Ecology/Environmental crisis

Monthly project ideas:

May's monthly project is on environmental crisis, concerns and issues

IDEAS:

floating garbage patch

landfills

plastic bottles

cell phones/computer disposal - electronic trash

oil spills

climate change

ozone destruction - greenhouse gases

receding glaciers - polar icecap melting

air pollution

water pollution

over population

resource depletion

species extinction

rainforest destruction - habitat destruction

filling in of wetlands

clear cutting

urban sprawl

insecticides, herbicides

acid rain

Japan clean up

nuclear waste

where does city trash go?

overfishing, overhunting, overgrazing

sound pollution

Vocab:

(additional vocab words are on handout)

biosphere

ecology

ecosystem

habitat

niche

community

population

biotic, abiotic

consumer

producer

decomposer

herbivore, carnivore, omnivore

food chain, food web

competition, predation

symbiosis

parasitism, commensalism, mutualism

succession

ecologist

carrying capacity

heterotroph, autotrophs

Concepts:

Two conditions that are set by physical environment that organism have to adapt to

six basic needs all organisms

define ecosystem and how biotic and abiotic play a role in it

niche of decomposers

what are competition and predation and how have organisms adapted for each

what are the three symbiotic relationships and examples of each

what role does technology play in an ecosystem

difference between, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore

what do the words resilient and resistant mean in ecology

what is the nutrient cycle

describe three examples of how we mismanage the planet

Notes:

ecology - study of the relationship of living things to their environment

ecosystem - physically distinct, self-supportive area of interacting organisms and their surroundings

biosphere is persistent but renewable

zone of life on earth

takes energy from the sun, using particles from crust, air and water to make living matter

plants grow, animals eat them and each other, everything dies, decomposers close out cycle putting nutrients back into soil

herbivores are plant eaters

carnivores are meat eaters

omnivores eats both

checks and balance system - more food, more life more predators, and visa versa

ex. deer and coyote population

sun is driving force of biosphere

wind and ocean currents move materials around earth

organisms persist because have adapted to conditions set by physical environment (temperature and rainfall)

and conditions set by each other (competition and predation)

competition - to organisms fighting for same need

predation - one organism hunting another

producers (autotrophs) can produce own food - plants

consumers (heterotrophs) cannot and need to eat other

six basic needs all organisms

c,h,o,n,p,s

food chains - flow of energy through ecosystem - nutrients get recycled

food web - interconnecting chains

mismanagement of population

manipulation of habitats - filling wetlands, clear cutting, urban sprawl, over farming

pollution

overpopulation - too many people - running out of resources, space, food, clean water

carrying capacity - how much life an area can support

resistant - new leaves killed by late frost but tree survives

resilient - recovery from forest fire

technology

fire, hunting, genetic engineering

ecologist - a person who studies ecology

biotic - living parts to ecosystem

abiotic - non-living -- rocks, soil air water

community - group of organisms that coexist in ecosysytem

population - group of many individuals of single species

habitat - surroundings in which an organism lives

niche - role an organism plays in ecosystem (food, living space)

panda - very narrow(one food source, small mating period

rats - very large (live anywhere, eat anything)

symbiotic - permanent relationship between species

mutualism - both benefit ( sharks and cleaning fish)

commensalism - one benefit other unaffected (microscopic organisms living on our skin - hair)

parasitic - one benefits other harmed (ticks, mosquitos)

cycles

water, carbon-oxygen, nutrient