Environmental Science

Studying the web of life

All living things are connected in a web of life. Scientists who study the connections among living things specialize in the science of Ecology.

Ecology

The study of the interaction between organisms and their environment.

An environment has two parts.

Biotic- Living factors in the environment; things that are alive. Abiotic- nonliving factors in the environment.

Identify if they are bioitic or abiotic

Organization in the environment

At first glance, the environment may seemed disorganized. The environment can be arranged into different levels.

Organisms

a living thing such as a plant, animal, or bacterium.

Populations

A group of individuals of the same species that live together in the same area at the same time.

Community

All of the populations of different species that live and interact in an area.

Ecosystem

A community of organisms and their nonliving environment.

Biosphere

The part of earth where life exists.

Organism
Population

Community
Ecosystem

Biosphere

Lets ask the experts

Tim and Moby. http://www.brainpop.com /science/populationsand ecosystems/ecosystems/

 All living things need energy to survive. Organisms in any community can be divided into three groups based on how they obtain energy. Lets examine to see how energy passes through these groups in an ecosystem.

There are three groups

Producers Consumers Decomposers

Producers

Organism the uses sunlight directly to make food. They do this by using a process called photosynthesis.

Autotrophs

Are known as producers. They are the green plants that produce their own food.

Photosynthesis

Plants are able to capture light energy from the sun and convert it into food.

Consumers
Organisms that eat the producers or other organisms for energy. There are several kinds of consumers; herbivore, carnivore, omnivore and scavengers.

Hetetrophs

Are known as consumers in the environment. They consume the energy of other organisms.

Herbivore

A consumer that eats plants.

Carnivore

A consumer that eats animals.

Omnivore

A consumer that eats a variety of organisms.

Omnivore
Greater Dwarf Lemur

 Bonobo

An animal that feeds on the bodies of dead animals.

Scavenger

Organisms that gets energy by breaking down the remains of dead organisms.

Decomposers

Lets watch Tim and Moby

http://www.brainpop.com/science/populati onsresourcesandenvironment/foodchains/

Food Chains and food webs

Food chain- A diagram that represents how the energy in food molecules flows from one organism to the next.

A complex diagram representing the many energy pathways in a real ecosystem.

Food web

Energy Pyramid

A diagram shaped like a triangle showing the loss of energy at each level of the food chain.

Habitat

The environment where an organism lives.

Niche

An organisms way of life and its relationship with its abiotic and biotic environment.

 Most living things produce more offspring than will survive. An organism, such as a frog, interacts with biotic or abiotic factors in its environment that can control the size of its population.

Types of interaction

Interaction between organisms

There are four ways that species and individuals affect each other: competition, symbiotic, predator and prey. Lets look at each one.

Competiton

When two or more individuals or populations try to use the same resource, such as food, water shelter, space or sunlight.

Prey

An organism that is killed and eaten by another organism.

Predator

An organism that eats all or part of another organism.

Symbiosis

A relationship in which two different organisms live in close association with each other.

Mutualism

A relationship between two species in which both species benefit.

Commensalism

A relationship between two organisms in which one organisms benefits and the other is unaffected.

 Barnacles adhering to the skin of a whale or shell of a mollusk: Barnacles are crustaceans whose adults are sedentary.

Parasitism

A relationship between two species in which one species benefits and the other is harmed.

Scabie flea mosquito

scabie