Levels of Ecological Organizations

Ecosystem:

Today our assignment was to locate the different levels of ecological organizations. I decided to start with the highest level; an ecosystem. This ecosystem included large rocks, fern trees that were growing in between these rocks, pine trees, and a large concrete sidewalk. This is considered an ecosystem because it has abiotic and biotic factors. At this site you could feel the wind blowing and the sun beaming down with a mass amount of heat. You could hear signs of nature like the birds making noises in the trees and flying above and also the wind making the leaves rustle on the tree tops and on the ground.

Community:

 The next to highest level of ecological organization is community. This level is very easy to find. As you can see in the picture above and the picture below, a community includes only living organisms. Such as people, trees, and plants. We felt the wind blowing really softly and the temperature was very nice. It felt like a warm spring day! At this site you could hear birds cawing high in the sky and some birds making tweeting noises.

Population:

As you can see in the picture above, we have a population of geese. This level of ecological organization, a population, is when there is the same organism in the same location at the same time. Its hard to hear signs of nature without the wind blowing as hard as it was. The wind would make tears come to your eyes and the plus the sun beating down made it really hot.

Species:

The next level of ecological organization we have is species. In the picture above we have one of many baby crayfish. We found these in a creek as we were walking through the woods. This creek had several fallen tree branches. We heard the wind blowing and a flock of birds flying overhead cawing. The temperature was still nice and the wind seemed to die down a bit.

Organism:

Our last level of ecological organization is the organism level. This is the lowest level of organization. What we have in this picture is a Black Salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus). We found this amphibian by the creek. Inside this creek were dead leaves and several trees surrounding it. We heard the wind blowing and the temperature from the sun seemed to increase. While trying to hear nature, several dogs barked at the nearby house but once that died down we were able to hear the wind blowing the leaves across the ground and a couple birds passing over.