Biology paper 2 Flashcards
what is an individual
a single organism
what is a population
all the organisms of one species in a habitat
what is a community
all of the organisms of different species living in a habitat
what is an ecosystem
a community along with all the non-living (abiotic) conditions
what is the order of an ecosystem
individual
population
community
ecosystem
what is interdependence
organisms depend on each other for things like food and shelter in order to survive and reproduce meaning that a change in the population of one species can have huge knock on effects for other species in the same community
what is mutualism
a relationship between two organisms from which both the organisms benefit
what is an example of mutualism
bees and flowering plants - when bees visit flowers to get nectar, pollen is transferred to their bodies. The bees then spread the pollen to other plants when they land on their flowers. The bees get food and the plants get help reproducing
- coral and algae
- nitrogen fixing bacteria and the root nodule of leguminous plants
- cleaner fish and shark
- ox and ox pecker
what is parasitism or non-mutualism
a feeding relationship where the parasite benefits from living on and feeding on the host
parasites live very closely with host species and the parasite takes what it needs but the host doesn’t benefit
- fleas and mammals
- headlice and humans
- tape worm and humans
how are headlice adapted to live a parasitotic relationship with humans
they suck blood out of our heads to grow
they have sharp claws and mouth to pierce skin
how are tape worms adapted to live parasitotic relationship with humans
live inside our intestines to absorb nutrients
flattened bodies to increase SA for absorption
suckers to attach to small intestine wall
what abiotic factors affect communities
abiotic - non-living
- temperature
- amount of water
- light intensity
- levels of pollutants
what biotic factors affect communities
biotic - living
- competition
- predators
how can we study the distribution of small organisms in an area
using a quadrat
- place quadrat randomly in first sample area (use random number generator to pick coordinates)
- count organisms in quadrat
- repeat above lots
- work out the mean number of organisms per quadrat within the first sample area (total number of organisms/ number of quadrats)
- repeat steps 1-4 in the second sample area
- compare the two means
how can we study distribution along a gradient
using a belt transect - sometimes abiotic factors will change across a habitat and this change is known as a gradient and the number of organisms along this gradient may change
- mark line in area you want to study
- collect data along line using quadrats placed next to each other
- count all the organisms your interested in
- repeat several times and find the mean number of organisms or mean percentage cover for each quadrat
- plot graph to see if changing abiotic factor is correlated with distribution change
what is an organisms biomass
the mass of a living material that makes up an organism
why doesn’t all energy pass along the food chain
energy is used by organisms at each stage to stay alive i.e in respiration but a lot of the energy is transferred to the surroundings by heat
this energy isn’t stored as biomass so it isn’t transferred to the organisms in the next trophic level its ‘lost’ to the food chain
energy that does get stored as biomass doesn’t all get transferred to the next trophic level either because not all of an organism gets eaten and all the bits that do get eaten are not necessarily digested and is lost from the food chain in faeces
what is the equation for efficiency of energy transfer between trophic levels of a food chain
(energy transferred to the next level / energy available at previous level) x 100
what is biodiversity
the variety of living organisms in an ecosystem