Intro to Ecology

Intro : Ecology Vocab

• Ecology is the study of the interactions among organisms and their physical environment.
• An organism is a single individual
• A population is a group of interbreeding organisms (group of same species)
• A community is all of the populations of organisms within an area.
• An ecosystem is all of the living and nonliving factors/organisms within an area.
• Biology is the study of life
• Biotic - pertaining to life (things that come from a living organism was once a living organism are biotic)
• Abiotic - without/not pertaining to life
• Habitat - the place the organism lives.
• Niche - the role or job an oranism has in it's enviroment. *an organism can have multiple niches!* (An orgsanism specific niche helps to avoid compettion within its ecosystem.)
• Limiting factors - the resources that limits the population of an organism *limiting factors helps keeep ecosystem in balance and regulate population growth.* (Limiting factors = Limiting resources)

Graphing and Graphs

• The independent variable goes on the x-axis and the dependent variable goes on the y-axis.
• DEPENDENT
• RESPONDING
• Y-AXIS
• MANIPULATED
• INDEPENDENT
• X-AXIS
• 
• Caption: A pie chart shows parts of a whole or percentage.

Graphs

• 
• Caption: A Line graph shows changes over time
• 
• Caption: A bar graph displays numbers or amounts

Population Growth: Exponential Growth

• 
• Caption: A J-curve showin in the graph .
• J - shaped curves on a graph reflect an ecosystem with ideal conditions with unlimited resources.

Population Growth: Logistic gowth

• An S - shaped curve on a graph reflects growth that is limited by resources. Carrying capacity is the maximum population size an ecosystem can carry/support.
• 
• Caption: An S - curve is shown in the graph.