APES Video Notes 1.1 - Ecosystems
Summary
TLDRIn this introductory AP Environmental Science video, Mr. Smith explores the dynamics of ecosystems, focusing on species interactions. He explains the basics of ecosystems, including individuals, populations, communities, and biomes. The video delves into various relationships such as predation, symbiosis, and competition, emphasizing how resource availability influences these interactions. It also discusses different types of symbiotic relationships and strategies like resource partitioning that reduce competition among species, allowing for a more balanced ecosystem.
Takeaways
- 🌿 **Ecosystem Basics**: An ecosystem includes both living organisms and nonliving components such as rocks, soil, and water.
- 🐾 **Individual to Biome**: The script explains the progression from an individual organism to a population, community, ecosystem, and finally to a biome.
- 🔍 **Species Interactions**: It covers how resource availability influences species interactions, including predator-prey relationships and symbiosis.
- 🐊 **Predation**: Predation is defined as one organism using another for food or energy, and it's not limited to carnivores but includes herbivores as well.
- 🌱 **Mutualism**: Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship where both species benefit, like the coral reef ecosystem where coral and algae support each other.
- 🐦 **Commensalism**: Commensalism is a relationship where one species benefits while the other is unaffected, such as birds nesting in trees.
- 🐛 **Parasitism**: Parasitism involves one organism drawing energy from another, often without killing the host, unlike parasitoids which kill the host after using it.
- 🌳 **Resource Partitioning**: Resource partitioning reduces competition by allowing species to use shared resources in different ways, such as temporal, spatial, or morphological partitioning.
- 📚 **Describing Environmental Concepts**: The script emphasizes the skill of describing environmental concepts, such as explaining how resource partitioning can occur in a food web.
- 🎓 **AP Environmental Science**: The video is part of a series of flipped video notes for AP Environmental Science, aiming to help students understand complex ecological concepts.
Q & A
What is the main objective of the lesson in the video?
-The main objective of the lesson is to explain how resource availability influences species interactions, such as predation, competition, and symbiosis.
What are the different levels of organization within an ecosystem as mentioned in the video?
-The different levels of organization are individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biome.
What is the definition of an ecosystem provided in the video?
-An ecosystem includes all the living organisms in an area (community) and the nonliving components (such as rocks, soil, and water) that interact with them.
How is competition described in the context of species interactions?
-Competition is a lose-lose situation where organisms fight over shared resources like food or shelter, limiting their population size due to scarcity of resources.
What is the difference between predation and parasitism?
-Predation involves one organism using another as an energy source, often killing it, while parasitism involves one organism drawing energy from another without necessarily killing it.
How is mutualism defined in the video?
-Mutualism is a relationship where both species benefit, such as the interaction between coral and algae, where coral provides CO2 for algae and algae provide sugars for coral.
What is commensalism and provide an example from the video?
-Commensalism is a relationship where one species benefits and the other is not affected. An example is birds making nests in trees without harming or benefiting the tree.
What are the three types of resource partitioning described in the video?
-The three types of resource partitioning are temporal partitioning (using resources at different times), spatial partitioning (using different areas of the same resource), and morphological partitioning (evolving different physical traits to use the same resource).
What example is provided to explain morphological partitioning?
-Morphological partitioning is exemplified by the ferret and ermine, which have evolved different jaw sizes and tooth patterns to hunt for different-sized prey, reducing direct competition.
How does the video describe the concept of symbiosis?
-Symbiosis is a long-term interaction between two organisms of different species living in close association. This can be mutualistic, commensal, or parasitic.
Outlines
🌿 Ecosystems and Species Interactions
Mr. Smith introduces the first lesson on ecosystems within the AP Environmental Science course. The focus is on how resource availability affects species interactions, including predator-prey dynamics, symbiosis, competition, and resource partitioning. The lesson aims to explain these concepts by defining key terms such as individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biome. An ecosystem is defined as a combination of living organisms and their nonliving environment, interacting as a system. The biome is described as a large area with a similar climate that determines the types of plants and animals that can live there. The paragraph concludes with a chart summarizing the outcomes of different types of species interactions, setting the stage for a deeper dive into each.
🐅 Predation, Parasitism, and Symbiosis
This section delves into the specifics of predation, where one organism consumes another for energy. It clarifies that herbivores, such as giraffes, are also predators in the sense that they use plants for energy. The paragraph distinguishes between true predators like carnivores and parasites, which extract energy from a host organism without necessarily killing it. Parasitoids are highlighted as a type of parasite that kills the host by laying eggs inside it. The concept of symbiosis is introduced, emphasizing that it's a long-term interaction between two different species, which can be mutualistic, commensal, or parasitic. Mutualism is explained as a symbiotic relationship where both species benefit, exemplified by coral reefs and lichen. The paragraph concludes with a discussion on competition and how resource partitioning can reduce it, allowing species to coexist by utilizing resources in different ways.
