Ecology and Succession

*Fill in the blanks during lecture*

ECOLOGY
    I. Introduction: pollution and acid rain
    II. Interactions between an organism and its environment
        A. Ecology = the scientific study of organisms in their home, the environment; the study of the relationships or interactions between organisms and their environment
        B. Environmental factors
            1. Habitats consists of the:
                a) Physical environment (abiotic)
                b) Biological environment (biotic)
        C. Ecosystem = communities of living organisms that interact with one another and with the abiotic environment.
            1. The 'eco' part of the word relates to the environment.
            2. The 'system' part means that the ecosystem is a system, a collection of related parts that function as a unit
        D. Ecological systems exist at several levels of organization:
            1. __________________, interacts with its immediate biotic and abiotic environment.
            2. ____________ = a group of individuals of the same species that live together in a particular habitat.
            3. ____________ = populations of different species living in the same area, interacting.
            4. ____________ = defined above
            5. ________  = major ecosystems composed of several large scale plant communities classified by predominant vegetation type (ie: tropical forests, deserts, grasslands etc)
            6. __________  = the entire portion of earth that is inhabited by life.
            7. __________ = interactions among Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere and land.

    II. Nutrients cycle through an ecosystem
        A. Biotic: food chain
            1. primary producers; herbivores or primary consumers; carnivores or secondary consumers; decomposers.
        B. Abiotic:
            1. climate; light; soil
            2. Soil characteristics
            3. biogeochemical cycles: nitrogen cycle, carbon cycle; water cycle

SUCCESSION
    I. Environmental conditions and plant communities vary in space and time
        A. Spatially
            1. example: north and south facing slopes
        B. Temporally: global, seasonal, and diurnal
        C. Plant Succession
            1. Characteristics of succession
            2. Succession stages
            3. The stable community at the end of succession is called a __________________.
            4. In characterizing succession, we only list the dominant plants (the ones that shape the ecosystem).

    II. Two kinds of succession
        A. Primary succession
        B. Secondary succession

    III. Why is it important for you to know about succession?