Ecology Flashcards
Abiotic
Nonliving physical and chemical components of an ecosystem
Biotic
Living things, there remains and factors
List 3 examples of a biotic thing
Fish, trees, bird
List three examples of an abiotic object
Rock, soil, water
Habitat
Places where a species can live
Niche
The organisms place in the food web, it’s habitat, breeding area, and active time of day
Producer / autotroph
Organisms that produce its own food using energy from the sun through the process of photosynthesis
Consumer / heterotrophy
Organisms that obtains it’s energy by feeding on other organisms
Herbivore
Feeds on plants only
Carnivore
Feeds on other animals only
Omnivore
Feeds on both plants and animals
Decomposer
Breaks down dead organic matter but does not physically eat it
Detritivore
Feeds on small amounts of dead and decaying matter
Scavenger
Eats large amounts of dead organic matter
List the biological organization (/10)
Cell-> tissue-> organ-> organ system-> organism-> population-> community-> ecosystem-> biome-> biosphere
Sustainable ecosystem
An ecosystem that is able to maintain natural ecological conditions or processes without interruption, weakening, or loss of value in the long term
All energy that flows through ecosystems originates in the what? Two processes are responsible for converting this energy:
Sun
Photosynthesis
Cellular respiration
Photosynthesis:
________ + carbon dioxide + ______ ——> ________ + ________
Energy, water, oxygen and glucose
Photosynthesis done only done by what?
Green plants
Photosynthesis traps the energy from the sun as _____ Energy stored in the chemical bonds of ______ molecules
Chemical
Sugar
Cellular respiration:
______+______———> carbon dioxide + _____+_____
Glucose, oxygen, water, energy
Respiration used by ____ organisms to release _____ from food
All , energy
Food chains represent the flow of a what in an ecosystem?
Energy
All food chain start with what which obtain its energy from the what?
Producer
Sun
All other organisms in a food chain are _____since they must eat other _____ to obtain their energy
Consumers
Organisms
Trophic level
Describes how high on the food chain an organism is
Organisms in the food chain are independent, which means that changes at one level of the food chain can affect other organisms at what?
Other levels
A group of interlinking food change that represent the flow of energy and then ecosystem is called what?
A food web
Food pyramids
Methods of graphically and quantitatively representing the feeding relations in the food chain
Pyramid of numbers
Shows the number of organisms at each trophic level and gives that indication how many organisms are required to sustain the organisms in the levels above
Pyramid of biomass- shows the total ____ ____ present at each level
Dry mass
Pyramid of energy
Shows the energy contact of all organisms at each level
Energy content of organisms at ___ tropic levels is always ____ than that at the lower levels
Upper
Less
Organisms at each level use up about ____% of the energy from their foods for for what?
90%
Life functions
Only ___% if the energy is stored in their tissues and can be passed on to the next _____ level
10%
Tropic
From food _____ we know that on each tropic level there are fewer organisms
Pyramid
Since the higher up the food chain you go the fewer organisms there are, the top what end up accumulating ____ chemicals in their bodies.
Predators, most
DDT (_____ commonly used prior to 1972)
- human ______
- causes ____ and _____ system damage
Pesticide
Carcinogen
Liver & reproductive
PCB’s (commonly used as coolants in industry)
- human ______
- causes _____ damage
- significant pollutant in the _____ ______
Carcinogen
Liver
Great Lakes
Mercury
- damages the ____ system
- it’s organic form called methyl mercury has been shown to bioaccumulate in large ____
Nervous
Fish
Ecosystem
Community together with all the abiotic factors that influence it
Hydrosphere
All water on earth
Lithosphere
Top layer of the earth
Community
All the populations of different organisms that make up an ecosystem
Population
All the individuals of the same species that live in a given area
Biosphere
All the living parts of the earth together
Biome
A large geographical area with similar climate and vegetation
Atmosphere
The air in a biosphere
Bioamplification is the process by which increasing amounts of a _____ chemical are accumulated in the bodies if consumers that are ____ ____ on the food chain.
Toxic
Higher up
Biodiversity is the number of _____ in an _____
Species
Ecosystem
Biotic potential
A measure of how fast a species can increase its population
Carrying capacity for a particular species varies from ______ to ______ depending the factors listed above
Ecosystem to ecosystem
Competition occurs when two species rely on the same _____ or _____ ______ and thus compete for it
Habitat or food source
Predation is a relationship between two _____ in which one of them acts as a predator that captures and feeds on the other organism that serves a a the ____.
Species
Prey
The law of tolerance is when a organism can survive with a certain range of that _____ factor
Abiotic
Exotic (invasive) species
An organism that is not native and has a negative impact of an ecosystem
Closed system
An ecosystem that does not welcome new species
What does a pyramid showing numbers look like?
Line, box, box, line
What does a pyramid if biomass look like?
Box, smaller box, smaller box, line
What does a pyramid of energy look like?
Box, smaller box, smaller box…. Line
Explain how a population grows
It starts low then increases to it’s carrying capacity (rapid growth) and goes slowly up and down around there
