CHAPTER 1 SECTION 1

Environmental Science

Living Things and the Environment

Ecosystem: All the living and nonliving things that interact in a

particular area Ex: Prairie, dense forest, deep ocean, and mountain

stream

The ecosystem is the type of place an organism

Habitat: Specific part of the ecosystem that meets an organism’s

needs and in which it lives – where it lives

Living Things and the Environment

Habitat examples

Living Things and the Environment

Biotic Factors: The living parts of an ecosystem Grass, plants, animals, worms, and fungi

Abiotic Factors: The nonliving parts of an ecosystem Water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, and soil

Organisms interact with both biotic and abiotic factors in an environment

Living Things and the Environment

Abiotic Factors: Water:

All living things require water Our body is made up of 65% water Water is important to plants along with sunlight and

carbon dioxide to make food through the process of photosynthesis

Living Things and the Environment

Abiotic Factors: Sunlight

Necessary for photosynthesis Without sunlight for plants we wouldn’t have oxygen to

breathe

Oxygen Most living things need oxygen to survive Organisms that live on land obtain oxygen from air Organisms that live in water obtain oxygen from water

Living Things and the Environment

Abiotic Factors Temperature

The temperature of an area determines the organisms that can live there

Ex: Warm tropical island – palm trees, bright hibiscus flowers, and tiny lizards. These organisms could not survive here in Minnesota

Some organisms overcome the temperature of their environment by digging dens to hide from the heat and lining their den with grass to keep in warm in the winter

Living Things and the Environment

Abiotic Factors: Soil

Mixture of rock fragments, nutrients, air, water, and decaying remains of living things

Soil will contain different amounts of these components in different areas

Type of soil dictates the type of plants that can grow there

Living Things and the Environment

Species: Group of organisms that are physically similar and can

reproduce with each other to produce fertile offspring

Population: All the members of a species living in a specific area

Ex: All of the daisies in a field or all of the pigeons in New York City

Populations can be large – the whole planet or small like a blade of grass

Living Things and the Environment

Community: All of the different populations that live together in an

area The prairie includes prairie dogs, hawks, grasses,

badgers, snakes, and many other organisms To be considered a community the different populations

must interact

Levels of organization in an ecosystem Species – most specific or narrow Population Community Ecosystem

Living Things and the Environment

Ecology: study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment Ecologists look at how biotic and abiotic factors are

related in an ecosystem

Study how organisms react to changes in their environment