CHAPTER 1E• Interactions of Living Things

Everything is Connected…..

• ALL Living things are connected somehow

• Ecology – the study of how they are connected

2 Parts of an Environment…..

• Biotic – Living parts (other organisms)

• Abiotic – Non-living parts (air, water, space, man-made objects)

Organization in the Environment

• Population – made up of a group of organisms of the

same species living in the same area

• Community – made up of all the populations living in

the same area

• Ecosystems – made up of a community and the ABIOTIC factors in

that community

• Biosphere – Part of the Earth where life exists

Living Things Need Energy…..

• Producers – Organisms that use sunlight to make their own food

(photosynthesis)

• Consumer – An organism that eats another organism

3 Types…..

• Herbivore – eats only plants (grasshoppers, prairie dogs, and bison)

• Carnivore – eats only meat (coyotes, hawks, badgers, owls)

• Omnivores – eats both plants and meat (grasshopper mouse)

• Scavengers are omnivores that eat dead plants and dead

animals (turkey vulture)

Decomposers…..

• Organisms that get their energy by eating dead organisms (bacteria and fungus)

Food Chains and Food Webs

• Food chain – shows how energy flows from one organism to another

• Food Web – diagram that shows the feeding relationships between

organisms

Energy Pyramid

• A diagram that shows an ecosystems loss of energy

Balance in an Ecosystem

• Gray Wolves……GOOD or BAD ?

Types of Interactions…..

• Limiting Factors – controls the size of a population in a given Ecosystem.

– Food

– Water

– Air

– space

• Carrying Capacity – The largest population that an environment

can hold.

Interactions Between Organisms

• 1. Competition

• 2. Predator and Prey

• 3. Symbiosis

• 4. Coevolution

Competition

• When two or more organisms try to use the same resource

– Food

– Water

– Space

Predator and Prey

• Predator – eats prey

• Prey – gets eaten

Symbiosis

• Two species live together in a long-term relationship

• Both benefit

• One benefit and one unaffected

• One benefit and one harmed (die)

• Mutualism – Both organisms benefit

• Commensalism – One organism benefits and one is unaffected

• Parasitism – One organism benefits and one is harmed

Coevolution

• Relationships that change over time so both organism can survive.

• Ant and Acacia tree