Question

a) Would we want the ecosystem to completely change to one predator/prey (maybe environment)? Explain why or why not.

i) What happens if predators are too successful at hunting and the prey population decreases too much?

ii) What happens if the prey population is too successful at not being eaten?

iii) Basically notice how they depend on each other.

b) Do organisms adapt to survive or do they survive because of their adaptations?

Answer 1

So what do these interactions look like in an ecosystem? One category of interactions describes the different ways organisms obtain their food and energy. Some organisms can make their own food, and other organisms have to get their food by eating other organisms. An organism that must obtain their nutrients by eating (consuming) other organisms is called a consumer, or a heterotroph. While there are a lot of fancy words related to the sciences, one of the great things is that many of them are based on Latin or Greek roots. For example, heterotroph becomes easier to remember when you realize that in Greek, “hetero” means “other” and “troph” means food; in other words, heterotrophs eat other organisms to get their food. They then use the energy and materials in that food to grow, reproduce and carry out all of their life activities. All animals, all fungi, and some kinds of bacteria are heterotrophs and consumers. .

Some consumers are predators; they hunt, catch, kill, and eat other animals, the prey. The prey animal tries to avoid being eaten by hiding, fleeing, or defending itself using various adaptations and strategies. These could be the camouflage of an octopus or a fawn, the fast speed of a jackrabbit or impala, or the sting of a bee or spines of a sea urchin. If the prey is not successful, it becomes a meal and energy source for the predator. If the prey is successful and eludes its predator, the predator must expend precious energy to continue the hunt elsewhere. Predators can also be prey, depending on what part of the food chain you are looking at. For example, a trout acts as a predator when it eats insects, but it is prey when it is eaten by a bear. It all depends on the specific details of the interaction. Ecologists use other specific names that describe what type of food a consumer eats: carnivores and herbivores are meat eaters and plant eaters, respectively. Omnivores eat both animals and plants. Once again, knowing the Latin root helps a lot: "vor" means "to eat or devour," as in "voracious.” Put "-vore" at the end of a scientific term for a kind of food, and you have described what an organism eats. For example, an insectivore is a carnivore that eats insects, and a frugivore is an herbivore that eats fruit. This may seem like a lot of terminology, but it helps scientists communicate and immediately understand a lot about a particular type of organism by using the precise terms.

In predation, a member of one species (the predator) eats part or all of the living, or recently living, body of another organism (the prey). This interaction is beneficial for the predator, but harmful for the prey (+/- interaction). Predation may involve two animal species, but it can also involve an animal or insect consuming part of a plant, a special case of predation known as herbivory.

IF the prey population increases, then there will be Ecological imbalance in the environment which ultimately leads to loss of natural resources to one's availability. There is a direct mutual relationship between Prey & the predator IF any of these increases, gives rise to environmental imbalance.

Every organism has a unique ecosystem within which it lives. This ecosystem is its natural habitat. This is where the basic needs of the organism to survive are met: food, water, shelter from the weather and place to breed its young. All organisms need to adapt to their habitat to be able to survive. An animal may adapt to its habitat in different ways. It may be a physical or structural adaptation, just as the limbs of birds have modified into wings or the way the cheetah is shaped for running at a fast speed.Some animals, like the apple snail, can survive in different ecosystems- from swamps, ditches and ponds to lakes and rivers. It has a lung/gills combination that reflects its adaptation to habitats with oxygen poor water.