Ecology Flashcards
What is an ecosystem?
A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment
What is a community?
All the populations of all the different species that live in together in a particular area.
What is a population?
Group of organisms of the same species living in the same area at the same time.
What is an individual?
A single animal, plant, fungi or other single-celled life form
what is a food chain?
a linear sequence of organisms that eat one another, so that energy and nutrients flow from on to the next.
what is a food web?
Diagram depicting feeding relationships between a community. It consists of interlocking food chains found within an ecosystem.
What are adaptations?
Mutation or genetic change that helps an organism survive in its environmentt. Due to natural selection, the mutations passed from one generation to the next.
What is Kaitiaki?
Guardianship and protection
What are limiting factors?
Any resource that restricts the growth of a population. e.g food, shelter, space and competition
What is the carrying capacity?
The maximum population of a particular organism that an ecosystem can support
What is a niche?
a habitat in which an organism adapts to live in. It is a place other organisms cannot compete for.
What are energy pyramids?
a graphical representation of energy found within the different tropic levels of an ecosystem,
What are tropic levels?
Refer to the position or level in a food web or food chain.
What is the 10% rule?
On average 10% only will be transferred from one tropic level to the next. The other 90 % is lost as heat when the consumed organism carried out metabolic processes like growth and reproduction.
How does energy flow through an ecosystem?
The flow of energy first begins with producers when they bring energy from the sun into the community. Primary consumers eat the producers, and secondary consumers then eat primary consumers. Next tertiary consumers eat the secondary consumers. Then in the end the decomposers break down the organic matter of consumers and release nutrients into the soil. This can be shown with an energy pyramid, with energy going from one tropic level to the next through consumption.
