Living Things and the Environment

EQ: How do I define the various levels of an ecosystem?

Ecology

• The study of how living things interact with each other and their environment

EQ: How do I define the various levels of an ecosystem?

Ecosystem• All the living and

nonliving things that interact in a particular area

• May contain many habitats– Forest ecosystem

• Mushrooms grow in damp soil

• Bears live on forest floor

• Termites live in fallen tree trunk

EQ: How do I define the various levels of an ecosystem?

Ecosystem Organization• Single

organism – smallest unit in an ecosystem

• Population• Community• Community

+ Abiotic Factors = Ecosystem

EQ: How do I define the various levels of an ecosystem?

Habitats• A place where an organism lives• Organisms

– Living thing– Obtains food, water, shelter, and other things

it needs to live, grow and reproduce from its surroundings

EQ: How do I define the

various levels of an

ecosystem?

Habitats

• Organisms live in different habitats because they have different requirements for survival

EQ: How do I define the various levels of an ecosystem?

Biotic Factors

• The living things an organism interacts with in its environment

EQ: How do I define the various levels of an ecosystem?

Communities

• All the different populations that live together in one area

EQ: How do I define the various levels of an

ecosystem?

Abiotic Factors

• Non living things in an ecosystem– Water– Sunlight– Oxygen– Temperature– Soil

EQ: How do I define the various levels of

an ecosystem?

Populations • All members of one species in a particular area– All daisies in a field– All pigeons in NYC

• Area in which a population lives may be as small as a blade of grass or as big as an ocean

EQ: How do I define the various levels of an ecosystem?

Class Work and Homework

• Fill In– What did I learn– Confused– Say

Read pages E 16 – E 211- 1 Review and Reinforce1-1 Enrich

EQ: How do I define the

various levels of an ecosystem?