Transcript Interactions of Living Things

Interactions of Living Things
By: Mr. Hunter
Who eats whom?
Killer whale
Krill shrimp
Algae
Leopard seal
Cod fish
Ecology
Ecology: the study of the interactions of
organisms with one another and with their
environment
Abiotic/Biotic
Biotic: LIVING
Abiotic: NON-LIVING
What abiotic factors are important?
Cycling
Matter and energy cycle
between the abiotic and biotic
parts of ecosystems.
Levels of Organization
Individual Organism: one living thing
Population: groups of the same kinds of
living things
Community: interacting populations
Ecosystem: living and nonliving things in
an area
Biosphere: where life is on Earth
Let’s find these examples in nature.
Energy is transferred in an ecosystem
1. All energy required for life to exist on
earth comes from the _____ .
2. How is the energy from this source
transferred to living things?
Define each of the following.
Give three examples of each.
 1. producer
 2. photosynthesis
 3. consumers
 4. herbivores
 5. carnivores
 6. omnivores
 7. scavengers
 8. decomposers
Cockroaches
Have survived for 300 million years
Most successful and well-adapted
scavenger of all times
Scavenged dinosaur bones long before
they survived on crumbs and kitchen
scraps of humans
Cockroaches
Dead skin and fingernails is a real treat for
them; leftover food is a delicacy.
Cockroaches can survive on unlikely food
sources like shoe polish, paint, and soap.
Turkey Vultures
Turkey vultures used their acute sense of
smell to locate decaying carcasses that
scientists hid in the California foothills.
Engineers once pumped ethyl mercaptan
into natural gas lines and allowed turkey
vultures to find the leaks, since this
chemical smells like rotting flesh.
Food Chains
1. Refer back to our marine food chain.
Which animals were producers,
consumers, and decomposers? What type
of consumer was each animal?
2. Think about your last meal. Trace the
origin of the energy you received from
each type of food.
Food Chain
Food Chain: a diagram that shows how
energy in food flows from one organism to
another
Food web: a diagram that shows feeding
relationships between organisms in an
ecosystem; shows how matter and energy
are transferred between organisms.
Energy Pyramid
Energy pyramids show that energy
decreases towards the consumer.
Energy pyramids show that number of
organisms increases in the direction
towards the producer.
Gray Wolves
1. Gray wolves are
_____ on the food
chain.
2. How are gray
wolves related to
overgrazing?
Gray Wolves
3. How are other animals affected by the
disappearance of the gray wolves?
4. What is the controversy in Yellowstone
National Park related to reintroducing gray
wolves? Do you think these concerns are
valid? Why or why not?
Types of Interactions
Types of Interactions
Human Population
The human population exemplifies
exponential growth.
The larger the human population
becomes, the faster the population grows.
What do you think?
1. Why do you think the human population
has exhibited exponential growth?
2. What do you think could cause the
human population to stop growing?
Look at the picture below. What do you
think a limiting factor is?
Limiting Factors
A limiting factor is a resource that is so
scarce that it limits the size of a
population.
What did you think the limiting factors
are for the human population?
Carrying Capacity
Carrying Capacity
The largest population that an
environment can support is known as the
carrying capacity.
Do you think that the human population
has reached its carrying capacity? Why
or why not?
How do organisms affect one another?
Competition
Predator/Prey
Symbiotic Relationships
Coevolution
Competition
What is a competition? How do you think
this word could be applied to something in
nature?
Competition
Competition happens within a population
and between populations.
How do you think competition happens
within a population?
How do you think competition happens
between populations?
Predator/Prey
Predator/Prey
 Adaptations:
improves an
individual’s ability to
survive and
reproduce in an
environment
Predator/Prey Adaptations
What would be the main prey adaptation
of the roadrunner?
What would be an example of how this
prey adaptation may be used as a
predator adaptation in another situation?
Think of an example of each in
nature….
1. camouflage
2. defensive chemicals
3. warning coloration
What examples does the text provide?
1. camouflage
2. defensive chemicals
3. warning coloration
Symbiosis
Symbiosis: a close, long-term relationship
between two or more species
Symbiotic relationships are mutualism,
commensalism, and parasitism.
Mutualism
Mutualism
Both species benefit from the relationship
A remarkable 3-way mutualism
appears to have evolved between
an ant, a butterfly caterpillar, and an
acacia in the American southwest.
The caterpillars have nectar organs
which the ants drink from, and the
acacia tolerates the feeding
caterpillars. The ants appear to
provide some protection for both
plant and caterpillar.
How would each be an example of
mutualism?
Bacteria in your intestines
Corals and algae
Commensalism
 Commensalism is a
symbiotic relationship
in which one
organism benefits and
the other is
unaffected.
Parasitism
 1. an insect gets nectar from a flower and
spreads its pollen from one flower to another
 2. coral and algae
 3. barnacles adhering to the skin of a whale
 4. some tropical orchids use trees or branches of
trees for support without harm or benefit to the
tree
 5. a leech attaching to the skin of a human and
sucking blood
 6. heartworms live in the hearts of dogs
 7. Female mosquitoes ingest blood for the
protein