28/09/23

Ecological Relationships
 Ecosystems
28/09/23

“Ecosystem” is a term used to describe all of the organisms

living together as a community in a particular habitat.
Ecosystems are constantly changing:
Changes in
Physical changes population due
(e.g. temperature to predation,
change) disease etc

Changes in
ecosystems

Pollution
Human
interference

Changes in soil
conditions
Taking samples of an ecosystem
28/09/23

Using different “sampling techniques” we can measure changes

in an ecosystem. The two main measurements are:
1) The physical conditions of a habitat (temperature etc)
2) The populations of different species in that habitat

Some common ways of measuring…

Help!

Measuring Taking animal Taking samples

temp, pH etc samples using quadrats
 Food chains
28/09/23

A food chain shows where the energy goes in a food chain (in
other words, “what gets eaten by what”):

Cabbage Rabbit Stoat Fox

Plants convert the The arrows indicate where

sun’s energy into food the energy is going
 Pyramids of number
28/09/23

In this food chain we can see that the number of organisms in

each stage is less than in the previous stage:

Cabbage Rabbit Stoat Fox

We can draw a “Pyramid of Numbers” to show this pattern:

One fox
A few stoats
Some rabbits

Lots of cabbages
 “Funny looking” pyramids
28/09/23

Consider this food chain instead:

Tree Greenfly Ladybird Bird

One bird
Some ladybirds
Many greenfly

ONE tree