Middle School Biology (2/3): Ecosystems and Their Interactions

In my last post, I shared how I started learning biology fundamentals through Khan Academy’s Middle School Biology course. As I progress, I’m taking notes to solidify my understanding. Here’s the next part of my notes, covering ecosystems and their interactions.

Biodiversity is a very important topic for what we do at Earth Species Project, too. The diversity of life plays a fundamental role in ecosystem stability, resilience, and even in the communication patterns of different species, which aligns with our research on understanding animal communication through AI.

Unit 4: Interactions in ecosystems

• Populations, communities, and ecosystems
  • population: same species, communities: different species
  • ecosystem: all the living systems and non-living parts of the environment (e.g., water)
• Resources and population growth
• Competition, predation, and mutualism
  • mutualism: two organisms of different species benefit from each other (e.g., birds eating lice on a buffalo)

Unit 5: Matter and energy in ecosystems

• Photosynthesis in ecosystems
  • Photosynthesis --> sugars --> part of biomass
• Matter and energy in food webs
  • producers, primary & secondary consumers, decomposers

Unit 6: Ecosystems and biodiversity

• Ecosystem dynamics
  • Clark's nutcrackers and pine trees
• Biodiversity and ecosystem health
  • Islands are biodiverse. Less biodiversity -> more vulnerable
• Humans and ecosystems
  • Ecosystem services: provisional, regulating, supporting, cultural