How Living Things Interact With Their Environment Textbook

How Living Things Interact With Their Environment Textbook Pages 704 -709

What is Ecology? • The study of how organisms interact with their environment.

Ecosystems • All the living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) things that interact in a particular area is known as an ECOSYSTEM. – Examples could be a prairie, a river, a mountain range, a forest, a coral reef, etc. View the clip on the coral reef. Name 3 biotic and 3 abiotic factors in the reef.

An organism obtains food, water, shelter, and other things it needs to live, grow, and reproduce from its surroundings. • An organism will do all of this in its HABITAT. • A single ecosystem may contain several habitats. – Ex. A forest ecosystem - fungus will grow on the forest floor, and flicker birds build nests in the trees. • An organism will live in different habitats according to its specific needs for survival.

How are the organisms in an ecosystem grouped? • Populations – all the members of one species in a particular • Communities – all the different populations that live together in an area • Ecosystems - the community and its abiotic factors

Interactions Among Living Things Pgs. 722 -729

Every organism has its own adaptations that make it best suited for living in its ecosystem. • Niche: an organism’s role or how it makes its living. – Includes what type of food it eats, how it gets this food, and which other species use the organism as food. – Also include when and how it reproduces and the physical conditions it uses to survive. A gila monster and a red-tailed hawk would have two different niches even though they live in the same desert ecosystem.

An organism’s niche may include how it interacts with other organisms. • The three major types of interactions among organisms are: – Competition – Predation – Symbiosis

Competition • The struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources. – Will occur when organisms fight over limited food, water, and shelter – Those organisms that survive have adaptations that enable them to REDUCE competition. Birds will utilize resource partitioning methods. They will eat different parts of the same tree. Everybody WINS!

Predation • An interaction in which one organism hunts and kills another food. – Predator – the organism that does the killing – Prey – the organism that is caught Predators will often use sharp teeth, stinging cells, camouflage, claws, etc. to catch prey. Nature’s Perfect Predator – The Praying Mantis Animal of prey will use defense strategies like MIMICRY. Examples: the monarch and the viceroy butterfly or the nonpoisonous scarlet snake vs. the extremely dangerous king snake

Symbiosis • A close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species. – Mutualism – Commensalism – Parasitism

Mutualism • A relationship in which BOTH species benefit. Bees and Flowers Ants and Aphids Symbiosis in the ocean

Commensalism • Relationship in which one species benefits and the other species is neither helped nor harmed. Clown fish and sea anemone Whale and barnacle Birds and a Tree