Download - Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
The Web of Life
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How are living things connected?
• Organisms need energy and matter for life.
• Interactions between organisms allow the exchange of energy and matter.
• Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with one another and with the environment.
Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
How are living things connected?
• Biodiversity is the variation of living organisms.
• Organisms are connected to all other organisms because each individual organism has a role to play in the flow of energy and matter.
• A biotic factor, such as an organism and how it interacts, is a living part of the environment.
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Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
How are living things connected?
• All organisms rely on the nonliving environment for survival.
• An abiotic factor, or nonliving part, of an environment includes water, nutrients, soil, sunlight, rainfall, and temperature.
• Abiotic factors determine where organisms can survive.
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Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
Stay Organized!
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What are all the levels of organization in the environment?• The environment can be organized into different
levels that range from a single organism to all of the organisms in an area.
• An individual is the smallest level of organization.
Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
What are all the levels of organization in the environment?• A population is a group of individuals of the same
species that live in the same place.
• A species includes organisms that are closely related and can mate to produce fertile offspring.
• Individuals within a population often compete with each other for food, shelter, and mates.
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Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
What are all the levels of organization in the environment?• A community is made up of all the species that
live and interact in an area.
• The species in a community depend on each other for many things, such as shelter and food.
• Just like the members of a population, the organisms in a community compete with each other for resources.
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Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
What are all the levels of organization in the environment?• An ecosystem is a community of organisms and
their nonliving environment.
• In an ecosystem, energy and other resources are exchanged between organisms and the environment.
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Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
Home Sweet Home
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What determines where a population can live?• Organisms that live in the same area play different
roles to get the resources they need to survive.
• Ecologists use the terms habitat and niche to describe where an organism lives and its role in the environment.
Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
What determines where a population can live?• Habitat is the place where an organism usually
lives.
• Abiotic factors such as temperature often determine whether a species can live in a certain place.
• Biotic factors, such as other organisms that live in an area, also determine whether a species can live in a certain place.
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Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
What determines where a population can live?• A population’s niche is the role the population
plays in the ecosystem, such as how it gets food and interacts with other populations.
• In general, two populations cannot occupy exactly the same niche.
• Small differences in habitats, roles, and adaptations can allow similar species to live together in the same ecosystem.
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Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
Unit 8 Lesson 1 Introduction to Ecology
Lizard Invasion
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• The habitat of South Florida’s green anoles was invaded by a similar lizard, the brown anole.
• The lizards avoid occupying the same habitat by the way they share a tree. Green anoles move to the higher branches, and brown anoles occupy the ground branches.
• Competition exists between the anoles. Brown anoles eat the young of the green anoles.