Monday 3/31/2014
Announcements:
Homework/Class Assignments!!
Due Today: Ecosystem Designs
• AGENDA: Ecology Unit
• Notes: Review of Cycles and
relevance to ecosystems
• Activity: Cycles Mind Map
• Cycles Mind Map due Tuesday
4/1/2014 for 45 Points
Biogeochemical Cycles
QUESTION: How does
our planet, as a whole,
work to recycle its
resources and provide
life?
ANSWER:
Biogeochemical Cycles
“Bio” – Life
“Geo” – Earth
“Chemical” – Chemical
Cycle – a periodically repeated sequence of
events
• Energy does NOT get recycled through an ecosystem, but chemicals
(nutrients) do!
• Water and minerals, such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), calcium (Ca),
and phosphorus (P), are recycled and reused by plants, animals and
humans.
• Nutrients are recycled through living and dead animals (and humans),
the atmosphere, the oceans, and rocks.
The 4 Main
Biogeochemical Cycles
• Carbon Cycle - Photosynthesis and cellular
respiration.
• Water Cycle - Evaporation, Transpiration,
Condensation, Precipitation and Collection
• Nitrogen Cycle - death and waste; nitrogenfixing bacteria; reintroduced to soil for plants;
plants feed animals
Cycles Mind Map Review
Using what you know about Biogeochemical Cycles, please construct the following
Mind Map
Main Heading: Biogeochemical Cycles
1. Please include the definition and what each prefix means
Sub Heading #1: Water Cycle
1. Please include 10 facts
Sub Heading #2: Nitrogen Cycle
1. Please include 10 facts
Sub Heading 3#: Carbon Cycle
1. Please include 10 facts
In two paragraphs, discuss how the 3 Biogeochemical Cycles and Ecology relate to
each other and answer the following questions: How does the recycling of nutrients
and chemicals support life in ecosystems? What are three possible reasons
organisms would not survive without nutrients from the biogeochemical cycles?
What source of energy supports the functioning of the cycles and how does it relate
Tuesday 4/1/2014
Announcements:
Homework/Class Assignments!!
Due Today: Cycles Mind Map
• AGENDA:
• Notes: Energy Transfer within
ecosystems
• Activity: Interpreting food webs
• Interpreting a food web
worksheet due
Wednesday/Thursday for 20
Points
Energy Transfer
• All organisms need energy to carry out
essential functions, such as growth,
movement, maintenance & repair,
reproduction and thinking.
• The amount of energy an ecosystem receives
& the amount that is transferred from
organism to organism has an important
effect on the ecosystem’s structure.
Energy Transfer Vocabulary
• Producer – Autotrophic organisms (make their own
food)
• Consumer – Heterotrophic organisms (have to eat
other organisms to obtain energy)
• Decomposer – break down dead plants, animals,
and waste.
• Trophic Level – refers to the organism’s position in
the food chain.
• Food Chain – starts with producers and moves up
through various levels of consumers.
• Food Web – several interrelating food chains.
Vocabulary Continued
• Inorganic nutrients – lack carbon-carbon bonds, it’s what is
leftover after decomposition.
– Example:
• Phosphorus – from teeth, bones, and cell membranes
• Nitrogen – from amino acids (form proteins)
• Iron – from blood
• Invasive/introduced species – an organism that is not
originally from the environment it’s currently living in.
• Herbivore – an organism that gets its energy by consuming
plants.
• Carnivore – an organism that gets its energy consuming meat.
• Omnivore – an organism that gets its energy by consuming
both plants and meat.
Wednesday/Thursday 4/2-4/3/2014
Announcements:
• Due Today: Interpretating a
food web worksheet
• Agenda: Ecology Unit
• Notes: Energy flow in
Ecosystems
• Activity: Food web reading
assignment
Homework/Class Assignments!!
• Design your own food web
due Friday 4/4/2014 for 30
Points
Energy Flow
• Whenever one organism consumes another,
molecules are metabolized and energy is
transferred.
• Typically, energy flows through the
ecosystem from producers to consumers to
decomposers.
– But…not everything gets consumed.
Ecological
Pyramid of
Trophic Levels
Tertiary
Consumers
Secondary
Consumers
Energy
Primary
Consumers
Producers
Decomposers
Key Things to Remember about Energy Flow
• The ultimate source of energy (in most ecosystems) is the
SUN.
• The ultimate fate of energy in the ecosystem is lost as
HEAT.
• ENERGY and NUTRIENTS are passed from organism to
organism through the food chain as one organism
consumes another.
• Energy is never recycled, but lost as heat.
• DECOMPOSERS remove the last energy from the remains
of organisms.
• INORGANIC NUTRIENTS are recycled.
Trophic Levels…where does the energy
go?
Food Chain
Food Web
Friday 4/4/2014
Announcements:
Homework/Class Assignments!!
• HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
• AGENDA: Ecosystems
• Activity: Food Webs and
Food Chain
• “What’s for dinner?” Packet
due Monday 4/7/2014 for 40
Points