ecology

Question 1

what are producers?

Answer 1

plants which photosynthesize to produce food

Question 2

what are consumers?

Answer 2

animals that eat plants or other animals

Question 3

what are decomposers?

Answer 3

organisms that break down dead material and recycle nutrients

Question 4

biotic components

Answer 4

are the living components of an ecosystem

Question 5

abiotic

Answer 5

are the non-living components of an ecosystem

Question 6

an ecosystem contains a variety of habitats:

Answer 6

the place where an organism lives

Question 7

population:

Answer 7

all of the organisms of a particular species found in a ecosystem at a certain time

Question 8

community

Answer 8

formed by the populations of all species in an ecosystem

Question 9

Quadrats

Answer 9

• are metal, wood, or plastic squares that need to be randomly placed somewhere in order to count a small representative part of the population ( a sample)

Question 10

biodiversity:

Answer 10

amount of variation shown by a species in an ecosystem
- number of dif species
-elative abundance of each species high biodiversity means more stable because less affected by an ecological disaster

Question 11

interactions of organisms in an ecosystem:

Answer 11

• feeding
  -competition (food, shelter, mates)

Question 12

biotic factors

Answer 12

• food + competition
• predation
• disease
• plants/animals

Question 13

abiotic factors

Answer 13

• climate
• wind
• daylight/sun
• soil
• air
• pollution
• rocks
• water

Question 14

food chain and food web

Answer 14

food chain is one
food web is a lot of food chains

Question 15

trophic levels

Answer 15

producer - autotroph
↓
primary consumer - herbivore
↓
secondary consumer - prey/carnivore
↓
tertiary consumer-carnivore/predator
+ → quaternary consumer
few links because not enough energy

Question 16

pyramids

Answer 16

• represent the relative amount of organisms at each trophic level
• pyramid of numbers - number of organisms at each trophic level
• pyramids of biomass - total mass of the organism in each level

Question 17

energy passed on

Answer 17

only 10% of energy gets passed on
oak tree→aphid →ladybird→parasite
10% 1% 0.1%
90% lost 90% lost 90% lost

Question 18

interdependance

Answer 18

living organisms depend on each other o survive, grow, and reproduce

Question 19

bioaccumulation

Answer 19

chemicals that are transfered along with energy (e.g. insectides). Fish absorb them and seals eat the fish accumulating the chemicals in their bodies. Polar bears eat seals and then accumulate dangerous levels of chemicals.

Question 20

energy transfer efficiency

Answer 20

total energy in biomass/ total energy available x 100

Question 21

ecosystem

Answer 21

name given to plants and animals found in a particular location and the area they live

Question 22

niche

Answer 22

particular place or roll that an organism has within an ecosystem

Question 23

transfer efficiency

Answer 23

energy transferred to the next level / total energy x 100

Question 24

area of n of quadrats formula

Answer 24

Area of n quadrats= number of quadrats x length of quadrat × width of quadrat

Question 25

total population size formula

Answer 25

total population size= (survey area/