Chapter 19- Communities and Ecosystems

Question 1

Niche

Answer 1

Total resources a species requires for its survival, growth, and reproduction (includes both biotic and abiotic elements including habitat, temperature, light, biotic interactions,etc.)

Question 2

Biomes

Answer 2

Major types of ecosystems. Ex. forests, deserts, grasslands are terrestial biomes. Oceans, freshwater, and marine and aquatic biomes. Aquatic communites need sunlight and nutrients too. The* photic zone* is the layer of water where light is sufficient for photosynthesis and nutrients are most abundant. Each biome has its own distinct groups of species.

Question 3

Primary producers (aka. autotrophs)

Answer 3

harvest energy source (which every ecosystem has). They provide the energy, nutrients, and habitats that support ecosystems. For land –> primary producers are plants, For water –> primary producer are phytoplankton (*most primary producers caryy out photosynthesis, using sunlight as the primary energy source)

Question 4

Consumers (aka. heterotrophs)

Answer 4

herbivores and carnivores. They obtain energy and carbon by earting other organisms.

Question 5

Competition exclusion principle

Answer 5

Two species cannot coexist indefinitely in the same niche. The species that acquires more resouces will eventually “win”; the less successful will die off.

Question 6

Resource partitioning

Answer 6

Multiple species use the same resource in a slightly different way or different time.

Question 7

Types of Symbiotic Interactions (6), which includes Symbiosis Interactions (4)

Answer 7

Predation: One species benefits at the expense of another species

Heribivory: One species benefits at the expense of a plant species

Symbiosis (literally “living together): where two species share a close (and often lifelong) relationship in which one typically lives in or on the other

Mutualism: improves fitness of both partners

Commensalism: one species benefits, but the other is neutral

Parasitism: one species benefits at the expense of the other

Question 8

Coevolution

Answer 8

a genetic change in one species selects for subsequent changes in the genome of another species

Question 9

Keystone species

Answer 9

Small portion of a community that have a big influence on community diversity