The Tropical Rainforest
River Stream Rocks Rocks Water Decomposed Animals Humid Atmosphere
Soil Constant Temperature Excessive Amounts Of Rain
Cocoa Coffee Plant Palm Lily Orchid Lemon Aspen Ribbon Wood
River Cherry October Glory Northern Silky Oak Singapore Daisy Rose
Cougar Lion Birds of Paradise Tiger Leopard Monkey Sloth Bear
Yellow Jacket Red Panda Tortoise Mouse Deer Hawaiian Honey Creeper
Carrying Capacity and Changes in Population
Carrying Capacity: the number of organisms a habitat can support and produce resources for
If a certain bug
that the parrot eats is at a low in population, then the parrot will decline in population. When there are a lot of bugs, then the parrot population will grow.
Resources Needed: Water, Shelter, Space, Food, etc.
Example: True Parrot
Limiting Factors and Predator/Prey Relationships
Limiting Factors: an environmental factor that can reduce a population of an animal depending on how much of it there is
ex. water, high temp., sunlight, food, etc.
Predator/Prey Relationship Ex.: When a snake eats frogs. If nutrients and bugs aren't available to the frog, it will die off slowly. When the frogs aren't available, competition will emerge among the snakes and they will die off one by one.
Energy Roles: the levels in a food chain/web and energy pyramid that show the energy being passed down from animal to animal (producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer[quaternary consumer])
An example of a producer would be a northern silky oak plant. An example of a primary consumer would be a beetle, and a secondary consumer would be a frog. A tertiary consumer would be a snake and a quaternary consumer would be an eagle or bird of prey.
Each energy role gets its energy from the roles/levels before it. For example, the snake gets its energy from the frog, the insect, and the grass. Producers are vital to an ecosystem because they provide energy for all consumers. If there were no producers, no animals could live because there would be no where to get our energy from. Producers are the only living organisms able to get energy directly from the sun.
Food Chains and Food Webs
Food webs are more realistic than food chains, because food chains show one possible predator/prey for an animal while in real life there are many. Food webs show many possible outcomes, and while not showing all, they still show more than food chains.
If you removed the jaguar then many things would happen. For one, the population of wild pigs would decrease, because of the lack of food, increasing in the population of mice and alligators since one of their primary predator's population is decreasing.
Trophic levels and Energy Pyramids
We use pyramids instead of other shapes because it shows how the amount of energy (kcal) decreases as it is passed on from animal to animal.
Producers have the largest level because they get their energy straight from the sun, so they get more than 10% of energy. Top carnivores have the smallest level, because only 10% of energy is passed through each animal so less and less energy is available to them.
Water, light, and carbon dioxide are needed for photosynthesis, which produces food for the plant and oxygen for animals. Photosynthesis takes place in the chloroplasts of the cells in the plant. See picture for transformation.
Tropisms: the turning of all or part of a plant in a particular direction towards external stimuli
ex. roots growing toward the ground, tree growing toward sun, etc.
Tropisms help plants to survive by directing them to the resources needed.
The Role of Decomposers
Decomposers are important to ecosystems because they break down dead organisms and make them down into nutrients. The plants use these nutrients for making food and absorbing energy. Without decomposers, dead organisms wouldn't be broken down and provided to plants and animals.
ex. ants, earth worms, fungi, etc.
Adaptions are important to an ecosystem, because they allow animals to change in order to fit in with their environment. This helps animals to hunt and eat food with more ease, escape from predators with camouflage, and live and gather resources at a faster pace. One example is how a chameleon can change its skin color to blend in. This helps them to hide from predators. Another adaptation would be tigers having long claws. This helps them to catch and kill predators with ease.
Some adaptations would include; xylem in a plant, claws/talons, bulbs on onions and other plants, shape of a leaf, skin tones, etc.
If you were to put a desert animal in say a tropical rainforest, it would soon start adapting to the rainforest. It may grow claws overtime in order to catch food easily. It also may develop sharp teeth, a greener skin tone, or a form of defense, such as quills or poison.
Natural Selection: when a species develops new traits overtime. This is important to animals and plants, because it allows them to thrive and reproduce overtime.
One example of natural selection in a rainforest would be a giraffe. Ancestor giraffes had small, stubby necks, but overtime and over generations, the neck grew longer and longer. This is so that the giraffe could reach tree leaves, and have a bigger food supply. It made it easier to find and acquire a food source. This probably happened in the giraffes' environment because there was a shortage of shrubs and other small vegetation.