280

How AreOatmeal & Carpets

Connected?

How AreOatmeal & Carpets

Connected?

In the 1850s, the first oatmeal mill began operation in the United States. Overthe next few decades, hot, creamy oatmeal became a popular breakfast cerealacross the country. By the early 1900s, oatmeal was getting some stiff competitionfrom newly invented cold breakfast cereals such as cornflakes. Hot or cold, cerealhad become a breakfast staple. But the processing of oats and corn for cerealleaves behind waste productsoat hulls and corncobs. In 1922, a cereal companydiscovered it could do something useful with these waste products. The companyused oat hulls to make a substance called furfural. Today, furfural also is madefrom corncobs and other cereal waste products. Manufacturers use furfural in theproduction of synthetic rubber, plastic, and nylonincluding the nylon that goesinto carpets.

Visit unit projects at to find project ideas and resources.Projects include: Career You are an environmental scientist as you design your own

ecosystem-interaction web to demonstrate relationships from birth to deathof your specific organism.

Technology Chart your research results on the manufacturing of differentmaterials. Compare cost, energy use, resources, and environmental concerns.

Model Design your own two-week personal conservation project. Decidehow you can make a difference as you reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Investigate the Barrier Islands ecosystem, then form an opinionas to whether developers should build on these environmentallyfragile islands.

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sections

1 Abiotic FactorsLab Humus Farm

2 Cycles in Nature

3 Energy FlowLab Where does the mass of a plant come from?

Virtual Lab How doorganisms react to changes inabiotic factors?

Sun, Surf, and SandLiving things on this coast directly or indi-rectly depend on nonliving things, such assunlight, water, and rocks, for energy andraw materials needed for their life processes.In this chapter, you will read how these andother nonliving things affect life on Earth.

List all the nonliving things thatyou can see in this picture in order of importance. Explain your reasoning for the order you chose.

Science Journal

The NonlivingEnvironment

LE 6.1a: Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, usually from the Sun, through producersto consumers and then to decomposers. This process may be visualized with food chains or energypyramids. 6.1c: Matter is transferred from one organism to another and between organisms andtheir physical environment. Also covered: 6.1b, 7.1a, 7.1b; PS 2.1j.

Nonliving Factors Make thefollowing Foldable to help youunderstand the cause and effect

relationships within the nonliving environment.

Fold two vertical sheets of paper inhalf from top to bottom. Cut thepapers in half along the folds.

Discard one piece and fold the three vertical pieces in half from top to bottom.

Turn the papers horizontally. Tapethe short ends of the pieces together(overlapping the edges slightly).

On one side, label the folds: Nonliving,Water, Soil, Wind, Temperature, andElevation. Draw a picture of a familiarecosystem on the other side.

Sequence As you read the chapter, write on thefolds how each nonliving factor affects the envi-ronment that you draw.

STEP 4

STEP 3

STEP 2

STEP 1

1. Locate your city or town on a globe orworld map. Find your latitude. Latitudeshows your distance from the equator and is expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds.

2. Locate another city with the same latitudeas your city but on a different continent.

3. Locate a third city with latitude close tothe equator.

4. Using references, compare average annualprecipitation and average high and lowtemperatures for all three cities.

5. Think Critically Hypothesize how lati-tude affects average temperatures andrainfall.

Earth Has Many EcosystemsDo you live in a dry, sandy region coveredwith cactus plants or desert scrub? Is yourhome in the mountains? Does snow fall dur-ing the winter? In this chapter, youll learnwhy the nonliving factors in each ecosystemare different. The following lab will get youstarted.

Start-Up Activities

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Environmental FactorsLiving organisms depend on one another for food and shel-

ter. The leaves of plants provide food and a home for grass-hoppers, caterpillars, and other insects. Many birds depend oninsects for food. Dead plants and animals decay and becomepart of the soil. The features of the environment that are alive,or were once alive, are called biotic (bi AH tihk) factors. Theterm biotic means living.

