B15 - Adaptations, Interdependence and Competition

Question 1

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 1

• Interaction of a community of living organisms with the abiotic parts of their environment.

Question 2

What do organisms require?

Answer 2

• Materials from their surroundings and other living organisms to survive and reproduce.

Question 3

What do species depend on in a community?

Answer 3

• Food, shelter, pollination, seed dispersal.

Question 4

What is interdependence?

Answer 4

• If one species is removed it can affect the whole community.

Question 5

What is a stable community?

Answer 5

• Where all the species and environmental factors are in balance so that population sizes remain fairly constant.

Question 6

What abiotic factors affect communities of organisms?

Answer 6

• Light intensity, temperature, moisture levels, soil pH and mineral content, wind intensity and direction, carbon dioxide levels for plants, availability of oxygen for aquatic animals.

Question 7

What biotic factors that affect communities of organisms?

Answer 7

• Availability of food, new predators arriving, new pathogens and new competitors.

Question 8

What experimental methods are used by ecologists?

Answer 8

• Transects and quadrats to determine the distribution and abundance of species in an ecosystem.

Question 9

Why do animals compete with each other?

Answer 9

• Food, territories and mates.

- Have adaptations that make successful competitors.

Question 10

Why do plants compete with each other?

Answer 10

• Light, space, water and mineral ions from the soil.

- Many adaptations that make them good competitors.

Question 11

What do organisms need to survive and reproduce?

Answer 11

• A supply of materials from their surroundings and from the other living organisms in their habitat.

Question 12

What adaptations do organisms have?

Answer 12

• Enable them to survive in the conditions in which they normally live.

Question 13

What are extremophiles?

Answer 13

• They have adaptations that enable them to live in environments with extreme conditions of salt, temperature or pressure.

Question 14

What features do animal organisms have?

Answer 14

• Enable them to survive in the conditions in which they normally live.
• These adaptations may be structural, behavioural or functional.

Question 15

What features do plant organisms have?

Answer 15

• Enable them to survive in conditions in which they normally live.
• Adaptations may be structural, behavioural or functional.