2.1 - ECOSYSTEMS AND ECOLOGY

Question 1

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 1

A community of independent organisms and the physical environment they interact with. Made up of biotic and abiotic components.

Question 2

What is a population?

Answer 2

a group of individuals of the same species living at the same time.

Question 3

What is a commmunity?

Answer 3

a group of populations that interact together in the same space, with biotic and abiotic elements.

Question 4

What is a species?

Answer 4

a group of individuals with common characteristics that can produce offspring.

Question 5

Habitat vs Niche

Answer 5

H: the natural environment where a species lives.
N: the role an organism plays and its interactions with the environment.

Question 6

Fundamental niche vs realized niche

Answer 6

F: the ideal niche, would exist in the absense of competition absence
R: the actual niche an organism occupies due to competition

Question 7

What are limiting factors?

Answer 7

They determine the carrying capacity of an area.
DENSITY DEPENDENT FACTORS only affects the population when it reaches a certain density (e.g. disease)
DENSITY INDEPENDENT FACTORS control the population no matter the density (e.g. temperature)

Question 8

What are the different interactions in an environment?

Answer 8

• Predation: one organism hunts the other.
• Herbivory: consumption of plants by an animal.
• Symbiosis: an individual living in/on other species-
  –> mutualism: both benefit
  –> commensalism: one species is benefited, the other isn’t affected
  –> parasitism: one os benefited by harming the other
• Disease: a departure from the normal state of health
• Competition: compete for a limited resource, between individuals of the same species (intraspecific), or between different species (interspecific)