Ecology
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Relationships of organisms with one another and the environment
(Credits to Mustafa Asif)
Notes
Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms and the natural environment
Consists of
biotic: concerning living things which an organism comes into contact with
abiotic: includes light, water, oxygen, temperature, salinity and pH of water or soil
Some terms
Habitat: a place where an organism lives
Population: a group of individuals of the same species
Niche: the role played or position occupied by an organism in the habitat
Community: consists of populations of plants and animals living together and interacting with one another under the same environmental conditions
Producers: green plants that can manufacture food materials by photosynthesis
Consumers: obtain their energy from the organisms on which they feed
Decomposers: break down organic matter, feeding on some of the remains and releasing the rest
Food chain and Food web
Food chain:
a series of organisms through which energy is transferred in material form constitutes a food chain
A food chain is usually short because of the loss of much energy to the environment at each level
A food web consists of two or more food chains interlinked together
Carbon cycle
The carbon cycle consists of processes by which carbon dioxide is removed and restored to the atmosphere
Parasitism
Parasitism is an association between 2 organisms such that one organism (the parasite) lives on or in the body of another organism (the host)
The parasite usually does some harm to its host
Malaria
The malaria parasite requires 2 hosts (man and anopheles mosquito) to complete its life cycle
It is transmitted from an infected person to a healthy person by the female Anopheles mosquito (the vector)