This document summarizes key concepts in ecology including: 1) Organisms include plants, animals, bacteria and fungi. A population is a group of the same species in an area. A community includes all populations in an area that depend on each other. 2) A biome is a large ecosystem with the same climate and organisms, such as forests, deserts, tundra, etc. A habitat is the environment an organism lives in including soil, air, water and plants. A niche is an organism's role, such as a spotted owl's role as a hunter. 3) Energy and nutrients cycle through food chains, webs, and pyramids from producers to consumers to decomposers. Key

1. Ecology Review Chapter 5, Lessons 1-6

2. Organisms An organism is any living things. This includes plants, animals, bacteria, and even fungi. All organisms are also biotic. Can you list some organisms that you know of?

3. Populations Many populations make up the living parts of an ecosystem. A population is a group of organisms of one species that live in an area at the same time. A population may be all the pine trees or all the squirrels in an area.

4. Community A community is made up of all the populations in an area. Members of a community depend on each other to fill needs, such as food and shelter. In other words, a community is all the living things in an area and they all depend on each other.

5. Organism Population Community

6. Biomes A biome is a large ecosystem with generally the same climate and organisms. All the biomes together create the biosphere . (The part of Earth in which all living things are located.) There several types of biomes.

7. Types of Biomes

8. Habitats A habitat is the place in which an organism lives. Made up of the soil, air, and water, as well as the plants of the area. What is your habitat made up of? A niche is the role or job of a specific organism. Each organism has a specific niche. The niche of a spotted owl in his habitat is that of a hunter. What is the niche of a mushroom?

9. Name the Niche

10. Food Chains A food chain is the transfer of energy through a series of organisms that use each other as food. Producers: organisms that make their own food. Consumers: organisms that get their food from eating other organisms. Herbivores: eat only plants. Omnivores: eat plants and animals. Carnivores: eat only animals.

11. Food Webs A food web is all the food chains in a particular place tied together.

12. Energy Pyramids An energy pyramid is a diagram that shows the amounts of energy that flows through each level of a food chain. Example: Plants get energy from the sunlight. They store some of it. Hares (herbivores) get energy from the plants. Only a small amount of this energy is stored. Owls get energy from eating animals. Only a small fraction of this energy is stored.

14. Cycles A cycle is a repeating process or flow of material through a system. Nitrogen Cycle Carbon/Carbon Dioxide Cycle

15. Nitrogen Cycle

16. Carbon Cycle

17. Credit Slide All information was retrieved from Scott Foresman Chapter 5, Lessons 1-6 All pictures were retrieved from a Yahoo Search.