Habitat and Niche

Habitat

• Habitat (Home): A place where a living thing lives is its habitat.

• It is a place where it can find food, shelter, protection and mates for reproduction.

• It is the physical environment that surrounds a species population

Habitat

• Habitat (Home): A place where a living thing lives is its habitat.

• It is a place where it can find food, shelter, protection and mates for reproduction.

• It is the physical environment that surrounds a species population

Habitat

• Habitat (Home): The habitat is the physical area where a species lives.

Physical =Abiotic Factors• Temperature• Rainfall• Sunlight• Soil• Rock

Niche

• Niche (Job): • A niche is the role a

species plays in the ecosystem.

• How an organism “makes a living.”

• How it fits in the ecosystem (biotic and abiotic)

•Crocodile and plover bird- The plover picks meat from the crocodile's mouth. This cleans the crocodile's teeth and prevents infection while providing a somewhat scary meal for the hungry bird.

Niches and Competition : Get in Where you Fit in

A niche includes:• How an organism gets

food• What it eats (prey)• What eats it (predators)• How it interacts with

other organisms

Competition• 2 different organisms will

compete if they are in the same space.

• Complete competitors cannot exist.

• One must leave or die out.

Intraspecific competition is competition among members of the same species

Interspecfic comptetion is competition among different species

Closing• An organism’s home is

called its ……………………….

habitat

• The role or job an organism has is called its ……………

niche

Types of Consumers

Herbivore - plant eater

Carnivore – meat eater

Scavenger – consumes dead tissue

Decomposers – break down compounds and release nutrients from dead matter

e.g. fungi bacteria

Relationships between species

Everything on Earth doesn't exist in its own little bubble. Species interact every day. That interaction is a vital part of how organisms develop and change over time.

Think about it, just today, how many organisms have you interacted with?

Could you live, grow and develop without these interactions?

Predation

Interactions between organisms

Competition Symbiosis

Commensalism ParasitismMutualism

Feeding RelationshipsPredation: a feeding relationship where one animal hunts, kills and consumes another animal.

The hunter/eater is called the PREDATOR The hunted/eaten animal is called the PREY

Herbivory: a feeding relationship where an animal eats a plant.

Unlike predation, herbivory does not usually result in the death of the organism that is consumed.

A relationship where organisms compete for resources (food, light, water, shelter, mates, etc).

Competition

Symbiotic Relationships

A symbiotic relationship is a long-term, physically close relationship between separate species where at least one organism benefits.

Commensalism: (+/0) a symbiotic relationship where one species benefits and the other is not affected either positively or negatively

Parasitism: (+/-) a symbiotic relationship where one species benefits and the other is harmed

WHY DO ORGANISMS LIVE IN SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS?

• For food• Resources• Habitat• Protection• Transportation• Cleaning

Coevolution

Coevolution: occurs when species in an ecological relationship evolve in response to changes in each other.Coevolution can result from feeding relationships and/or symbiotic relationships