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Biology > Ecology > Flashcards

Ecology Flashcards

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AP® Biology flashcards Biology 101 flashcards
1
Q

What is Ecology?

A

The study of living things in relation of each other and their non-living environment.

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2
Q

What is a community?

A

All the populations living and interacting in a given environment.

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3
Q

What is an eco-system?

A

A self-sustaining dynamic community of organisms and their non-living environment. it includes organisms, abiotic factors and energy flow.

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4
Q

What are biome?

A

A major ecological grouping of organisms on a broad geographical basis; characterised by its climatic and soil conditions. The predominant plants give the biome its name.

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5
Q

What is the bio-sphere?

A

A part of the earth (soil, water, ai) that contains living organisms.

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6
Q

What are the five chemical elements that are cycled between organisms and their environment?

A

Nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus.

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7
Q

Compare herbivore to carnivore?

A

A herbivore: plant - eating animal.
eg. horse, cow, sheep.
A carnivore: meat loving animal eg. Lion, vulture.

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8
Q

What is an omnivore?

A

Animals that eats both plants and animals.

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9
Q

Contrast predator with scavenger.

A

Both carnivores: predators kill animals to eat (lion, hawks, wolfs) and scavengers eat dead organisms that they did not kill (vulture, raccoon, crab)

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10
Q

What is the food chain?

A

The series of organisms through which food energy is passed beginning with produces.
Example: green plants —> mice —> snakes.

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11
Q

What are the four major class of organisms in the food chain?

A

Producers (pants and protists)
Primary consumers (herbivores)
secondary consumers (carnivores)
Decomposers eg bacteria.

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12
Q

What is the food web?

A

Overlapping and interconnecting food chains where many organisms eat or are eaten by several other organisms.

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13
Q

What is a biomass pyramid?

A

It exemplifies the energy loss at each trophic level. The total amount of organic matter (biomass) has a pyramid structure because the total mass of consumers is less than the total mass of producers.

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14
Q

What is a niche?

A

The combination of an organism’s habitat and its role in its environment.

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15
Q

What are ecological succession?

A

Process by which one community is gradually replaced by another in a progression to a climax community.

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16
Q

What is a Climax community?

A

The final stage of ecological succession; it is stable and self-perpetuating and persists unless changed or destroyed by environmental change.
eg. old-growth forest.

17
Q

What are pioneer organisms?

A

The organisms that first populate a community.

18
Q

What are the six major land biomes?

A 
Tundra
taiga
temperate deciduous forest
tropical rain forest
grassland
desert.
19
Q

What are Tundra?

A

Treeless regions in the far north; permanently frozen subsoil (permafrost)
Plants; moss, lichen, small plants
Animals; polar bears, birds

20
Q

What are Taiga?

A

Northernmost forests below the tundra.
Plants: coniferous trees.
Animals: moose, wolves, rodents birds.

21
Q

What are temperate deciduous forests.

A

Contains trees that shed leaves during cold wintes and grow them during warm summer.
Plants: maple, oak.
Animals: deer fox squirrel.

22
Q

What are tropical rain forests?

A

Region of high temperature and abundant rainfall; located near the equator; richest terrestrial biome in terms of numbers of plant and animal species, especially birds, insects and vines.

23
Q

What are grasslands?

A

Less rainfall than deciduous forests.
few trees
grasses and small leafy plants
grazing animals like bison.

24
Q

What is the desert?

A

Plants, cactus, water-conserving plants.
land biome with the least amount of precipitation (less than 25 cm per year)
Extreme temperature difference between night and day.
animals:snakes, rodents.

25
Q

What are saprophytes?

A

An organism that obtains its energy and nutrition from once living organic matter, e.g. mild, mildew, mushrooms.

26
Q

What is a decomposer?

A

An organism that breaks down dead organic material to obtain energy and raw materials for life.
Examples : saprophytic bacteria, fungi.

27
Q

What is symbiosis?

A

The living together (more or less permanently) of two or more dissimilar organisms in which one or both may benefit or be harmed.

28
Q

What is mutualism?

A

A symbiosis in which two or more organisms live together in such a way that boy benefit from the relationship. e.g. cows - bacteria in cows intestines aid in digestion, bacteria absorb nutrients consumed by the cow.

29
Q

What is parasitism?

A

A symbiosis in which one organism benefits but the other is harmed.

30
Q

What is communalism?

A

A symbiosis in which one organism benefits while the other is unaffected.

31
Q

What is a population?

A

Any group of individuals of the same species living in a given area at the same time.

32
Q

What is the trophic level?

A

A stage in the movement of energy and nutrients through an ecosystem.
Examples: autotrophs, primary consumers etc.

33
Q

What is a producer?

A

An autotroph; an organism that can produce its own food from inorganic substance. eg. plants algae.

34
Q

What is a consumer?

A

A heterotroph: an organism that feeds on other organisms or their products. Eg cows and humans.

35
Q

What are limiting factors?

A

An environmental condition that prevents a population from growing to its potential. Food, space, water.

36
Q

What is the photic zone?

A

The narrow top layer of the ocean where light penetrates so photosynthesis can occur.

37
Q

What is the Aphotic Zone?

A

The part of the ocean beneath the photic zone where light does not penetrate sufficiently for photosynthesis to occur.

38
Q

What is a predator?

A

An organism that hunts and consumes another organism.

39
Q

What is prey

A

An organism that is hunted by and eaten by another organism.

Biology (15 decks)

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