The study of all processes influencing

• The distribution and abundance of organisms

• Interactions between living things and the environment

• Species: the different kinds of living things in a community

• All individuals are like one another, but are distinct from other groups

• Species are grouped into genera

• Which are grouped into families, orders, classes, phyla, kingdoms, and domains

• The official species name is Latin and has two parts

• The genus name and species descriptive term

a number of individuals that make up the interbreeding, reproducing group

• It refers only to individuals of a species in an area

• For example, gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park

• A species would be all gray wolves in the world

A biotic community (biota): the grouping of populations in

a natural area

• Includes all vegetation, animals, and microscopic organisms

Ecotones: The transitional areas between two ecosystems

Landscape: a cluster of interacting ecosystems

• Biome: a large area of Earth with the same climate and similar vegetation

• For example, grasslands can be predicted by rainfall and temperature

• Boundaries grade into the next biome (Ecotones)

• Biomes describe terrestrial systems

• Aquatic and wetland ecosystems are determined by depth, salinity, and

permanence of water

Biosphere: one huge system formed by all living things

Condition: any factor that varies in space and time but is notused up (temperature, wind, pH, salinity)

Resource: any factor consumed by organisms

• Water, nutrients, light, oxygen, food, space

• A factor can be both a condition and resource

• Plants use water as a resource, but pond water is   a condition

• Factors determine whether a species occupies an   area

Optimum

(For every factor there is an optimum)

For every factor there is an optimum

• A certain level where organisms grow or survive    best

• Organisms do less well at higher or lower levels

• They do not survive at extremes

Range of tolerance: the entire range allowing any growth

Limits of tolerance: the high and low ends of the range of

tolerance

Zones of stress: between the optimal range and high or low limit of tolerance

Limiting factor: any factor that limits growth

Law of limiting factors: any factor outside the optimal

range will cause stress and limit growth, reproduction, and survival of a population

Synergistic effects (synergisms): factors (e.g., pollution)

that interact to cause a greater effect than expected

Habitat: the place—defined by the plant community and

physical environment—where a species is adapted to live

• A deciduous forest, swamp, etc.

• Microhabitat: puddles, rocks, holes in tree trunks

Niche: the sum of all conditions and resources under which a species can live

• What the animal eats, where it feeds and lives,    how it responds to abiotic factors

• Species coexist in an area but have separate    niches

• Reducing competition by using different resources

Matter: anything that occupy space and has mass

• All solids, liquids, and gases

• All living and nonliving things

• Is composed of atoms

Atoms: the building blocks of all matter

• Elements: 94 naturally occurring kinds of atoms

• Made of protons, neutrons, electrons

• Chemical reactions rearrange atoms to form    different kinds of matter

Law of Conservation of Matter: atoms do not change and are not created of destroyed

Molecule: two or more atoms of the same or different kinds

• Bonded in a specific way

• Properties depend on how atoms are bonded

• Oxygen: o2

Compound: two or more different kinds of atoms that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions

Biosphere - Living Things

Atmosphere - Gases

Lithosphere - Rocks and Dirt

Hydrosphere - Water

Atmosphere: the thin layer of gases separating Earth from

outer space

• Major source of C and O

• Oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), carbon dioxide (CO2)

• Plus water vapor and other gases

• Gases are normally stable but may react to form    new compounds

Hydrosphere: all bodies of water from puddles to oceans

• Water is an important molecule for living things in   liquid form

• Below freezing, water is a solid crystal form (ice or   snow)

• Above freezing but below vaporization, water is a   liquid

• Water undergoes melting and evaporation

• Sublimation: water goes from solid directly into the air

Lithosphere: what we think of as rocks and minerals

• All elements required by organisms are in minerals

Mineral: a naturally occurring solid made by geologic processes

• A hard, crystalline structure of a given chemical   composition

Rocks: made of small crystals of two or more minerals

Organic compounds: chemical compounds making up

tissues of living organisms

Inorganic compounds: molecules or compounds with

neither carbon–carbon nor carbon–hydrogen bonds

Producers: make organic molecules from raw materials (CO2,H2O, N, P)

• Chlorophyll in plants absorbs kinetic light energy   to power the production of organic molecules

• Green plants use the process of photosynthesis   to make

• Sugar (glucose—stored chemical energy)

• Using inputs of carbon dioxide, water, and light   energy

• Releasing oxygen as a by-product

Consumers: organisms that live on the production of others

• Obtain energy from feeding on and breaking down   organic matter made by producers

Decomposition: is the process by which tissues of a dead

organisms break down into simpler forms of matter

Respiration: continuous process where organic molecules

are broken down inside each cell

Biogeochemical cycles: circular pathways of elements

involving biological, geological, and chemical processes

The carbon cycle: starts with the reservoir of CO2 in the air that becomes organic molecules in organisms

• Terrestrial-C is respired by plants and animals into   the air or is deposited in soil

• Aquatic-photosynthesis in oceans by   phytoplankton and aquatic plants moves CO2 from   seawater into organisms and respiration returns   inorganic C to seawater

Nitrogen cycle: is mediated by bacteria in soils, water, and sediments, which perform many steps

• Nitrogen is in high demand by aquatic and   terrestrial plants

• Air is the main reservoir of nitrogen (N2) but is   nonreactivemost organisms and rely on bacteria to   change it to reactiveform

• Predominantly terrestrial

Phosphorus cycle: starts as a mineral in rock and soil minerals and skips a cycling component in the atmosphere

• A shortage of phosphorus is a limiting factor

• As rock breaks down, phosphate is released

• Replenishes phosphate lost through leaching or   runoff

• Phosphate becomes organic phosphate as it is   incorporated into organic compounds by     plants/phytoplankton from soil or water

• Broken down in cell respiration or by      decomposers

• Enters into chemical reactions with other   substances

• Nitrogen and phosphorus are limiting factors

• All three cycles have been sped up by human actions

• Acid rain, greenhouse gases, eutrophication

• Other cycles exist for other elements (e.g., water)

• All go on simultaneously

• All come together in tissues of living things