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Ecology Information Sheet - It's A Zoo Out There!
Technical writing project

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Ecology is the scientific study of interactions between organisms and their environment.

The environment of an organism includes all the living and non-living things that surrounds it. We call the non-living things, abiotic factors and these include temperature, availability of water, pH, humidity, and the amount of sunshine that a particular area gets. We call the living things, biotic factors, and these include all the other organisms of all of the different species that live in an area. Both abiotic and biotic factors influence where organisms can live.

Classification of organisms becomes especially important in the study of ecology, since the diversity of organisms living in a particular area contributes to the environment's stability, or in other words, its ability to survive challenging conditions. Carolus von Linnaeus developed a classification system in the 1800's that is still in use today. Each living thing is categorized into one of five kingdoms (K. Animalia, K. Plantae, K. Fungi, K. Protista, and K. Monera). Kingdoms are subdivided into Phyla. Organisms that belong to the same phylum are more closely related than those who belong to the same kingdom, but different phyla are. Each successive subdivision groups organisms together with those that they are most closely related to. Phyla are divided into Classes, Classes are divided into Orders, Orders are divided into Families, Families are divided into Genera, and Genera are divided into Species. Linnaeus suggested that each organism be known by its Genus and Species name, which we now refer to as the organism's scientific name. This name is written in Latin and is always underlined or italicized. In this binomial nomenclature, the genus name is always capitalized, while the species name appears in lower case letters. For example, the scientific name of humans is Homo sapiens.

Organisms each have adaptations including behaviors, body structures, and internal functions (physiology) that improve their chances for survival.

An organism's habitat is where it lives. The habitat can be described by identifying the region of the earth where the organism is known to survive, and the climate(s) found there. Large regions of the earth that have typical climatic conditions are called biomes. A biome's climax community or in other words, the largest and most dominating organisms found there, are very characteristic in each specific biome. Since every organism present influences the habitat, the types of plants and animals found in an area are especially important. The characteristic plants of an area are known as its flora, while the animals are collectively called the fauna. A species' range is the collective description of which locations its members are known to inhabit.

In the struggle for survival, some organisms spend a great deal of energy avoiding their predators. Predators are animals that kill and eat other living animals. The animals that are killed are known as prey. Some animal eaters (carnivores) wait for other organisms to kill their prey and then they "steal" this food. This group of carnivores are called scavengers. Other organisms use dead organic matter as a food source, and are called saprophytes. Animals that select only plants for food are known as herbivores, while those who eat both plants and animals are known as omnivores. Parasites are organisms who obtain food from another living organism while this host organism is still alive