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1. Science 7 > A Interactions and Ecosystems > Flashcards

A Interactions and Ecosystems Flashcards

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Biology 101 flashcards
1
Q

What do living things have in common? List four needs.

A
  • need food
  • need suitable habitat
  • need water
  • need to exchange gases
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2
Q

ecologist

A

a scientist who studies interactions in the environment

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3
Q

adaptations

A

changes made to fit the surroundings

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4
Q

Are adaptations inherited/instinctive or learned?

A

both

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5
Q

ecosystem

A
  • interactions between living and non-living things in a particular environment
  • an area where living things interact with other living and non-living things
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6
Q

symbiosis

A

two different species live together and at least one of these species benefits from the relationship

Whenever different living things live closely together where the relationship may benefit one or both living things

There are three types of symbiosis: mutualism, parasitism, and commensalism

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7
Q

mutualism

A

symbiosis where both species benefit

  • goby fish and snapping shrimp (shrimp builds a sand burrow and allows the goby fish to share the burrow. The shrimp is almost blind so it always has a feeler on the goby. The goby warns the shrimp when danger is approaching by a flick of its fins and both retreat into the burrow)
  • humans and gut bacteria
  • bees and flowers (bees get nectar and pollen, flowers get pollinated so they can reproduce)
  • clownfish and anenome
  • ants and aphids
  • lichen (fungi and algae)
  • woolly bat and pitcher plant
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8
Q

parasitism

A

symbiosis where one species benefits but the other is harmed

  • mosquito bites you to get blood to help give it energy to make eggs and you get an itchy lump
  • tick harms dog or cat by feeding on the blood
  • hookworm harms human
  • aphid harms plant
  • cuckoo steals another bird’s nest
  • leaches harm humans (though historically they did use leaches for medical treatment, so humans harm leaches)
  • humans harm most living things
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9
Q

commensalism

A

symbiosis where one species benefits while the other is not affected (neither benefits nor is harmed)

  • epiphytes get sunlight and nutrients by living on host plant
  • birds trail army ants to eat fleeing insects
  • orchid on a tree: orchids live by attaching themselves to the branches of a tree so that the orchid can get sunlight while the tree is not harmed nor does the tree get any benefit
  • barnacles find food and whale is unnafected
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10
Q

natural resources

A

stuff found in nature that people use to meet basic needs

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11
Q

How has gathering food in Alberta changed over time?

A

buffalo were hunted, then mixed farms were used (livestock and crops), then feedlots

Essentially none of these methods truly will work when the population of humans is greater.

The amount of people we have one our planet means that we must stop eating animals or dramatically reduce our consumption of them. Eating plants takes less resources and is one of the best things you can do for your environment. This promotes cleaner air since less forests need to be cut down to make the food for the farm animals, and instead humans can directly get their food from primary sources. Energy is lost through consumption of food, so it is best to avoid secondary food sources. There are plenty of ways of eating less meat, and in fact most people who eat less meat have less health problems.

So hopefully in the future we can move away from all three methods outlined above and move to plant-based diets so that everyone can enjoy greater health, cleaner air, and more biodiversity.

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12
Q

need vs. want

A

need is essential to survival

want is something that improves quality of life but you would survive without it

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13
Q

needs of living things

A
  • food (that contains nutrients)
  • air (oxygen)
  • water (cannot be polluted)
  • shelter (appropriate to their environment, a suitable habitat)
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14
Q

Is our want more important than the needs of animals?

A

No, if you believe that all beings are worth the same.

If you think that humans are better than all other beings, then maybe you might be that one person who is the bully :)

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15
Q

ecology

A

the study of how organisms interact with each other

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16
Q

biotic

A

living

biotic factors = living things

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17
Q

abiotic

A

non-living

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18
Q

habitat

A

the place a biotic thing grows and where it lives

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19
Q

adapted

A

well-suited

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20
Q

why do organisms adapt?

A

to help them survive

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21
Q

host

A

has a parasite that feeds off it

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22
Q

Ecosystems have what two components?

A

biotic and abiotic are the two components

ecosystems are about the interactions between these types of components: biotic to biotic, and biotic to abiotic

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23
Q

biota

A

noun meaning the biotic (living) community

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24
Q

abiotic components (definition)

A

physical environment such as site or habitat

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25
Q

six abiotic components

A

macroclimate
microclimate
physiography
water in soil
air in soil
nutrients in soil

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26
Q

macroclimate

A

general climate of a large area such as the climate of a continent or large county

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27
Q

microclimate

A

small local region having a unique pattern of weather effects from the local climate

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28
Q

physiography

A

physical geography: the study of physical features of the Earth’s surface

  • the form of land and parent material
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29
Q

edaphic

A

of or relating to the soil

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30
Q

edaphic factor of water

A

how much water is in the soil

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31
Q

edaphic factor of air

A

how much air is in the soil (like oxygen, nitrogen)

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32
Q

edaphic factor of nutrients

A

how many and what type of nutrients are in the soil

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33
Q

niche

A

role of an organism within an ecosystem

the thing or organism is known for in terms of what it eats, where it lives, and how it interacts

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34
Q

What are the three main things you must study to determine an organism’s niche?

