Ecology
Lab 18
What Is Ecology?
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Ecology is the study of how
organisms interact with each other
and with their environment.
Ecology also includes the study of
the distribution and abundance of
organisms; ecology can be studied
at progressively more
encompassing levels of
organization.
Levels of ecological organization
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1. Populations – individuals of the same organism that
live together are members of a population.
2. Species – a species consists of all the populations of
a particular organism.
3. Communities – populations of different species that
live together in the same place constitute a community.
4. Ecosystems – a community and the nonliving
factors with which it interacts is called an ecosystem.
5. Biomes – major terrestrial assemblages of plants,
animals, and microorganisms that occur over wide
geographic areas and have distinctive physical
characteristics are called biomes.
6. Biosphere - all the world’s biomes, along with its
marine and freshwater assemblages, together constitute
an interactive system called the biosphere.
Barn Owls Tyto alba
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Barn owls feed
on small
mammals, birds,
insects or other
small animals.
Prey is
swallowed whole
– no teeth.
Owl Pellets
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Owls can’t digest
bones, feathers, fur
& other hard parts
of their prey.
Instead, a pellet is
produced with hard
parts inside &
fur/feathers
outside.
 Expelled orally
What can we learn?
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What are the
owls in a
population
eating?
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Specialist?
Generalist?
Most common
prey in area?
Info helpful for
conservation.
Food Webs
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Food webs show the
flow of energy from
organisms at lower
feeding (trophic) levels
to those at higher
levels.
 Primary producer
 Primary consumer
(herbivore)
 Secondary
consumer
(carnivore)
 Tertiary consumer