Food Webs & Food Chains
Biosphere/Environment: biologically inhabited areas of the world
Habitat: a specific environment in which an organism lives
Resources:
Finite: limited
Infinite: unlimited
Methods of organizing the environment
Food Web
Food Chain
Roles in the Ecosystem
Autotroph/Producer
Heterotroph/Consumer
Make their own food or feed off the sun.
Acquire food by consuming other organisms. Herbivores are heterotrophs feeding off plants, carnivores feeding off other animals.
Always a prey. They are the bottom of the food chain. All of their energy is consumed and used by organisms of higher echelons in the chain.
Prey: killed for food (by predators)
Always a predator to something, but can also be prey. Eg: a fish predates shrimp and krill, but is also is eaten by sharks.
Predator: Predator: kills and eats other organisms. Also lowers/controls population sizes.
Can be herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore.
Carnivore: eats other animals exclusively
Omnivore: eats other plants and animals
Herbivore: eats plants exclusively
Decomposer
Consume waste and dead bodies of all organisms. They recycle materials that can be reused by producers.
Limiting Factors limit the size of the population. Can be biotic or abiotic.
Carrying Capacity: the sheer population an ecosystem can hold.
Competition: serves to control species population size by prohibiting the growth of some
Scavengers: eat dead organisms
Less descriptive, gives basic understanding of the topic, more useful for certain topics, eg: Trophic Pyramids
More in depth, has endless ways of describing things. More difficult to understand, however more beneficial for topic at hand.
Environmental Influencers
Abiotic: Nonliving influence
Biotic: living things that interact with each other
Ecosystem: a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
Useful to provide an easy description of the Energy Pyramid/Trophic Pyramid
Definition: the manner in which food energy is passed from one trophic level to the next along the food chain.
Better at describing environmental relationships and how their many details
Eg: Soil, Water, Air, Light, Minerals
Eg: Animals, Plants, Protists, Fungus, Bacteria
Biodiversity: Refers to a variety of life. This is in regards from genes to ecosystems.
Importance of Biodiversity
Biodiversity is always regarded as superior to non-biologically diverse environments. This is because they generally are more resilient to disturbances and changes.
Biodiversity make studying the biosphere more interesting, with the abundance of species forming vast food webs
Examples of Biodiversity
Biodiverse areas are attributed with strong plant growth.
Warm/Wet tropical regions
Mexico
South Africa
Brazil
Madagascar
"Madagascar is a megadiverse country with a high concentration of endemic species. Its ecosystems include many types of forests, savannah, steppes, rivers, lakes, wetlands, mangroves, drylands and reefs. Currently, these unique ecosystems are home to approximately 12,000 species of vascular plants (96% endemic), 586 species of ferns (45% endemic), 194 species of palms (97% endemic), 1000 species of orchids (85% endemic), 389 species of reptiles (90% endemic), 278 species of amphibians (100% endemic), 282 species of birds (37% endemic), 159 species of fish (66% endemic), 104 species and subspecies of lemurs (100% endemic), 60 species of non-flying small mammals (92% endemic), 43 species of bats (73% endemic) and 13 species of carnivore (77% endemic)." - https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=mg#:~:text=Currently%2C%20these%20unique%20ecosystems%20are,%25%20endemic)%2C%20282%20species%20of
"...Holds 15-20% of the world's biodiversity." - https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=br#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20Brazil,animal%20species%20discovered%20each%20year.
"South Africa is home to 10% of the world's plant species and 7% of its reptile, bird and mammal species. Furthermore, it harbors around 15% of the world's marine species." - https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=za#:~:text=While%20it%20occupies%20only%202,up%20to%2070%25%20for%20invertebrates.
"With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home of 10–12% of the world's biodiversity. Mexico ranks 1st in biodiversity in reptiles with 707 known species, 2nd in mammals with 438 species, 4th in amphibians with 290 species, and 4th in flora, with 26,000 different species." - http://www.southernportal.com/biodiversity.html#:~:text=With%20over%20200%2C000%20different%20species,flora%2C%20with%2026%2C000%20different%20species.