A
  • what it eats
  • where it lives
  • how it interacts
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35
Q

Can an organism have more than one niche?

A

yes

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36
Q

What are the components of a niche?

A
  • producers
  • consumers
  • decomposers
  • living environment
  • interactions between all three
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37
Q

What are the three types of consumers?

A
  • herbivores
  • carnivores
  • omnivores
38
Q

What are herbivores?

A
  • eat only producers, never eat consumers, or mainly eat plants

(eat plants)

  • moose, elephants, grasshoppers, humans (some of them)
39
Q

What are carnivores?

A
  • eat other consumers, never eat producers or very rarely eat producers
    (a predator eats prey; they may do the killing or steal from another animal that kills the prey for them)
  • cats, hyenas, seals, praying mantises can be examples of this though some species will be known to eat a greater quantity of plants and thus would not be seen as a carnivore if they in particular eat mainly plants
  • there is increasing research into lab-made food where animals who need nutrients from other animals are now able to get those same nutrients without needing to catch their own prey
40
Q

What are omnivores?

A
  • eat both producers and consumers
    (the balance can vary, but if they currently eat any consumers purposefully, they are in this catergory rather than the herbivore category)
41
Q

What is the Standard American Diet

A
  • eating refined and processed foods (usually about 2/3 of the diet)
  • eating consumers about 1/4 of the time
  • eating plants about 1/10 of the time
42
Q

Is a person following the Standard American Diet a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore?

A

omnivore

43
Q

What is the carnivore diet?

A
  • eating only consumers, like a carnivore
  • high in saturated fat and cholesterol
  • leads to many health problems in humans such as increased risk of heart disease
44
Q

What is a plant-based diet?

A
  • eating only producers, like a herbivore
  • can include a variety of sub-diets, some of which are restrictive and others which are not (for example, some people will try to limit oil, but oil is plant based and is allowed in the general plant-eating only people)
  • people who follow a plant-based diet have healthy amounts of cholesterol in their blood tests given that they have been following it for some time
  • lowers risk of some cancers, diabetes, and heart disease
45
Q

What is a healthy diet?

A

A diet that gives you adequate nutrition in order to have your body function correctly over the short and long-term.

A diet that does not introduce or limits the introduction of elements that are known to cause health problems.

To determine if a diet is healthy we must look at quantity eaten (not too little, not too much) and have nutrient dense foods so that adequate nutrients are available.

46
Q

Are humans producers or consumers?

A

consumers

47
Q

Are humans herbivores, omnivores, or carnivores?

A

Most humans have chosen to be omnivores, and can survive this way. There is increased research showing that humans in prehistoric times were eating mostly plants, but now and again may have a small animal because that was what was available. This makes them omnivores, but closer to herbivore than carnivore.

Humans are best suited to eating plants if you look at their jaw hinge and other factors. The jaw is designed similar to herbivores where it can move side to side.

48
Q

What is a predator?

A
  • living organism that eats prey (animals lower on the food chain)
49
Q

What is prey

A
  • living organism that gets eaten by a predator
50
Q

What is a food chain?

A
  • model that shows how energy stored in food passes from organism to organism
51
Q

What is energy flow?

A
  • movement of energy from the sun, through eat organism in the food chain
52
Q

Is energy lost when it passes from one organism to the next?

A

Yes, energy is lost to the surroundings in the form of heat

53
Q

How can we ensure that we efficiently get the most energy possible?

A
  • eat products that are in shorter food chains so that less energy from the sun is going into producing huge food chains
54
Q

How many organisms are usually in a food chain?

A

The minimum is two, but three is more common since the food chain will start with a producer, then at least one consumer, then a decomposer. There are food chains with just a producer and a decomposer.

When humans eat animals they force the food chain to include two consumers, which makes the food chain at least four organisms long: producer, consumer, consumer, decomposer

55
Q

What is a food web?

A
  • combination of food chains usually showing the ecosystem, but could exclude a few organisms for simplicity
56
Q

What is a food pyramid?

A

Shows the number of organisms consumed at each successive level of the pyramid

57
Q

What is a primary consumer?

