Organisms and the Environment

Organisms and the Environment

Ecology is the study of organisms and how they react to the environment around them.

A habitat is the place where an organism lives.

A population is a group of organisms of the same species living in the same place at the same time and can inter-breed with each other.

A community is all of the organisms of all species living in a habitat.

An ecosystem is a relatively self - contained interacting community of organisms and the environment in which they live or interact.

The niche is the role that an organism plays in an ecosystem.

Every ecosystem has basic components:

1. Producers - Green plants which photosynthesize to make food.

2. Consumers - Animals which eat plants and other animals.

3. Decomposers - Animals that decay and recycle nutrients.

(Producers, Consumers and Decomposers together form the biotic (living) parts of the ecosystem.

4. The Physical Environment (abiotic - non-living)

Interaction occurs in all ecosystems by:

1. Feeding

2. Competition

Feeding Relationships

The niche of producers is to make food for every other living organism in the ecosystem because only producers are capable of trapping light energy from the sun and converting it to chemical energy. They are arguably the most important part of the biosphere.

Consumers that only feed on plant material or foliage are called herbivores. An example of an herbivore is the caterpillar.

Consumers that only feed on animal material are called carnivores. An example of a carnivore is a lion.

Consumers that feed on both plant and animal materials are called omnivores. An example of an omnivore is a human.

Decomposers