Ecology Notes

Ecology:
The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their
physical surroundings

Biosphere:
The biosphere is the outermost part of the planet’s shell — including air, land, surface
rocks, and water — within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or
transform.

Biome:
A biome is a major regional group of distinctive plant and animal communities best
adapted to the region's physical natural environment, latitude, elevation, and terrain.
Examples of biomes include the desert, rain forest, artic tundra, grassland, coniferous
forest, deciduous forest, and oceans.

Ecosystem:
All the biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) factors that will INTERACT with each other in
some subset of the biosphere
Abiotic factors: soil, water, temperature, elevation, and location on the earth.
Biotic factors: All living things

Community:
Groups of many different species of organisms interacting in a particular area (predator
prey relationships)
Only the biotic factors that interact between different species of organisms

Population:
A group of organisms of ONE species that live in the same place at the same time.
E.g. a population of monkeys or lions

Species:
A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals.

Habitat:
The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.

Producer:
Producers (autotrophs) are always at the base of the chain. Producers are organisms that
make their own food. Plants are producers.

Consumer:
Consumers are organisms that cannot produce their own food and must eat other
organisms.

Predator:
Hunts and eats another animal.

Prey:
Is hunted by and eaten by another animal
Herbivore:
Herbivores are animals that only eat plants. A cow and a deer are herbivores.

Omnivore:
An omnivore eats both plants and animals. Humans and bears are omnivores.

Carnivore:
Animals that eat meat are carnivores. A lion and a wolf are carnivores.

Food Chain:
A food chain is the simplest flow of energy from one organism to the next. Energy flows
from the sun to the producer, then to the primary consumer, then to the secondary
consumer, third level consumers, fourth level consumers, etc...

Trophic level:
The trophic level is the position the organism is in on a food chain.

Primary consumer:
The primary consumer (1st order) is the first consumer in a food chain

Secondary consumer:
The secondary consumer (2nd order) is the second consumer in a food chain

Tertiary consumer:
The tertiary consumer (3rd order) is the third consumer in a food chain

Top Predator or Top Consumer:

The top consumer is the last consumer in a food chain and is not eaten by any predators.

Decomposers:
A decomposer eats dead or dying organisms and recycles nutrients into the ground.

Food Chain:
A food chain is the simplest flow of energy from one organism to the next. Energy flows
from the sun to the producer, then to the primary consumer, then to the secondary
consumer, third level consumers, forth level consumers, etc...

Pyramid of numbers:
Carnivore populations are smaller in comparison to the rest of the ecosystem.
They require more food to sustain their lives than the lower organisms.
The amount of useable energy that is transferred from trophic level to trophic level only
10%.

Food Webs:
A food web is many food chains interacting with each other and shows the movement of
energy and matter in the whole ecosystem.