Key Characteristics of Living Organisms and Ecology

Characteristics of Living Things

0-Nutrition:

The ability of a living being to attract foreign material and use it to their advantage to grow in size and develop, or simply to maintain their structures and perform other vital functions.

0-Relationship:

Is the ability to attract external stimuli and to give adequate responses to them. Without this function, living beings could not perform other vital functions such as reproduction.

0-Reproduction:

The ability to originate new individuals, the same or very similar to the parents.

Field of Ecology

Ecology is interrelated with the 5 levels of organization of matter: organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems, or Biosphere.

Bodies (Organisms):

The unity of life, represented in each species, from the tiniest (organisms) to very large, which interact to support themselves.

Population and Community

The functional units of an ecosystem are populations of organisms through which energy circulates and nutrients. A population is a group of organisms of the same species that share the same space and time. Groups of populations in an ecosystem interact in several interdependent ways. These interdependent populations form a community, which covers the biotic portion of the ecosystem.

Ecosystems:

The essential parts of an ecosystem are:

• Producers (green plants)
• Consumers (herbivores and carnivores)
• Organisms responsible for decomposition (fungi and bacteria)
• Non-living or abiotic component, consisting of dead organic matter and nutrients in the soil and water.

Inputs to the ecosystem are solar energy, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and other elements and compounds. Outputs of the ecosystem include the heat produced by respiration, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nutrients. The fundamental driving force is solar energy. Ecosystems have an energy flow that powers them, which consists of:

Energy Flow Components:

• Inflow of Energy: Energy and materials from solar, tidal, geothermal sources, etc.
• The System Itself: Consisting of populations.
• Outflow of Energy: Energy output (fruit/products).

Ecosystem = E.input + System + E.output

Ecosystem Components:

Organisms include:

• Autotrophs
• Herbivores
• Carnivores
• Decomposers
• Omnivores

Autotrophs:

Plants and algae are autotrophs; beings that transform the sun's energy and substances in the soil into their own food. The grasses of a meadow, like all plants, do not need to feed on other living beings.

Heterotrophs:

Animals are heterotrophs; beings that do not produce their own food but must obtain it from their environment.

Feeding Types:

• Herbivores eat plants (e.g., cow, horse, deer, elephant, rabbit).
• A Carnivorous animal feeds on other animals; some hunt, others eat carcasses (e.g., cat, dog, lion, vulture, wolf).
• Omnivorous animals eat everything: both animals and plants.