The study of relationships between living things and between living things and their environment.

We talked about things that we consider…

Living, Non-Living and Dead.

We even came up with our own definitions.

Living – “ things that have life:Breath, Grow, Reproduce, Consume food and Water”

Non- Living – “ things that were never alive”

Dead - “ things that once were alive ”

Non-Living LivingDead- if it’s fallen off

the tree

Alive -if it’s on the tree

                                                         

the state of being that distinguishes animals and plants from rocks, minerals, and other nonliving matter.

not having or showing the characteristics associated with life; lifeless.

lacking normal life functions; not alive.

Ecologist - a person who studies ecology

Ecosystem - all life is connected in a delicate

balance called an ecosystem.

- all living things do 1 of 3 thing in an ecosystem. They are producers, consumers or decomposers

An organism that can produce its own food

An organism that cannot produce its own

food and must eat other organisms

An organism that breaks down materials

so they can be reused by the ecosystem

Organisms that contain chlorophyll and that are

able to produce their own food

Organisms that rely on plants for food

Organisms that recycle matter

It is the way of life or role of an organism

Abiotic Factorsfactors that are nonliving,physical factors of the environment

Examples: amount of sunlight, the strength of the wind, the amount

of rain or snow, the presence of fresh or salt water

Biotic Factorseffects caused by other living organisms

Example: If the seals move to another area so must the bears.

Click on any of the terms to see a definition

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A single living thing

A group of organisms of the

same species

All the populations of organisms in

an ecosystem

An ecosystem of living things

that interact with each other

A collection of related ecosystems

All the biomes and ecosystems

on Earth

In order for an organism to survive in its ecosystem it needs to be able to adapt to its environment.

An organism does this in two different ways:

behavioural adaptations

physical adaptations

behavioural adaptations: living among the trees, protecting young,mating behaviours

other examples :migration of birds, mating behaviours,

spawning of fish,hibernation,nocturnal hunting

physical adaptations: opposable digits, long arms, hair, strong muscles

other examples:wings on birds and insects,

webbed feet on water birds,fins on fish

http://www.life.umd.edu/grad/mlfsc/res/AnimalDefensevsPredators.ppt

Click on the above link to view a

Powerpoint presentation

to learn more about animal defense.