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Bio > Ecology > Flashcards

Ecology Flashcards

1
Q

What 4 components are ecosystems made up of?

A
  • Producer
  • Consumers
  • Decomposers
  • The physical environment
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2
Q

What are producers?

A

Plants which photosynthesise to produce food.

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3
Q

What are consumers?

A

Animals that eat plants or other animals.

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4
Q

What are decomposers?

A

Organisms that break down dead material and help to recycle nutrients.

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5
Q

What is the physical environment?

A

All the non-biological components of the ecosystem.

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6
Q

What are biotic components?

A

The living components of an ecosystem.

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7
Q

What are a abiotic components?

A

The non-living components of an ecosystem.

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8
Q

What is a habitat?

A

A place where an organism lives.

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9
Q

What is a population?

A

All the organisms of a particular species found in an ecosystem at a certain time.

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10
Q

What is a community?

A

The populations of all species found in an ecosystem at a particular time.

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11
Q

How to place quadrats randomly in an area?

A
  • Generate a pair of random numbers using a calculator.
  • Use the numbers as coordinates to position the quadrat in a large square.
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12
Q

What is biodiversity?

A
  • The range and variety of different species of organisms on Earth, or within an ecosystem.
  • Also the variation within each species.
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13
Q

Why is biodiversity a good thing for an ecosystem?

A
  • Ecosystems with high biodiversity are more stable.
  • Because it is less likely to be affected by an ecological disaster.
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14
Q

Examples of interactions in ecosystems?

A
  • Feeding among the organisms.
  • Competition among the organisms.
  • Interactions between organisms and the environment.
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15
Q

What is a predator?

A

An animal that kills and eats other animals.

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16
Q

What is a parasite?

A

An organism that live in or on another organism and gets its nutrition from the host.

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17
Q

Examples of biotic factors that influence the numbers and distribution of organisms in an ecosystem.

A
  • Availability of food and competition for food.
  • Disease.
  • Predation.
  • Parasitism.
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18
Q

Examples of abiotic factors that influence the numbers and distribution of organisms in an ecosystem.

A
  • Temperature
  • Sunlight
  • Soil conditions.
  • Pollution.
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19
Q

What are biomes?

A

Large areas of the Earth dominated by a specific type of vegetation.

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20
Q

What is the simplest way of showing feeding relationships within an ecosystem?

A

A food chain

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21
Q

What does the arrow mean in a food chain?

A

‘Is eaten by’ and shows the direction of energy flow.

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22
Q

What are trophic levels?

A

The different stages in a food chain.

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23
Q

What is (dry) biomass?

A

The total mass of an organism (after water has been removed).

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24
Q

How do you get the dry biomass of an organism?

A

By drying the animal or plant in an oven.

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25
Q

Why is dry biomass more reliable?

A

The water contents of organism varies with environmental conditions.

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26
Q

What are ecological pyramids?

A

Diagrams that represent the relative amounts of organism at each trophic level in a food chain.

27
Q

What are the two main types of ecological pyramid?

A
  • Pyramids of numbers.
  • Pyramids of biomass.
28
Q

What do pyramids of numbers represent?

A

The numbers of organisms in each trophic level in food chain.

29
Q

What do pyramids of biomass represent?

A

The total mass of the organisms in each trophic level.

30
Q

Why is there energy loss between the trophic levels?

A
  • Some parts of the food are not eaten.
  • Some parts of the food are not digested.
  • Some of the materials absorbed form excretory products.
  • Many of the materials are respired to release energy, with the loss of carbon dioxide and water.
31
Q

How much energy entering a trophic level is passed on to the next level?

A

10%

32
Q

List the processes which are important in cycling carbon through ecosystems?

A
  • Photosynthesis
  • Feeding and assimilation
  • Fossilisation
  • Combustion
33
Q

Examples of biological molecules which contain carbon?

A
  • DNA
  • Carbohydrates
  • Proteins
34
Q

Examples of biological compounds which contain nitrogen?

