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Biology Unit 3 > 3.5 Population Size And Ecosystems > Flashcards

3.5 Population Size And Ecosystems Flashcards

1
Q

What is a community ?

A

All the species living within a particular area

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2
Q

What is ecology ?

A

Branch of science concerned with the study of interactions between living organisms and their environment

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3
Q

What is an ecosystem ?

A

Interactions between living and non living factors in an area

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4
Q

What is an environment ?

A

The habitat and all the external conditions that affect the development and survival of organisms within it

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5
Q

What is a habitat ?

A

The area an organism occupies

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6
Q

What is niche ?

A

The role and position a species has within its environment

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7
Q

What is a population ?

A

The total number of a single species within a given area

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8
Q

What is an abiotic environment ?

A

Effects of the non living part of the environment - pH, light, temperature

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9
Q

What is a biotic environment ?

A

Effects of living community - predation and disease

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10
Q

What are climatic factors ?

A

Effects of the weather

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11
Q

What are topographic factors ?

A

Angle and aspect of a slope- sheltered or exposed

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12
Q

What are edaphic factors ?

A

Factors associated with soil- temperature, pH, texture and organic content

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13
Q

What is immigration ?

A

Movement into a population

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14
Q

What is emigration ?

A

Movement out of a population

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15
Q

What is birth rate ?

A

Number of individuals being born in the population

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16
Q

What is death rate ?

A

Number of individuals dying within the population

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17
Q

What is a density dependent factor ?

A

The greater the population density the greater the affect in the population- predation, space, disease

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18
Q

What is a density independent factor ?

A

Still affect the population regardless of population density- Natural disaster

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19
Q

What is carrying capacity ?

A

Average maximum number of individuals of a given species that may occupy a habitat

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20
Q

What is a predator ?

A

An organism that hunts, kills and eats other organisms

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21
Q

What shape does a 1 step growth curve represent ?

A

Sigmoidal curve

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22
Q

What is the lag phase ?

A

Slow population growth, low for sexually reproducing organisms, nutrients and habitat are readily available as not much competition

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23
Q

What is the stationary phase ?

A

When birth rate = death rate, fluctuates small amounts

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24
Q

What is the death phase ?

A

Factors slowing population growth become more predominant
Death rate is greater than birth rate

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25
Q

What is the purpose of the students t test ?

A

To decide whether there is a significant difference between 2 samples of data

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26
Q

What is biomass transfer ?

A

The conversion of sunlight energy into chemical energy that then passes between organisms in the food chain. Energy available at tropic level contributes to biomass

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27
Q

What is biomass ?

A

The mass of biological material in living or freshly dead organisms

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28
Q

What group of the food chain are herbivores ?

A

Primary consumers

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29
Q

What stage of the food chain are carnivores ?

A

Secondary, tertiary and higher consumers

30
Q

What do detritivores and decomposers feed as ?

A

Saprobionts

31
Q

What is a saprobiont ?

A

An organism that derives energy and raw materials for growth from extra cellular digestion of dead or decaying material

32
Q

What are detritivores ?

A

Organisms that feed on small fragments of organic debris

33
Q

What are decomposers ?

A

Microbes that obtain nutrients from dead organisms and animal waste

34
Q

What is photosynthetic efficiency

A

The measure of the plants ability to trap sunlight

35
Q

What are some of the reasons why plants do not absorb light energy ?

A

Wrong wavelength
Reflected
Transmitted through leaf

36
Q

What is gross primary productivity ?

A

The rate of production of chemical energy in organic molecules by photosynthesis in a given area and time

37
Q

What is gross primary productivity measured in ?

A

kJ per m2 per year

38
Q

What is net primary productivity ?

A

Energy in plants biomass which is available to primary consumers

39
Q

What is primary productivity?

A

The rate at which food is converted by producers into biomass

40
Q

What is secondary productivity ?

A

The rate at which consumers convert the chemical energy of their food into biomass

41
Q

How is energy lost during secondary productivity?

A

By respiration, urine and faeces

42
Q

What is an ecological pyramid ?

A

A diagram that shows a particular feature of each trophic level in an ecosystem, each bar represents a trophic level

43
Q

What are the 3 types of ecological pyramid ?

A

Pyramid of numbers
Pyramid of biomass
Pyramid of energy

44
Q

What is succession ?

A

The change in structure and species composition of a community over time

45
Q

What is a climax community ?

A

A stable self perpetuating community that has reached equilibrium with its environment and no further change occurs

46
Q

What is primary succession ?

A

The change in structure and species composition of a community in an area that has not previously been colonised.

47
Q

What is a sere ?

A

Sequence of communities with the different species and structures

48
Q

What is a xerosere ?

A

A sere in a very dry environment

49
Q

What are seral stages ?

A

Stages of a sere

50
Q

What is a pioneer species ?

A

First species to colonise in a new area in an ecological succession

51
Q

What is secondary succession ?

A

The changes in a community following the disturbance or damage to a colonised habitat

52
Q

What is dis climax ?

A

Human interference can affect succession and may affect the development of the climatic climax community

53
Q

What are the factors that affect succession ?

A

Immigration and competition

54
Q

What are the 2 types of competition ?

A

Intraspecific
Interspecific

55
Q

What is intraspecific competition ?

A

Competition between individuals of the same species

56
Q

What is interspecific competition ?

A

Competition between individuals of different species for common needs

57
Q

What is facilitation ?

A

Enabling something to happen in an ecological community to provide better resources and availability from physical stress, competition and predation

58
Q

What is symbiosis ?

A

The association between individuals of 2 species

59
Q

What is mutualism ?

A

An interaction between organisms of 2 species from which both benefit

60
Q

What is commensalism ?

A

An interaction between organisms of 2 species when 1 benefits and 1 is not affected by

61
Q

What processes are involved in the carbon cycle ?

A

Respiration
Photosynthesis
Decomposition

62
Q

What is climate change ?

A

Caused by rise in atmospheric CO2 and greenhouse gases due to deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels

63
Q

What is global warming ?

A

The increase of average global temperatures in excess of the greenhouse effect caused by the atmospheres historical concentration of CO2

64
Q

What is a carbon footprint ?

A

The equivalent amount of CO2 generated by an individual, a product or service in a year

65
Q

How can humans improve nitrogen circulation in soils ?

A

Ploughing fields
Drainage systems
Fertilisers
Use of animal waste
Planting cover crops and legumes

66
Q

What is eutrophication ?

A

The artificial enrichment of aquatic habitats by excess nutrients, often caused by run of fertilisers

67
Q

What is denitrification?

A

Loss of soluble nitrate compounds from the soil using denitrifying bacteria called psuedomas

68
Q

What is nitrogen fixing ?

A

Fixing atmospheric nitrogen gas into ammonia and ammonium ions

69
Q

What is nitrogen essential for ?

A

ATP
DNA
RNA
Amino acids

70
Q

What is nitrification ?

A

Converting products of decay into nitrate ions

Biology Unit 3 (8 decks)

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