Ecology Flashcards

1
Q

What is Ecology?

A

The study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment.

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2
Q

What are the Ecological levels in order?

A

Species - Population - Community - Ecosystem - Biome - Biosphere

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3
Q

What organisms captures energy from sunlight and uses it to produce food?

A

Autotrophs

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4
Q

What other word can be used for Autotrophs?

A

Producers

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5
Q

What is a Heterotroph what do they do?

A

Organisms that must obtain energy from other living things.

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6
Q

What are consumers?

A

They are organisms that must eat, or consume, other organisms for food.

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7
Q

Heterotrophs that only eat plants are called what?

A

Herbivores

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8
Q

Heterotrophs that only eat other animals are called what?

A

Carnivores

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9
Q

Carnivores that hunt and kill their own prey are called what?

A

Predators

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10
Q

What are scavengers?

A

Carnivores that feed on dead animals.

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11
Q

Heterotrophs that eat both plants and animals are called what?

A

Omnivores

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12
Q

What are decomposers?

A

Heterotrophs that break down organic matter and return it to the environment.

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13
Q

Which way does energy flow through?

A

Energy flows through one direction.

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14
Q

What is a food chain?

A

Series of organisms through which energy is passed.

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15
Q

What does a food chain start with?
(Not the sun)

A

It starts with the primary producer.

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16
Q

What is a food web?

A

A complex network of many different food chains and feeding interactions.

17
Q

What do the arrows indicate on the a food web or food chain?

A

It indicates the direction of the energy flow.

18
Q

What is each step in a food chain or food web called?

A

Trophic Level

19
Q

What is the first trophic level ALWAYS made of?

A

Producers

20
Q

What is the second trophic level made of?

A

Herbivores
Omnivores
Primary Consumer
(all the same)

21
Q

What are the other trophic levels made of?

A

Secondary consumers
Tertiary consumers
Carnivores
Omnivores

22
Q

What is a diagram that shows relative amounts of energy or matter found within each trophic level?

A

Ecological pyramid

23
Q

What does trophs/troph mean?

A

Feeding Level
(same things as trophic level)

24
Q

What shows the relative amounts of energy available at each trophic level?

A

Energy pyramid

25
Q

What shows the amount of living organic matter, or biomass, at each trophic level?

A

Biomass pyramid

26
Q

What shows the relative number of individual organisms at each level?

A

Pyramid of numbers

27
Q

Unlike the one-way flow of energy what does matter do?

A

It is recycled within an ecosystem.

28
Q

Water from the surface enters the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration. Water returns to the surface through condensation and precipitation.
What is this called?

A

The Water Cycle.

29
Q

Carbon(CO2) enters the atmosphere during what? What is this process called?

A

During human activity, cellular respiration and decomposition.
The carbon Cycle.

30
Q

When does Carbon(CO2) return to the ecosystem? What is this process also called?

A

It returns during photosynthesis.
The Carbon Cycle.

31
Q

How does nitrogen enter the amosphere?

A

Enters through the activity of certain types of soil bacteria.

32
Q

How is nitrogen returned back to the soil?

A

Human Activity
Excretion
Decomposition
Nitrogen Fixation
(By certain bacteria)

33
Q

What does Nitrogen Fixation convert?

A

Its converts atmospheric nitrogen into a form plants can use.