What is the interaction of a community and its non living environment?

Understanding:

•  A community is formed by populations of different species living together and interacting with each other 

•  A community forms an ecosystem by its interaction with the abiotic environment

    
Species:

• A group of organisms that can potentially interbreed to produce fertile, viable offspring

Population:

• A group of organisms of the same species, living in the same area at the same time

Community:

• A group of populations living together and interacting with each other within a given area

Habitat:

• The environment in which a species normally lives, or the location of a living organism

Ecosystem:

• A community and its abiotic environment (i.e. habitat)

Ecology:

• The study of the relationship between living organisms, or between living organisms and their environment

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  Their ideas of ecosystems are usually only associated with natural and wilderness areas rather than their own environments. This concept of an ecosystem also influences their ideas about how humans interact with ecosystems, which is often in terms of the destruction or collapse of natural and wilderness ecosystems rather than those systems that are part of their more immediate environments.

  Research: Novak & Gowin (1984)

  Scientific view

  The world contains a wide diversity of physical conditions, which creates a variety of environments where living things can be found. In all these environments, organisms interact and use available resources, such as food, space, light, heat, water, air, and shelter. Each population of organisms, and the individuals within it, interact in specific ways that are limited by and can benefit from other organisms.

  Interactions between different organisms are numerous and are usually described according to their positive (beneficial), negative or neutral effect on others.
  
  The interactions between living things and their non living environment makes up a total ecosystem; understanding any one part of it requires knowledge of how that part interacts with the others.

  Ecosystems do not ‘collapse’ but do change in function, structure and composition over time due to natural or human disturbance (examples include the impact of drought, flooding, mowing and herbicides).

  Research: Novak and Gowin (1984)

  Critical teaching ideas

  • All organisms exist within ecosystems.
  • Living things have various structures that enable them to survive: for example, transport structures in plants allow water and trace elements to move. Similarly there are digestive structures and respiratory structures in animals and reproductive structures in plants and animals that assist in organisms functioning within ecosystems.
  • Each organism has particular forms of these structures that assist their survival.
  • In all environments, organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for limited resources, including food, space, water, air and shelter.
  
  Explore the relationships between ideas about organisms and their interactions with their environments in the Concept Development Maps – (Flow of Energy in Ecosystems,Natural Selection)

  Students need to experience evidence of a functioning ecosystem with abundant plant-animal interaction to develop a better understanding of the complexity of interactions and to understand that they themselves live within ecosystems.

  Time is a factor that influences the type of interactions and changes that take place in an ecosystem. This is problematic for science planning that does not allow students to observe changes over an extended period of time. Allowing ongoing investigations to run throughout the year is an important consideration (or alternatively use video clips that record changes over time).

  Research: Skamp (2004)

  Teaching activities

  Collect evidence/data for analysis

  Identify a project within your local community where student research and involvement may have an impact.

  Some examples are:

  • Whale Dept. of Environment and Water Resources - Coasts and oceans
  • Marine Coastal Projects
  • Adopt a Dolphin - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
  • Dolphin Research Institute
    

  Research: Baker (2005)

  Challenge some existing ideas

  In order to challenge the ideas that ecosystems only exist in wilderness areas and that human impact is always negative, encourage students to undertake activities which allow them to investigate living things in a natural local environment such as the schoolyard, local pond, a wetland or a constructed environment such as a classroom pond.

  Research: Skamp (2004)

  Collect evidence/data for analysis

  Studying pond animals over a period of weeks gives a sense of the changes that occur in populations as they interact or in changes of form as animals go through their lifecycles. Students can link this with a longer study to provide insights to seasonal changes and animal adaptations related to seasonal cycles. The ten part TV series The Life of Birds completed by Sir David Attenborough in 1998 provides some great examples of how birds have adapted to urban environments.

  Research: Skamp (2​004)

  Focus student attention on overlooked detail

  
  Encourage students to record observations and descriptions of phenomena using science journals, labelled diagrams, timelines and PowerPoint presentations. Use microscopes and hand held lenses to assist observations of structure and function. For example you could map a school pond or nearby wetland, track where tadpoles are feeding and where other organisms are situated or move in relation to each other.

  Clarify and consolidate ideas for/by communication to others

  Students could create a news report on their project or develop a project like creating a new playground. They could explore an issue for the media or their school newsletter from differing perspectives such as a politician, a greenie, a farmer, a parent, a local elder or other teachers. This involves ethical decision-making on behalf of the students as to what to include and what not to include in the report.

  Further resources

  Science related interactive learning objects can be found on the FUSE Teacher Resources page.

  To access the interactive learning object below, teachers must login to FUSE and search by Learning Resource ID:

  What is the interaction of a community and its nonliving environment?

  The community of living (biotic) things interacts with the nonliving (abiotic) world around it to form the ecosystem. The habitat must supply the needs of organisms, such as food, water, air, and space to grow. If the population's needs are not met, it will move to a better habitat or die.

  What is the interaction between living and nonliving things?

  The interactions between living things and their non living environment makes up a total ecosystem; understanding any one part of it requires knowledge of how that part interacts with the others.

  What represents a community with interactions between living and non living components?

  The living parts include animals (consumers), plants (producers), and fungi and microscopic organisms (decomposers); the nonliving (abiotic) parts include the sun, water, air (gases), and rocks. 2. An ecosystem is a community of living organisms that interact with each other and the non-living parts.

  What is a community of interacting and their environment called?

  An ecosystem is a community of organisms and their physical environment interacting together. For food, shelter, growth and development, all life systems interact with the environment.