A
  • Amino acids
  • Proteins
  • DNA
35
Q

List the processes which are important in cycling nitrogen through ecosystems?

A
  • Feeding and assimilation
  • Decomposition
  • Nitrification
36
Q

How is decomposition part of the nitrogen cycle?

A

Decomposition by fungi and bacteria produces ammonia from the nitrogen in compounds like proteins, DNA and vitamins.

37
Q

What does denitrifying bacteria do?

A

Uses nitrates as an energy source and converts them into nitrogen gas.

38
Q

What are humans making increasing demands on the environment for?

A
  • Food
  • Materials
  • Fuel
  • Space to build
  • Space for waste
39
Q

Ways that yield from crops can be improved?

A
  • Fertilisers
  • Ploughing fields
  • Controlling soil pH
40
Q

How do greenhouses provide very controlled conditions for plants to grow?

A
  • Transparent walls allow natural light for photosynthesis.
  • They provide warmth and humidity to promote growth.
  • Additional lighting and heat can be added.
41
Q

What are the main two types of fertilisers?

A
  • Organic and inorganic.
42
Q

What are organic fertilisers made from?

A

Faeces of farm animals mixed with straw.

43
Q

What are inorganic fertilisers made from?

A

Inorganic compounds such as potassium nitrate or ammonium nitrate.

44
Q

What are pests?

A

Organisms that reduce the yield of crop plans or stock animals.

45
Q

How can a pest harm crop yield?

A
  • By reducing growth.
  • Affecting the appearance or quality of a crop.
46
Q

How can pests be controlled?

A
  • Pesticides
  • Biological control methods
47
Q

Problems with pesticides?

A
  • A pest may develop resistance to the chemical.
  • They can cause environmental damge.
48
Q

How do pesticides cause environmental damage?

A
  • They kill other insects that are harmless.
  • They may be slow to decompose
  • They build up in the tissues of organisms.
49
Q

What is biological control?

A

Using another organism to reduce the numbers of pests?

50
Q

Main problem with biological control?

A

It never fully gets rid of a pest because if it killed all the pests it would die out too.

51
Q

Advantages of fish farming?

A
  • The water quality can be monitored.
  • Some conditions can be modified.
  • The diet of the fish is controlled.
52
Q

Why is fish farming criticised?

A
  • The potential for spread of disease is high.
  • Pollution due to the organic material from the animals’ faeces.
53
Q

Pollution definition?

A

The contamination of the environment by harmful substances that are produced by the activities of humans.

54
Q

Examples of polluting gases?

A
  • Carbon dioxide
  • Methane
  • Carbon monoxide
  • Sulphur dioxide
55
Q

Why has carbon dioxide been rising?

A
  • The increase burning of fossil fuels.
  • Deforestation
56
Q

What is the normal greenhouse effect?

A
  • Short wavelength IR radiation from the sun hits earth.
  • Some energy is absorbed and emitted again as long wavelength.
  • Some long wavelength IR radiation escapes.
    Some long wavelength IR radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases and re-emitted back to Earth.
57
Q

Effects of rising temperatures?

A
  • Polar ice caps melt and sea levels rise.
  • Change the nature of ecosystems.
  • More extreme weather
58
Q

What are two major pollutants of freshwater?

A
  • Sewage
  • Minerals from fertiliser.
59
Q

What is Eutrophication?

A

Where large amounts of nutrients enter a body of water. (Organic mineral ions, usually nitrates of phosphates)

60
Q

What is leaching?

A

Where nitrate is easily washed out of the soil by rain.

61
Q

What causes an algal bloom?

A

The excess mineral ions stimulate the rapid growth of algae.

62
Q

What does interdependent mean?

A
  • All organisms depend rely on each other
  • Changes in one species will impact other species in the food web.
63
Q

How do food webs not fully represent an ecosystem.

A
  • It does not include information about the abiotic factors.
  • Any correct example of an abiotic factor
64
Q
A

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