Habitats, Adaptations and Interactions: Ecology Chapter

Notes
● Habitats: A environment with suitable conditions for certain living animals eg.
bamboo forest for a Panda
● Adaptions: A genetical change for an animal to change it’s behaviour, body and
etc. to better suit it’s habitat and to better survive and thrive in it’s environment
eg. how reptiles developed scales
● Interactions: How living things interact with one another and how they are all
linked with each other to produce more favourable outcomes eg. a flea and an
elephant
● Environment: A place where organisms live or occupy which includes all the
elements surrounding the organism eg. Savannah
● Ecosystem: A place where multiple organisms live together and interact with one
another and are linked to each other through a biological community eg. a food
chain in a rainforest
● Type of environments: Terrestrial, Alpine, High Altitude

Food chains in an ecosystem: Notes

- Connect together to form a chain
- Show the transfer of energy from animal to animal in and ecosystem
- Food chain is used to show the feeding relationships among organisms
- Energy in an ecosystem comes from the sun but people have taken the sun out of
the system
- Levels of consumers
- For example: sunshine to grass which is eaten by snails and a snail is eated by a
bird and this is how the energy transfer passes from the sun to the bird. Not all
animals can absorb energy from the sun so that’s why the energy transference
between animals and plants is important
- The arrows used in a food chain point to the direction in which food passes or
energy flows
- 2nd eg. sun - grass - grasshopper - shrew - owl
- In any ecosystem, the source of energy comess from the sun. The sun is not an
organism but it is included as it is the original energy source and the reason for
life on Earth. No sun, no life.
- Plants can harness the energy from the sun to make their own food via a process
called photosynthesis - they are called the producers. Photosynthesis is a vast
process in which plants make their own food using sunlight and water.
 - The role of photosynthesis in the ecosystem is to allow the producers (plants) to
harness the energy from the sun to make food in the form of glucose. Plants
respire with the glucose they produce. Respiration is the process by which glucose
is converted into usable energy.
- Respiration is the process that plants, animals and fungi use to release energy
from glucose
- Animals cannot make their own food and must consume plants or other animal to
obtain energy and nutrients - thus they are called consumers. Producers are
important as they are what consumers eat and all animals eat other organisms.
- Photosynthesis:
1. Plants(leaves) are green because they have a green pigment called
chlorophyll
2. Chlorophyll enables the plant to trap energy from the sun and use that
energy to combine water(absorbed from the ground via their roots) and
carbon dioxide(from the air to make a simple sugar called glucose
3. Photosynthesis also produces oxygen gas(o2) as a by-product
4. Through the photosynthesis process, chlorophyll which produeces clean and
fresh air for animals to breathe and so, without plants, there would be no
earth. Plants produce two big things for animals, food and air
- Terrestrial food web: producers are grasses, zebras are primary consumers(1st
level), lions are secondary consumers(2nd level)
- Aquatic Food web: producers are algae, zooplankton are primary consumers(1st
level), fish are secondary(2nd level) consumers, bald eagles are tertiary
consumers(3rd level)
- Every food chain starts with a producer and ends with a decomposer
- Summary: Sun(energy source), grass(producer), grasshopper(primary consumer),
snake(secondary consumer), eagle(tertiary consumer), bacteria(decomposer)
- Once any organism such as a producer or a consumer dies, they are decomposed
by bacteria or animals that eat dead animals such as vultures and hyenas
- Decomposer basically naturally recycle the dead animals. They break down the
organism and bring back the nurtrients back into the soil.
- Decomposers are not part of the food chain, they are part of the food web
- P: Producers, plants, photosynthesis
- CO2 is carbon dioxide, h20 is water, ch61206 is sugar, 602 is oxygen
- H = hydrogen

