Project: ecology assignment directions: basics of ecology design and create a "basics of ecology" poster or multimedia presentation. in your assignment, include responses to the following prompts: the levels of organization of living things on earth (from organism to biosphere) the components of an ecosystem how both energy and matter move in an ecosystem a list of goods and services provided by ecosystems your presentation should be clearly labeled and presented, so that your audience will be able to understand the basics of ecology without further explanation. assignment guidelines: poster or presentation is well organized and easy to follow. poster or presentation content is engaging and interesting. the presentation illustrates the basic concepts of ecology by showing the levels of organization, the components of ecosystems, ecosystem services, and the ways that matter and energy move in ecosystems. if the presentation is a powerpoint, include at least five slides. submission requirements: a poster or multimedia presentation when submitting written assignments, remember to: submit the assignment question(s) and your responses. proofread for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. remember complete sentence structure. have a minimum of six sentences in each paragraph.

Key points

Biotic and abiotic factors

One core goal of ecology is to understand the distribution and abundance of living things in the physical environment. For instance, your backyard or neighborhood park probably has a very different set of plants, animals, and fungi than the backyard of a fellow Khan Academy learner on the opposite side of the globe. These patterns in nature are driven by interactions among organisms as well as between organisms and their physical environment.

As an example, let's go back to our shower mold. Mold is more likely to appear in your shower than, say, your sock drawer. Why might this be the case?

Maybe the mold needs a certain amount of water to grow, and this amount of water is found only in the shower. Water availability is an example of an abiotic, or nonliving, factor that can affect distribution of organisms.

Maybe mold feeds off of dead skin cells found in the shower, but not in the dresser. Availability of nutrients provided by other organisms is an example of a biotic, living-organism-related, factor that can influence distribution.

Ecology at many scales

Within the discipline of ecology, researchers work at five broad levels, sometimes discretely and sometimes with overlap: organism, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere.

Let's take a look at each level.

Organism: Organismal ecologists study adaptations, beneficial features arising by natural selection, that allow organisms to live in specific habitats. These adaptations can be morphological, physiological, or behavioral.

Population: A population is a group of organisms of the same species that live in the same area at the same time. Population ecologists study the size, density, and structure of populations and how they change over time.

Community: A biological communityconsists of all the populations of different species that live in a given area. Community ecologists focus on interactions between populations and how these interactions shape the community.

1: most common garden plants prefer loam — soils with a balance of different-sized mineral particles (approximately 40% sand, 40% silt, and 20% clay) with ample organic matter and pore space. however, some plants grow better in sandy soils, while others are well-adapted to clay soils.

2: available water capacity is the maximum amount of plant available water a soil can provide. it is an indicator of a soil's ability to retain water and make it sufficiently available for plant use. available water capacity is the water held in soil between its field capacity and permanent wilting point.

3: it is the same for all living things (plants and animals). it also includes very tiny organisms that our eyes cannot see. they are known as microorganisms, and include viruses, bacteria and fungi.

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