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Biology 🧬 > Ecology > Flashcards

Ecology Flashcards

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AP® Biology flashcards Biology 101 flashcards
1
Q

What is a producer?

A

Organisms which make their own food

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2
Q

What is a consumer?

A

Organisms which eat other living things

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3
Q

What is a decomposer?

A

Organisms which secrete digestive enzymes to decay dead organic matter to obtain their food, they helps to recycle nutrients

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4
Q

What is a physical environment?

A

All the non-living factors which affect growth and survival of living things.

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5
Q

What is a habitat?

A

The place where specific organisms live

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6
Q

What is a population?

A

The total number of individuals of one species in a particular habitat at a particular time.

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7
Q

How would an ecologist measure the size of a population in a habitat?

A
  1. Calculate the area of the habitat
  2. Measure the number of individuals in one quadrat and repeat many times to check our result is reliable
  3. Calculate the average number of individuals in a quadrat
  4. Calculate how many quadrats fit into the total area
  5. Multiply the average by the number of quadrats that fit into the area
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8
Q

What method of sampling would we use to make sure our data is valid for finding the population?

A

Random sampling to avoid bias

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9
Q

What is a community?

A

It is formed of the populations of all the species present in an ecosystem at a particular time.

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10
Q

What are the stages in a food chain called?

A

Tropic levels

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11
Q

What are some examples of biotic factors?

A

Food availability
Predators
Competition from other organisms
Infection from pathogens

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12
Q

What are some examples of abiotic factors?

A

Sunlight
Temperature
pH
Water
Minerals
Soil type
Salinity

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13
Q

What do pyramids of number show?

A

The number of each organism in the ecosystem.

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14
Q

What do pyramids of biomass show?

A

The total mass of the organisms in each trophic level.

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15
Q

What do pyramids of energy show?

A

The total energy available in each tropic level per square metre per year.

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16
Q

The least efficient transfer is from light energy to the producer.
Why?

A

Some light will miss the plant or the plant’s chloroplasts
Some light will be reflected by the cuticle
Some light has the wrong wavelength to be absorbed by the chlorophyll

17
Q

Approximately 10% of energy is passed from one trophic level to the next.
Why?

A

Some parts of the organisms are not eaten
Some parts are not digested and absorbed - they are egested as faeces
Some materials are respired to release energy which is used for muscle contraction, cell division, movement of molecules

18
Q

What is an ecosystem?

A

The system or area where organisms interact with their physical environment.

19
Q

What are the advantages of using pyramid of biomass over a pyramid of numbers?

A

Because they are a more accurate way of looking at the relative amounts of organisms

20
Q

What is locking in?

A

The process of fossil fuels forming over millions of years. The living things do not decay properly after death due to the conditions of the soil.

21
Q

What are three ways carbon dioxide is released into the air?

A

Respiration of plants
Respiration of animals
Combustion of fossil fuels

22
Q

What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?

A

Any extra greenhouse effect caused by human activity

23
Q

What gases cause the greenhouse effect? Name 5.

A

Water vapour
Methane
Carbon dioxide
Nitrous oxide
CFCs

24
Q

When solar radiation passes through the clear atmosphere what happens to it?

A

Some solar radiation is reflected by the atmosphere and earth’s surface
Some of the infrared radiation is absorbed and re-emitted by the ghg molecules
Surface gains more heat and infrared radiation is emitted again
Some of the IR radiation is lost in space

25
Q

What is the human activity source of CO2?

A

Burning fossil fuels
Deforestation slash and burn

26
Q

What is the human activity source of methane?

A

Bacteria in waterlogged paddy fields for rice cultivation
Cattle produce large volumes of methane in their digestive system
Bacteria in anaerobic conditions

27
Q

What is the human activity source of nitrous oxides?

A

Burning fossil fuels

28
Q

Where did CFCs come from and why were they banned?

A

They were in fridges and freezers and were used as a solvent in aerosols
They were banned in the 1990s because they were blamed doe the hole in the ozone layer.

29
Q

What are the potential effects of global warming?

A

Melting of polar ice caps
Sea level rise
Increased extreme weather events
Change in crops
Spread of disease

30
Q

Describe the process of decomposition in the nitrogen cycle.

A

Protein in dead plants and animals is broken down. Ammonia is released into the soil

31
Q

Describe the process of nitrogen fixation in the nitrogen cycle.

A

Nitrogen gas is converted into ammonia in bacteria which is used to make proteins, when the bacteria die their proteins decompose, releasing ammonia back into the soil.

32
Q

Describe the process of nitrification in the nitrogen cycle.

A

Ammonia is converted into nitrites, and nitrites into nitrates.

33
Q

What microorganisms are involved in nitrogen fixation?

A

Nitrogen fixing bacteria

34
Q

What microorganisms are involved in nitrification?

A

Nitrifying bacteria

35
Q

Describe the process of denitrification.

A

Nitrates are converted to nitrogen gas. Denitrification reduces the amount of nitrate in the soil and therefore makes the soil less fertile.

36
Q

Where do some nitrogen fixing bacteria live?

A

In small structure - nodules - on the roots of legume plants

37
Q

Why do farmers grow leguminous plants in rotation with other crops?

A

Because when the nitrogen fixing bacteria living on them decompose they make the soil much more fertile by releasing ammonia which can be converted into nitrates. Also the farmers cam sell, the produce still.

Biology 🧬 (13 decks)

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