Ecology - Importance of Communities - AQA ( including Home Learning)

**Based on AQA biology specification ( can be used for revision). Includes: Content, AFL Questions, Exam style Questions and Answers
**

Based on AQA biology specification

Students should be able to describe:
• different levels of organisation in an ecosystem from individual
organisms to the whole ecosystem
• the importance of interdependence and competition in a community.
Students should be able to, when provided with appropriate information:
• suggest the factors for which organisms are competing in a given
habitat
• suggest how organisms are adapted to the conditions in which they
live.
An ecosystem is the interaction of a community of living organisms
(biotic) with the non-living (abiotic) parts of their environment.
To survive and reproduce, organisms require a supply of materials from
their surroundings and from the other living organisms there.
Plants in a community or habitat often compete with each other for light
and space, and for water and mineral ions from the soil. Animals often
compete with each other for food, mates and territory.
Within a community each species depends on other species for food,
shelter, pollination, seed dispersal etc. If one species is removed it can
affect the whole community. This is called interdependence. A stable
community is one where all the species and environmental factors are in
balance so that population sizes remain fairly constant.