5.01 Relationships in Ecosystems!
Partner Challenge:
In 3 minutes, list as many biotic and abiotic factors that you and your partner can think of!
Group with the most wins tickets!
Biotic Living Factors
Abiotic Non Living Factors
Plants, animals, bacteria, fungi
U1
N3
Sunlight, soil, water, climate, oxygen, carbon dioxide
Levels of Ecological Organization…small numbers to big numbers= having MORE interactions!
Ecosystem
Community
Population
Individual
and abiotic
factors interacting
together.
A group of several
populations in an area.
Just like
Charlotte, NC
A group of organisms of
the
Same species
One organism, a living
thing!
Just like your
grade level…9th,
10th, 11th
Just like you!
Biotic
Just like West
Charlotte H.S.
Challenge Questions:
1.What occurs amongst the organisms as the level of ecological organization gets bigger?
Competition for resources
2. How are both biotic and abiotic factors important in an ecosystem?
Biotic factors depend on abiotic factors for survival. For example, a
human needs water and oxygen.
Relationships:
With more organisms there are more interactions_!
Biotic (living) factors in an ecosystem interact in 2 ways:
1) Symbiotic Relationships: any relationship in which two species live closely together.
- symbiosis means “living together”
Key to Symbiotic Relationships:
a) Mutualism

b) Commensalism
c) Parasitism


 = Positive Benefit
 = Neutral Benefit
 = Negative
Station Rotation:
Use the following graphic organizer to complete your station rotation on symbiotic relationships!
What is mutualism?
What is commensalisms?
What is parasitism?
Two organisms live together, both
One benefits, other unaffected. One benefits, the other harmed
Benefit
Give example:
Bee and flower. Bee drinks
nectar and flower gets
pollinated
Give example:
Barnacles on a whale. Barnacles
attach to
A whale and feed when the whale
feeds. The whale is not affected.
Give example
Tapeworm in a human gut.
Tapeworm feeds off human
digested food, harming the
human
Draw example:
Draw example:
Draw example:
Predator vs. Competitor:
-Predator/Prey, also known as __predation_, is when one organism captures and feeds on another.
Ex. A cheetah and an antelope.
-Competition is when one organism of the same or _different species uses the same resource as
another organism. Organisms compete for food, water, shelter, and mates
Independent Practice: Making Predictions.
Based on what you learned in the lab….what would happen if…
1) All of the rabbits died off in an ecosystem where they were the primary food for wolves?
The wolf population would decrease because they depend on the rabbits for food.
2) The number of predators (wolves) increased in an ecosystem, but the number of prey (rabbits)
stayed the same? The population of rabbits would decrease.
3) This graph shows what happens when the number of
predator and prey change over time. Interpret this
predator prey graph to identify the relationships
between population size over time. Be specific!
As the prey population increases, the predator population
increases as well. As the prey population decreases, so
does the predator.