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Biology > Ch.3 > Flashcards

Ch.3 Flashcards

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1
Q

What does the biosphere contain?

A

Combined portions of the planet in which all life exists

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2
Q

Why do ecologists ask questions about events and organisms that range in complexity from an individual to the biosphere?

A

To understand relationships within the biosphere

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3
Q

What is a species?

A

Group of organisms so similar to each other that they can breed and produce offspring

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4
Q

What is a population?

A

Group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

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5
Q

What is a community?

A

Different populations that live together in a defined area

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6
Q

What is an ecosystem?

A

Collection of all the organisms that live in a particular place

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7
Q

What is a biome?

A

Group of ecosystems that have the same climate and dominant communities

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8
Q

What is the highest level of organization that ecologists study?

A

The biosphere

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9
Q

What are the three approaches that scientists use to conduct ecological research?

A

Modeling,observing,and experimenting

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10
Q

Why might an ecologist set up an artificial environment in a lab?

A

To help them understand particular environments at a reasonable scale and to help study the objects that are difficult to study due to their size

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11
Q

Why are many ecological phenomenons difficult to study?

A

They occur over long periods of time and are on such large spatial scales

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12
Q

Why do ecologists make models?

A

To gain insight on complex phenomena

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13
Q

Can a ecological model consist of a math formula?

A

Yes

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14
Q

What is at the core of every organisms’ interaction with the environment?

A

The need for energy to power life’s processes

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15
Q

What source of energy do organisms use that don’t need sun?

A

Energy in inorganic chemical compounds

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16
Q

What are autotrophs?

A

Plants and certain bacteria that can capture energy from sunlight or chemicals and use energy to produce food

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17
Q

Why are autotrophs also called producers?

A

They make their own food

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18
Q

What do autotrophs do during photosynthesis?

A

They use light energy to power chemical reactions that produce carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and energy rich carbohydrates

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19
Q

What is the main producer on land? Upper layers of water? Tidal flats and salt marshes?

A

Land-plants
Ocean-algae
Tidal/salt-photosyntheticbacteria

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20
Q

What is chemosynthesis?

A

When organisms use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates

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21
Q

Where do bacteria that carry out chemosynthesis live?

A

Remote places on earth(volcanic vents on the deep ocean floor and hot springs in Yellowstone)

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22
Q

What are heterotrophs called?

A

Consumers

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23
Q

What is a plant or animal that eats remains and other dead matter collectively?

A

Detritivore

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24
Q

What is a herbivore?

A

Organisms that only way plants for energy(cows,rabbits)

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25
Q

What is a carnivore?

A

Heterotrophs that only eat other animals for energy(dogs,snakes,owls)

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26
Q

What is an omnivore?

A

Eats bother plants and animals for energy(humans,bears,crows)

27
Q

What is a detritivore?

A

Feed on plant and animal remains and other dead matter(mites,crabs,earthworms,and snails)

28
Q

What are decomposes?

A

Break down organic matter(bacteria and fungi)

29
Q

How does energy flow through an ecosystem?

A

In one direction,from the sun or inorganic chemicals to autotrophs and then to various heterotrophs

30
Q

What is a food chain? Food web?

A

Chain-series of steps in which organisms transfer energy by eating or being eaten
Web-network of complex interactions formed by relationships among the various organisms in an ecosystem

31
Q

What does a food web link together?

A

All food chains in an ecosystem

32
Q

What is a trophic level?

A

Step in a food chain or web

33
Q

In a food web,what organisms make up the first trophic level?

A

Producers

34
Q

What does a consumer in a food chain depend on for energy?

A

The producers on the lower level in the food chain

35
Q

What is an ecological pyramid?

A

Diagram that shows relative amounts of energy or matter contained with each trophic level

36
Q

Why is it that only part of the energy stored in one trophic level is passed on to the next?

A

Organisms use much of that energy to consume

37
Q

What is biomass?

A

The total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level

38
Q

What does biomass pyramid represent?

A

Amount of potential food available for each trophic level in an ecosystem

39
Q

What does a pyramid of numbers show?

A

Number of organisms in each trophic level

40
Q

Why can each trophic level support only about one tenth the amount of living tissue as the level below it?

A

Each trophic level gathers only .1 of the energy from the level below it

41
Q

What are the four elements that make up the human body?(95%)

A

Oxygen,carbon,hydrogen,and nitrogen

42
Q

What is recycled between ecosystems?

A

Matter

43
Q

How does matter move through an ecosystem?

A

In biogeo chemical cycles

44
Q

What are the things biogeo chemical cycles connect with?

A

Biological,geological,and chemical aspects of the atmosphere

45
Q

How does the water enter the atmosphere?

A

By evaporating from leaves of plants in the process of transpiration

46
Q

What are the three processes of the water cycle?

A

Evaporation,precipitation,run-off

47
Q

What is a nutrient?

A

All the chemical substances that an organism requires to live

48
Q

What are three nutrients that play important roles in the biosphere?

A

Carbon,nitrogen,phosphorus

49
Q

What is the key ingredient in all living organisms?

A

Carbon

50
Q

What are the four processes in the carbon cycle?

A

Biological(photosynthesis,respiration,and decomposition of plants and animals)
Geo chemical(release of carbon dioxide,Co2,to the atmosphere)
Mixed geo chemical(burial of carbon rich remains of organisms)
Human activities(mining,cutting,and burning forest and fossil fuel)

51
Q

What type of gas is found in the atmosphere?

A

Carbon dioxide gas

52
Q

What is dissolved in the ocean?

A

Carbon dioxide(coal and petroleum are found underground)

53
Q

What do plants use in photosynthesis?

A

Carbon dioxide

54
Q

What do organisms require to make amino acids which are used to build protein?

A

Nitrogen

55
Q

What is the main reservoir in the atmosphere?

A

Nitrogen

56
Q

What is nitrogen fixation?

A

Process by which bacteria converts nitrogen into ammonia

57
Q

What is denitrification?

A

Process by which some soil bacteria converts nitrates into nitrogen gas(releases nitrogen to the atmosphere)

58
Q

What is phosphorus?

A

An element that is essential to living things because it forms part of the important life sustaining molecules such as DNA and RNA

59
Q

What is the primary productivity of an ecosystem?

A

The rate at which organic matter is created by producers

60
Q

What is a limiting nutrient?

A

When an ecosystem is limited by a one single nutrient

61
Q

What is nitrogen often called in relation to the ocean?

A

Limiting factor

62
Q

What does things do phosphorus limit as their limiting factor?

A

Lakes,streams,and freshwater

63
Q

What are blooms?

Hint:growth!!!!

A

Growing stages that occur when there are more nutrients available for the producers. Causes them to grow and reproduce more quickly

64
Q

What is ecology?

A

The scientific study of interactions among organisms and their environment

Biology (8 decks)

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