B7 - Ecology

Question 1

Habitat

Answer 1

The place where an organism lives

Question 2

Population

Answer 2

All the organisms of one species living in a habitat

Question 3

Community

Answer 3

The population of different species living in a habitat

Question 4

Abiotic factors

Answer 4

Non-living factors of the environment

Question 5

Biotic factors

Answer 5

Living factors of the environment (e.g. food)

Question 6

Ecosystem

Answer 6

The interaction of a community of living organisms with the non living parts of their environment (biotic and abiotic)

Question 7

Give some examples of competition in an ecosystem

Answer 7

• Plants need light, space, water and minerals
• Animals compete with other species for food, water, mates and space
• Organisms compete with other species for the same resources

Question 8

What is interdependance?

Answer 8

Each species depending on each other for things such as food, shelter, pollination and seed dispersal

Question 9

Give some examples of abiotic factors

Answer 9

• Moisture level
• light intensity
• temperature
• carbon dioxide
• wind intensity
• oxygen level
• soil pH

Question 10

Give examples of biotic factors

Answer 10

• new predators
• competition
• new pathogens
• food supply

Question 11

What are food chains?

Answer 11

Show the flow of energy from producers to consumers and predators

Question 12

What are producers?

Answer 12

Photosynthetic plant producers that make their own food using energy from the Sun

Question 13

What are consumers?

Answer 13

They eat the previous consumer, or the producer

Question 14

What is the predator?

Answer 14

Consumer at the top of the food chain

Question 15

Predator prey cycle

Answer 15

Rabbits rise becuase of increased warmth (summer) and food
Foxes increase later because there is more food for them
They later decrease as they’ve eaten all the rabbits there are no more rabbits
A little later this then increases the rabbit population
The cycle repeats again

Question 16

Water cycle + carbon cycle

Answer 16

Check goodnotes

Question 17

Biodiversity?

Answer 17

The variety of differente species of organisms on Earth, or within an ecosystem

Question 18

Why is high biodiversity important?

Answer 18

Ecosystems can become stable becuase of interdependence

Question 19

What evidence is there of humans affecting biodiversity?

Answer 19

• Population due to medicine

- Population increases demand of food, therefore deforestation etc.

Question 20

Air pollution

Answer 20

• When fossil fuels are burnt, they can produce acid gases and this can help format acid rain
• Acid rain directly damages the environment, killing trees (leaves), destroying roots and poisoning lakes
• Smoke pollution causes an increase in tiny solid particles. This causes a dimming effect which can reflect light (cooling) and damages the cardiovascular system (lungs)
• Smog are smoke and chemicals as sulfur dioxide

Question 21

Land pollution

Answer 21

• Waste is produced by a population (waste, harzadous and industrial waste)
• This can go to landfill sites, which can take up a lot of room, destroy natural habitats and infect the soil
• Food produce can be affected by this because it’s too dangerous to feed other poeple
• Farming also leads to land pollution becuase animala nd fungal pests attack crops and eat them. Pesticides that kill the insects might destroy the crop
• The chemicals therefore are dangerous and the land

Question 22

Water pollution

Answer 22

• Nitrates from fertalisers can be easily washed into lakes, ponds and rivers which affect the living organisms inside the habitat
• Untreated sewage in the ocean leads to a high level of nitrates in the plants
• Nitrates stimulate the rapid growth of algae and water plants
• Toxic chemicals such as a pesticides and herbicides or poisonous chemicals from landfill sites can also be washed inito the waterways.
• These have a bioaccumulation effect on aquatic food webs as they do on life on land

Question 23

Global warming

Answer 23

Visible light (radiation) passes throught the atmosphere into the Earth and is reflected back. However, when it is reflected, it turns into infrared radiation and because of it’s frequency, it can’t pass back out and instead ocelates forth and back from the atmosphere and the earth. This is a reusult of the increasing carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere

Question 24

Consequences of Global Warning

Answer 24

• Ice melts to water which leads to higher sea levels which can lead to flooding in low sea level areas
• Distrubtions of animal and plant species may change
• Biodiversity will be recuced
• Changes in migration patterns

Question 25

What do humans use land for?

Answer 25

• Building, farminng, quarrying, dumping waste
• Less land for other organisms
• Deforestation and destruction