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Study of interactions between organisms and their environments.
Biosphere – life-supporting layer of EarthBiotic factors – all living organisms in a
biosphere
Nonliving factors in an environmentExamples:
Air currentsTemperatureMoistureLightSoil
Habitat—the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.
Niche—a position or role taken by a kind of organism within its community.
Antelope Habitat: grassland, savannah, etc.Niche: primary consumer
KangarooHabitat: woodlands, grassy plainsNiche: primary consumer
Producers– Autotrophs capture energy from sunlight
Consumers– Heterotrophs rely on other organisms for energyHerbivores – eat only plantsCarnivores – eat animalsOmnivores – eat living plants and animalsDetritivores -eat dead plants and animals
Producer—autotroph which captures energy from sunlight Primary consumer (herbivores, detritivores)—gets
energy from eating producersexamples—deer, pill bugs
Secondary consumer (carnivores, omnivores, detritivores)— get most or all energy from eating primary consumersexamples—fox, raccoon, catfish
Tertiary consumers (carnivores, detritivores)—get most or all energy from eating secondary consumersexamples—eagles, vultures
Quaternary consumer—top level (apex) predators that eat all consumers but have no natural predatorsexamples—orcas, lions
Decomposers—break down organic matter (leftovers of dead plants and animals)examples—fungi, bacteria
Food chain – a series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten
Food web –the feeding relationships that form a network of complex interactions (more realistic…why?)
Trophic level – each step in a food chain or food web
Food WebQuaternary consumers1 2 3
4
Mutualism—both species benefit from the
relationshipExamples—rhino & oxpecker, E. coli & human gut
Commensalism—one organism benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmedExamples—clownfish & sea anemones, spanish
moss growing on trees
Parasitism—one organism benefits and the other is harmedExamples—tapeworms in your intestines, wasp larvae in caterpillar
Energy pyramid – shows the relative amount of energy available at each trophic level
Sunlight is the main source of energy. Energy passes
from one level to another in only one direction. Matter passes from level to level in a cycle (the circle of life).
Biomass pyramid – represents the amount of living organic matter at each trophic level
Pyramid of numbers – shows the relative number of individual organisms at each trophic level
Only 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next.Example:
It takes 100 kgs of plant materials (producers) to support 10 kgs of herbivores
It takes 10 kgs of herbivores to support 1 kg of 1st level predator
The other 90% is used up in life processes or released as heat