Marine Science – Unit 4

Part 1 Ecology

Opening Assignment

• What is biodiversity and why is it so important to ecosystem stability?

Copy the questions below to answer with overfishing article

1. What is overfishing and what was the first type of fish that was overfished?2. What is the population estimate currently of the larger ocean fish?3. What is the prediction of the date of collapse of the world’s fisheries?4. Why are larger fish the first at risk to become extinct?5. How does overfishing affect the biodiversity of fish species?6. What is by-catch?7. List 2 things that are being done to help counteract this problem.

Unit 4 Pretest

• You will need a pen or pencil to complete the Unit 4 Pretest

• Opening Assignment:

• Explain in your own words what the term “ecology” means.

• You can google the term if you do not remember it from biology.

Ecology- the study of how organisms interact with each other and with their environment

Part 1 – What is Ecology?Notes

Abiotic FactorsAbiotic factors- the nonliving parts of the environment.• They include:

• Sunlight• Water• Temperature• Wind• Soil type• The atmosphere

• The types and amounts of abiotic factors that are available in an ecosystem help determine which organisms can live there.

Notes

Biotic Factorsbiotic factors- all the living things or once-living things in an environment.• Ex:

• Animals• Plants• Bacteria• Fungi

Notes

Organization In The EnvironmentThe biosphere consists of all life on Earth and all parts of the Earth in which life exists, including land, water, and the atmosphere.

Notes

Biome — a geographic area that contain groups of ecosystems with similar biotic and abiotic features.

• Terrestrial (land) Biomes include:

• Forests• Deserts• Tundra• Grasslands

Notes

• Aquatic Biomes include:• Marine• Freshwater (rivers & lakes)• Estuaries (mix of fresh and salt water)

Ecosystem—all the organisms that live in a place, together with their physical environment(abiotic factors)

• The types and amounts of abiotic factors that are available in an ecosystem help determine which organisms can live there

Notes

• A species’ tolerance for environmental conditions, then, helps determine its habitat—the general place where an organism lives.

Notes

Community—All the populations of species that live in the same area and interact

Notes

Population-a group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

Notes

Organism- any unicellular or multicellular form exhibiting all of the characteristics of life, an individual

Notes

Made of many smaller habitats

Let’s review . . . .

1. The study of the interaction between organisms and their environment is called ____________.2. A pod of dolphins is called a _________________. 3. The Indian River Lagoon is considered an

_______________________.4. A single individual horseshoe crab is called an

___________________.5. ALL living things are part of the

_____________ of Earth.

Ecology - Energy, Producers, and Consumers

• All Life on Earth needs energy for cell processes.

• For most life on Earth, sunlight is the ultimate energy source.

• Organisms get energy by using light or chemical energy to make food or by eating other organisms

PRODUCERS• Producers change the energy available in their

environment into food energy. • They make their own food (autotrophs)

• Plants, algae, and some microorganisms use a chemical process called photosynthesis to change light energy into chemical energy (Glucose)

• This process adds oxygen to the atmosphere and removes carbon dioxide.

Notes

Producers That Use Sunlight

cyanobacteria

Algal colony

phytoplankton

Plants & Trees

Life Without Light• Biologists have discovered thriving

ecosystems around volcanic vents in total darkness on the deep ocean floor.

• Deep-sea ecosystems depend on primary producers that harness chemical energy from inorganic molecules such as hydrogen sulfide.

• The use of chemical energy to produce carbohydrates is called chemosynthesis. giant tube worms

live in symbiosis with the chemosynthetic bacteria

Notes

Consumers• Consumers- organisms that cannot make their own food and

get their energy from eating other organisms. (heterotrophs)

• Producers and Consumers use the chemical process of Cellular Respiration to break down food in the presence of oxygen to produce energy.

Notes

Types of Consumers

• Consumers are classified by the ways in which they acquire energy and nutrients.

• Herbivores-obtain energy and nutrients by eating plant leaves, roots, seeds, or fruits.

Notes

Opening Assignment:

• **TURN YOUR LORAX PARAGRAPHS IN TO THE BIN

• List the levels of organization of life.

• Explain the difference between biotic and abiotic factors in ecosystems and give 3 examples of each.

Types of ConsumersCarnivores- kill and eat other consumers (animals)

Notes

• Omnivores: use both plants and animals as food to create energy

Types of ConsumersNotes

Types of Consumers• Decomposers -such as bacteria

and fungi, feed by chemically breaking down organic matter.

• The decay caused by decomposers is part of the process that produces detritus—small pieces of dead and decaying plant and animal remains.

• Decomposers that live on, and in, detritus particles are called Detrivores.• They feed on detritus particles,

often chewing or grinding them into smaller pieces. Ex: giant earthworms

Notes

• Each time one organism eats another organism, a transfer of energy occurs

• Food chain- models how energy flows in an ecosystem through a linear feeding relationship.

Energy Flow in EcosystemsNotes

Food Webs Food web- links all of the food chains in an ecosystem together.

• It shows many feeding relationships that are possible in an ecosystem

An example of a food web in the Everglades is shown.

Notes

Trophic Levels and Energy Pyramids

• Each step in a food chain or food web is called a trophic level.

• Primary producers always make up the first trophic level.

