Download Interactions Among Living Things

Interactions
Among
Living
Things
I. Living Things and
Their Environment
 All of the living (biotic)
and nonliving (abiotic)
things in an environment
are interconnected.
Example:
Think of a spider
web. The environment’s web
is the relationship among its
plants, animals, soil, water,
temperature, light, and other
biotic and abiotic factors.
Water
 What happens when one
part of a spider’s web is
damaged?
The entire web falls apart.
What happens when
someone contaminates the
water supply to a farm?
A. Ecosystems
 Consists of all the living
(biotic) and nonliving (abiotic)
things in a given area that
interact with one another.
Abiotic factors: nonliving
Air
Soil
Sunlight
Rocks
Biotic Factors: Living
Fish
Flamingo
Mushroom
Flower
Tree
Man
Bacteria
 Ecosystems overlap and affect
one another.
 Ecosystems can be as tiny as
a drop of pond water or as
large as an ocean.
Forest Ecosystem: Includes birds,
squirrels, rabbits, trees, bushes, grass,
insects, mushrooms, bacteria, dead
leaves, soil, rocks, sunlight, rainwater,
etc….
Desert Ecosystem: Air,
sunlight, cacti, sand,
pocket mice, jack
rabbits, etc…
B. Communities
 The living part of any ecosystem.
 All the different organisms that live
together in that area.
 Example: Pond community – Includes fish,
frogs, snails, microorganisms, and water
lilies.
Pond Community
Cattails
Kingfisher
Otter
Water strider
Catfish
Frog
C. Populations
 A group of organisms of the same
type (species) living together in a
community.
 Example: all the rainbow trout in a lake or
all the redwood trees in a forest.
Rainbow Trout
Redwood Trees
What type of ecosystem
do you live in?
 Take a sheet of paper, divide it in half,
and make a list of the biotic and abiotic
factors in your ecosystem.
Biotic
Abiotic