Ecology

Question 1

What is the definition of ecology?

Answer 1

The study of ecosystems - how communities interact with each other and their habitat.

Question 2

What is a population?

Answer 2

A group of individuals of the same species living in the same area that react and interbreed with each other.

Question 3

What is a community?

Answer 3

All the populations of different species living in the same area.

Question 4

What is an ecosystem?

Answer 4

A community of organisms in a specific climate.

Question 5

What does the producer do in a food chain?

Answer 5

Makes its own food from inorganic materials.

Question 6

What is photosynthesis?

Answer 6

The way in which green plants make glucose for food.

Question 7

What does the consumer do in a food chain?

Answer 7

It cannot make food - it uses ‘ready-made’ food.

Question 8

What is a decomposer?

Answer 8

A detritus feeder.

Question 9

What is symbiosis?

Answer 9

The relationship between individuals of two or more species living together.

Question 10

What is parasitism?

Answer 10

Symbiosis where one species feeds off and harms the other.

Question 11

What is mutualism?

Answer 11

Symbiosis where all species gain.

Question 12

What is the definition of a biotic factor?

Answer 12

The effect of other living organisms on an organism.

Question 13

What is the definition of an abiotic factor?

Answer 13

The effect of non-living things on an organism.

Question 14

Give four examples of a biotic factor.

Answer 14

Fungi, protists, plants and animals.

Question 15

Give four examples of an abiotic factor.

Answer 15

Water, air, temperature and light.

Question 16

What is the definition of a climatic factor?

Answer 16

The effect of the average weather conditions over time.

Question 17

What is the definition of an edaphic factor?

Answer 17

The effect of soil conditions.

Question 18

What is pH?

Answer 18

pH tells us how acidic or alkaline something is on a scale of 1-14, 1 being very acidic and 14 being very alkaline.

Question 19

What is a food chain?

Answer 19

When organisms are arranged according to which organism they eat. They show the flow of energy and nutrients.

Question 20

What is a trophic level?

Answer 20

A level of a food chain.

Question 21

What is a food web?

Answer 21

A network of food chains or feeding relationships.

Question 22

What are scavengers?

Answer 22

Scavengers feed on dead animals.

Question 23

What is interdependence?

Answer 23

How organisms rely on each other.

Question 24

Why are food webs better at representing feeding relationships than a food chain?

Answer 24

Firstly, it creates a more realistic picture of feeding relationships in a habitat. Secondly, they show how many animals can survive changes in their environment.

Question 25

Why do feeding relationships rarely have more than three or four consumers?

Answer 25

As you move up the food chain, energy is lost at each trophic level.

Question 26

How is energy lost in a food chain?

Answer 26

Energy is lost as heat when organisms carry out life processes.

Question 27

What is a pyramid of numbers?

Answer 27

This shows the number of organisms at each level of a food chain.

Question 28

What is a pyramid of biomass?

Answer 28

This shows the mass of organisms at each stage in a food chain.

Question 29

What is biomass?

Answer 29

Biomass is living or recently dead tissue.

Question 30

How is a pyramid of biomass more useful than a pyramid of numbers when showing energy flow in an ecosystem?

Answer 30

It shows the total mass of living organisms at each trophic level, giving a clearer picture of energy flow in the ecosystem.