The Organization of Life

Ecosystems:

Everything is Connected

Ecosystem

• All of the organisms living in an area together with their physical environment.

Components of an Ecosystem

• Abiotic—nonliving parts of the ecosystem.

including air, water, rocks, sand, light,

weather, and temperature

• Biotic—living and once living parts of an ecosystem.

• Organism—individual living thing• Species—group of organisms that are

closely related and can mate to produce offspring.

• Population—all the members of the same species that live in the same place at the same time

• Community—a group of various species that live in the saqqme place and interact with each other

• Habitat--the place an organism lives

In-Class Work—Team of Two

• Consider the following: honeybees, sunflowers, earthworms, red-winged blackbirds, and moles.

• Brainstorm and draw a possible ecosystem using these organisms.

• Label at least three interactions

• Put your names, hour, date in upper right corner and turn in by end of the hour.

Evolution

• Natural Selection• Adaptation• Artificial Selection• Evolution of

Resistance

Natural Selection

• Over many generations natural selection causes the characteristics of populations to change.

• Darwin and Fossils

--remains of extinct species from which modern species evolved.

Traits were the Key

• Organism produce more offspring than can survive.

• Result: periods of more diversity in food

Environment is Hostile

• Environment contains things and situations that can kill organisms, and the resources needed to live, such as food and water, are limited.

• Name an example.

Survival of the Fittest

What does this

mean to you?

• The fittest is one that survives to pass its genes on, is the one most adapted to its current or changing environment. It doesn’t necessarily mean it has to fight to survive.

Organisms Differ in Traits

• Resistance to disease

• Coloration• Size• And so on….

Inherited Traits are an Advantage

• Coping with Environmental Challenges

• “naturally selected for”

• Survive longer and produce more offspring

Each Generation contains proportionately more organisms

• Trait changes show up in greater proportion of offspring than previous generations.

Adaptations

• Inherited trait that increases an organism’s chance of survival and reproduction in a certain environment.

Animals of the Prairie

Darwin’s Finches Activity

Form Four groups for four different species

of finch’s bills:

• A. Thin

• B. Medium

• C. Small and powerful

• D. Large and powerful

Draw Cards to simulate food types

Adapted (civilized) Crops

• Corn was once a grass (teosinte)

• Cotton• Tomatoes• Chili peppers• Tobacco• Pineapple• Squash• avocadoes

Coevolution

• Organisms that adapt to other organisms as well as to their physical environment.

• Bird developed a curved thin beak to reach nectar; flower developed to ensure pollen would get onto head as it sips nectar

Artificial Selection

• Selective breeding of organisms by humans for specific characteristics.

Resistance Evolution

• Ability of one or more organisms to tolerate a particular chemical design to kill it.

• A. Billbug B. Sugar Cane Beetle

• 1. Insect pests are sprayed with an insecticide. Only a few resistant ones survive.

• 2. The survivors pass on the trait for resistance to offspring.

• 3. When the same insecticide is used again, more insects survive.

Diversity of Living Things

• Bacteria• Fungi• Protists• Plants• Animals

Bacteria

• Archaebacteria—live in harsh environments like hot springs

• Eubacteria—very common throughout terrestrial and aquatic environments.

Fungus

• All fungi absorb their food (after breaking it down chemically) from their surroundings.

• Some fungi causes diseases (Athlete’s foot)

• Other fungi add flavor to food (blue cheese or yeast to produce gas to make bread rise)

Protists

• either they are unicellular, or they are multicellular without specialized tissues.

• This simple cellular organization distinguishes the protists from other eukaryotes, such as fungi, animals and plants.

Plants-Gymosperms

• Gymosperms means “naked sperm”• do not produce flowers barring a few exceptions. • heterosporous which means that they produce

different male and female spores. The microspores develop into pollen grains and the megaspores are in an ovule.

• produce cones. • do not bear fruits. • propagate via wind pollination

Plants--Angiosperms

Angiosperms are “vessel seed”—flowering plants that produce seeds in

fruit—rely on insects to spread pollen

Angiosperm Challenge

Get into groups of four (4) people

At the signal, you have

three minutes to write down everything that is a product (fruit) of an angiosperm.

Six Kingdoms of Life

• Archaebacteria• Eubacteria• Fungi• Protista• Plants• Animals

Archaebacteria

• Single-celled, lack nuclei, live in extreme environments, also known as extremophiles

• An extremophile (from Latin extremus meaning "extreme" and Greek philiā (φιλία) meaning "love") is an organism that thrives in and may even require physically or geochemically extreme conditions that are detrimental to most life on Earth.

Eubacteria

Single-celled, lack nuclei;

domain of the germs

Fungi

• Have cell walls, absorb food through body surface; primary purpose is as a decomposer; a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms.

Protists

• Mostly single-celled, most live in water; are a diverse group of eukaryotic microorganisms either they are unicellular, or they are multicellular without specialized tissues.

Plants

• Multi-celled, photosynthesize food, have cell walls; angiosperms and gymnosperms

Animals

Invertebrates-lack backbones• 95% of all animal species • Arachnids (spiders) Crustaceans• Insects Protozoa• • Annelids (worms, leeches)• Mollusks Echindoderms (starfish)

Let’s do the Math

• Suppose an insect lays 80 eggs on a plant. If 70% of the eggs hatch and 80% of those that hatch die before reaching adulthood, how many insects will reach adulthood?

80 eggs x 0.7 = 56 hatchlings

56 x (1-0.8) = 11 survive to reach adulthood

Insects

• More insects exist on Earth than any other animal

Successful because….• Have waterproof external skeleton• Small size means less food needed• Reproduce quickly • Move quickly

Vertebrates

Can you name the groups?

Amphibians—toads, frogs, salamanders

Reptiles—snakes, turtles, lizards, crocodiles

Birds—warm blooded with feathers, birth in eggs

Mammals—warm blooded with fur, feed their young milk, live birth