Mrs Lutchman
The environment is defined as everything
around us.
It is the physical and biological habitat that
surrounds us
(A) Physical Environment:
External physical factors like Air, Water,
and Land etc. This is also called the
Abiotic Environment.
(B) Living Environment:
All living organisms around us viz. plants,
animals, and microorganisms. This is also
called the Biotic Environment.
In the following diagram identify the abiotic
and biotic features in the environment:
Table showing Abiotic and Biotic components
in the environment
Abiotic Biotic
Air Plant
Soil/ Land Rabbit
Water Dog
Fish
These two environments work together
closely as the physical environment (abiotic)
land, air and water helps the plants of the
living environment (biotic) to grow.
Plants from the biotic environment is what
helps animals survive
The Biotic Environment has producers,
consumers and decomposers
The environment interacts with each other in
many ways one of which includes how energy
is transferred through feeding in the
environment.
To understand this system fully one must
note that the ecosystem have producers,
consumers and decomposers within it.
This is an organism that makes
it own food.
It includes green plants.
These plants takes inorganic
substances such as sunlight,
water and carbon dioxide into
food.
These are organisms
that eat other
organisms to survive.
They can be:
◦ Herbivores eats
plants only
◦ Carnivores eats animals
only
◦ Omnivores eats both
plants & meat
What is wrong with this
Picture?
These organisms feed only on dead
organisms.
They also break down the waste (poop) of
other organisms.
They include fungus and bacteria
The use of food chains and food webs are
usually used to show the energy flow in the
ecosystem.
One should note the direction in which the
arrow is placed shows the flow of energy
from organism to organism.
A food chain is a simple linear relationship
that shows the flow of energy in a system.
E.g.
Plant Rabbit Dog
Note:
A producer is always first in a food chain
and is followed by a herbivore and then a
omnivore/carnivore.
This diagram shows a simple food chain...
Note the direction of arrows showing energy
flow.
A food web is two or more food chains
together..
◦ E.g.
◦ Grass grasshopper snake kookaburra eagle
◦ Grass mouse kookaburra eagle
◦ Grass mouse snake eagle
◦ Grass Rabbit
◦ NOTE:
The above chains results in
the following food web....
This feeding level in which an organism
occurs is called a TROPHIC LEVEL is always
written in roman numerals. These levels is
represented as seen below:
TROPHIC LEVEL ORGANISM TYPE
I Producer
II Herbivore
III Omnivore/ Carnivore
IV Top Carnivore
A food web can show feeding levels( Trophic levels)
and indicate the type of organism at each level.
TROPHIC LEVEL ORGANISM
V Top carnivore
IV Carnivore
III Omnivore /
Carnivore
II Herbivore
I Producers /
plant
The environment is everything around us
It is made up abiotic and biotic components that
interacts with each other
These interactions can be seen together in a food
chains.
Two or more food chains join together = a food
web
Trophic Levels or feeding levels are easily
observed from food webs
Using the information you gained in this
lecture to design your own environment.
Label its important components eg producer,
consumer etc.