Nov. 22 – Introduction to Ecology

New Unit!

Ecology

Learning Goals: Understand the concept of the biosphere and ecosystems.

Success Criteria: 

• You can describe the biosphere and its components.  
• You can distinguish between biotic and abiotic factors of an ecosystem.

Handout:

• Life on planet Earth
• Introduction to Ecosystems

This is it, our planet! In this unit, we study the parts of it where life exists and look at how all the parts of it work together to keep us and all the organisms on it alive.

Here's another picture of the Earth taken from far far away.

See the pale blue dot in the middle of the light brown line?  That's Earth!

The above photo was taken by this space probe called Voyager 1.

Here's what astronomer Carl Sagan had to say about it:

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

In the next unit we will look at what's around the Earth and in the rest of the universe, but for this unit, we look at our home and where we live.

You should understand what all these "spheres" are and what they are made up of.

Atmosphere

The layer of gas that surrounds the Earth.

Here's a video of "Fearless Felix" Baumgartner, who jumped to earth from 39 km up.  Not very far on the ground, but straight up, it reaches the edge of the stratosphere.

Lithosphere

All the rocks and minerals that make up the solid part of where we life.  It includes mountains and the bottom of the ocean floor.

Hydrosphere

All the water around the Earth in solid, liquid and gas form.

Ecosystems

All of the living organisms that share a region and interact with each other and their non-living environment.

It is composed of both living and non-living e.g. insects and bears are living things, and weather and terrain are non-living.

Here are some examples of different ecosystems.

You should be able to identify the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) aspects of different ecosystems.  Refer to page 34 in your textbook for some examples.

Homework: Continue to study for the unit test!