Monday 3/30/2015

Due Today: Ecosystem Designs

• AGENDA: Ecology Unit

• Notes: Review of Cycles and relevance to ecosystems

• Activity: Cycles Mind Map

Homework/Class Assignments!!

• Cycles Mind Map due Tuesday 3/31/2015 for 45 Points

Announcements:

Biogeochemical Cycles

• Energy does NOT get recycled through an ecosystem, but chemicals (nutrients) do!

• Water and minerals, such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), calcium (Ca), and phosphorus (P), are recycled and reused by plants, animals and humans.

• Nutrients are recycled through living and dead animals (and humans), the atmosphere, the oceans, and rocks.

ANSWER: Biogeochemical Cycles “Bio” – Life “Geo” – Earth “Chemical” – Chemical Cycle – a periodically repeated sequence of events

QUESTION: How does our planet, as a whole, work to recycle its resources and provide life?

The 4 Main Biogeochemical Cycles• Carbon Cycle - Photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

• Water Cycle - Evaporation, Transpiration, Condensation, Precipitation and Collection

• Nitrogen Cycle - death and waste; nitrogen-fixing bacteria; reintroduced to soil for plants; plants feed animals

Cycles Mind Map ReviewUsing what you know about Biogeochemical Cycles, please construct the following Mind Map

Main Heading: Biogeochemical Cycles1. Please include the definition and what each prefix means

Sub Heading #1: Water Cycle2. Please include 10 facts

Sub Heading #2: Nitrogen Cycle3. Please include 10 facts

Sub Heading 3#: Carbon Cycle4. Please include 10 facts

In two paragraphs, discuss how the 3 Biogeochemical Cycles and Ecology relate to each other and answer the following questions: How does the recycling of nutrients and chemicals support life in ecosystems? What are three possible reasons organisms would not survive without nutrients from the biogeochemical cycles? What source of energy supports the functioning of the cycles and how does it relate to ecology?

Tuesday 4/1/2014

Due Today: Cycles Mind Map

• AGENDA:

• Notes: Energy Transfer within ecosystems

• Activity: Interpreting food webs

Homework/Class Assignments!!

• Interpreting a food web worksheet due Wednesday/Thursday for 20 Points

Announcements:

Energy Transfer

• All organisms need energy to carry out essential functions, such as growth, movement, maintenance & repair, reproduction and thinking.

• The amount of energy an ecosystem receives & the amount that is transferred from organism to organism has an important effect on the ecosystem’s structure.

Energy Transfer Vocabulary• Producer – Autotrophic organisms (make their own

food)• Consumer – Heterotrophic organisms (have to eat

other organisms to obtain energy)• Decomposer – break down dead plants, animals, and

waste.• Trophic Level – refers to the organism’s position in

the food chain.• Food Chain – starts with producers and moves up

through various levels of consumers.• Food Web – several interrelating food chains.

Vocabulary Continued• Inorganic nutrients – LACKcarbon-carbon bonds, it’s what is leftover after decomposition.

• Example: • Phosphorus – from teeth, bones, and cell membranes• Nitrogen – from amino acids (form proteins)• Iron – from blood

• Invasive/introduced species – an organism that is not originally from the environment it’s currently living in.

• Herbivore – an organism that gets its energy by consuming plants.

• Carnivore – an organism that gets its energy consuming meat.

• Omnivore – an organism that gets its energy by consuming both plants and meat.

Wednesday/Thursday 4/1-4/2/2015

• Agenda: Ecology Unit

• Notes: Energy flow in Ecosystems

• Activity: Food web reading assignment

Homework/Class Assignments!!

Announcements:

Energy Flow• Whenever one organism consumes another,

molecules are metabolized and energy is transferred. • Typically, energy flows through the ecosystem from

producers to consumers to decomposers.• But…not everything gets consumed.

Producers

Primary

Consumers

Secondary Consumers

Tertiary Consumers

Ecological Pyramid of

Trophic Levels

Decomposers

Energy

Key Things to Remember about Energy Flow• The ultimate source of energy (in most ecosystems) is the

SUN.• The ultimate fate of energy in the ecosystem is lost as

HEAT.• ENERGY and NUTRIENTS are passed from organism to

organism through the food chain as one organism consumes another.• Energy is never recycled, but lost as heat.• DECOMPOSERS remove the last energy from the remains

of organisms.• INORGANIC NUTRIENTS are recycled.

Trophic Levels…where does the energy go?

Food Chain

Food Web