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Biology: Ecology > Ecology 1 > Flashcards

Ecology 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

What is Ecology?

A
  • Ecology is the study of living organisms and how they interact with each other and the environment.
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2
Q

What two factors is an environment made of?

A
  • Biotic Factors - the living things within an ecosystem eg. plants and animals
  • Abiotic Factors - the non-living things within an environment eg. water, air, temperature
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3
Q

What is an organism?

A
  • an organism is any unicellular or multicellular form that exhibits all the characteristics of life.
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4
Q

What is a Population?

A
  • a group of organisms of the same species that live together in the same area.
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5
Q

What is a Community?

A
  • a group of different populations living together in the same area and are interdependent.
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6
Q

What is an Ecosystem?

A
  • an ecosystem is a community of living organisms together with their non-living environment.
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7
Q

What are the different types of Ecosystems?

A

Terrestrial Ecosystems:
- Desert
- Tundra
- Grassland
- Rainforest

Aquatic Ecosystems:
- Freshwater
- Marine

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8
Q

What is the Biosphere?

A
  • the life supporting portions of the earth that include air, land, fresh and salt water. It it also known as the worldwide sum of ecosystems.
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9
Q

What is a habitat and niche?

A
  • a habitat is a place in which an organism lives
  • a niche is the role that the organism plays in a community
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10
Q

How is a niche determined?

A
  • a niche is determined by the limiting factors of the organism
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11
Q

What are the different types of Limiting Factors?

A
  • Amount of water
  • Amount of food
  • Availability of mates
  • Temperature
  • Amount of space
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12
Q

How can the relationship between organisms be?

A
  • casual
  • close
  • harmful
  • beneficial
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13
Q

What kind of relationships are there?

A
  • competition
  • parasite and the host
  • predator and the prey
  • feeding relationships
  • mutualistic relationships
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14
Q

What is a competition?

A
  • a competition is when two or more organisms are in need of the same thing especially when they are in short supply
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15
Q

What are the two types of competitions?

A

Intraspecific Competitions - competition between organisms of the same species

Interspecific Competitions - competition between organisms of different species

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16
Q

How do niches reduce competition?

A
  • when two species have different niches, they are less likely to compete for the same resources
17
Q

Why are competitions helpful?

A
  • competitions are helpful because they help to reduce or stabilize a population.
18
Q

What is a predator?

A
  • a predator is any organism that hunts down another organism known as its prey for food
19
Q

What are ways that a prey protects itself?

A
  • camouflage
  • warning signals
  • defensive weapons and behaviours
  • highly developed senses
20
Q

What are the types of Feeding Relationships?

A
  • Producer - Consumer
  • Predator - Prey
  • Parasite - Host
21
Q

What are Producers?

A
  • autotrophs (they make their own food) they trap the energy from the sun to make food by photosynthesis
22
Q

What are Consumers?

A
  • heterotrophs (can’t make their own food)
  • there are primary, secondary and tertiary consumers
  • there are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores
23
Q

What do the different consumers eat?

A

Primary - eat plants ( herbivores)

Secondary and Tertiary - prey animals (carnivores)

Predator - hunt animals for food

Scavengers - feed on dead animals

Decomposers - break down the complex compounds of dead/decaying organisms so that they can be absorbed

24
Q

What is Symbiosis?

A
  • symbiosis is two species living together
25
Q

What are the 3 types of Symbiosis?

A

Commensalism - when one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped.
eg. orchids on a tree, polar bears and cyanobacteria

Parasitism - when one species benefits (parasite) and the other is harmed (host)
eg. tapeworms, leeches, ticks

Endoparasites - live inside the host
Ectoparasites - live outside on the host

Mutualism - when both species benefit from the relationship
eg. cleaning birds on a rhino, cattle egret on a cow

26
Q

What is an Environment?

A
  • the surroundings which an organism interacts with.
27
Q

What is a Trophic Level?

A
  • the position of an organism in a food chain, food web or pyramid
28
Q

What is a Food Chain?

A
  • the flow of energy between organisms in an ecosystem
29
Q

What is a Food Web?

A
  • a natural interconnection of different food chains
30
Q

What is Biomass?

A
  • the amount of organic matter comprising of a group of organisms in a habitat. It is built up energy from the sun. It is often measured as the dry mass of biological material in grams
31
Q

What happens as you move up the food chain?

A
  • as you move up the food chain, energy and bio mass decrease because organisms use 90% of there energy so only 10% is passed on
32
Q

What is a Biomass Chart?

A
  • a chart that shows the amount of biomass at each trophic level in a food chain. As the pyramid reaches the top, the biomass decreases.
33
Q

What is a Pyramid of Numbers?

A
  • when the organisms of a chain are counted, a pyramid of numbers is drawn
34
Q

What is a Pyramid of Energy?

A
  • this shows the amount of energy stored in the biomass of organisms in a food chain.
  • this can be estimated by burning samples of the organisms and measuring the amount of heat released
  • pyramids of energy show that the producers store the most amount of energy and it decreases as you go up the pyramid.
35
Q

What is Biological Magnification?

A
  • while energy decreases in food chains, toxin increases in potency
    eg: DDT and Bald Eagles
36
Q

What do Ecological Pyramids show?

A
  • the number, biomass and energy at each trophic level in an ecosystem

Biology: Ecology (4 decks)

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