A

a herbivore

58
Q

What is a secondary consumer?

A

an organism that eats herbivores

59
Q

What is a tertiary consumer?

A

An organism that eats omnivores or carnivores

60
Q

What is biomass?

A

Total mass of the biotic organisms in an ecosystem

61
Q

The higher you go up the food pyramid, what happens to biomass?

A

The biomass decreases since energy is lost to the surroundings

62
Q

What are decomposers?

A

Organisms that grow on or in the dead or waste matter, absorbing nutrients that can be later used by plants to grow

Examples include bacteria, fungi, and worms such as red wigglers (the worms used in indoor composting)

63
Q

What are scavengers?

A

Organisms that feed on dead or decaying plant or animal matter such as magpies and wolverines

64
Q

What are some major cycles that happen on Earth?

A
  • carbon cycle
  • water cycle
  • nitrogren cycle
65
Q

Make sure you can label diagrams of the carbon cycle and water cycle as given to you in class

A

answers vary

water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation

carbon cycle: carbon dioxide, oxygen (photosynthesis and cellular respiration, also carbon dioxide released from industrial activities)

66
Q

How does pollution occur?

A

When substances are added to the environement that cannot be broken down quickly enough to return back to a non-damaging form

67
Q

What are pollutants?

A

substances that cause pollution such as:
- sulfer, and nitrogen at high levels in the air mixing with water to cause acid rain
- carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels

68
Q

bioaccumulation

A

pollutants accumulate as they are passed up the food chain, so the longer the food chain, the more pollutants are in that top organism.

  • mercury in fish is an example
69
Q

species

A
  • living things of the same species are able to reproduce and have young that are also able to reproduce
70
Q

population

A

a number of individuals from the same species living together in the same area

71
Q

community

A
  • all the populations of different species that live and interact in the same place
72
Q

What do all living things need?

A
  • water
  • food / nutrients
  • energy
  • oxygen
  • suitable living conditions
73
Q

adaptation

A

how organisms respond to their environment

74
Q

consumer

A

any organism that has to seek out and eat or consume other living things for food

all animals are consumers

75
Q

What is photosynthesis?

A

light energy + carbon dioxide + water –> sugars and starches + oxygen

converts the sun’s energy into chemical energy in plants and stores it in the form of sugars and starches

your body can use this stored energy when you eat plants

people who choose to eat animals can get some of this energy too but it is not an efficent process since the energy has to go through the animal first and some energy is lost to heat and work to move the animal

76
Q

What is cellular respiration?

A

sugars and starches + oxygen –> energy + carbon dioxide + water

Nearly all living things need oxygen to release the energy that is stored in their food

This is a chemical reaction that occurs within the cells of all living things

77
Q

Some decomposers can be very helpful. How is baker’s yeast helpful?

A

Bakers yeast feeds on sugars and in the process gives off carbon dioxide that allows pastries to rise.

78
Q

How is Escherichia coli (E. coli) helpful?

A

This bacteria is found in your large intestine and breaks down the food you eat for their own food. In the process they make several vitamins that your body needs to stay healthy.

79
Q

How is E. coli bacteria 0157:H7 harmful?

A

A form of E. coli found usually in cows and their milk (but can be found in food products such as apple juice) that release toxic chemicals when they break down food causing food poisoning.

80
Q

bioinvasion

A

species introduction where the introduced species is usually stronger than the native plants with no natural enemies so they take over and stop other native species from thriving

81
Q

competition

A

living things compete for food, water, and space to live

resources are scarce so competition occurs

82
Q

pioneer species

A

the first species that arrive

83
Q

succession

A

predictable pattern of change in ecosystems

84
Q

primary succession

A

occurs in areas where no life exists due to an absese of soil

85
Q

climax community

A

a stable community of a diverse number of species that is not easily replaced by other communities

86
Q

secondary succession

A

when a community has been destroyed or disturbed by natural occurrences or human activities, secondary succession is what happens to fix this disturbance

These habitats previously supported life

87
Q

extinct

A

a species no longer exists anywhere on Earth

88
Q

endangered

A

organisms that are so rare that they are in serious danger of becoming extinct

89
Q

threatened species

A

species whose numbers are declining

90
Q

ecological footprint

A

looks at the food, housing, transportation, consumer goods, and all the services we use every day to calculate how much energy, materials, and land we need

91
Q

How can you lower your ecological footprint?

A

Reducing the amount of water, energy, and materials we consume and recylcing the waste we produce

This can be done by eating more plants and less meat, since meat production takes a lot of water and energy.

1. Science 7 (5 decks)

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