📚 Practice FRQ on Resource Partitioning
The final paragraph invites students to apply their knowledge through a practice free response question (FRQ). Students are asked to identify two organisms in a food web that compete for the same resource and then describe how resource partitioning could alleviate this competition. This exercise is designed to reinforce the concept of resource partitioning as a mechanism that reduces competition, enabling species to thrive without directly competing for the same resources. The paragraph ends with a call to action for students to engage with the content, like the video, subscribe for updates, and explore additional notes, encapsulating the educational objectives of the video.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Ecosystem
💡Resource Availability
💡Species Interactions
💡Predator-Prey Relationships
💡Symbiosis
💡Competition
💡Resource Partitioning
💡Biome
💡Mutualism
💡Commensalism
💡Parasitism
💡Parasitoid
Highlights
Introduction to AP Environmental Science and the concept of ecosystems.
Objective to explain how resource availability influences species interactions.
Discussion on predator and prey relationships within ecosystems.
Explanation of symbiosis as close associations between different species.
Introduction to competition and resource partitioning in ecosystems.
Definition of an individual organism and its role in ecosystems.
Differentiation between a population and a community in ecological terms.
The ecosystem concept including both living and nonliving components.
Biome as a large area with a similar climate influencing its flora and fauna.
Competition as a lose-lose situation due to limited shared resources.
Predation defined and its impact on species populations.
Mutualism as a win-win relationship beneficial for both species involved.
Commensalism where one species benefits without affecting the other.
Herbivores and carnivores as examples of predation in ecosystems.
Parasites and parasitoids as organisms that use others for energy.
Symbiosis as a long-term interaction between different species.
Mutualism in coral reefs where corals and algae benefit each other.
Lichens as an example of a composite organism formed by mutualistic symbiosis.
Resource partitioning as a strategy to reduce competition between species.
Temporal partitioning where species use resources at different times.
Spatial partitioning as a method to use different areas of shared resources.
Morphological partitioning where species evolve different features to use resources.
The importance of resource partitioning in promoting species survival and growth.
Practice FRQ to apply understanding of resource partitioning in a food web.
Transcripts
hey everybody its mr. smith's welcome to
our first AP environmental science
flipped video notes of the year today
we're going to be covering topic 1.1
which is about ecosystems our objective
for the day is to be able to explain how
resource availability influences species
interactions will talk about predator
and prey relationships will talk about
symbiosis which is when two organisms
from different species live in very
close association with each other and
we'll also talk about competition and
resource partitioning or resource
sharing our skill that we'll practice at
the understudies video is describing an
environmental concept so before we get
into the ways that organisms interact
with each other
we need to cover ecosystem basics so
first we'll talk about an individual an
individual is just one single organism
remember that an organism is a living
thing so in this case we have one
individual out when we use the term
population we're referring to a group of
organisms that are all of the same
species so in this diagram we haven't al
curd very important that we distinguish
they're all members of the same species
then we have a community of community as
all the living organisms in a given area
so this includes the trees the grass we
have a beaver a rabbit it even includes
bacteria and fungi that live in the soil
so it's all of the living organisms in
it area then we have the ecosystem so
the ecosystem is where we add in the
nonliving components as well so these
are things like rocks soil and water
they interact with the living things in
the ecosystem and so those two together
living and nonliving are all of the
components when we're talking about an
ecosystem and then finally our kind of
big-picture thinking like a mountain
point here is that a biome is a large
area that has a similar climate and
that's going to ultimately determine the
plants and animals that can live there
so for example the tropical rainforest
is an area that's very warm has really
high rainfall and that's why we see such
a wide variety of plant animal species
in the tropical rainforests now for
today's focus which is species or
organism interactions so this chart here
is a helpful reminder for the outcome of
the different types of interaction
we'll talk about so first we have
competition competition is a lose-lose
situation
so organisms are fighting over a shared
resource like food or shelter and this
is going to limit their population size
because there just aren't enough
resources to go around so it's a loss
for both species involved next we have
predation predation is when one organism
uses another as its food source or is
its energy source this is going to be a
positive for the first species but it's
going to be a negative for the second
species because that species will either
die or be severely harmed by that use of
energy then we have mutualism mutualism
is a relationship that is beneficial for
both species so it's a win-win and a
great example that we'll talk about
later is the coral reef where we have
little tiny animals called coral and
they interact with photosynthetic algae
to form the coral reef ecosystem and
then finally we have commensalism
commensalism is kind of like what I like
to refer to as a free-rider so in a
commensal relationship we have one
species that's benefiting and one
species that really isn't affected so a
great example is birds making their
nests in trees the birds don't really
damage the tree they don't really hurt
the tree but they also don't benefit the
tree at all and so we call that
relationship commensalism now I'll talk
about predation so the first thing I
want to point out is that technically
herbivores so animals that eat plants
are practicing predation we may not
think of a giraffe eating a tree or
eating the leaves of a tree as a form of
predation we may not think of a giraffe
as a predator but in a strict sense of
what the term predation means the
giraffe uses the tree for energy and so
herbivore or the act of an animal eating
a plant is still considered predation
then we have the true predators these
are the carnivores so things like the
leopard or the lion that are going to
eat the giraffe now this is what we
think of when we think of predators and
we call these true predators to
distinguish them from the herbivores
then we have a parasite a parasite is
still going to use another organism for
