Omnivores: animals that eat animals and
plants.
• Detritivores: Animals that eat dead materials
and organic wastes.

24. Other Ways to Classify Consumers
1. Primary Consumers: Herbivores.
2. Secondary Consumers: Carnivores that eat
herbivores.
3. Tertiary Consumers: Carnivores that eat
other carnivores.

25. Primary Consumers in Marshes
Muskrat (eats mostly Cattails)
http://www.advancedwildlifecontrolllc.com/images/muskrat.jpg
http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living/graphics/muskrat1.jpg

26. Primary Consumers in Marshes
• Wood Duck eats seeds like those of the
Swamp Marsh Mallow and Blue Flag Iris
http://dsf.chesco.org/ccparks/lib/ccparks/wood_duck_pair.jpg

27. Primary Consumers in Marshes
• Glassy-winged Toothpick Grasshopper – eats
leaves of plants like cattail and pickerelweed
http://bugguide.net/node/view/41662

28. Secondary Consumers
• Black Rat Snake eats eggs of animals like wood
duck

29. Secondary Consumers
• Swamp Sparrow eats seeds but also insects
like the toothpick grasshopper

30. Tertiary Consumers
• Eat other animals in marsh including snake
and sparrow
Osprey

31. Herbivore
• Herbivores are
animals that
only eat plants.
A cow and a
deer are
herbivores.

32. Omnivore
• Racoon eats seeds, fruits, insects, worms, fish,
and frogs… and pretty much anything else
they can get their paws on!
http://abouttitusville.com/BobPaty/Animals/images/Racoon.jpg

33. Omnivore
• An omnivore
eats both
plants and
animals.
Humans and
bears are
omnivores.

34. Carnivore
• Animals that eat
meat are
carnivores. A lion
and a wolf are
carnivores.

35. Detritivores
• A decomposer eats dead or dying
organisms.

36. Detritivore
• Worms are common detritivores in many
ecosystems including marshes

37. Producers and Consumers
So…producers make their own
food (e.g., photosynthesis) and
consumers don’t.
Is a dog a producer or a
consumer?
Is a termite a producer or a
consumer?

38. Food Chain
The simplest
feeding
arrangement in
an ecosystem.

39. Food Chain
A food chain is the flow of energy
from one organism to the next.

40. Describe the Food Chain

41. Describe the Food Chain

42. Describe the Food Chain

43. Energy Flow
•Sun major supplier of the earth’s
energy.
•Most of the energy released is
lost in the form of heat.

44. The Flow of Energy
Producers - Plants capture the sun’s energy and
store it in food
Primary Consumers (herbivores) - Animals that
receive their energy directly from plants
Secondary Consumers (carnivores) - Consumers
that feed on primary consumers
Energy flows from the sun to the producer, then to
the primary consumer, then to the secondary
consumer, third level consumers, forth level
consumers, etc...

45. Pyramid of Numbers
Carnivore populations are
smaller in comparison to
the rest of the ecosystem.
They require more food to
sustain their lives than the
lower organisms.
The amount of useable
energy that is transferred
from trophic level to
trophic level only 10%.

46. Let’s Practice
How many trophic levels
are present?
5
Determine the amount of
useable energy for the
different trophic levels.
Level 2: 35 J
Level 3: 3.5 J
Level 4: 0.35 J
Level 5: 0.035 J

47. Food Webs
Many food chains
interacting with each
other.
The arrow always points
away from the organism
being eaten to the
organism doing the eating.
Shows the movement of
energy and matter in an
ecosystem.

49. What is a food web?
A food web is “an interlocking pattern of food
chains”

50. Thank You For Bearing
BY
Bhavik
Kartik
Digvijay
Nitin
Karan