• Various consumers occupy every other level

Notes

Trophic Levels and Energy Pyramids

• Energy pyramids- show the amount of food energy available at each trophic level

• Each time energy is transferred from one organism to another, lost and less energy is available at the next trophic level.

Notes

Trophic Levels and Energy Pyramids

• The remaining 10% of the energy becomes part of the organism’s body and is stored in its molecules.

• This 10% is available to the next trophic level when one organism consumes another organism

Trophic Levels and Energy Pyramids

• Energy is lost: as heat through cellular respiration.

o this energy is used to carry out functions of living things such as producing new cells, regulation of body temperature, and moving around

Notes

Practice with Food webLook at the Everglades ecosystem food web on the right and list the following:

2 producers:______________________

2 primary consumers:______________

2 secondary consumers:____________

List 1 herbivore:___________________

List 2 carnivores:__________________

List 1 omnivore:___________________

NicheA niche is the range of physical and biological conditions in which a species lives and the way the species obtains what it needs to survive and reproduce.

Every species has its own range of tolerance, the ability to survive and reproduce under a range of environmental circumstances.

Notes

Resources and the Niche• The term resource can refer to any necessity

of life, such as water, nutrients, light, food, or space.

Predator – Prey Relationships• An interaction in which one animal (the

predator) captures and feeds on another animal (the prey) is called predation.

Predators can affect the size of prey populations in a community and determine the places prey can live and feed.

Birds of prey, for example, can play an important role in regulating the population sizes of mice, voles, and other small mammals.

Notes

Competition

• When two organisms compete for limited resources (food, water, light, space) and one wins and the other loses it is called competition.

Symbiotic Relationships• Biologists recognize three main

classes of symbiotic relationships in nature: mutualism, parasitism, and commensalism.

• Any relationship in which two species live closely together is called symbiosis, which means “living together.”

Notes

3 Types of Symbiosis• Mutualism: When both organisms benefit

+

Parasitism: when one benefits and the other is harmed +

Commensalism: When one organism benefits and the other is not effected +

Notes

Practice - Symbiotic relationshipsThe sea anemone’s sting has two functions: to capture prey and to protect the anemone from predators. Even so, certain fish manage to snack on anemone tentacles.

The clownfish, however, is immune to anemone stings. When threatened by a predator, clownfish seek shelter by snuggling deep into an anemone’s tentacles.

If an anemone-eating species tries to attack the anemone, the clownfish dart out and chase away the predators. What kind of relationship is this?

• Tapeworms live in the intestines of mammals, where they absorb large amounts of their hosts’ food.

• Fleas, ticks, lice, and the leech shown, live on the bodies of mammals and feed on their blood and skin.

• Both of these scenarios involve one organism benefiting and the other being harmed. What type of relationship is this?

Practice - Symbiotic relationships

• Barnacles often attach themselves to a whale’s skin. They perform no known service to the whale, nor do they harm it. Yet the barnacles benefit from the constant movement of water—that is full of food particles—past the swimming whale.

• What type of relationship is this?

Practice - Symbiotic relationships

Carrying Capacity• Carrying capacity is the maximum number

of individuals of a particular species that a particular environment can support.

• Once a population reaches the carrying capacity of its environment, a variety of factors act to stabilize it at that size.

Notes

Limiting Factors• A limiting factor is a

factor that controls the growth of a population.

• There are two types of limiting factors that control the growth of a population – density dependent factors and density independent factors.

Notes

Density-Dependent Limiting Factors

• Density-dependent limiting factors operate strongly only when population density—the number of organisms per unit area—reaches a certain level. These factors do not affect small, scattered populations as much.

• Density-dependent limiting factors include competition, predation, herbivory, parasitism, disease, and stress from overcrowding.

Density-Independent Limiting Factors

• Density-independent limiting factors affect all populations in similar ways, regardless of population size and density.

• Unusual weather such as hurricanes, droughts, or floods, and natural disasters such as wildfires, can act as density-independent limiting factors.

Limiting Factors ChartDensity Dependent

• The amount it affects a population is dependent on the size of the population.

• Examples: competition, predation, herbivory, parasitism, disease, and stress from overcrowding.

Density Independent

• Affects all populations the same way.

• Examples: Unusual weather such as hurricanes, droughts, or floods, and natural disasters such as wildfires.

Notes

Mrs. Shaw is awesome

Let’s review• Organisms that use both plants and animals to make

energy are called ________________.

• The process of using chemicals like sulfur to make food energy (carbohydrates) is called ____________________.

• Where are primary consumers located on the trophic level pyramid?

• How much energy is available from one trophic level to the next?

One more . . . • If producers

have 10,000kcal of available energy. How much would primary consumers have to use? ____________

• Tertiary consumers?

• ____________

Crash Course in Ecology

• Ecosystem Ecology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6ubvEJ3KGM&index=7&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNdTKZkV_GiIYXpV9w4WxbX

Opening Assignment

• A common area is any resource which is shared by a group of people, cities, states, or countries. Such things as the air we breathe and the water we drink come from the commons.

• List 2 common areas here at IRCHS. How are these areas overused by some leaving less for others?

Tragedy of the Commons Activity

• Easter Island Overview • https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v40kCIpgEWw