Chapter 3 - The Biosphere

Question 1

What does the biosphere consist of?

Answer 1

All life on earth and all parts of the earth in which life exists including land, water, and the atmosphere.

Question 2

What is a species?

Answer 2

A group of similar organisms that can breed and produce offspring.

Question 3

What is a population?

Answer 3

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area.

Question 4

What is a community?

Answer 4

An assemblage of different populations that live together.

Question 5

From where to where does the biosphere extend?

Answer 5

From 8km above the Earth’s surface to 11km below the ocean.

Question 6

What is ecology?

Answer 6

The study of organisms and how they interact with each other and their environment.

Question 7

What do organisms respond to?

Answer 7

Their environment.

Question 8

What do interactions within the biosphere produce?

Answer 8

A web of interdependence between organisms and their environment.

Question 9

What do humans depend on?

Answer 9

Ecological processes that produce food and water.

Question 10

What are biotic factors?

Answer 10

Biological influences on organisms and any living part of the environment with which an organisms interacts.

Question 11

What are the physical components of an ecosystem called?

Answer 11

Abiotic factors.

Question 12

What are abiotic factors?

Answer 12

Any non living part of the environment.

Question 13

What 3 methods do modern ecologists use?

Answer 13

Observation, experimentation, and modeling.

Question 14

What are autotrophs?

Answer 14

Organisms that are able to capture energy from sunlight and produce their own food.

Question 15

What are primary producers?

Answer 15

Producers of energy-rich compounds that are later used by other organisms.

Question 16

What is photosynthesis?

Answer 16

Process used by plants and other autotrophs to capture light energy and use it to power chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and energy-rich carbohydrates such as sugars and starches.

Question 17

What is chemosynthesis?

Answer 17

Process in which chemical energy is used to produce carbohydrates.

Question 18

What are heterotrophs?

Answer 18

Organisms that obtain food by consuming other living things; also called a consumers.

Question 19

What are consumers?

Answer 19

Organism that rely on other organisms for their energy and food supply.

Question 20

What are carnivores?

Answer 20

Animals that eat other animals.

Question 21

What are some examples of carnivores?

Answer 21

Snakes, dogs, cats, river otters, etc.

Question 22

What are scavengers?

Answer 22

Animals that consume the carcasses of other animals.

Question 23

What is an example of a scavenger?

Answer 23

A king vulture.

Question 24

What are decomposers?

Answer 24

Bacteria and fungi that feed by chemically breaking down organic matter.

Question 25

What is detritus?

Answer 25

Small pieces of dead and decaying plants on animal remains.

Question 26

What are herbivores?

Answer 26

Organisms that obtain energy by eating only plants.

Question 27

What are some examples of herbivores?

Answer 27

Cows, caterpillars, deers, etc.

Question 28

What are omnivores?

Answer 28

Organisms that obtain energy by eating both plants and animals.

Question 29

What are some examples of omnivores?

Answer 29

Humans, bears, pigs, etc.

Question 30

What are detrivores?

Answer 30

Organisms that feeds on plant and animal remains and other dead matter.

Question 31

What are some examples of detrivores?

Answer 31

Snails, mites, shrimp, earthworms, etc.

Question 32

Who are the main photosynthetic producers on land?

Answer 32

Plants.

Question 33

What is photosynthetic bacteria called?

Answer 33

Cyanobacteria.

Question 34

What are the primary sources of energy that power living systems?

Answer 34

Sunlight and inorganic chemical compounds.

Question 35

How does energy flow through ecosystems?

Answer 35

In a one way stream, from primary producers to various consumers.

Question 36

What is a food chain?

Answer 36

A series of steps in an ecosystem in which organisms transfer energy by eating and being eaten.

Question 37

What is phytoplankton?

Answer 37

Photosynthetic algae found near the surface of the ocean.

Question 38

What is a food web?

Answer 38

A network of interactions formed by feeding relationships among the organisms in an ecosystem.

Question 39

What is an example of a food chain? (Example in the book.)

Answer 39

Algae (primary producer) -> Flagfish (herbivore) -> Largemouth Bass (carnivore) -> Anhinga (carnivore) -> Alligator (carnivore)

Question 40

What is zooplankton?

Answer 40

Small free-floating animals that form part of plankton.

Question 41

What is the trophic level?

Answer 41

Each step in a food chain or food web.

Question 42

What is an ecological pyramid?

Answer 42

An illustration of the relative amounts of energy or matter that each trophic level in a food chain or food web has.

Question 43

What do pyramids of energy show?

Answer 43

The relative amount of energy at each trophic level of a food chain or web.

Question 44

What is biomass?

Answer 44

The total amount of living tissue within a trophic level.

Question 45

What does a pyramid of biomass show?

Answer 45

The relative amount of living organism matter in a trophic level.

Question 46

What does a pyramid of numbers show?

Answer 46

The number of individual organisms in a trophic level.

Question 47

Who always makes up the trophic level?

Answer 47

Primary producers.

Question 48

What are biogeochemical cycles?

Answer 48

Processes in which elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another.

Question 49

List the 4 biogeochemical processes.

Answer 49

Biological processes, geological processes, chemical and physical processes, human activity.

Question 50

What do biological processes consist of?

Answer 50

All activities formed by living organisms like eating or breathing.

Question 51

What do geological processes include?

Answer 51

Volcanic eruptions, formation and breakdown of rock, major movements in the earth.

Question 52

What do chemical and physical processes include?

Answer 52

Formation of precipitation and clouds,flow of running water, and lightning.

Question 53

What do human activities consist of?

Answer 53

Burning of fossil fuels, clearing of land, manufacture of fertilizers, and burning of forests.

Question 54

How does the chemical/physical part of the water cycle work?

Answer 54

Water falls from the sky as precipitation, then it evaporates and forms clouds, then it falls again as precipitation.

Question 55

How does the biological part of the water cycle work?

Answer 55

Water falls from the sky and becomes groundwater, then the groundwater is taken up by plant roots and released into the atmosphere through transpiration.

Question 56

What are chemical substances that an organism needs to stay alive?

Answer 56

Nutrients.

Question 57

Describe one biological, geological, chemical, and human activity that is involved in the carbon cycle.

Answer 57

photosynthesis and releases the carbon it gained by breathing. Geological: turning carbon into carbon with fossil fuel. Chemical: carbon dioxide being exchanged through the atmosphere and ocean. Human Activity: burning of fossil fuel.

Question 58

Unlike the flow of energy, how does matter move through the biosphere?

Answer 58

It is recycled between and within ecosystems.

Question 59

What is moved by the four biogeochemical cycles?

Answer 59

Water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.