4-2: What Shapes an Ecosystem?

Biology 1

• Ecology tell you where an organism lives

• Ecology also tells you about the climate

• What shapes the ecosystem of the organism?

Introduction

• BIOTIC FACTORS: biological influence on organisms within an ecosystem– Biotic Factors include living

organisms in the environment: Plants, animals, bacteria, etc

• ABIOTIC FACTORS: physical, or nonliving, factor that shapes an ecosystem– Abiotic Factors include temperature,

precipitation, wind, sunlight, etc…

Biotic and Abiotic Factors

• HABITAT: the area where an organism lives, including the biotic and abiotic factors that affect it

• Habitats includes biotic and abiotic factors

Biotic and Abiotic Factors

• NICHE: full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions

• Niches can be organisms place in the food web, temperatures needed for survival, etc

The Niche

• Niche also describes what an organism eats, how it gets food, and predators

• Where an animal lives• When and how it reproduces

• The same species can never live in the same niche – it causes competition

The Niche

• Competition happens when organisms fight for resources– Food, water, living space, etc

• Predation happens when one organism catches another for food– Predator is hunter, prey is the food

Community Interactions

• SYMBIOSIS: relationship in which two species live closely together

• MUTUALISM: symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit from the relationship

• COMMENSALISM: symbiotic relationship in which one member of the association benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed

• PARASITISM: symbiotic relationship in which one organism lives in or on another organism (the host) and consequently harms it

Community Relationships