Introduction to Life

Science
Earth and Life Science Quarter 2 Week 1
Connections and
Interactions Among
Living Things
Activity
 Instructions: Make a food web out of the animals stated
below.
 1. Frog
 2. Caterpillar
 3. Maya Bird
 4. Snake
 5. Human
 6. Plants
 7. Decomposer
 8. Hawk
 9.Cow
 10. Sunlight
Ecosystem
• Anecosystem consists of biotic or living
components and abiotic or nonliving
components.
• The abiotic components include climatic
conditions that refer to atmospheric conditions
persistent over a long period of time and
edaphic factors that describe terrestrial and
aquatic conditions in the environment.
• Bioticfactors include the producers,
consumers and decomposers that represents
all form of living organisms on Earth.
• An
ecosystem requires cycling of energy and
matter.
• Ecosystems are highly dynamic, where it is often
subjected to periodic changes due to disturbances
but must maintain equilibrium to sustain the
needs of all of its components.
Connections between Living Things
in an Ecosysytem
• Living organisms in an ecosystem are connected through
the food chain.
• A food chain represents how energy is being transferred
across a series of organisms in the form of food.
• In the food chain, producers or autotrophs that are mostly
represented by plants can produce their own food through the
process of photosynthesis.
• Organisms that are on trophic levels higher than producers
called consumers (or heterotrophs) depend directly or
indirectly on producers as their source of energy.
• Heterotrophs are classified as primary, secondary, and
tertiary consumers. This classification refers to the level of
hierarchy in terms of their position in the food chain.
• Primary consumers directly feed on producers and include
herbivores (e.g. caterpillar, cow, goat) or omnivores (e.g.
humans). Secondary consumers feed on the primary
consumers and includes both carnivores (e.g. snake, lion,
shark) and omnivores. Even secondary consumers can be
eaten, and these organisms are classified as tertiary
consumers.
• A food web is an interlinked multiple food chains that
happens in different types of ecosystems.
• Food webs exist because most consumers feed on different
types of organisms which may belong to different trophic
levels.
• Food webs consist of a number of food chains
interconnected to one another. Involved food chains
include a series of arrows that point from one species to
another, representing the movement of food energy from
one feeding group to another.
Interactions Between Living
Organisms
• Each organisms interact with one another to
survive in an ecosystem. This kind of interaction
is called symbiosis.
• There are different types of symbiotic
relationships. A symbiotic relationship usually
involves organisms from two or more different
species.
Commensalism
• Commensalism is a form of symbiotic relationship wherein an
organism of a species benefits without affecting the other organism
of a different species.
• A good example of a commensal relationship is an orchid attached to
a tree trunk. The bark of the tree serves as the source of nutrient for
the orchids and it does not compete for the nutrients that is supposed
to be for the tree.
Mutualism
• Mutualism is a symbiosis where two organisms from
different species benefit from each other.
• It is characterized as a positive form of symbiosis. Both
organisms in this relationship help each other to grow
and survive in their environment.

• Example of this is when a

bee feed on flowers, it also
transports pollen from one
plant to another.
 Competition
• Competition is an important interaction
which is commonly observed in an
ecosystem. Some organisms emerge on top of
the competition while those who lose are left
to die.
• Interspecific competition happens among
organisms of different species while
intraspecific competition happens within
same species.
• In a forest, plants compete for sunlight and
water, in order to survive. Some plants tend
to be shorter compared to others that limit
their competency to gather sunlight.
Predation
• Predation exhibits an eat-and-be-eaten relationship.
• The animals which eat or hunt for another animal is called
the predator. The animal which is eaten is called the prey.

• Animals can both be a prey and a

predator depending on the
situation. As the snake eats a rat,
it is a predator. But as the snake is
eaten by an eagle or a hawk, it is
considered a prey.
Parasitism
• Parasitism is an interaction where one organism of a certain
species harms an organism of another species to benefit from
the relationship.
• The organism that harms and benefits from parasitism is
called a parasite. On the other hand, host is the term used to
describe the organism which is harmed.
• This kind of interaction is often observed in the parasitic
worms inside the digestive tract of mammals. The parasite
compete with the nutrient from the food of the host and even
create complications.
• Parasitism is different from predation as it is an interaction
that slowly harm the host and do not immediate require
killing.
Examples of Parasites
• Common Head Louse
• Animal Ticks
• Animal Fleas
• Leeches

• Tapeworms

• Pinworms
Activity: Determine the producer, primary consumer, secondary
consumer, and tertiary consumer from the given picture.