TERMINOLOGY

1. EcologyThe study of how organisms interact with their environment and each other

2. EcosystemAll of the interacting parts of a biological community and its physical environment within a specific area. It can be natural or artificial, and temporary or permanent.

3. Producer

Organisms capable of making their own food from:

water, light and air

eg. of PRODUCERS

PLANTS

SOME BACTERIA

4. Consumer

Organisms that must eat other organisms for food

eg. of ConsumersThe cow eats the grass

The calf eats the milk

The lion eats the buffalo

The gull eats anything

5. Types of Consumers

Basking shark eating phytoplankton

a. Herbivore [what is a herbivore?]

5a. Herbivore

An organism that eats fresh plants as 90% or more of its diet

5b. Carnivore [What is a carnivore?]

5b. Carnivore

Wolf kills & eats deer Shark catches & eats fish

An organism that eats fresh meat as 90% or more of its diet

5c. Omnivore [What is an omnivore?]

5c. Omnivore

Dogs eats anything!lField rat eats seeds & insects

Organisms that eat a mixture of fresh plant & animal materials

6a. Detritus [What is detritus?]

6a. Detritus

Waste from plants and animals, including dead remains

Remains of dead animals or dead plants

6b. Decomposer [What is a decomposer?]

6b. Decomposer

Maggots

Vultures

Bacteria

Organisms that consume detritus

7. PestAn organism that is considered to be inconvenient in a particular situation

8. Food Chain [What is a food chain?]

8. Food Chain

Sequence of organisms, one feeding off another

9. Food Web A pictorial representation of all feeding relationships among organisms in an ecosystem

10. Habitat [What is an organism’s habitat?]

10. Habitat

Where an organism lives in its environment

lives in a hollow tree

lives in an old burrow

11. Niche [What is an organism’s niche?]

11. Niche

Everything an organism does to survive & reproduce

often refers to where it gets its food from as in the bird example on next slide

SHARING & NOT COMPETING

Each bird eats from a different part of the same tree

12. Species

- a group of organisms that mate in the natural world and produce fertile offspring

13a. Biotic factors

- the part of the environment that is living or was once living

- trees & grasses

- fungus

- insects- bacteria

- tree stump

13b. Abiotic factors

- the part of the environment that was never living

- water

- air

- sunlight

- rock [sand]

- temperature

14. Population

- all of the members of one species living in an area

15. Community- all of the different populations in an ecosystem

16. Ecotones

- the transition area between one ecosystem and another ecosystem