Principles of Ecology

Ecology: the study of the interrelationships between living and _________ members of an area

Community: a ____________ of different organisms sharing the same environment

Population: the number of the _______ type of organisms in an area

Habitat: a ______ where a particular organisms lives

Niche: a description of the _______ played by a species in a biological community

            Activity: Ecology Play, Habitat Rummy, Move over Rover

Interrelationships:

Food chain: a series of organisms beginning with producers/autotrophs (_______ plants) followed by herbivores (animals that eat ________), followed by an animal that eats herbivores, and ending in a carnivore that is not hunted.
            Activity: Food Scramble

Food web: the complex __________ of food interrelationships between plants and animals in the ecosystem.

• Keystone species: a plant or animal that is so important that its loss would drastically ________ the population of many species in a habitat.

ex.
                       

Trophic levels: Ecological Pyramid
            Level 1: Autotroph= Plants
            Level 2: Primary Consumer= Herbivore
            Level 3: Secondary Consumer= Carnivore
            Level 4: Tertiary Consumer= Carnivore

The biomass of each level of the ecological pyramid is _______% less than the one below it! Only _____% of useable energy is transferred up to the next trophic level because so much is lost.

WHY?

1. Some of the food source many be __________ or indigestible.
   
2. Energy may be expended catching the _________
   
3. Energy is degraded through normal ______________ processes (Second Law of Thermodynamics).

Bio______________ of a toxin occurs when an organism absorbs and stores the toxin in its tissues

Biomagnification when the toxin becomes increasingly more concentrated higher up the ___________ chain.The best-known examples are the insecticide DDT and mercury.