energy but it's usually much smaller
than what we call the host organism the
organism that it often lives inside of
or attaches to the outside of
oftentimes the parasite will be able to
draw energy from the host without
killing it now we have an example here
of the sea lamprey which is sort of an
eel-like organism that will attach
itself to a fish and draw the blood out
of the fish we also have organisms like
mosquitoes or tapeworms and again
they're just going to draw energy out of
the organism and they don't necessarily
kill the organism then we have a
parasitoid a parasitoid is a very
specific type of parasite that's going
to lay its eggs inside of the host
organism then when the eggs hatch the
larvae or the young will eat their way
out of the host organism this often
kills the host and we have an example
here of a parasitic wasp that's going to
inject its eggs into this poor
caterpillar and then when those eggs
hatch they're gonna eat their way
outside of the caterpillar and great
energy source for the wasp but
unfortunately the caterpillar is going
to die as a result of this interaction
next we have symbiosis or a symbiotic
relationship I want to point out here
that the root terms in this phrase can
tell us or means SCIM means together IO
means living and OSIS means condition or
state of being so it's a state of being
where two species are living closely
together so we have a mountain icon here
because we need to think like a mountain
and remember that symbiosis isn't
necessarily good or bad it's just a long
term interaction between two organisms
of different species so it's not two
squirrels living together those are
members of the same species it is two
organisms of different species living in
close association with one another for a
long period of time it can be
mutualistic where both species benefit
it could be a commensal relationship or
one species benefits and the other is
not impacted but even parasites and
their hosts are considered symbiotic
relationships because they live in such
close association for a long period of
time now we'll focus on mutualism which
is a form of symbiosis that benefits
both species so both species are going
to come away from this relationship
better off than they would have been
without it and in many cases they depend
on each other to the extent that they
couldn't really survive apart great
example is the coral reef ecosystem so
coral are actually tiny animals they are
going to create the reef structure that
algae rely on for a
they're also going to provide carbon
dioxide for the algae to do
photosynthesis and in return the algae
provides sugars via photosynthesis that
the coral uses energy so we can see here
we have these tiny little organisms
called coral and an individual coral is
actually called a polyp and so they're
going to live in the reef but again
they're going to produce that carbon
dioxide that the algae need in order to
photosynthesis and the reef that they
create is a home for the algae so it's a
great relationship for both and they
really depend on each other and we have
another mutualistic relationship which
is actually such a close relationship
that we consider the two species one
single composite organism you need to
live so closely together that they
function like one organism and that's
lichen like and refers to a broad class
of organisms where fungi live in very
close proximity with algae the algae
providing the sugars or the energy that
the fungi need and the fungi providing
the nutrients that the algae need in
order to photosynthesize and grow and so
we can see here again it's these two
organisms a fungus and an algae that
live so closely together that they
function basically as one single
organism and then finally we have
competition so in competition remember
that it's going to be a lose-lose
situation both species that are
competing with each other are going to
have fewer organisms survive and so
their populations are going to be
smaller as a result however something
called resource partitioning or resource
sharing can allow these different
species to utilize the same resource in
slightly different ways and that's going
to reduce competition I want to point
out that the species don't get together
and have a meeting about this they don't
strategize it's just the idea that
evolution favours traits that allow them
to utilize the same resource but in a
slightly different way there are three
types of resource partitioning we'll
talk about examples of each year so the
first is called temporal partitioning
and this is where organisms or species
that compete for a shared resource are
going to use that resource at slightly
different times to avoid direct
competition so here we have the wolf and
the coyote they're both going to hunt
for small mammals but they're going to
do so at different times of day so that
they avoid directly competing for the
same hunting territory then we have
space
partitioning spatial partitioning is
using different areas of a shared
resource so we have an example of two
different grasses here one can send its
roots to an extremely deep portion of
the soil while the other can access
shallow reports of the soil and they're
not going to compete directly for water
and nutrients in the soil because of the
different levels that the roots occupy
we have another example of spatial
partitioning here where all of these
different species of Warbler will occupy
slightly different portions of the same
tree to make their nests and to find
their food and that's gonna allow so
many more birds to occupy the same tree
than if they all directly competed for
the same exact space within that tree
and then finally we have morphological
partitioning now morphological
partitioning is when species that hunt
for the same resource would evolve
slightly different body features in
order to utilize different portions of
that resource so here we have a fair and
an ermine they've evolved slightly
different jaw sizes and slightly
different tooth pattern which enables
them to hunt for different sized prey
and so they don't have to compete
directly for the same exact resource
again the big takeaway here from
resource partitioning is that it reduces
competition and so that enables species
to thrive and grow to larger population
sizes because they don't have to
directly compete with each other for the
same exact resource in the same place at
the same time our practice frq for topic
1.1 today we'll cover the skill of
describing an environmental concept and
process so I want you to look at this
food web here and identify two organisms
that would compete for a shared food
resource after you've identified them
describe how resource partitioning could
reduce the competition between the two
organisms that you identified alright
everybody thanks for tuning in today
don't forget to like this video if it
was helpful subscribe for future Apes
video updates and check out other notes
over here to the side and as always
think like a mountain write like a
scholar
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