B9 ECOLOGY Flashcards
Ecosystem
An area in which the interactions between all the living organisms and all the physical factors form a stable relationship needing no external input
Habitat
A Particula area within an ecosystem
Community
All the organisms living in an ecosystem
Interdependence
The way in which the organisms in an area depend on each other for food shelter protection and so on
Population
The members of one particular species within an ecosystem
Abundance
The number of members of one species in an ecosystem
Quadrat
I metal square used to help find the number of small organisms living in an area
Random sampling
Estimating the population of organisms in an area by randomly dropping a contract several times finding the average number of organisms present and scaling up your answer
Population size
Population size equals number of organisms in quadrat times total area divided by contract area
Abiotic factor
A non-living factor that influences what can live where
Important abiotic factors
Temperature light intensity rainfall type of landscape soil pH soil nutrients pollution
Pollutants
Substances produced by human activities that can poison some or all of the living organisms in an area
Adaptations to abiotic factors
Features of plants and animals that are suited to the abiotic factors where they live
Changes to abiotic factors
If abiotic factor changes such as temperature increases due to global warming organisms may no longer be well adapt to where they live and may die out
Biotic factor
Anything factor that influences what can live where
Important biotic factors
The presence of food organisms predators competing organisms and disease
Competition
Often two or more different organisms may compete for the same resources such as food water or light
Effects of reducing competition
Reduced competition when a species go extinct can lead to unpredictable events on another species with some benefiting from reduced predication and others benefiting
Predator prey cycle
Asked a number of prey animals increases the number of predators increase the predators over predate the prey leading to a fall in prime numbers which causes the number of predators to go down as there is less food the number of prey increases again because you are being eaten
Parasitism
A speeding up relationship in which a parasite phase of its host causing harm to the host but normally not killing it
Examples of parasites
Please and lead to sucking blood tapeworms living in animals mistletoe burrowing it’s roots into tree branches
Mutalism
Organisms that live together in a relationship where both benefit