Biotic factors are not the only things in an environment thatare important to life. Most plants cannot grow without sunlight,air, water, and soil. Animals cannot survive without air, water, orthe warmth that sunlight provides. The nonliving, physical fea-tures of the environment are called abiotic (ay bi AH tihk) fac-tors. The prefix a means not. The term abiotic means notliving. Abiotic factors include air, water, soil, sunlight, temper-ature, and climate. The abiotic factors in an environment oftendetermine which kinds of organisms can live there. For example,water is an important abiotic factor in the environment, asshown in Figure 1.

Identify common abiotic factorsin most ecosystems.

List the components of air thatare needed for life.

Explain how climate influenceslife in an ecosystem.

Knowing how organisms depend onthe nonliving world can help humansmaintain a healthy environment.

Review Vocabularyenvironment: everything, such asclimate, soil, and living things,that surrounds and affects anorganism

New Vocabulary

biotic soil abiotic climate atmosphere

Abiotic Factors

Figure 1 Abiotic factorsair,water, soil, sunlight, temperature,and climateinfluence all life on Earth.

284 CHAPTER 10

LE 7.1a: A population consists of all individuals of a species that are found together at a given place andtime. Populations living in one place form a community. The community and the physical factors with whichit interacts compose an ecosystem. Also covered: 7.1b.

AirAir is invisible and plentiful, so it is easily overlooked as an

abiotic factor of the environment. The air that surrounds Earthis called the atmosphere. Air contains 78 percent nitrogen,21 percent oxygen, 0.94 percent argon, 0.03 percent carbondioxide, and trace amounts of other gases. Some of these gasesprovide substances that support life.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is required for photosynthesis. Photo-synthesisa series of chemical reactionsuses CO2, water, andenergy from sunlight to produce sugar molecules. Organisms,like plants, that can use photosynthesis are called producersbecause they produce their own food. During photosynthesis,oxygen is released into the atmosphere.

When a candle burns, oxygen from the air chemically com-bines with the molecules of candle wax. Chemical energystored in the wax is converted and released as heat and lightenergy. In a similar way, cells use oxygen to release the chemi-cal energy stored in sugar mole-cules. This process is calledrespiration. Through respira-tion, cells obtain the energyneeded for all life processes. Air-breathing animals arent the onlyorganisms that need oxygen.Plants, some bacteria, algae, fish,and other organisms need oxy-gen for respiration.

Water Water is essential to life on

Earth. It is a major ingredient ofthe fluid inside the cells of allorganisms. In fact, most organ-isms are 50 percent to 95 percentwater. Respiration, digestion,photosynthesis, and many otherimportant life processes can takeplace only in the presence ofwater. As Figure 2 shows, envi-ronments that have plenty ofwater usually support a greaterdiversity of and a larger numberof organisms than environmentsthat have little water.

Life in deserts is limited to species that can survive for long periodswithout water.

Thousands of species can live in lush rain forests where rain fallsalmost every day.

Figure 2 Water is an impor-tant abiotic factor in deserts andrain forests.

SECTION 1 Abiotic Factors 285

Living Environment

7.1a: Create a chart to comparebiotic and abiotic features of anenvironment. List examples ofbiotic and abiotic features.

286 CHAPTER 10 The Nonliving Environment

SoilSoil is a mixture of mineral and rock particles, the remains

of dead organisms, water, and air. It is the topmost layer ofEarths crust, and it supports plant growth. Soil is formed, inpart, of rock that has been broken down into tiny particles.

Soil is considered an abiotic factor because most of it ismade up of nonliving rock and mineral particles. However, soilalso contains living organisms and the decaying remains of deadorganisms. Soil life includes bacteria, fungi, insects, and worms.The decaying matter found in soil is called humus. Soils containdifferent combinations of sand, clay, and humus. The type ofsoil present in a region has an important influence on the kindsof plant life that grow there.

SunlightAll life requires energy, and sunlight is the energy source for

almost all life on Earth. During photosynthesis, producers con-vert light energy into chemical energy that is stored in sugarmolecules. Consumers are organisms that cannot make theirown food. Energy is passed to consumers when they eat produc-ers or other consumers. As shown in Figure 3, photosynthesiscannot take place if light is never available.

Figure 3 Photosynthesis requires light. Littlesunlight rea