CP BIOLOGY
CLIMATE AND SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS NOTES
CLIMATE
 weather = day-to-day condition of Earth’s atmosphere at particular time and
place
 climate = average, year-after-year conditions of temperature and
precipitation in a particular region
 climate results from heat trapped in atmosphere, ocean currents, winds,
latitude, amount of precipitation, shape and elevation of land
 greenhouse effect – Earth warmed by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor,
and other atmospheric gases trapping heat energy, maintains Earth’s
temperature range
 differences in latitude and angle of heating results in three main climate
zones:
o polar zones: cold areas, sun’s rays strike at very low angle, 66.5o and
90o latitudes
o temperate zones: hot to cold areas due to change of sun’s angle
throughout year, between polar and tropical zones
o tropical zones: near equator, between 23.5o S and 23.5o N latitudes,
receives direct or nearly direct sunlight year-round, always warm
ECOSYSTEM FACTORS
 Biotic and Abiotic factors
o biotic factors: all living organisms in the ecosystem and their
interactions, ex. plants tadpoles eat, herons eat adult frogs, species
that compete with frog for food and space
o abiotic factors: physical or nonliving factors that shape ecosystems,
ex. temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, nutrient availability,
soil type, sunlight
o combination of abiotic and biotic factors determine the survival and
growth of an organism and the productivity of the ecosystem
o habitat = area where organism lives including the biotic and abiotic
factors
CP BIOLOGY, CLIMATE AND SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS NOTES, page 2
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Niche
o full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism
lives and way in which organism uses those conditions
o includes animal’s place in food web
o range of temperature needs to survive
o type of food animal eats and how it gets food
o physical conditions it needs to survive – water, soil
o when and how it reproduces
Community Interactions
o include competition, predation, symbiosis
o can powerfully affect an ecosystem
o competition for resources (necessities of life – food, water, nutrients,
space) – organisms try to use resources at same place and time
o predation – one organism captures and feeds on another
 predator = kills and eats organism
 prey = organism that is killed and eaten
o symbiosis – relationship in which two species live closely together,
three main classes of relationships
 mutualism – both species benefit from relationship, ex. bees
pollinate flowers (honey and new plants)
 commensalism – one species benefits while other species is not
helped or harmed, ex. barnacles attach to whale, barnacles get
benefit of water moving past them and getting food particles
 parasitism – one species lives on or inside other organism and
harms it, parasite obtains all or most of its food from the host,
usually weaken but do not kill host, ex. tapeworms in intestines
of mammals