An ecosystem consists of living and nonliving components that interact. It includes individuals, which belong to populations of the same species that live together. Multiple populations make up a biological community. An ecosystem contains the community and its physical environment. Within an ecosystem, populations occupy habitats and fill niches. A niche is an organism's role, such as a hawk that hunts during the day. Healthy ecosystems have interdependent relationships where populations rely on each other for survival.

1. Ecosystems: Organisms and their
Environment

2. What is an Ecosystem?
An ecosystem is the physical environment that
includes the living and nonliving things
What are the living/ nonliving in the picture

3. Individuals
What are some other examples of Individuals?

4. Population
• A population is individuals of the same kind
living in the same environment.
What other populations can you name?

5. Community
• A community is all the populations of
organisms living together in an environment .
A community may have many different
populations.
What other
populations
could be in a
community?

6. Ecosystem
• When you place an individual, population, and
community all together you get an Ecosystem

7. Habitat
• Every population has place where it lives in an
ecosystem, which is called a habitat.
• You can think of a habitat as the place you live or
your neighborhood. Think of the community as
the different residents in the neighborhood.
• Ex. A rabbit is out in the field eating grass, that
field is one of the rabbit’s habitats.
• Many different populations can share a habitat

8. Niche
• As we just mentioned different populations can
share a habitat. Each population has its own role
called a niche.
Ex. A hawk soars above the ground looking down
to hunt for mice during the day. A Great horned
owl does the same thing, but hunts at night. They
both hunt the same habitat, but hunt at different
times, so they have different niches.
What is your niche?
Do you have any other example of niches?

9. Healthy Ecosystems
• In a healthy ecosystem populations are
interdependent, which means they depend on
each other for survival. A hawk eats chipmunks,
which eats acorns. The hawk keeps the chipmunk
population from getting too big, which means the
acorn will not run out. The chipmunks also
control the hawks because if there are too many
hawks and not enough chipmunks then some
hawks will die off?
• Can anyone give me any other examples?

10. Homework
• List one example of a individual, population,
community, and Ecosystem. Then tell me what a
niche is for you at home.
• Ex. Individual= Deer,
• Population= A herd of Deer,
• Community= A herd of Deer and a bunch of
rabbits living together,
• Ecosystem= the deer, the herd of deer, and
many rabbits living together.
• Form your HW just like I have it the way above!