Jonathan Wood 10th; Biology; Notes; Lesson 2

Chapter 2

Principles of Ecology
Lesson 2.1 Organisms and Their Relationships
A. Ecology
1. Study of the relationships among living organisms and the interaction they have
with their environment

B. Biosphere
1. Only includes the portion of the Earth that supports life
a. Crust (lithosphere) , deep ocean , fresh water (hydrosphere) and the
atmosphere
b. Divided into two areas: living factors and nonliving factors
2. Biotic Factors
a. Living factors in an organism’s environment
b. Examples: fish, plants, animals, fungi, protists
3. Abiotic Factors
a. Nonliving factors in an organism’s environment
b. Examples: Water, air, sunlight, soil, temperature

C. Levels of Organization
1. Organism→ lowest level → individual itself
2. Population→ all of the individuals
3. Biological community → group of interacting populations
4. Ecosystems→ biological community and its abiotic factors
5. Biome→ large group of ecosystems that share the same climate
6. Biosphere→ highest level → includes all the biomes

D. Ecosystem Interactions
1. Habitat →where an organism lives
2. Niche→ role an organism has in its community. It includes how it gets its food,
shelter and how it reproduces.

E. Community Interactions
1. Competition→ Occurs when one or more organism uses a resource at the same
time. It can happen within members of the same specie as well as between
members of different species
2. Predation one organism consuming another for food
a. Predator
b. Prey

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Jonathan Wood 10th; Biology; Notes; Lesson 2

3. Symbiotic relationship: Organisms survive because of their relationships with each

other.
a. Mutualism→ Both organism benefit from the relationship
b. Commensalism→ One organism benefits, the other is not harmed but does not
benefit
c. Parasitism→ one organism benefits, the other is harmed

Lesson 2.2 Flow of Energy in an Ecosystem

A. Organisms are classified according to how they get their energy

1. Autotrophs
2. Heterotrophs
a. Herbivore→ eats plants
b. Carnivore→ eats animals
c. Omnivore →eats both plants and animals
d. Scavengers→ feeds on dead animal and plant material present in its habitat.
e. Detritivore and decomposers →they both get nutrition from dead organic
matter. The difference is that detritivores actually eat the organic matter (like
earthworms eating their way through the soil) and decomposers secrete
enzymes to digest the organic matter and then absorb the resulting molecules
(like bacteria or fungi do). Both are different form a scavenger in that they
return nutrients to the soil.

B. Models of Energy Flow

1. Trophic levels→ each step in the food chain/food pyramid
a. Autotrophs/Producers → bottom level
b. Heterotrophs/Consumers→ above the autotrophs. They can be labeled as
primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, etc. consumers
2. Food chains→ shows a linear representation of the flow of energy in an ecosystem
3. Food Web→ shows many interconnected food chains
4. Ecological pyramids→ another way to show how energy flows through the
ecosystem
a. Energy pyramid: each level represents the amount of energy that is available at
each trophic level
b. Biomass pyramid: each level represents the amount of biomass consumed by
the level above it
c. Number pyramid: each level represents the number of organisms consumed by
the level above it.

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Jonathan Wood 10th; Biology; Notes; Lesson 2

Lesson 2.3 Cycling of Matter

A. Energy is transformed into usable form
1. Matter →anything that takes up space and has mass
2. nutrient→ a chemical substance from the environment that sustains life and its
process
3. Biogeochemical cycles→ exchange matter through the biosphere

B. Water Cycle
1. Precipitation
2. Evaporation/Transpiration
3. Condensation
4. Salt water makes up 97% of all water on Earth
5. Freshwater makes up 3% of all water on Earth. And out of all this freshwater only
31% is available for living organisms. The other 69% is found in glaciers and icecaps

C. Carbon and Oxygen cycle

1. All living things are composed 98% of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen
2. Photosynthesis (plants) : carbon dioxide + water + energy → glucose + oxygen
3. Respiration (animals and plants) glucose + oxygen → carbon dioxide + water +
energy
4. Entrapment of carbon and oxygen
a. Fossil fuels
b. Limestone
D. Nitrogen Cycle
1. Nitrogen is important because it makes up protein
2. 80% of the atmosphere is nitrogen
3. Nitrogen fixation: process effected by nitrifying bacteria, nitrogen fixing bacteria
and lightning
a. nitrogen-fixing bacteria are microorganisms capable of transforming
atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates, inorganic compounds usable by plants.
More than 90 percent of all nitrogen fixation is effected by them.
b. Nitrifying bacteria convert ammonia produced by decay into nitrates.
4. Denitrification : process that convert fixed nitrogen compounds back into nitrogen
gas, which returns it to the atmosphere.
a. Denitrifying bacteria reduce nitrates to nitrogen gas, thus replenishing the
atmosphere.
E. Phosphorous Cycle
1. Essential for growth and development of organisms
2. Short term cycle: phosphates in soil→ producers→ consumers
3. Long term cycle: precipitation→ sedimentation forms rocks→ weathering →soil

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