Habitats and Interactions

Year 7 Biology
 Learning Objective

• Define living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) things

• Define environment, biosphere, ecosystem, habitat

 Prior Knowledge
• Make a list of ten natural things you might find at an
Australian beach.

Think about how you would describe a beach to someone who has never
seen one before.
 Abiotic and Biotic

• Make a list of ten natural things you might

find at an Australian beach.
Biotic (living) Abiotic (non-living)
 Biotic and Abiotic Factors
• Biotic factors – the parts of an ecosystem that are LIVING
• Abiotic factors – the parts of an ecosystem that are NON-LIVING
 Levels of Life
• Organism – a living thing (e.g.: bacteria, plant,
fungus, animals).
• Habitat – the natural home of a particular species.
• Individual – a single organism.
• Population – a group of individuals from the same
species living in the same habitat at the same
time.
• Community – two or more populations interacting
in the same habitat.
• Ecosystem – a community of organisms interacting
with each other and their abiotic environment.
 Key Terms to Know
Environment: All the conditions that affect plants or animals in its
habitat

Biosphere: The place where all life exists, consisting of earth and its
atmosphere.

Ecosystem: A balanced system comprising of a community of

organisms interacting with each other and their abiotic
environment.

Habitat: The natural home of a particular species.

 Habitats
The place where an organism lives is
called its habitat.

Habitats provide the particular needs and

resources to the organisms that live there.
This includes things like shelter, food,
temperature, reproduction, water.

A crocodile won’t be found in the Swan

River, why?

What are other habitats you can think of?

Write down three and the organisms found
there and include your own “habitat”
The Biosphere
 The Biosphere
The biosphere is the place where all life as we know it exists. The
biosphere consists of the Earth and its Atmosphere.

The biosphere is made up of many different Ecosystems, such as

forests, polar regions, coral reefs etc.

An ecosystem is a system formed by organisms interacting with each

other and their non living surroundings in a balanced way. In an
ecosystem, there are many different habitats.

Can you think of an example where an ecosystem has many different

habits? Write it down.
Earth’s 5 Spheres

InteractiveScienceTeacher.com
Earth’s 5 Spheres

InteractiveScienceTeacher.com
 Bio-sphere- life Geo-sphere- land
•life is found almost everywhere on earth- in soil, lakes, •The rocky part of Earth
and even on rocks •Goes from center of Earth to the
•most life needs oxygen or carbon dioxide to survive surface
•most also need liquid water and moderate •Divided into 3 layers: crust (least
temperatures dense), mantle, and core (most
•the sun is the original source of dense)
energy for all life on earth

Atmo-sphere- air Earth’s 5 Spheres

•The invisible gas surrounding earth
•About 600km high, but most gases
are near earth’s surface
•78% of the gas is nitrogen
•Atmosphere reflects and absorbs Hydro-sphere- liquid water
some harmful UV rays •Includes lakes, rivers, marshes,
Cryo-sphere- frozen clouds, rain, and underground water
•All the frozen water on earth •97% of all water is salt; oceans
•Mostly in Antarctica and the Artic cover 70% of Earth’s surface
•Includes snow, glaciers, sea ice, icebergs, •The water cycle is how water moves
and even frost in the ground on, above and below earth
•Amount changes with the seasons

InteractiveScienceTeacher.com
 Task
• Make a interactive
Bioshpere, showing the
different levels of
interactions that live in
the biosphere.
• Cut out the globe, and
the different level of life.
• Stick them in the
appropriate box, then
stick into your book like
shown.
• Label each.
• Colour in if time
 Learning Objective

• Explain with examples how organisms depend on each other

for survival: symbiosis, commensalism, mutualism, parasitism
 Symbiosis
All organisms in an ecosystem are
interdependent. That means that all
organisms depend on each other for
survival.

Symbiosis: A close relationship

that benefits at least one
organism of a specifies in the
close relationship.

