Ecology Flashcards
These factors affect all populations in a given area in similar ways, regardless of the population size
Density Independent
Define carrying capacity
Largest number of individuals that a given environment can support
What type of reproduction is described:
- Reproduce often.
- Have lots of offspring.
- Have short life spans.
- Have offspring that are small and mature rapidly with little parental care.
R-Strategist Reproduction
The various processes in the nitrogen cycle are mostly performed by
Bacteria
What type of reproduction is described:
- Grow slowly and have small populations.
- Require a stable environment.
- Be near carrying capacity.
- Have long life spans.
- Reproduction late in life.
- Provide extensive care to their young.
K-Strategist Reproduction
How do plants incorporate nitrogen into organic compounds?
Assimilation
A habitat is
The place where an organism lives
The rate at which autotrophs make food
Primary productivity
Conversion of nitrates into nitrogen gas
Denitrification
Through what process do nitrogen-fixing bacteria make nitrogen into a usable form
Nitrogen Fixation
Provide an example of a decomposer
Fungi, bacteria
Ammonification is…
The process by which ammonia is made during the decay of organic matter
True or false: two different organisms can share the same niche and the same habitat
False
What controls the amount of energy available throughout the entire ecosystem?
The rate at which the autotrophs make food (the primary productivity)
Erosion and volcanic activity release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
Geochemical processes
When two species use the same resources, or have the same niche, they experience
Competition
Water passes from plants to the atmosphere
Transpiration
The original source of energy for most organisms in most ecosystems is
The sun
What are the two most important aspects of climate?
Temperature and moisture
How much energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next? What happens to the rest?
10%
The rest is lost as heat
What is evaporation?
Water is heated, turns to gas, and reenters the atmosphere
Carbon dioxide is released when living organisms exhale
Respiration
The full range of biological conditions in which an organism lives and how it uses those conditions
Niche
What trophic level would you place a snake that ate a mouse that ate some grass.
Second level consumer (secondary consumer)
Water falls (in some form) from the atmosphere to the Earth
Precipitation
What is succession?
Replacement of one community by another as the environment changes
Factors that cause a population size to level off or decrease
Limiting Factor
Of all nonliving components, which has the greatest influence on the ecosystem’s inhabitants?
WATER
What four things influence a population’s growth rate?
Birth Rate
Death Rate
Immigration
Emigration
What are the three most important characteristics of a population?
- Geographic distribution or range
- Population density – the number of individuals per unit area
3. Growth rate
What trophic levels could the hawk be part of?
Tertiary consumer & secondary consumer
What is combustion?
Carbon trapped in living things, like wood, or previously living things, like fossil fuels, is released when the substance is burned
