Chapter 3 Study Guide Flashcards
What is the biosphere?
The biosphere is the part of the planet where all life exists.
What is ecology?
Ecology is the study of interactions among organisms and their environment.
What is a species?
A species is a group of organisms similar to each other and have the ability to produce fertile offspring.
What does population mean?
A population is a group of organisms of the same species living in the same environment.
What is a community?
Different populations that live together.
What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a collection of all organisms living in the same place.
What factors are in an ecosystem?
An ecosystem includes all abiotic and biotic things in an environment.
What is the role of an ecologist?
An ecologist’s role is to understand relationships in the biosphere by asking questions about events and organisms that can be a single individual or the entire biosphere.
What is a biome?
A biome is a collection of ecosystems with a similar climate and community.
What is the order of organisms?
Organisms > Species > Populations > Communities
What is the order of environments?
Ecosystem > Biome > Biosphere
What methods do ecologists use?
Ecologists use methods such as observing, experimenting, and modeling.
What does it mean for an ecologist to observe?
Observing is the first step in asking questions and is the process of solving some basic questions.
What does it mean for an ecologist to experiment?
Experimentation is the second step of asking questions and includes recording data so you can solve questions, or at least confirm a hypothesis.
What does it mean for an ecologist to model?
Modeling is the third and second step, as modeling is experimentation but over a longer period of time.
What is the main source of energy for Earth?
The Sun.
What are examples of autotrophs?
Plants, Some algae, and some bacteria. Commonly referred to as producers.
What are autotrophs?
Organisms that use sunlight as food. There are also some organisms that use chemical energy as food.
What is photosynthesis?
The process where autotrophs use light energy to power a chemical reaction which in turn changes carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbohydrates.
What is chemosynthesis?
A process where organisms use chemical energy to produce carbohydrates.
What is a heterotroph?
An organism that relies on other organisms for food.
What are heterotrophs called informally?
Consumers
What is a herbivore?
A herbivore is a heterotroph that eats plants only.
What is a Carnivore?
A carnivore is a heterotroph that eats animals only.
What is an Omnivore?
An omnivore is a heterotroph that eats plants and animals.
What is a Detritivore?
A detritivore is a heterotroph that eats dead plants and animals.
What is a Decomposer?
A decomposer is a heterotroph that decomposes dead plants and animals.
What is a food chain?
A series of organisms that transfer energy between each other by eating each other.
What is a food web?
Lots of food chains interchanged with each other.
What is a trophic level?
Levels of food chains/webs. Each consumer level depends on the level below it, and the lowest level are producers.
What is biomass?
The dry weight of living tissue.
What is an ecological pyramid?
A diagram with each trophic level represented by a block.
What percentage of biomass is found at each level?
Each higher level contains 10% biomass of the lower level.
How much energy is lost during the transfer of energy?
Almost 90%
What are biogeochemical cycles?
Cycles of elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter between organisms and different parts of the biosphere.
What is evaporation?
When water turns from liquid form to gas form.
What is transpiration?
When water evaporates off of leaves.
What are nutrients?
Chemical substances organisms need to survive.
What is a key ingredient of living tissue?
Carbon.
What gives off carbon dioxide?
Combustion, respiration, volcanic eruptions, and erosion all give off carbon dioxide.
What makes up most of the atmosphere?
Nitrogen.
What is nitrogen fixation?
The process in which bacteria convert nitrogen gas into ammonia.
What is ammonia converted into?
Ammonia is converted into nitrate by other bacteria.
What do plants do with nitrate?
Plants convert nitrate into protein.
What happens to protein from plants?
Consumers CONSUME. (Consumers eat the proteins)
What is denitrification?
The process in which some bacteria convert nitrate into nitrogen gas.
What does phosphorous do?
Phosphorous forms DNA and RNA.
What does almost every ecosystem have?
Animals, plants, protists, fungi, and bacteria.
What are some examples of animals?
Birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, worms, etc.
What are some examples of plants?
Trees, shrubs, flowers, etc.
What are some examples of protists?
Algae, amoebas, etc.
What are some examples of fungi?
Lichens, mycorrhizae, etc.
What are some examples of bacteria?
Many kinds of bacteria, too many to name here.
What are living organisms called?
Biotic factors.
What are non-living organisms called?
Abiotic factors.
Who founded ecology?
Ernst Haeckel
When was ecology founded?
1866
What is a habitat?
A place where a particular population of species lives.
What are the four most important substances cycled in our ecosystem?
Water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous.
What ‘takes’ in carbon?
Autotrophs
How does carbon from plants get released back into the environment?
By organisms eating these plants.
What is a limiting nutrient?
A single nutrient that is scarce or cycles slowly.
What is an algae bloom?
A sudden growth of algae caused by an increase of limited nutrients.
How can algae blooms be contained?
If there are enough consumers, the algae will not overgrow.
What is an energy pyramid?
An ecological pyramid that shows the amount of energy at each tropic level.
What is a biomass pyramid?
An ecological pyramid that shows the amount of living organic matter at each trophic level.
What is a pyramid of numbers?
An ecological pyramid that shows the relative number of individual organisms at each level.
Why does 90% of energy not transfer to the next level?
The energy is lost as heat energy.