The relationship can be positive,

negative or have no impact on the
individual.
 Commensalism, Parasitism, Mutualism
There are three types of symbiotic
relationships

1) Commensalism: One organism

benefits and the other organism is
not affected.
Commensalism, Parasitism, Mutualism
 Commensalism, Parasitism, Mutualism
There are three types of symbiotic
relationships

2) Parasitism: One organism benefits the

other organism is harmed or killed.

The parasite lives in or on another organism

(the host). Parasite obtains food and shelter
from host, often injuring or killing the host.

Eg a hairworm and grasshopper. Hairworm

gets ingested by the grasshopper and eats
it from the inside. Once mature directs
zombified grasshopper to commit suicide
in water so the worms can reproduce.
 Commensalism, Parasitism, Mutualism
The Crimson Hawk Moth infects a
snail and makes it get eaten by birds
by controlling its brain and making
the snails antennae look like a worm.
The parasite lives in birds so this
way it ensures it is eaten by its main
host. It has two hosts.

You have likely had parasites in your

hair, can you think of what it is?
 Commensalism, Parasitism, Mutualism
There are three types of symbiotic
relationships

3) Mutualism: Both organisms

benefit from the relationship and
neither is harmed. In many cases,
neither organism can exist without
the other.
Commensalism, Parasitism, Mutualism
 Learning Objective

• Draw simple food chains to demonstrate feeding

relationships in an ecosystem
• Draw food webs to demonstrate feeding relationships in an
ecosystem
 What is a Food Web?

FOOD WEBS SHOW HOW MANY

ANIMALS IN AN ECOSYSTEM
ARE INTERCONNECTED BY
DIFFERENT PATHS.

FOOD WEBS show how plants

and animals are
connected in many ways to help
them all survive.

Food chains and food webs.asf

 Food Chains
• A food chain is a sequence in a FOOD WEB that shows how
each individual feeds on the organism below it in the chain.
Each arrow means ‘eaten by’.

Grass Rabbit Fox

 Food Chain
The flow of energy of one organism eating another organism

1st order 2nd order 3rd order 4th order

Producer
consumer consumer consumer consumer

ENERGY
 Food Chains and Trophic Levels
Each level of a food chain is known as a trophic
level
Tertiary consumer

Barn owl Fourth trophic level

Secondary consumer
Wood mouse Third trophic level

Primary consumer
Bark beetle Second trophic level

Producer
First trophic level
Oak Tree
 Food Web

1. Write down two food chains from this food web.

Questions
1. What will happen to the number of clown fish if the sharks become
vegetarian?
2. What effect will this have on the number of zooplankton?
3. What will happen to the Blue Regal fish if a disease wipes out the small
invertebrates.
Food chains – who eats what?
Can you see a food chain in this habitat?

33 © Boardworks Ltd 2011

Food chains
A food chain is a sequence that shows how each individual
feeds on the organism below it in the chain. Each arrow
means ‘eaten by’.

leaf caterpillar bird fox

What does this food chain show?

A leaf is eaten by a caterpillar, which is then eaten by a

bird, which is then eaten by a fox.
Energy is transferred from one organism to another in the
direction of the arrow.

34 © Boardworks Ltd 2011

Food chains – draw your own
Draw your own food chains based on the following
guidelines:

● A food chain from a forest habitat.

● A food chain from an ocean habitat.
● A food chain with four organisms in it.
● A food chain that ends with you!

Use arrows ( ) to show

the transfer of energy between the
organisms that you choose.

35 © Boardworks Ltd 2011

Producers – organisms that
produce their own food
(usually through
photosynthesis).
Consumers –
organisms that get their
food and energy by
eating other organisms.
Primary Consumers –
organisms that get their
energy by eating producers
(plants)
Secondary
Consumers – organisms that
get their energy by eating
1 order consumers
st
Decomposers – organism that
gets their energy by breaking
down the waste and dead
remains of producers and
consumers into smaller
molecules.
• Each level of a food chain is known as a trophic level
• Food chains always start with a producer.
Producers are always on the first trophic level.
Sample food web
Food webs can be very complex
Marine food web