Type of environment notes

- Biotic(Living Factors) is the word to describe the living environment, the biggest
type of environment
 - This describes all the living this that interact with an organism such as
1. Availability of food - the link between food and the environment and the
organism that eats the food
2. Predators and prey - type of food
3. Competitiors - Competition between organism to kill each other
4. Disease Cauing Organisms - Virus
- A physical environement is Abiotic(non-living) factors
- Refers to the non-living features of the environment such as
1. Temperature
2. Light
3. Availability of Water
4. Soil fertility
Adaptations Notes
- The survival of an organism also depends on the characteristics of the organism
itself
- Each organism has characteristics that enable it to survive in its own particular
habitat
- These type of characteristics are called adaptations
- Some adaptations include
- Protect themselves from predators through camouflage
- Surivie hot and cold temperatures and wet and dry seasons
- Move from place to place(flippers, legs, wings)
- Catch and eat food
- Take in oxygen
- Reproduce
- There are adaptations for plants too such as
- Protecting themselves from grazing animals using spikes and thorns
- Using the photosynthesis method to produce their own food
- Roots to take in water
- Special type of cells to take in light
- Can produce spores or seeds to reproduce
- Structural Adaptation refers to the shape and size of the organism and how the
various parts of it’s body are put together, for example, the katydid’s flattened
body, its colour, and the shape and size of its legs
- Behavioural adaptation are to do with how the organism behaves for example the
quivering of the katydid mimics the movement and makes it hard to see in the
bushes
 - Psychological adaptation refers to the working of an organism’s body for
example, the katydid’s egg-laying ability and the way it can digest plant leaves
and shoots are functional adaptations
- Symbiosis: the organisms in an ecosystem are interdependent. Interdependent
organisms depend on each other for survival .
- There are three main types of interdependence or symbiosis
- Symbiosis 1: Commenalism: An interaction where one organism benefits from
their relationship with another organism while the other organism is unaffected
- Symbiosis 2: Mutualism an interaction where both organism benefit from the
relationship or neither is harmed. In many cases, neither organism can exist
without the other organism.
- Example of mutualism: algae growing on the back of a spider crab. This
relationship between algae and spider crab is mutualism because algae thrives
and lives on the backs of spider crabs and in turn they provide spider crabs with a
good camouflage
- Symbiosis 3: Parasitism: an interaction where one organism(the parasite) lives on
or in another organism (the host). The parasite obtains food ans shelter from its
host but the parasite oftens harms the host and many even kill the host in return.
- External or internal parasites such as ticks, nits, roundworms,
heartworms(microscopic parasites that live in a host’s heart and kill the host)
- Research task: Commensualism between whales and barnacles where the
barnacles gains protection by staying on the whales but the whale is unaffected.
- Clownfish and anemone where anemone protects the clownfish and the clownfish
provides nutrients for the anemone
- Parasitism: Leeches and humans where leeches suck blookd from the humans and
the humans are endgandered and get nothing in return
- Most birds are omnivores
- Scavengers: Animals that feed on dead organisms rather than hunting

Ecology Revision Test

Section 1
1. C
2. C
3. A
4. A
5. B
6. D
7. C
8. A
 9. C
10. C

Section 2
1. a) there would be more water snails living in the water
b) this is because their natural predator the trout has been fished out of the lake
2. It would benefit the native plants and animals of australia because the roots of
these organisms were in the times of european settlement where there were more
shrubs and native plants
3. a) False
b) True
c) True
d) True
e) False
4. a) Habitat
b) environment
c) Ecosystem
d) Biosphere
5. a) Grass is the producer while the grasshopper, frog, snake and kookaburra are
the consumers
b) Producers produce food while consumers consume food
6. a) The predator and the prey/ the consumer and the producer
b) Decomposers
c) This is the foodchain that revolves around the animals that live in the
freshwater habitat
d) Tortoise food chain, terrestrial food chain
e) Algae is a huge producer that is part of many food chains
7. Big eyes to see better in the night because it is too hot to go out in the day,
specific type of skin to aid against the hot desert
8. These type of adaptations allow the animals to dig for animals and find them
easier
9. a) Commensualism

Suistainable Ecosystems
- Suistanable ecosystems are ecosystems that are diverse and are able to provide
the needs of the organism living there over a long period of time
- Ecosystems that are biodiverse are sustainable ecosystems
- The valley of the Blue Mountains are sustainable ecosystems that provide
habitats for a variety of species(closest ecosystem to us)
- Biodiversity refers to the number of different species present in a community
- Communities with high biodiversity survive environmental changes well. If
something destroys one of the organisms in the food chain, then other organisms
simply switch food sources
- Communities with low biodiversity have little or no ability to switch to other food
sources and may die off as a result
- In most cases, natural ecosystems are sustainable ecosystems
- Changes to ecosystem can occur due to:
1. Human activities
2. Natural disasters
● Fire
● Floods
● Drought
3. Industry
- Impact of human activities on australian ecosystems:
- Introduction of species:
- Cane toads(orginally from South Amercia) was introduced to Australia via Hawaii
- It was released via Gordonvale, Queensland in 1935 as a biological control of the
sugar cane beetle but it liked our native insects, frogs and small mammals too
- From 101 individuals there are now millions that have spread throughout most of
Queensaldn across to the NT and south to NSW
- There have been many biological control strategies that have been implemented
- It’s a pest management strategy to reduce the pest population by natural
enemies and typically involved an active human role
- The natural predator of the pest (organism needing to be controlled) is introduces
in the habitat and it will naturally hunt down and control the activity and
population of the pest
- Biological control is the use of natural predator to control it’s prey
- New introduction of species
- Only 24 rabbits were first released in Australia near Geelong in Victoria in 1859
for hunting
- By 1950s, there were millions of them in the outback and it is common to see
them dotted over paddocks in the country as you drive
- They ate the vegetation contributed to erosions and competed with native
animals food and water and shelter
- Attempt to control them via viruses Myxomatosis & Calicivirus that have failed in
the past
- Pollution
- Human activities caused land pollution, noise pollution, water pollution and air
pollution which contributed to the greenhouse effect accelerating the rate of
global warming
- Global warming leads to unpredictable climate change and pollution that has
also seriously affected biodiversity of aquatic as well as terrestrial life
- Too much CO2 being released into the atmosphere also causing acid rain in certain
areas which causes erosion and weathering of rocks
- Land management practices
- Such as land clearing for farming and urbanisation is also problematic such as
soil erosion and reduced habitat for organisms.
- Overuse of fertilisers pollutes the waterways with nutrient runoffs causing
eutrophication due to algal blooms decreasing the oxygen levels for aquatic life.
- Fire
- Causes rapid changes to the ecosystem
- It is an important part in the Australian ecosystem as many parts of Australia
contain plants that are adapted to fire
- These plants, likes certain species of banksai, requires fire to allow new buds to
sprout
- Thus they recover quickly after the fire.
- Floods
- Cause positive & negative changes to the ecosystem.
- Flood waters can carry large amounts of soil from the land down rivers and into
lakes and the ocean
- The soil settles out of the water, covering coral reefs, sea grasses and other
aquatic habitats preventing light from reaching that survive on photosythesis.
- Floods provide moisture to soil and water availability and food source to wildlife
- An example is Lake Eyre which is surrounded by desert are usually a dry bed of
salt with the seeds of wild flowers buried in the sand for years
- When it floods and water reaches the lake, a completely different ecosystem is
established
- Seeds of wild flowers germinate, producing large areas of colour.
- Type of industries that have an impact on ecosystems
1. Logging
2. Mining
3. Agriculture
4. Salt-tolerant wheat
5. Droughtmaster cattle
6. Cloning of plants
7. Urbanisation
 - Loss of species diversity
- Species become vulnerable or extinct(if no one can see it in the wild for over 50
yrs) due to the loos of their habitats
- Animals such as the sumatran elephant, tiger, rhino and orangutan can only be
found in Sumatra and they are critically endangered
- These species live in the rainforests of Sumatra however sumatra has lost 50% of
it’s tropical rainforests in the past 35 yrs as it is logged and burned and palm oil
plantation are established.

