Understanding ecology and ecosystems requires knowledge of how living and non-living components interact in nature.
Abiotic factors in ecosystems play a crucial role in determining how organisms survive and thrive. These non-living factors include temperature, light intensity, moisture, soil pH, and oxygen levels. For example, plants need specific temperature ranges for photosynthesis, while aquatic organisms depend on dissolved oxygen levels in water. When these abiotic factors change, organisms must adapt or risk population decline. Temperature particularly affects enzyme activity in living things, while moisture levels influence both plant growth and animal behavior.
Food chains and predator prey cycles demonstrate the complex relationships between organisms in an ecosystem. In these relationships, energy flows from producers (usually plants) through various consumers. Predator-prey cycles show how population numbers naturally fluctuate - when predator numbers increase, prey populations decrease, leading to less food for predators, which then causes predator populations to decline. This allows prey populations to recover, starting the cycle again. For instance, in a simple food chain, grass (producer) might be eaten by rabbits (primary consumer), which are then hunted by foxes (secondary consumer). Conservation programs often focus on maintaining these delicate balances, especially when protecting endangered species that play key roles in food chains. Understanding these relationships helps scientists predict how changes in one population might affect entire ecosystems. The study of these interactions through ecology revision helps us comprehend how human activities impact natural systems and what we can do to protect them. These concepts are fundamental to GCSE biology ecology and form the basis for understanding more complex ecological principles.
