1.0B - Ecosystems

Question 1

(1)

What is a biotic factor and give an example.

Answer 1

• Living organisms
• Plants and Animals

Question 2

(1)

What is an abiotic factor? Give an example.

Answer 2

• Non living environment
• Soil and climate

Question 3

(3)

What is a decomposer?

Answer 3

• An ORGANISM
• that gets its energy by BREAKING DOWN
• DEAD MATERIAL.

Question 4

(5)

Describe how the nutrient cycle works?

Answer 4

• Dead material DECOMPOSE
• Nutrients released into SOIL.
• taken up by PLANTS
• Consumers may eat plants but when they or plants DIE
• Nutrients returned to SOIL.

Question 5

(3)

State a difference and a similarity between a food chain and a food web.

Answer 5

Sim: They both show that organisms eat each other.
Diff: Food chain shows what eats what, but food web overlaps these links.

Question 6

(4)

Describe the climate in a tundra.

Answer 6

• HIGH LATITUDES (>60N)
• very cold winters / Brief summers
• hardly any VEGETATION.
• Permafrosts trapping GHGs.

Question 7

(3)

Describe the climate in a Savannah grassland.

Answer 7

• Found between the Tropics.
• Rainfall is low.
• Most vegetation GRASSES but few trees.

Question 8

(3)

Describe the climate in a Temperate grassland.

Answer 8

• Found in higher altitudes
• More variation in temperature / less rainfall
• NO TREES just grass.

Question 9

(4)

Describe the climate in a Temperate deciduous forest.

Answer 9

• Warm summers
• Mild winters
• RAINFALL A LOT
• Trees (deciduous) lose leaves.

Question 10

(3)

Describe the climate in a tropical tainforests.

Answer 10

• Around equator
• Hot and wet all year
• LOTS OF VEGETATION.

Question 11

(4)

Explain how rainforests are interdependent ecosystems.

Answer 11

• Warm, wet climate
• helps fungi to DECOMPOSE material
• Plants pass nutrients to animals
• When animals DIE, nutrients transferred back to soil.

Question 12

(4)

State the layers of a rainforest.

Answer 12

TOP:
- EMERGENT
- UPPER CANOPY
- UNDERCANOPY
- SHRUB LAYER.
BOTTOM

Question 13

(4)

Explain how a rainforest have adaptations to its climate.

Answer 13

• Drip tip leaves: water runs off these leaves –> to soil.
• Buttress roots: Long roots that dig deep into the WATER TABLE.
• Ables trees to grow in warm and wet climate
• Epiphytes - plants grow on plants.

Question 14

(3)

Describe a social impact of deforestation.

Answer 14

• Soil erosion
• Latosols in rivers
• causes pollution

Question 15

(2)

Describe an economic impact of deforestation.

Answer 15

• Loss of TOURISM
• Issue with MULTIPLIER EFFECT.

Question 16

(3)

Describe an environmental impact of deforestation.

Answer 16

• Loss of CARBON SINKS
• MORE CO2 in ATMOSPHERE
• GLOBAL WARMING.