Ecosystems Part 1

Ecosystems Part 1

Lesson Goals

• Students can explain what an ecosystem is.

• Students can tell the difference between biotic and abiotic elements of an environment.

• Students can recognize that the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support depend on available resources and abiotic factors (light and water, temperature range, soil composition, etc.).

Standards

• 6.LS.4 Investigate and use data to explain how changes in biotic and abiotic components in a given habitat can be beneficial or detrimental to native plants and animals.

Ecology

• The study of organisms and the relationships to their environment is called ecology. Eco– comes from the Greek word oikos, meaning "house," and –ology means "the study of." So the word ecology means "the study of the house," but scientists use it to mean the study of the environment and the organisms that live there.

Open Ended

What are some of the natural things in your environment (your surroundings)?

Ecosystems

• Earth has many different ecosystems

• An ecosystem is a group of interacting organisms living together in a particular place

• Everything in an ecosystem is connected.

Eastern Gray Squirrel

• Gray Squirrels interact with the trees, people, birds and other organisms in our ecosystem

• They compete with other organisms for food and other resources.

• Each gray squirrel is a single organism.

Open Ended

What's one thing an Eastern Gray Squirrel might need to compete for in your neighborhood?

Abiotic Factors in an Ecosystem

• Abiotic factors are all of the nonliving substances and conditions of an environment.

• Air, wind, water, soil, light and temerature are all abiotic features of an ecosystem.

• Organisms need these to survive.

Soil and Temerature

• Soil is an important abiotic factor of life in an ecosystem

• Eastern Gray squirrels live in trees that need healthy soil to live.

• Most organisms depend on a certain temperature range to live.

• The desert and the tundra get about the same amount of rain, but different animals live in these different biomes due to temperatures.

Biotic Factors of Ecosystems

• Biotic factors are all of the living organisms in an ecosystem.

• These include food, and other animals .

• Gray squirrels need trees, and nuts to survive. When these are abundant , it is easy to survive.

• If the food supplies are limited, squirrels need to compete for survival.

Predator vs Prey

• Another biotic factor is the predator vs. prey relationship.

• Many predators eat squirrels for energy.

• Biotic factors are also at work inside organisms. Millions of microorganisms live in the bowels of squirrels. Some are good, and some can be bad.

Open Ended

What would happen if there were too many predators in an ecosystem?

Habitat

• The particular part of an ecosystem where an organism lives is its habitat.

• Different animals can live in the same ecosystems but in different habitats

• Some species can move freely from one part of an ecosystem to another.

Biotic Organisms have affects on Abiotic features in an ecosystems

• Remember how the wolves changed the rivers in Yellowstone?

• Grasses growing in a river can slow the current which can change the oxygen concentration or temperature of the water.

Multiple Choice

What is an example of an abiotic factor of an aquarium environment?

• fish

• seaweed

• sea star

• sand

Multiple Select

Which examples are biotic factors in an aquarium environment?

• fish

• light

• seaweed

• water temperature

Poll

Got it?

• Yes!

• No!

Open Ended

What is an ecosystem?