Ecology revision questions

1. a) Fuel reduction burning is the setting of small-intenstiy fires to burn the debris
underneath the ground which can form possible means of fuel for bigger
bushfires
b) Flood plains is a flat or a nearly flat area that is periodically flooded during
certain times of the year and has levees for flood protection
2. Biological Control
3. A cool fire is a fire that has been intentionally placed for a process called fire
reduction burning while a intense fire is a fire that has been made naturally due
to fuel available underneath the ground which can cause a bushfire
4. Gives animals a better habitat and a more diverse habitat spread out around the
country, burns bad vegetation that would otherwise be fuel for bushfires so that
and clears land for better and more fresh vegetation to grow
5. a) They have created a fine grained mosaic based on how the burn the
vegetation, the specific vegetation they burn and the time of the year these type
of changes happens
b) The benefits of having a mosaic pattern is to allow the natural vegetation to
recycle itself, making the bad vegetation or the vegetation that isn’t fresh
anymore to burn away, clearing land for new produce.
6. a) Less chance of bushfires hence less chance of burning down their habitat
b) Less work and even if there are bushfires, there is very little fuel to support the
bushfire hence easy for the firefighters to put out the fire
7. Reduce chance for loss of habitat and property, all biotic and abiotic factors will
not die out and food, water and shelter wildly present throughout the area
8. Many towns were built on flood plains due to land scarcity thus having to
improvise and make do with the less resources available.
9. Constructing flood walls and levees around big towns to prevent the flood waters
from enetering the city. Proper runoff and drainage systems to take in all the
waters so even if floods exploit city, there is very little water force. Also, the
water gathered from floods can be used in other sustainable ways.
10. They are very ineffective against rabbits but have a deep impact on other
animals introduced to australia in the euro-australian times
11. A sustainable ecosystem is one that has enough biodiversity and resources to suit
all the needs of all the organisms that live there whether they are biotic or
abiotic. They must also have multiple food chains and multiple food sources so
that even if one organism in one food chain dies out, all the organisms must still
be able to survive plentifully.
12. Indigenous australians used fire properly to control the land and all the fuel for
the fires but the european people didn’t care about fire or fire reduction strategies
and left the outback of australia with plenty of fuel for big and intense bushfires
13. Floods have a good effect and a bad effect on the ecosystem. The good effect is
that they can inspire a new ecosystem to thrive and survive by bring plenty of
freshwater for organisms to create food webs and a ecosystem. The bad effect is
that soil carries by the flood goes into the ocean where it blocks and clogs up on
coral reefs and other aquatic habitats, not allowing these organisms to get the
food they need for survival.
14. The dingo fence was constructed to prevent the dingos from attacking sheep in
the land where sheep and other cattle were grazing. The rabbit proof fence was
created to stop rabbits from destroying crops and degrading pasture land and
even though both fences were created for protection, only the dingo fence kinda
worked as the rabbits just burrowed underneath the fence.