Ecology and Ecosystem Notes
1) Ecology: The scientific study of how living things interact with each other and the
environment.
2) Ecosystems
a) An area, along with the living and nonliving environment, make up an ecosystem.
i) Living Things - Biotic Factors
ii) Non living Things - abiotic factors
b) Community: A group of various species that live in the same place and interact with one
another.
i) All the biotic factors in an ecosystem
ii) An ecosystem includes a community (all biotic factors) of organisms and their
physical environment (all abiotic factors).
c) Biotic factors: are all the living things in an ecosystem.
d) The physical or nonliving factors of an environment are called abiotic factors.
(1) Examples of abiotic factors
(a) oxygen, water, rocks, sand, sunlight, temperature, and climate.
e) A habitat is the place where an organism lives.
i) Habitat is an organisms address in the ecosystem or community
3) Biodiversity and the Ecosystem
a) The variety of organisms in a given area is called biodiversity.
b) Stable ecosystems have a lot of biodiversity.
c) Damage to ecosystems can be caused by severe weather events or human activities.
d) When biodiversity decreases in any ecosystem, that ecosystem is not as healthy as it
could be.
i) Polar bears are losing their ice. Now their ecosystem is not as healthy.
(a) What will happen to the Polar bear if they lose their habitat to the warming
climate?
http://www.nwf.org/polarbearsandglobalwarming/douginkleypolarbearvideo.cfm
4) Biomes
a) Biome: a large region or ecosystem characterized
by a specific kind of climate and certain kinds of
plant and animal communities.
i) The kinds of species that live in a particular
place are determined mostly by climate.
(1) Climate is the average weather conditions
in an area over a long period of time.
ii) Two key factors of climate are temperature and precipitation.
iii) Most organisms are adapted to live within a particular range of temperatures and
cannot survive at temperatures too far above or below that range.
(1) Could a polar bear survive in Utah?
5) Examples of Biomes
a) Tropical rain forests receive large amounts of rain and are warm all year. They have the
greatest biodiversity of any land biome.
i) 100 or more inches or rain per yearly
ii) Over half of all land species live in the rain forest
b) Savannas are tropical grasslands that have long dry seasons and shorter wet seasons.
i) More than 10 inches less than 100 inches per year
c) Deserts get very little rain. Because deserts are drier, they have fewer plants and
animals than other biomes.
i) Less than 10” of rain per year
ii) Look out the window (this is where we live
d) Temperate grasslands have moderate precipitation and cooler temperatures than
savannas do. Temperate grasslands are often used for agriculture.
e) Deciduous forests are forest made of trees who’s leaves fall off (oak trees, maple trees)
f) Coniferous forest: forest made of evergreen trees. Trees with pine needles.
g) The tundra gets very little rain, so plants are short. Much of the water in the soil is not
available because the water is frozen for most of the year.
i) Tundra gets very little water (like a frozen desert)
6) Mountains have multiple biomes
i) Elevation effects climate and biomes similar to
latitudes.
ii) Higher elevation is similar to higher latitudes
7) Aquatic Ecosystems
a) 1. Freshwater ecosystems are located in bodies of
fresh water, such as lakes, ponds, and rivers. These ecosystems have a variety of plants,
fish, arthropods, mollusks, and other invertebrates.
b) 2. Wetlands provide a link between the land and fully aquatic habitats. Water-loving
plants dominate wetlands. Wetlands moderate flooding and clean the water that flows
through them. (swamps)
c) 3. An estuary is an area where fresh water from a
river mixes with salt water from an ocean.
d) 4. Marine ecosystems are found in the salty waters of
the oceans. (This is where you can find Nemo)
8) Succession
a) The replacement of one kind of community by another at
a single place over a period of time is called succession.
b) Two kinds of Succession: Primary and Secondary
i) Primary is succession on a brand new land, like a new volcanic island
ii) Secondary succession happens on old land that has been destroyed or disrupted by
something.
(1) Fires, floods, earthquakes, volcano’s can bring on secondary succession
c) Succession is basically growing an ecosystem one species at a time
d) The first organisms to appear in a newly
made habitat are often called pioneer
species. They change the habitat in such a
way that other species can live in the
ecosystem.
i) Examples of pioneer species are
lichens, mosses and small fast growing
plants (grasses and weeds).
ii) Next new species will replace the
pioneer species.
e) An ecosystem responds to change in such a way that the ecosystem is restored to
equilibrium.
i) Equilibrium is reached when the ecosystems stops changing.
f) For example, when a tree falls down in a rain forest, the newly vacant patch proceeds
through succession until the patch returns to its original state (a state of equilibrium).
g) Sometimes, the ecosystem will find an equilibrium in which different species dominate
after a change.
i) Equilibrium means that the ecosystems reaches a point where it stops growing