Ecology - Unit 1 (Introduction to Ecosystems)

• community of organisms • their physical environment such as the soil, water, and air.

Biotic factors are LIVING components that inhabit an ecosystem. Ex: animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria

Abiotic factors are nonliving components of an ecosystem. Ex: Soil nutrients, Light availability, and Dissolved oxygen

An organism that can breed within the same species

A group of individuals that belong to the same species ex: THREE moose

Different populations that live together in a defined geographical area ex: moose, gopher, owl, bobcat, bunny

• community of organisms • lives together in a defined geographical area with their nonliving environment ex: animals, coniferous (evergreen) trees, water, air

an area classified according to the species that live in that location ex: desert, forest, wetland

The part of the planet in which life exists, its where all living things reside ex: soil, water, air

how an organism survives ● It is determined by: ● its resources necessary for life (e.g. water, nutrients, light) ● the conditions it needs to survive and reproduce (e.g. space, temperature) ● interactions with biotic factors (e.g. predation)

• when two species attempt to use the same ecological resources at the same place at the same time

• usually plants or an autotrophic organism • makes their own food • autotrophs ex: grass, trees, and shrubs

• organisms that must eat other organisms for chemical energy • aka heterotrophs

Herbivores (only eat plants) ex: bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, nematodes, mites, snails, slugs

Omnivores or carnivores (eat plants & animals) ex: Spiders, snakes, and seals

Carnivores that eats the secondary consumers (primarily animals) ex: sharks, sea lions, eagles, hawks, lions, tigers, crocodiles, pythons

A food chain depicts the flow of ONE PATH of energy in an ecosystem ○ A food chain always starts with a producer ○ In a food chain, the arrows always point towards the consumer

a collection of food chains interconnected in the same ecosystem ○ A food web may contain multiple producers and consumers that are part of one or more food chains

The hunter. Predators are carnivores.

The hunted. Many prey species are also herbivores.

• Energy from the sun • the original source of energy that supports the entire ecosystem

The process by which autotrophs/producers make their own food using abiotic/inorganic compounds from the environment.

two species can’t exist at the same time or in the same place if they occupy exactly the same niche

the top predators in their environments, and they prey on tertiary consumers, which they consume ex: lions, wolves, polar bears, humans, and hawks