B: Ecosystems

Question 1

Ecosystem

Answer 1

Is a unit that includes all the biotic (living) Parts (e.g. plants and animals) and all the abiotic (non-living) parts (e.g. soil and climate) in an area

Question 2

What kind of organisms in an ecosystem be classed as

Answer 2

Producers consumers or decomposes

Question 3

What’s the producer

Answer 3

Organism that uses sunlight energy to produce food

Question 4

What’s the consumer

Answer 4

Organism that gets its energy by eating other organisms – it eats produces or other consumers

Question 5

What is a food chain

Answer 5

Shows what ieats what

Question 6

What’s the food web

Answer 6

Shows lots of food chains and how they overlap

Question 7

What’s the decomposer

Answer 7

A decomposer is an organism that gets its energy by breaking down dead material e.g. dead producers, dead consumers or fallen leaves. Bacteria and fungi are decomposes

Question 8

When dead material is decomposed …

Answer 8

Neutrons are released into the soil the nutrients and then taken up by the soil by plants the plants may be eaten by consumers when the parcel consumers die and neutrons are returned to the soil the transfer of neutrients is called nutrient recycling

Question 9

Example of a small scale ecosystem

Answer 9

A hedgerow ecosystem includes the plants that make up the hedgerow

The organisms that live in it and feed on it, the soil in the area and the rainfall and sunshine it receives

The produced include hawthorn bushes and blackberry bushes

Consumers include thrushes, ladybirds, spiders, greenfly, sparrows and sparrow hawks

Question 10

What happens to a hedgerow if there’s a hot dry summer

Answer 10

Reduced plant growth
Fewer berries for birds in the winter
Number of sparrows and thrushes fall
Fewer birds for sparrowhawks to hunt, so number of sparrowhawks fall

Question 11

What happens when the hedgerow is trimmed

Answer 11

Fewer habitants for ladybirds, greenfly and spiders so number fall
Sparrow and thrushes have less to eat so numbers fall
Fewer birds for sparrowhawks to hunt so number of sparrowhawks falls

Question 12

What’s a biome?

Answer 12

A large scale ecosystem

Question 13

What are the six types of ecosystems

Answer 13

Tundra
Grassland
Temperate deciduous forest
Polar
Tropical Rainforest
Hot desert

Question 14

Tundra

Answer 14

Hi latitudes above 60° north

Winter is cold, summers brief, little rainfall

Hardly any trees – vegetation include Moses, grasses and low shrubs.

Permanent frozen ground called permafrost

Question 15

Grassland

Answer 15

Two types equals Savannah grassland and temperate grassland

Savannah grasslands
Found between tropics
Dusting to dry and wet seasons rainfall is still low
Vegetation is grasses with a few scattered trees

Temperature grasslands
Higher latitudes
More variation in temperature and less rainfall
No trees just grasses

Question 16

Temperate deciduous forest

Answer 16

Mid-latitudes
For distinct seasons
Summer is warm
Winters are cold
Rainfall all year 
Deciduous trees lose their leaves in winter to cope with the cold weather

Question 17

Polar

Answer 17

Around North and South poles
Very cold icy and dry
Not much grows
Remain dark for several months each year so growing season is very short – two months

Question 18

Hot desert

Answer 18

Found between 15° and 35° north and south of equator
Little rainfall
Hot during the day
Called at night
Shelves and cacti are sparsely distributed in the sandy soil

Question 19

Tropical rainforest

Answer 19

Found around the equator between the tropics
Hot and wet all year
Lash forest with dense canopies of vegetation forming distinct layers